Winter Wolf (A New Dawn Novel Book 1) by Rachel M Raithby

wave of pain washed over her. She retched again; this time crying out as the pain became too much. Her hands stretched and cracked; her body was breaking apart from the inside.
    “Arrh!” she screamed, stumbling further into the forest, colliding from tree to tree, not noticing the bark grazing her skin or the fallen branches cutting at her feet.
    Another wave of pain and she half-changed. Her feet became wolf paws, her nails changing into deadly sharp claws. Pulling her jeans off, Katalina crawled over the ground, tears rolling down her face, mixing with the sweat coating her skin. Her heart boomed in her ears, each pulse throbbing inside her skull.
    Fear was thick on her tongue, coating her throat and stealing her breath. She’d never felt fear like it.
    She screamed again, panting hard, trying to suck oxygen into her body.
    Bass…Bass…I need Bass.
    She screamed his name in between each ripple of pain, each cracking of bones, “BASS!” Not caring who else heard her.
    “Please, Bass,” she sobbed, searching the trees. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew he was out there somewhere, searching for her. “BASS!”
    He darted through the trees, invisible but for the few silver flecks in his eyes, and seeing him calmed her racing heart.
    He changed, kneeling down in front of her. “Katalina, shush, there are others out here.”
    “Bass, make it stop. Please, make it stop,” she sobbed, clinging onto him.
    “I can’t.”
    She screamed, hands turning into paws. “Bass, please,” she begged, gasping for breath through the never-ending pain.
    “Katalina, stop fighting it. This is who you are. Let your wolf out.” Murmuring, he rubbed her back, “Let it out, Kat.”
    “I don’t know how. Please, Bass, I’m so scared. Help me arrgh…!”
    “Kat, Katalina, look at me. Look into my eyes.” He tilted her chin up and she stared at his dark, dark eyes. “Breathe, Kat. Breathe with me.” Holding his gaze, she tried to match his breaths. She desperately tried to relax through the pain as it rocked through her. “That’s it, Katalina. This is who you are. You are a wolf, Katalina Winter. Let her out.”
    As he whispered those words to her, a final ripple rocked through her and then she was a wolf. Bass smiled at her, his head coming level with hers. “Katalina, you are a beautiful wolf.”
    Unsteady on her legs, she looked down at her paws; they were as white as the snow blanketing the forest. She turned her head to see thick white fur.
    “Run with me,” Bass whispered against her head, running his hands through her coat, making her shiver with pleasure. “Run with me.” Bass turned and jumped, changing into his wolf midair.
    Taking a tentative step forward, she realized it felt as natural as walking when human. Bass rubbed his head against her side. She could sense his urgency to go, his black coat a stark contrast to her white as they ran through the woods away from the pack.
    She’d never felt so free with the wind whipping past her and the ground flying beneath her fast, agile paws. Bass ran with her, running around her, jumping over her. The silver flecks in his eyes sparkled with joy. She ran until she couldn’t run anymore. Collapsing, she changed back, too exhausted to feel self-conscious about being naked, smiling at the black wolf as he licked her face. “Hey!” she laughed as he changed.
    “Come, Katalina, it’s time for you to go home,” he murmured, lifting her into his arms.
    She buried her head against his bare chest, feeling safe in the arms of the boy she’d come to trust. The rightness of his cradling arms subdued her need for him, a need somewhat similar to breathing.
    He carried her through the woods. Exhaustion swept through her, her body aching. “Bass, I feel terrible.”
    “You will for a few hours. It fades with each change.”
    Her eyes slid shut.
    “Kat?” he murmured against her ear, rousing her.
    “Hmm?”
    “It’s time I leave.” The tone of his voice made