The change ( his mate)

Chapter 11: Bitten

Grayson

It had broken my heart seeing Lara sob, worse, because of me. I wanted to hold her and tell her I didn’t mean any of what I’d said, that I did want her, did love her , that I would always love and want her. I couldn’t tell her any of that and it killed me.

I’d almost backed out of it completely when we had spent the day together. I’d noticed her bag with a wolf on it and asked her about it, she’d launched into this long conversation about her love for wolves, how she felt at one in the woods, felt like it was the only place she belonged and felt true peace, jokingly told me that she believed she’d been a wolf in a past life because that’s how much she loved them.

I’d not known that until today, the day I had to break her heart, everything she said had sounded perfect, she was everything I wanted and I had to throw it all away.

I’d almost thought of giving her the bite myself, but I couldn’t, it was against pack rules because of the low survival rate and then there was the change itself if she did manage to survive, or even if she didn’t, it would course through her body violently and cause her more pain than a human could handle, she’d die a horrible death and I wouldn’t risk that for my own selfish reasons.

It was the first time I’d felt hate towards Leo, making me do this, I understood why and I knew he was right, but I needed someone to blame and I took it out on him. I ignored his call a week later and decided to direct my rage on the mutt.

I’d finally caught his scent and been surprised to find him in wolf form. I’d followed him for a while, caught up to him just as he launched himself at something, that something was a human and not just any human, it was Lara.

He probably heard and smelt me coming after him and bolted into the woods, instinct was to chase, but my even bigger instinct was to protect my mate and make sure she was safe.

I whined softly, my heart ripping in two when I saw he’d bitten her, he was a stupid f.ucking mutt, he hadn’t even bitten her properly, barely grazing her hand, but still just enough to infect her, but not enough that it would change her.

The bite was complicated, you had to make sure you got as much of a deep bite and saliva as possible into their blood stream, too little it wouldn’t work, not enough and it would simply cause a fever that would sky rocket, but not be enough to bring about changing them, they’d die from the fever.

I had two choices left, I either left her here to die, or take the biggest risk ever and bite her again, make sure she was properly infected and hope against hope she could survive such a transformation. I bit her.

The fever would have been a much less painful way to die, but I couldn’t pass up the slight chance that she could survive, selfish? Maybe. Most likely, but I had to try.

She had run of terrified of me and I whimpered, I never wanted to see my mate look at me like that.

I followed her making sure she was safe and that dipshit mutt didn’t come back. I knew what came next, the fever, it would take hold and she’d pass out.

As soon as she dropped to the floor unconscious I found somewhere to begin the change. I finished as fast as I could, and then I grabbed my clothes that I’d hidden nearby and quickly yanked my jeans up, my t-shirt was inside out, so I didn’t even bother pulling that on, I tucked it in the back of my jeans and ran to Lara. I picked her up in my arms and carried her to my car that was parked just outside of the woods, thank f.uck I’d brought it along.

I gently laid her down in the backseat, gently brushing her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead, she was so hot it burned my lips. “Hold on, darling, I’ll fix this, I promise.”

I jumped in the driver’s seat and grabbed my bottle of water, I still had half left and hoped it would be enough to last the drive home. I poured some onto my shirt and pressed it against her forehead.

I had just about six hours to get her back to the pack house before the change took its full hold on her. Leo would know what to do, and we were going to need the cage.

Halfway there she’d started stirring and thrashing, still unconscious, but her body was trying to fight off the infection, trying to purge itself of the threat.

Her legs twitched, the left one spasmed so violently her ankle smacked against the car door making a sick crunching noise. It was broken and if I didn’t get back soon it wouldn’t be long before more injuries would be inflicted on her.

I had to stop and pour more cold water onto the shirt and placed it across her neck.

“I feel sick,” she moaned weakly.

It startled me, I hadn’t expected her to wake so soon. She leaned over and threw up violently. The smell hit my sensitive nose and I almost joined her, I took small shallow breaths.

“Hold on, darling, we’re almost there.”

“Gray—” she tried, but passed out again.

I drove faster, going over the speed limit but f.uck it, I was running out of time.

I sped onto the drive way and jumped out, I yanked the back door open so hard I almost ripped it off the hinges. I bundled Lara into my arms and ran inside, crashing the front door open. “Leo!” I yelled.

He came running out from the kitchen and stopped cold when he saw us. “What have you done?” He barely whispered.

