Faded by Jordan Wadley (free reads .txt) 📕

"Thinking that hard and I’ll eventually have to send you mental." Anne chuckled watching Tyler observe Sapphire. They both knew who Sapphire really was, yet Sapphire had no clue they knew everything about her from the moment she was born to the day her pack was ripped from her.

Sapphire didn’t want to look at the boy, yet she could feet his stares on the back of her head. She however knew of his intentions, he didn’t regard her with lust like most or envy, only pride. She wondered what could have this strange boy so flustered with; he seemed all frustrated and proud at once it sent her into a brain twist.

"Sorry, just thinking. How long do we have to travel?" Tyler asked loudly expecting Sapphire to answer since she knew the wild better than the rest. Tyler’s head spun to Sapphire even though her grey clouded eyes were already trained on him intently. He knew she wasn't staring at him in admiration of any sort, simply caution and confusion.

"Like we said last night, the travel may take a days travel on foot. If we avoid the mountains it may take two to three days minimum, if we cut through the mountains it won’t take more than half a day which is why I prefer the second decision, no offense." She didn’t bother waiting for his response as she stalked through the tall grass approaching the group. Many weren’t too disturbed with the idea of stalking through the tall grass but both Sapphire and Anne knew of the dangers that lay beneath the hidden grass.

"Are we shifting tonight?" Tom asked once Sapphire was out of reach, he didn't want another confrontation with her knowing she has yet to blow off all her steam.

"Yes, we don’t need to be out here long. You can decide who you travel with when the time comes, there’s truly no reason to fret on the situation now." Anne's tone was clipped and aggravated at Tom. Everyone in the group was growing tired with his complaints and Sapphire just happened to be the first to blow.

The hours seemed to blow by in minutes, soon the sun began to set behind the silent forest beyond the mountain. The UFS had suspicions about their many abilities but, like everyone else, nobody truly believed there was such a thing that could separate each bone from the other only to form a whole new body structure.

When everyone was young and innocent the world didn't beleive anything like vampires, witches, demons, werewolves, and pixies existed. Now, in the world of 2017, everything changed. People out in the streets captured these creatures and force them to fight for their own sick intertainment. Everyone was corrupt, expept the small town of Mountain View, Arkansas. The Alpha is the strongest and well known alpha in the country. Everyone in the large town knows how corrupt the outside world is yet they choose to block the outside world from the inside. Tyler only heard stories about the town; that's where he planned to go once his training was through with. The small town of Mountain View, Arkansas to let them live in freedom. Tyler could only pray the stories weren't made of imagination.

"What was that about? One minute she’s calm and the next she’s threatening Tom," One of the smaller men in the group pondered, looking at Anne for her explanation knowing she always had an explanation of the unexplainable.

Tyler sent Anne a knowing look then turned to the small boy.

"She’s been on the run almost from the whole world Xavier, she’s not going to be very happy when someone wants to sit back and relax while they close the gap. Whether or not many of you realize it, Fire really does care when an innocent dies. Why do you think she saved us from the prison in the first place?" Anne gave Tyler a grateful nod and looked at the rest of the group. Tyler was only grateful he didn't let her real name slip from his lips, he caught himself before he could. He knew more conflict would arise if he did slip. Anne turned swiftly to Xavier with an eyebrow raised.

"Xavier there’s no need to stand around and ask questions, we need to move before someone decides to take a small hike in the woods." She joked. Everyone including her knew that everyone was terrified of these woods, even some of the other members grew weary about what lie in the shadows. Yes some of them were full grown shifters but that didn’t mean they were invisible of other creatures lurking behind the shadows.

Xavier didn’t say anything else as they continued through the woods but a small part of him wondered who this girl really was. She was so strange and different from the others

Sapphire could tell by the way the group spoke of her that they too were wondering about her. She sighed to herself silently when they began trailing further up the mountain, she was careful to trail behind them to hide herself if needed. It didn’t matter how angry she got at theses people, she couldn’t leave them to travel on their own and risk getting themselves captured. If anything were to happen she would be there to help them. Always.

Once the stars began to spread their way across the sky she made her appearance.

"We need to shift here," The people that walked in front of her jumped from the sudden voice while some only smiled, grateful that she didn’t leave them.

Tyler and Anne could smell her from a distance, yet sometimes the wind would draft and switch directions and lose her scent. The two both knew her scent by insinct since they knew her tricks well, only when she was at her strongest could she fully mask her scent from them.

They all fixed the straps on their bags as they readied themselves for the shift, some simply threw their bags on the ground. Everyone smiled with glee waiting for Sapphire's clear. Sapphire was also excited that they would shift tonight, her bones ached for the transition and her inner monster only growled in agreement.

