Chapter 24: Welcome to my World

Once I finally finished my explanation, I said, "Mom, Matty, I want you to come back with us." My mom looked surprised, but I could tell she didn't even need to think about her answer one bit. She had made up her mind.

My mom and Matty looked at each other and nodded in agreement. "Okay, but how to we even get there?" Matty said.

I looked over at Royce, signaling for them to do the same. "Royce." Is all I said. He simply nodded as he closed his eyes. I could see a small black hole form, but I knew he was struggling to make it big enough for all of us to go through. I grabbed his hand as Alfie grabbed Pauline and Gobi and my mom and Matty came closer, as though they were scared to miss out on making it to our new home. The hole got twice as big the second my hand touched Royce's, and as we all formed a chain, holding each other's hands to give Royce all of our strength, the hole engulfed us, and we all landed on the cold cave floor softly. My mom opened her eyes, worried that she had lost us again, and realized where she was was unfamiliar. She tried to stand, but her body was completely giving out. "Mom, how sick are you?" I asked as I ran to her to catch her from hurting herself.

"I'm fine, it's just been a long day of excitement. I just need to lay down for a moment." She tried to push me away to crawl over to my bed, but her arms gave out and she started to fall down again. Large, pale hands grasped her before she hit the ground and brought her to the bed. As he laid her down, he put his had on her chest and closed his eyes. Doc was using his power, I could tell, and from the looks of it, it wasn't good.

"Doc, what's wrong?" his eyes opened slowly as he looked at me with sorrow and pity.

"Alyssa, I don't even know how to explain it. It's as if her blood is poisonous."

"It's called leukemia." My mom said weakly as she tried to sit up.

I put my hand gently on her chest as I said, "Mom, just lay down. We can help you; we can cure you like Alfie cured me."

"Alyssa, there is no point. You told me how much pain you were in when you turned. I would never survive that, and…"

"Mom, that's better than suffering. And there is a chance you will be okay. Please mom, do it for your grandkids; do it for me." I said, pleading with her to take the help I was offering. Yeah, it would be painful, but maybe it was so painful for me because I was a shifter.

"Alyssa, just promise me something, don't blame yourself if it doesn't work, okay?" I nodded my head after a brief pause. I definitely was going to blame myself if something happened, but I didn't care if I had lied to her in this moment. If I hadn't lied, she wouldn't let me turn her, ever.

I leaned down to her shoulder and bit softly. I released the juices in my mouth that were necessary for the turn. I could feel her wince a little, but then just fell right to sleep. I released her, hoping I hadn't just killed her right then and there, and noticed she was still thankfully beathing. I laid her down softly on my bed, and looked at Alfie to signal for him to get more furs to make two more beds – one for me and him, and one for Doc.

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Although the new beds for us were comfortable, I didn't even want to close my eyes to blink. My mother slept through the entire night, which wouldn't have even been midday for her in our old world. I had sat up with my knees to my chest and my back leaning on Alfie's body the entire night. This woman helped me through everything I had ever gone through in my life. If this woman, the one who birthed me, passed because I was selfish and wanted to turn her for the off chance she would heal, I don't know what I would do. I think I would lose all of my humanity at that point and become a rogue.

Alfie had told me about rogues over the winter. Supposedly that's what happened when there was a great lose in a true form's life. Their humanity slowly disappears, and their animal true form takes over. They remain in true form forever, and attack anybody in sight.

Many true forms would turn rogue if their true mate died, or if their pack were annihilated – many people from this world didn't have a great relationship with their parents or children and wouldn't turn rogue from the loss of their mother or child like I nearly did over the winter – but I wasn't a person from this world. I wasn't with my mother up until my teen years, and I didn't life such a primitive life as they do here. My mother had saved my life in more ways than one growing up.

When I broke my spine, my mom bathed me and gave me the will to continue on. Without her being there for me, I would have killed myself, there is no question. Learning to walk all over again, not being able to feel anything other than excruciating pain, not being able to sleep – it would have been too much for anybody.

When I finally left an abusive boyfriend – Royce's father – my mom and Matty both helped me along the way. They helped me move back home from over 900 miles away; Matty even paid for me to make the move. They drove down through the night when he assaulted me one last time, after the nearly 15-hour drive, they packed all of my stuff and drove right back home without sleeping. I was too exhausted from packing my life overnight – as quietly as possible since he was right downstairs – and I couldn't even help them load anything in the trailer.

When I was too depressed from not being able to work due to my back, my mom and Matty gave me the courage (and money) to take online classes and to go back to school to become a teacher. They both helped watch Royce when I needed to do homework. They both helped bring my mood up in any way possible.

When I was depressed, once again, from being so alone and without someone to love me, my mom helped me clean my room and watch Royce when I just needed time to be in bed for the day, or days. My mom always knew exactly how to help me, and always would even if we fought sometimes about the stupidest things. She never gave up on me, and never made me feel as though I was as useless as I knew I was sometimes.

My mother had done many more things for me. As I sit there imagining, remembering, the things she had done with me and for me, I started to feel tears fall from my eyes. I sat there silently while Alfie's sleeping body held my back up. I wondered how he could even fall asleep right now, seeing as he knows how much my mom means to me.

