Chapter four

Noctis laid on his bed trying to sleep. He had had a really stressful day with training and he was really tired. He was starting to drift off when he felt the pull in the most intense way, he tried to ignore it but it came again and this time it physically hurt. He knew something was wrong, so he grabbed his coat and car keys, he picked up her scent the second he drove into the small town, he followed the scent and found himself in a highschool he parked his car, the pull was sharper now. He came down from his car and he sighted her coming out of the building, she was clutching her head and looking around frantically.

He slowly approached her, she looked up at him, violet eyes watery, "what is happening to me," she asked, her voice cracking, Noctis froze for a second, he could physically feel her pain and he recognized it.

"You are shifting, shit," he cursed, loud snapping sounds echoed through the air as her bones bent and broke themselves.

"Help me," she cried, looking at him helplessly, tears now running down her eyes. He has never assisted anyone through a shift before his first shift was more than forty years ago. He moved his hands through his coat, he had placed her bracelet there yesterday, he needed to try and stop the shift, he picked the bracelet and hissed as it burned him, with shaking hands he wore her the bracelet, it didn't seem to do anything.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Noctis returned the bracelet to his pocket, he was going to have to help her through her first shift. They called it the forging, the first shift where your bones bend, brake and take on a new form, your flesh and muscles tear and move around, like a new being is being forged out of you, it is an agonizing experience and no one should have to go through it alone and without help.

"Yeah. Shit. Help. Me." Her sass slipping through her pain.

You are not forging yourself, you are being forged, let go. His mother's voice echoed in his head, she had helped him through his first shift.

"You are experiencing your first shift you need to stop fighting it,"

"How the fuck am I supposed to do that," she hissed.

"Relax, try to relax," she threw him an annoyed look but did as he said and immediately with a clicking sound her shift was completed. Where she once laid was now a wolf with silver grey fur that stole the moon's light, her eyes that stared mistrustfully at him were mix shades of violet that reminded Noctis of the amethyst stone, then she collapsed.

Noctis picked her up, she felt so light in his arms, so weak. As fast as he could, he drove to Serenith and kept looking at where she lay in the back seat of his car. Her breathing was weak and uneven.

"Please don't die on me," he pleaded, she kept drifting in and out of consciousness, a constant growl in her chest.

Noctis sped into Serenith's clinic, he grabbed her from the back seat, she was already turning blue. He ran into the clinic.

"Help her," he commanded, the healers took her from him, an elderly woman came out of one of the rooms, she took in Arya's state and sprung into action, shouting orders around they carried her into a room and stopped Noctis from following them.

The woman came back out and called Noctis aside, she bowed.

"What happened to her," the woman asked, she voice calm but urgent,

"She just experienced the forging," Noctis answered, his worry still evident.

"How come," Helda asked with a frown,

"It might have something to do with this," he brought out the bracelet from his pocket and a look of disapproval crossed Helda's face.

"That shouldn't be here," she said and handed him a tray to put it in, "do you know what it is?" She asked.

"Silver particles and wolfsbane," he answered,

"Just enough to weaken her wolf but not harm her physically,"

"Someone intentionally did this to her??

"Someone went through a lot of trouble to suppress this girl's werewolf genes,"

"Why?"

"That I do not know,".

"I have to go, she is going to need all the help she can get, she was really lucky you were there,"

"Yeah," Noctis nodded.

"You need to rest, your highness, it's late, I will make sure you are informed of every change." Helda said and he nodded. Despite the forceful pull of the mate's bond, Noctis stepped out of the clinic and went home.

Noctis had tried to ignore the mate's bond's pull the first time he felt it. He was returning from a mission with Fenrir and they decided to stop for gas, then they saw the diner and decided to eat there before continuing the trip to Serenith.

She had felt the pull too and watched her look around before her eyes settled on him, she passed off perfectly as a human, if it wasn't for his ability to sense people's wolves, would not have noticed. Her brown eyes, accessing us, stopped and scrowled at Fenrir when he continued to scroll through his phone.

Noctis had tried to hide his smirk when she had told off Fenrir not a lot of people could do that and it wasn't just because he was the alpha's son, some because of his looks.

Noctis had sensed her wolf, almost like it was reaching out to him, it was weak, sick, that confused him. But he had to ignore her, for her good and his.

Later that evening he was having his regular evening runs in his wolf form and he found himself in a neighborhood he didn't recognize, why was he here, he thought, but then he saw her, she was looking at the sky through her window, before she could see him he ran back in the direction he came.

The next day he was picking up supplies in the town and he picked up her scent, against his better judgement he followed it, it led him to the huge mall building where he found her playing some sort of dress up game with two other girls one of which he recognized from the diner and a much younger one, they were both humans. They seemed close, maybe that's why she hid her werewolf identity.

That evening he convinced himself that he just wanted to see her for the last time and after which he would forget about her and focus on his turmoil of a life. He entered the diner and the other girl approached him.

"Welcome to Joe's, how may we serve you," she said.

"I want the other girl" Noctis requested and with a polite smile she walked away and his girl came. Nope not his girl, he read the name tag on her dress, Arya it read.

He noticed her eyes next, how once brown eyes were now violet, her sass never ceased to amaze him. When she served him his order, he noticed the bracelet on her wrist and the weird energy it gave off, he recognized it immediately.

He had to do something, so he found her at the back of the diner as she took out the trash, he just wanted to know if she knew what she was and what that charm was doing to her, and she didn't.

So he took it, it was a rash and foolish decision, that he didn't think through. He didn't know her or why she had such a powerful charm on her.

He spent the entirety of the next day, contemplating, if he should return it or report it.

…

Noctis went to bed with a single thought in his mind, no one can know she is his mate.