Christmas came and went in her home pretty normally. It was awesome to have Penelope home for Christmas, she hung out with her and Natasha quite a bit.
She should have known better than to be upset over Christmas morning but she was, her father got her and her sisters money in a card for Christmas. Their mother got them impersonal Christmas gifts, they were always clearance items that no one wanted. She got a hideous shirt that was two sizes two small for her, makeup brushes (she didn’t wear makeup after an incident in middle school where she tried wearing foundation and it looked bad and everyone made fun of her). She got a manicure set, she kept her nails cut to the quick. She would prefer nothing to be honest instead of that.
She hated Christmas to be honest, she painstakingly looked for presents for her family members for months. However she would either get nothing in return or impersonal gifts that she often didn’t like. Lili tried not to be greedy about it, but it was really hard not to be sometimes.
The only thing that really happened was she started to feel like her wolf might be surfacing. Her migraines seemed to be getting worse, but she felt as if something were stirring within her. She would have thought nothing of it if she didn’t casually mention it to Penelope, and she told her they were the signs of her wolf awakening. Penelope also told her that it was too soon for her wolf to be awakening so it’s very likely that either she has a strong wolf, or a strong mate who needs her. Liliana dismissed both of those opinions and just chalked it up to her migraines.
She loved spending time with Penelope and Natasha during Christmas break. They would have movie marathons with popcorn and candy. Penelope and Natasha finally convinced her to get her first mani/pedi, Penelope said it was part of her Christmas present from her, and that if she didn’t do it she would be missing out. Despite the scary Chinese lady who did her mani/pedi she found herself having fun. Lili liked the pedicure quite a bit.
She ended up finding out on passing from Penne that Nate found his mate. She was so happy for him she texted him a quick congratulations. He responded with a picture of him and his new mate at what she assumed was their joining ceremony. Nate looked so happy and in love, she was happy for him, he deserved it. She didn’t text him back, cause she knew how jealous newly mates shifter couples could be.
Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and Christmas break came to end end way too school. when school started up again the feeling of her body stirring didn’t go away it only got worse, so did her migraines. She couldn’t talk to Penelope about it as she left for college early, something about taking a paramedics course at the local hospital.
It was the first day back at school, and she had a headache all day. The migraine got so bad that she finally asked her teacher if she could go home,
“God her father is right she is a lazy liar.” Alpha Killian said that. She looked over at him and apparently moved her head too fast because a pain that felt like a red hot poker shoved directly into her eye socket went through her, and it cause her stomach to revolt. She wildly looked around for a trash can, and dove for it immediately emptying her stomach. Faintly she heard the class make different sounds of disgust but all she could do is vomit. When she was done vomiting she fell to the floor and the world went black.
She woke up in her bedroom disoriented, she looked out the window and saw the sun was slowly sinking down the horizon.
“How did I get home?” She wondered. She stayed completely still as her head was still throbbing and she was still slightly nauseous.
“Hello my human,” she heard a voice in her head call out to her.
“Are you my wolf?”
“Yes I am, I am Tula. I am sorry causing you pain before.”
“Why did you hurt me?” Tula let’s our a small whine in my head, as if the thought of my pain gives her pain.
“Your pain does give me pain, you are my human, I don’t know why this cause so much pain for you, it normally isn’t that way. I do know that you are choosen .”
“Choosen for what?” Tula let’s out a other small whine,
“That I can not say, only that you and I were chosen by the moon goddess for something special.”
I digest my wolves words, thinking of all the different possibilities. The shifter world, especially werewolf’s is filled with legends and prophecies, her wolf could be talking about the legendary white wolves or the crescent moon wolves.
“Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves.” Lili couldn’t help but laugh, she liked her wolf, she is funny.
“Thank you, now it’s time for us to strengthen our body.”
“What do you mean?”
“We are weak, we need to gain our strength for our first shift.” Tula scolded me seriously,
“Is it truly that bad?”
“It can be, it depends on both the strength of the wolf as well as the human. Body and mind.”
“And both of mine are weak.” Lili was in no delusions about herself, she was fat.
“We can change that.”
I heard a buzzing from my phone, and picked it up to see a few missed calls and messages from Natasha
N: hey I heard what happened at school, u ok?
N: I heard alpha Killian took you home, you alive?
N: mom just got off the phone with your mom, she said you are ok and the doctor gave you a shot for the pain, please let me know when you wake up, I am worried about you.