She closed her eyes and listened to the silent hum of the woods, intent on finding anything with a heartbeat. She opened her eyes, grateful that all she found were the heartbeats of the herd of deer. She somehow managed to look everyone in the eye at once as she spoke softly.

"It’s clear," She smiled. For once since her father’s death she smiled, a real smile, and that one thing encouraged her transformation.

Tyler watched mesmorized as Sapphire's lips curled into a rare smile, he hadn't seen her lips curl so naturally in almost fourteen years. Though the smile being rare, the uncomfortable position of her lips was noticed.

Closing her eyes once again, Sapphire imagined her small form morphing into the beast that controlled her emotions. She imagined her beast and human form coming together as one as they ran through the empty forest.

It didn’t matter what any shifter says or any story teller tells: every shift is incredibly painful. One wolf alone has between three-hundred and fifteen to three-hundred and twenty bones in the average wolf body. Humans only have two-hundred and six bones. Wolves have the equivalent number of one-hundred more bones than the average human body structure.

Sapphire was born as one of the original shifters amongst the Council and even at the age of seventeen she still feels the agonizing pain of her bones shifting into such a strange. Her cells multiply by thousands more to form a different shape and newer bones connecting to her older ones.

The slight snap of her arm retracting was barely recognizable behind Sapphire's grunt of pain. She’d broken almost every bone in her body when she was younger before her transformation begun at thirteen.

The screams of pain and tears shed by the other members made her gently relax. Anne only watched with a horrified expression on her face when everyone’s bones shifted and their arms grew too weak to hold themselves up. Sapphire put aside her pain and attended a new male shifter, he was one of the youngest in the group. Sapphire could tell this was his very first shift which, by experience, is more painful than anyone else. A wolf's first experience as a shift is more painful and unbearable than any other moment in time as a werewolf.

She bumped his curled up form with her knee.

"You need to…" She barely got through her sentence before her other leg snapped earning a powerful growl. "You need to get on all fours… it’s easier." She gasped between breaths.

Kyle’s body burned from the inside out and the only thought running through his mind was death. He wanted to die and leave the undenying pain behind in the dangerous world.

He barely caughted Sapphire's soothing words through the throbing in his head. Every cell in his body felt like they were going up in flames and there seemed to be absolutely nothing he could do to stop it. He watched as her spine snapped at an awkward angle sending her flying onto her stomach, she pushed up to all fours like she’d instructed Kyle to do and whimpered in pain.

Kyle watched in awe as she ignored her own pain and helped him to all fours again; once again he fell down from the amount of pain soaring through his arms. Tears fled down his cheeks when his arms snapped and bent at a strange angle, Sapphire's spine continued to move around on her back squirming under her skin. Kyle couldn’t help but feel bad for the small female, yet the only sign or pain was the small grunts that left her lips. He could tell she felt the pain probably worse than he did yet she pushed it aside. He pushed his pain aside and helped her quivering arms back to position.

However, when his spine made a sickening snap he couldn’t help the agonizing scream that escaped his lips. Sapphire moved closer to him; her face also scrunched up in pain like the others.

It felt like his spine snapped a total of five times before it settled at a strange and awkward position causing Kyle to squirm from the feeling. Fire wrapped her arms around Kyle’s small form sending warm shivers through his body. Suddenly a warm thrilling chill covered him like a blanket and the pain slowly vanished. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion when his ribs continued to expanded and warp into something new, yet he felt nothing but calm and collected.

Sapphire barely had to concentrate to keep the strong connection with the boy. She understood how hard a first shift was without the Alpha's assistence, and with Alpha blood in her system it gave her the ability to help him. Her extra abilites gave her the assistance needed to take his pain away, replacing it with her own tranquility. When the connection was linked with him the pain he was supossed to fill hit her full force making her face scrunch up in endless pain. Sapphire didn’t stop though; if she let the connection go then he’d be withering in pain worse than she was. She was accostume to the pain, used to feeling it from the total times she'd shifted. It felt like she was going through her first transformation all over again but her pain was multiplied since she was still taking his pain. Sapphire felt the strange tickling sensation when her face began to morph into a snout, her skin stretching beyond its maximum. She absolutely refused to show her weakness in front of everyone so instead of crying she simply growled

The others weren’t done with their transformation either and the smaller female seemed to be having trouble as well. Anne sat beside her conforting the young girl as she sobbed from the emense pain, the girl's tears leaking through Anne's shirt. Sapphire gasped in suffering pain when she linked with the small blonde