The mood in the dining room was tense that night. I took my usual position beside the table next to where Grace sat as she went to the buffet to get us both food. This had become a daily routine for Grace and I. The upside for me being that my food was literally hand delivered to me by a Princess.

I'd learnt a few days ago that the evening of a full moon was always this tense. A young werewolf would always shift for the first time on a full moon. But the age for their first shift differed greatly for each werewolf. Some had their first shift at 12 years old and some at 18 years old.

The only exception to this rule is if a werewolf shifts and finds their mate, the mate is guaranteed to shift on the next full moon. Which was the case for Lydia. The poor girl was now sitting with her friends and family nervously as they tried to comfort her about the painful night ahead.

Of course the full moon was always a nervous time for every first time shifting werewolf above 12 years old. I could only imagine the terror that was going through Lydia's mind because she knew what was coming.

At least the only people that were allowed to be present at a first shift was the werewolf's mate if they had one, immediate family as well as the Alpha and Luna. The Alpha and Luna played a big role in guiding a new wolf through their first shift. Derrick and Saffron would also be present at Lydia's first shift to learn from the current Alpha and Luna. Grace being a Princess would also be there for support.

"Will you be alright by yourself tonight?" Grace asked me once dinner was over and most of the pack was departing the dining room. She'd been quite for most of dinner but I could hardly blame her when she had to deal with such a stressful night every month.

"I will be fine." I promised Grace with a small smile on my face in an attempt to help cheer her up. "When you finally get to bed don't worry about waking me up. Just go have a shower and crawl into bed, I'll be sure to warm your toes for you."

Grace laughed. "Thanks Eva. The world needs souls like you."

"Good luck tonight Grace." I said as she got up and fixed her eyes on the doors. I knew I wouldn't see her for a while once she walked out of them as she would go straight to the area designed to help with shifting for new wolves and it made me sad to know she'd be gone. Even if it was only for a night.

"It will be fine as long as we don't have more than two new shifters. It gets hectic with three or more." Grace reassured me before patting my head for comfort and turning around to disappear through the doors.

I saw Derrick and Saffron follow Alpha Leyton and Luna May as they headed in the same direction as Grace. So I sought out Thomas and Daniel to spend some time with before I retired for the night. However my search for the mated pair turned up empty after an hour and I'd run out of places I could think of to look. So even though it was only 8 pm I caught the elevator to the top floor and went to our bedroom.

The bedroom seemed cold and empty without Grace there, even though the heating kept the room at a constant temperature. So I just curled up in my usual spot on the end of the massive bed and closed my eyes as I waited for sleep to lure me to it's sweet depths.

...

I awoke to the feeling of intense pain. It only took me a few moments to determine that the pain was not mine.

I looked at the clock, thankful that Grace had spent the time to teach me how to read it as well as tell the time. I discovered that it was 2 am in the morning and Grace was not back yet.

I quickly got up and left the room, trying to determine where the phantom pain was coming from. All I could tell currently is that it was coming from far below me.

I took the elevator all the way down to the ground floor and found the foyer to be eerily quiet. Much the same as it had been on my first night in the pack house when I had slept in the lounge.

I went straight to the wolf door and let myself out into the brisk night following the pain I could feel that still wasn't fading. It didn't take me long to realise that I was headed for the area reserved to help first shifters.

I walked in the door without anyone noticing me and saw three werewolves trying to shift for the first time. All three of them looked to be stuck halfway between their wolf and human forms, but the parts that had shifted appeared to be random. I knew from listening to Grace previously that they were in fact changing slowly, so it only looked like they were stuck in between the two forms. But instead they simply changed over hours.

There was a young 13 year old boy named Zack in the middle of his first shift. I hadn't had a lot to do with Zack but I knew he was a happy young teenager. He was surrounded by his parents and Saffron was with him, talking him through the shifting process as she held his hand for support.

Another 16 year old boy named Peter was being helped through his first shift by Derrick in much the same way that Saffron was helping Zack through his. I didn't really like Peter all that much as his always made someone the butt of his jokes. But I still didn't like seeing him pale, sweating and obviously trying to hold his cries in. His parents were also around him like Zack's while they tried to offer him support and comfort.

The source of the pain that woke me up was lying on a low cushioned table in the middle of the room. Lydia had her mate Kyle as well as Alpha Leyton, Luna May and Princess Grace by her side. I could tell it wasn't going well by the distressed looks on everyone's faces and the fact that her parents had been pushed back a bit to let the Alpha, Luna and Princess work.

Luna May moved to get some fresh towels and I got my first look at Lydia. If Zack and Peter looked like they'd been hospitalized for the flu, then Lydia looked like she was dying. She was as pale as a ghost, her eyes were half closed and I was pretty sure that's as far as she could open them. Her hands which were half transformed into claws hung limply by her side. Lydia's mouth was half open and soft wails of pain escaped through them, with a shock I realized that she had screamed so much that she couldn't anymore. I could hear that her heartbeat had weakened dramatically due to the huge strain the shift had put on it.

In short Lydia was close to death and everything that Alpha Leyton, Luna May and Princess Grace was trying wasn't helping at all. Everyone around Lydia was starting to become frantic.

"You have to help her, NOW!" The voice in my head suddenly demanded of me frantically. This was the first time the voice had ever asked or demanded anything of me. It was also the first time it had ever shown emotion. Normally it was just a dry voice commenting on things that were happening.

Even though I knew I had to help Lydia, I had no idea how. So I decided to do what any wolf would do to help an injured pack member.

I walked over to Lydia on the side that Luna May had recently vacated to gain access to the dying girl. Alpha Leyton was obviously surprised to see me, but he had bigger concerns than telling me off for crashing this private moment right then.