Killian took her home?? That couldn’t be true. It didn’t matter, she pushed that aside all that matter now was being strong enough to shift.
L: hey I’m finally up, can I come over?
N: you know you are always welcome.
Lili sat up expecting her head to explode with pain, but to her surprise it was starting to fade even more.
“That’s because I am starting to absorb the pain,” she heard her wolf say. She walked to her car and drove to Natasha’s place, when the door opened up before she could say anything Svetlana came out from the kitchen and said,
“Your wolf woke up.” Lili looked at this woman who was more of a mother to her than her own was and smiled,
“Yeah she did.” The two witches squealed and demanded all of the details, Lili sobered up at the reminder, and so did the mother daughter duo when Liliana finished what Lili’s wolf told her.
“Mom? Is this normal?”
“Well it’s not unheard of, but it’s not common place either, I’ll look into it, but first we will get down to what your wolf suggested, we will strengthen your body.”
“How?”
“First with some yoga, it will strengthen your muscles, then walking, and some light running.” Lili let out a light breath.
“I thought you were going to tell me to train with my pack.”
“Well I won’t lie, it is something that you should think about .” Lili buried her face in her hands, thinking back to every humiliating experience she had with training her pack.
“Svetlana I have tried before, they all laugh at me, taunt me, point at my belly flab. It’s humiliating.” Lili said and couldn’t stop the tears.”
“You don’t have to decide now Liliana, we have plenty of other things to work on,” Svetlana stated.
“She’s right Lili, first let’s work on our endurance and stamina then we will worry about learning to defend and protect ourself.”
“Okay Tula.” Lili said to her wolf in her mind.
Right then she started a diet, Svetlana gave Liliana her current Fitbit saying she planned on buying a new one. Lili didn’t buy that story a bit, but she didn’t have long until her birthday, only a few months she had to get into shape fast. Natasha went on YouTube and looked up some yoga instructors and went through some classes. f**k did the the first several classes hurt, everywhere. She didn’t think yoga was supposed to hurt like this, also the poses she was doing looked nothing like the instructor but Svetlana said it would take time for her muscles to loosen up.
As for cardio she started walking everywhere, since Tula took her pain for her migraines she ditched her car and walked to school, she walked to Natasha’s home every evening where they would do yoga then she would use their pelaton bike, then she would go home.
Liliana’s routine went on like this for a month, it was now mid-February, her eighteenth birthday was in a month. Her wolf informed her it was time to find some one to train her. But who? She decided to put the question to her sister Penelope. She suggested the former delta, Jackson. He retired ten years or so ago but he still loved to teach the young pups.
It took her a couple of days for her took work up the courage to approach him, she thought it might be best to butter him up with something sweet first. She found out from her mom that he loved brownies, so she made a batch and one evening she decided to go to his small home. She stood outside on his porch for several minutes before she got the courage to knock on the door. The door opened almost immediately, letting her know that he most likely had known she was there, just waiting for her to knock.
“Liliana, is that you knocking on my door this late during a weekday, don’t you have school tomorrow?” Lili clutched the plate of brownies to her tightly in nervousness.
“Yes sir I do.”
“Well then by all means come in and let me know what brings you here so late.” Lili walked in and looked around his small but cozy home. It was definitely a bachelor pad, a lazy boy recliner in front of a tv with a side table were the only items should could see in the living room. The home itself was an open floor plan, there was a kitchen island from which she assumed served as a table where the former delta would stand and eat him meals like her father would often do.
“Well Lili are you ready to tell me why you are here?” Jackson asked after a few moments of silence. There wasn’t censure in his voice, but a kind curious tone that she doesn’t recall ever hearing from a male before. She placed the brownies on the kitchen island, she saw Jackson’s eyes drop to them briefly before returning to her face.
“I came because I was hoping you could help me.”
“How can I help you?”
“I need your help to train me.” Jackson looked at Liliana in surprise;
“Why don’t you ask your father, or Olivia.” Goddess doesn’t everyone how much they hate her, must she say it out loud?
“Do they hit you?” She shook her head no.
“No, he scares me but I’m pretty sure I have my mom to thank for the fact that he doesn’t hit me.”
“that’s the only thing,” her wolf thought in her head. Jackson thought the same if by the look on his face was any indication.
“I’ll do it, but I warn you it won’t be easy.”
“I have to, I don’t have any choice.” The Old delta looked at her in confusion, but didn’t comment on it. he just told her to be here for training at five am tomorrow for hell.