As I continued to sit there quietly with tears dropping from my face and onto my lap constantly, I heard a quiet shuffling noise come closer and closer to me. After a few moments, I saw Doc crouch down in front of me and take my face into both of his hands. "Don't worry, Alyssa. She will wake up when her body is ready to turn. And, think of it this way, since she is asleep, she won't feel any pain." I knew deep down that he was right about everything he said, but even the thought of my mom potentially not waking up ate at my insides. My gut was turning, my heart was wrenching, my mind ached at the thoughts. He pulled away from me, only to hold his hand out for me to grab. "Why don't you come to my bed? We can cuddle, or talk, or stay silent, whatever would make you feel better. Okay?" without saying a word, I gabbed his hand and he gently pulled me up from my seat. We quietly made our way over to his bed as to not wake up anybody who actually managed to fall asleep.

When we got to his bed, I sat next to Doc and laid my head onto his muscular shoulder. Feeling his skin to mine, I couldn't stop the tears from falling even more rapidly now. He was making me feel as if I could let all of my emotions out without having to hold back any of it. I started to close my eyes because seeing my mom's comatose body on my bed was making it even harder to keep the tears from falling harder. Suddenly, I was pulled into Doc's lap with my legs straddling him and my face deep in his chest. I responded by wrapping my arms around his body and latching my fingers together behind his back.

I tried to cry as silently as possible, so I didn't wake anybody up, but this was just getting too hard. I look up at Doc pleadingly. As if he knew exactly what I needed, he leaned down and our lips collided. I could feel the sparks coming through my lips from his. His lips were so soft as he possessively pulled my mouth closer to his. He started to pull my lower back so that I was closer to him. I could finally feel his cold skin slowly warm as our skin became closer and closer.

I started to feel a large bulge start to harden between my thighs and it made me extremely wet just thinking about what I wanted to do to it once the time was right. I pulled back slightly so that our lips were just grazing each other's, and I looked into his eyes. I could see how bright his eyes had become from just simply kissing. He brought his hand up to my cheek and whipped the last tear from my face. I wondered how this man who wasn't even my true mate could change my mood so quickly and easily. I was barely able to breath just seconds ago from the amount of tears drowning me, and now it is like I had barely cried at all. Yeah, I was definitely still distressed for my mom and hoping and praying to whatever deity would listen, but it was bearable now. Doc had made my emotions bearable.

I put my head back onto his chest as he rested his chin on it. I glanced over towards Alfie who was sleeping just moments ago and saw him with glaring eyes that shown bright gold. I listened for his heart, and found it racing harder than I had heard it race if he wasn't in an active fight. He was PISSED, or so I thought.

'Alyssa, if you want to mate with him, I want you to. I don't want you to have just me as your mate if you are going to be unhappy. I want you to be happy and safe. Yeah, it kind of hurts seeing you with him, but it always hurts a male when they see their mate with another male. If you were going to mate with anybody else besides me, I am glad it will be Doc.' He thought while keeping eye contact. I was glad that he approved, but the truth is, I didn't know if I for sure wanted Doc as my mate yet. Yeah, I cared about him, and yeah, he cared about me, but in some respects, he still scared me. I knew he would be a great mate, and protect me with everything he has, but he was ruthless, violent, merciless, a loose cannon.

'Alfie, as much as I appreciate you accepting Doc, I'm not sure if I want to mate with him yet or not. He has no mercy when it comes to me. Don't you remember what he did to those men at the City of Forms? He had no compassion for the packs of those alpha's that he killed.'

'I know you don't want to make up your mind yet, but you are going to need to soon. I know you care about him, and obviously he does care about you as well. I told you about imprinting over the winter, remember? If you guys go any further than a simple peck on the lips, the imprinting bond is going to form. It's nearly as powerful as a true mate bond, and breaking it is impossible. You need to make up your mind before that happens, or your mind will be made up for you.'

I remembered about the imprinting bond that he told me about in the middle of winter. It is when a female cares for a male a lot, but they are not true mates. The imprinted pair can feel each other's emotions. Once that bond is formed, I won't be able to back out of the mating, it will become pure animalistic instinct to mate with each other. Even if we didn't mate, the bond would prevent him from mating with another female anyways. Doc would be in limbo forever until I mate with him.

'I know. I'll talk to Doc about it another time. Maybe he will understand my concerns and we can come to a compromise about his violent nature.'

'Okay, now why don't you come to bed and at least try to sleep for a bit. The sun is starting to come up and will be over the horizon soon. Doc is welcome to come as well if you would like to bring him.' I turned my head up to look at Doc. I stood up without loosing our eye contact and gently pulled his hand, so he stood up as well. We walked over to where Alfie laid in bed. I laid down with my forehead against Alfie's and our knees meeting. Doc laid down behind me and cuddled me in a spooning position. Together, they both shifted their tails out and covered me in them both. The contrast of the white fluffy foxes' tail and the pure black wolf's looked almost like a yin-yang symbol.

I still couldn't fall asleep, and neither could either of the men laying with me, but we stayed up silently drawing shapes with our fingertips on each other's skin.