Shape - shifting

"David, you okay dude? What are you up to-"

Henry finally asked David the question that had been nagging at him; he had never seen him so restless ever before, in the entire period they had known each other.

Whatever he was going to say next remained lodged in his throat; he stopped at the very moment he saw a red cloth clenched in his hands. Shivers ran down through his veins at the thought of what he could be hiding in there.

He mustered his strength to ask again, his eyes flicking between the cloth and his best friend's face in rapid succession.

"David...please...please, tell me that-it...this...it is not what I am thinking of."

A smirk appeared on David's face, or at least that was how Henry interpreted it; while his mouth uttered the words he had been dreading.

"It is very much what you are thinking, my dear friend."

"David, are you mad or something? How careless can you be, to bring this thing with you?! What- what if you accidentally touch it? How are you going to protect yourself from the edge?" Henry snapped.

"Oh relax, my dear Henry! Do you know what your problem is? You are too much of a coward to perform an adventure of your own."

"But why do you want to perform an adventure, and that too with a-"

"Ah! Don't spoil the fun, come here and let me tell you the plan; more precisely, about your part in this plan."

David replied, grinning ear to ear.

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Louis had been successful in drawing out all the betas from the wing, by tempting them away with the promise of a brisket party. His birthday was approaching, so it was obvious that a party was due; but the catch was, that the brisket was limited- and so, it would only be available to those who would rush faster and get to his wing first.

After the troupe had left, he stayed behind in the courtyard, a frown marring his face out of concern.

'Taking a moment to himself, he debated whether he should go back to Myron's room- he had already smelled Robin there, but what was Nora doing...what was she doing in the male beta wing?!

That was when it clicked- he recalled Professor Romera saying that she was supposed to visit the hostels and practice grounds to make the process of selection easy for her, and she might have accidentally entered the male wing of one of the houses.'

Instead of being startled or scandalised, he found himself smiling at her antics instead. 

'Even though she had barely spoken ten sentences to him- and most of them as an insult, this girl was turning him into a more caring person. She reminded him of someone, indeed- someone he missed very dearly, someone he couldn't really go back to. But this time...this time, he would be there to protect her. He couldn't let the same thing- no, he would definitely be protecting her, as his most precious friend...family...apprentice? Only Time was the one with the power to decide that, but the protection she needed would be provided to her from this exact moment.'

He resolved to himself, his mouth set in a grim line, sniffing the air to find some clue.

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Robin turned back to face Nora as she repeated what he had just said to Myron, and noticed that something was off. The rules were true, without a doubt; and yet, he himself was not able to detect her smell, for some reason.

He cleared his throat, even as his brain struggled to decide how he should initiate the conversation, drawing Nora's attention towards him in the process.

He finally managed to blurt out a string of words, that somehow made a little sense.

"How sure are you, about your identity as a werewolf?"

"Excuse me?!" Nora flinched at the question, as she had been expecting an elaborate answer as the reply to her query, which she received; but just as she was trying to wrap her head around it, she encountered a question at the end of a short pause from him.

A question she didn't know how to tackle.

"I mean, how sure are you about the fact that you are a werewolf?" He asked again, although it seemed like a strange thing to ask, to him as well.

"As much as one can be!" 

"Have you ever changed form?"

'Robin asked the question directly, one that he hoped would help put all the puzzle pieces together. He had not been able to form a comprehensive analysis about why Louis had left the room even after knowing that he was in there with her, and why was he not able to smell Nora at all, even after being an Alpha himself? And there was another strange thing that had just occurred just a few moments ago- he had been mesmerized by someone, without knowing their scent, without being familiar with them. It was quite an unacceptable experience for an Alpha to feel even a twinge of attraction for a person, without being familiar with their scent.'

"Yes, I have! And I can, at any time!" Nora's voice drew him back to reality; and despite being lost in his thoughts, he couldn't help but notice that her words were laced with a slight edge, probably due to being suspected in this manner.

But before he could clarify anything, Myron was back with Ardin.

"Great, now that you can change your form, just do it as fast as you can! Because we need to get out of here at this exact moment."

It was Adrin who spoke, and as soon as he said that, he turned his face in a different direction. The two boys also followed him promptly.

Nora shifted within seconds, and the three men hesitated in turning around, for they had never seen anybody shift so quickly.

"I am done!" She spoke gruffly, having turned into the wolf version of herself. But as soon as the trio turned around and saw her, they stood slack-jawed for several minutes, frozen in place with awe.

Somehow, the only words that did come out of their mouths, tumbled out at the same time, overlapping over one another.

"What are you?" 

"Who are you?"

"Are you for real?"

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