I sprang out of bed, barely taking the time to throw on pants as I hurried out the door. I heard soft voices coming from the bathroom, along with what sounded like pained whimpers.
I knocked on the door. “Emma? What’s wrong?”
A long pause. I half-expected her to tell me to leave. However, a moment later, the door swung open. Emma’s panicked face greeted me.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said, her voice strained. “Grace is…” She trailed off, turning to look behind her, expression still filled with worry and concern. Behind her, I saw Grace hunched over in the water, her knees curled against her chest as she cried and whimpered.
“She’s started pre-transformation,” I said.
Emma nodded. “After you left to fight the wraith. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to have to worry about it, and I thought it was over for the night. But then a couple of hours ago, she woke up and said it hurt even more.”
That explained why Emma had seemed so preoccupied. Before I could ask any other questions, she started babbling again.
“I’ve never done this,” she said. “I have no idea what to do or how to help her. All I can do is keep the water hot, and I think that’s working a bit, but…” She trailed off again, swallowing as she glanced behind her at the tub. I could still sense the raw panic radiating through the mating bond. All I wanted in that moment was to soothe that anxiety.
Without realizing I was doing it, I placed my hands on her shoulders. “It’s okay,” I said. “I can help.”
She looked up at me with wide, frightened eyes that flickered with hope at the words. “She’s in so much pain,” she muttered, glancing back over her shoulder at her daughter. “I didn’t realize it was this bad.”
I gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze, my thumbs tracing along the line of her collarbone.
“It’ll be okay,” I muttered to her. “I can help her, if you’ll let me.”
“You can make it stop hurting?” Emma asked.
Behind her, there was a soft, wolf-like whimper.
“No,” I said, not bothering to beat around the bush with that subject. “I can’t make it stop hurting. It’s going to be an unpleasant night for her. But at the very least, I can help sort of coach her through it, if that makes sense.”
Swallowing, she glanced over her shoulder at Grace. I watched her features contorting in guilt and motherly love. Gently, I took her chin in my hand and tilted her head so she looked up at me.
“It’s going to be okay,” I promised her for the third time.
I stepped past her. Emma sat hunched over in the water. I crouched next to the tub, fingers on the rim. Hot water splashed across my fingers.
“Hey, Grace,” I said, keeping my voice low. “How are you holding up?”
She sniffed, drawing her knees into her chest. “What’s going on?” she asked.
Emma came to sit next to me. The fingers of one hand dipped into the water. The other rested on the lip of the bathtub. Anxiety still rolled off her in waves, and my wolf paced anxiously, not liking that his mate was stressed or that his mate’s cub was in pain. Without thinking, without realizing I was doing it, only that I wanted to give Emma some sort of comfort, I reached out and wrapped my fingers around Emma’s hand, squeezing gently. I might have imagined the sharp, surprised intake of breath, but I didn’t pay much attention to it as I focused on Grace.
“So, you know how some of us can shift into great big wolves?” I asked, keeping my voice low and, I hoped, soothing. How the hell was I supposed to handle this? I’d never guided a kid through these pre-transformation pains. I remembered my own, and I tried to remember what my parents had done for me. “Well, you’re one of the people who’s going to be able to do that. Right now, you’re in the early stages that always happen before you shift for the first time. Think of them as growing pains.”
Just way worse,I didn’t add. I could see her features contorting in pain, and I remembered those unpleasant sensations, like my bones didn’t fit right in my body.
“It hurts,” she groaned.
“I know it hurts,” I said. “This is the worst time. As you get older, it stops hurting once your body gets used to the changes. And I know you’re tough. Get through tonight, and it’s all downhill from here.”
Steam rose from the water. Not boiling hot, not tepid—a perfect heat. I could still sense Emma’s worry and anxiety rippling off her. I squeezed her hand as my thumb started making lazy circles on the back of her hand. Eventually, I heard her heartbeat slowing, her breath growing even again.
“How long?” Grace asked.
“Not much longer,” I said. “These early aches are just trying to get your body ready for shifting.”
And normally, you’re three or four years older and can understand better what’s going on,I thought, again biting back the words. None of them would help Grace, though.
Again, I searched back, trying to recall my own experience. “I want you to do something that you’re probably trying to resist without realizing it,” I said. “I want you to listen to your wolf.”