“Nothing, I swear! I did what you said, I broke up with her, but that f.ucking mutt still bit her.”

“The truth, Grayson.”

“It f.ucking is!”

“There’s a but there, there always is with you.”

I shifted her weight in my arms and mumbled, “I had to bite her too.”

His eyes bored into me and he calmly asked, “why?”

“He infected her, but not enough, she was already dead and I doubt we need any more bodies showing up for the police.”

“And there’s the slightest chance she could survive?” He gave me a knowing look and I just shrugged.

He sighed, and said, “it would have been kinder to have let her die from the fever.”

“I couldn’t, I just couldn’t leave her.” My voice sounded dangerously close to a tremble.

He looked at my face, eyes travelling over me and then he gave a nod. “Alright, we will do what we can, bring her to the cage.”

I followed Leo to the basment and then waited while he lifted the cream rug up and opened the hatch on the floor. Our basement wasn’t where we kept the cage, too obvious, we decorated the basement, painted it with cream and milky coffee paint, hung pictures up, had a small three piece white sofa with a few brown fur throws on top, even had a tv and game console setup. It looked normal and homely.

Underneath was different, it led down underground, I passed Lara to Leo and then climbed down the ladder. I followed him down the tunnel, at the end of tunnel was another door, a big metal door with a chunky bolt and triple locks.

Upon entering you’d see more walls painted an olive green with pictures of wolves and wildlife, in the corner was a light brown armchair, the floor had a light brown carpet with a cream rug on top. Again, we tried to make it look as normal and comfortable as possible, to give some sort of semblance of normalcy for whoever had to endure the cage.

The cage was at the other side of the room, a giant metal black cage sitting on concrete, there was no point laying down a carpet or any flooring in the cage as it would only end up completely destroyed. There was a single bed in there that we’d bolted to the floor. Crisp white sheets, it would almost seem comforting if not for the big metal chains with metal cuffs attached.

Leo layed Lara down on the bed and manacled her wrists and ankles tightly, but not tightly enough that she’d break any bones while her body had seizures.

I got a cloth and wet it under the cold tap, there was a sink in the corner of the room to save us running back and forth. I placed it against her forehead and got another, placing it around her neck.

I was about to strip her and then turned to Leo. “Don’t look.”

“Since when do you care about nakedness? It doesn’t mean anything to us.”

“Since she does, she wouldn’t want anyone seeing her like this.”

Sighing, he turned away, and I tore off her jeans and her top, her panties and then her bra. I hated seeing her so vulnerable knowing she’d hate this, but we had to, we needed to keep her body as cool as possible, and when she started to change she definitely couldn’t be wearing clothes or they’d end up getting entangled in her body, yeah, it was not pretty to change.

When Leo felt comfortable leaving me with her alone having told me what to do, he left, I had medical experience, but I’d never helped someone through the change before. I spent the next four hours rewetting the cloths, stroking the cold soaked cloth over her body, it burned so hot the cloth would dry up and feel hot within ten minutes. She had three fits and I had to turn her head to the side the first two times so she didn’t choke on her own vomit.

I tightened the chains a little more when her hand had whacked against the bed frame breaking her little finger. I reset it and sat by her bedside when the seizures stopped.

Another five hours in, three more seizures and one more case of violently throwing up she came to, still delirious and out of it, but awake.

“Hey, darling,” I smiled and held her hand, it felt clammy and hot, but not as hot as it had been, the fever was calming down.

“Grayson?” She croaked.

“Yes, darling, it’s me.”

“I feel—” she licked her dry lips and tried again. “I feel terrible.”

“I know, baby, just hold on, ok.”

“What’s wrong…with me?”

“Your body is going through a big change right now, but I promise once it’s over you won’t ever have to go through this again.”

“I—I don’t understand.”

“Remember what you told me about wolves, how much you love them?”

Her eyes widened and panic set in, she tried to sit up, but the chains stopped her, she looked down at them and panicked more. “Whats going on, why am I chained up!” She yanked on them and glared at me. “Where am I!”

“Do you remember getting bitten?”

Her eyes looked wild, darting about the place, looking for an exit.

“Lara, do you remember?” I asked more firmly trying to make her focus.

She looked back at me and frowned, thinking, then she nodded hesitantly and then more frantically, “y-yes, I remember, two wolves.”

I nodded, and said, “the first wolf bit you, infected you, a werewolf.”