I turned my attention from Alpha Leyton back to Lydia. In the short time it had taken me to get over to her I'd heard a noticeable drop in her already weak heartbeat, Lydia was fading fast.

So I gathered as much intent to take away Lydia's pain as I could and licked her, much the same way that I would lick a wound on a pack member to help them heal.

The effect it had on Lydia wasn't instant, but it was still quite swift. Her heart beat increased in strength, her breathing became a bit deeper and her pale white skin got just a hint of color back in it.

Grace stopped in a mixture of shock and amazement before addressing me. "Whatever you just did Eva, do it again. Actually don't stop until I tell you to."

So I repeated my actions and found that every time I did it I appeared to be making Lydia stronger and took away her pain. However I also found that the amount of intent behind the action to heal Lydia had a big impact on how much it helped.

It appeared that Lydia was out of immediate danger when Luna May asked me to step back so she could resume what she was doing. Stepping back from Lydia turned out to be the worst mistake anyone made that night.

The moment I stepped out of Lydia's reach, she crashed. Even though she had managed to return to the state of a normal healthy werewolf shifting for the first time, the moment I left it was like all the progress she made over the last fifteen minutes was ripped out from under her.

Lydia's breathing stopped and a few seconds after that her heartbeat ceased as well. The deathly paleness of her skin had suddenly returned to replace the color that had formed.

Everyone suddenly became frantic. Doctor Rory was yelling out orders as people went everywhere and a machine with two shiny metal pads was produced. The doctor placed the shiny metal pads on Lydia's chest before shouting "CLEAR" and pressed a button on the pads. Lydia's body suddenly arched on the table before suddenly slamming back onto it.

Doctor Rory pressed his fingers to Lydia's throat to check for a pulse, but I could have already told him that she still didn't have a heartbeat.

Upon realising this, Doctor Rory tried his paddles three more times and Lydia's body smashed back into the table without a heartbeat three more times. It had been a minute since Lydia had stopped breathing.

The doctor looked at Alpha Leyton before saying in a voice filled with grief. "Unless someone can produce a miracle in the next two minutes, I'm going to have to call her time of death."

Kyle fell back into the arms of Lydia's mother as the two family members and her mate started to howl in grief.

Alpha Leyton tried one last time as he commanded Lydia in the most powerful Alpha voice I'd ever heard. "Lydia Morrison, as your Alpha I command you to wake up."

Everyone held their breath as we hoped beyond hope that this would work. Unfortunately after ten seconds or so it became apparent that Lydia wasn't waking up. Alpha Leyton broke down and fell to the floor in tears while Luna May knelt down and embraced her husband, her eyes just as full of tears.

I just stood there dumbfounded as Grace put a comforting hand on my back. She was trying to contain her tears as well. "But she was recovering." Was all I said.

"I know." Grace replied with a voice that threatened to break down sobbing. "I don't know what happened either." The hand on my back was shaking as Grace gave into the silent sobs that had threatened her.

I steeled my resolve, I was not going to give up on my pack mate without trying one last time. How could I call myself a part of this pack if I just gave up on it's members that were my family?

Letting Grace's hand fall from my back, I walked the short distance back to Lydia's body.

"It's too late Eva." Doctor Rory said to me sadly. "In another 30 seconds she's going to start suffering brain damage. There's nothing more we can do for her."

I ignored the doctor and took up my original position beside her face. But instead of trying to heal her wounds by licking them I focused on the intense feelings of sadness and loss inside of me before pouring them and the power they contained into my voice.

That night I gave one simple, but impossible command. While pouring everything I had into it, I simply said "Lydia, live." Those two words came out of me with the power of all my emotions behind them and they sounded almost musical in a sad but strong way.

Of course everyone including myself jumped when a second later Lydia took a sudden deep breath and I heard her heart restart. Everyone looked stunned for a second but Doctor Rory was the first to respond by going to check Lydia's pulse. He immediately found it and started issuing orders so fast that I couldn't have told you what they were.

I ignored the doctor and continued to do what I was doing before. Licking her wounds to make them better. However this time no one attempted to stop me or move me away from the now breathing girl on the table.

...

Zack and Peter both finished their shifts into their wolf forms about half an hour after Lydia crashed then recovered. So they were escorted out by their parents to the kennels where they would spend the night in a comfortable setting for a new wolf before instruction for them began in the morning.

Lydia however was shifting much slower than what was considered normal. While I was sitting there trying to take her pain away and give her as much support as possible, I learnt that Lydia had started to shift two hours earlier than the others. She was still progressing with her shift and she wasn't too far off finishing, but it had taken a lot longer than normal.

By this point it was 4 am. Luna May and Grace had moved over to comfort Kyle as well as Lydia's parents and Alpha Leyton was acting as Doctor Rory's assistant. I had been left as the support for Lydia during her shift. No one wanted to move me away after what happened last time.

The good news is that Lydia had regained conscious half an hour after she crashed and Doctor Rory had confirmed that she didn't have any sort of permanent damage from her near death experience, including brain damage.

At 4:30 am on the night of the full moon Lydia finally completed her first shift into her wolf form and was free from any chance of her crashing again.

Lydia stood up on the table as I saw her wolf for the first time. Lydia was as black as Alpha Leyton. Except for the pure white socks on each foot and the top quarter of her tail. Although being freshly shifted she wasn't as big as a normal werewolf yet.

She was a beautiful wolf. She got off the table easily as all the pain that had assaulted and nearly killed her was gone. She padded over to me and licked my snout in an ultimate display of thanks. I nodded my head at her before she turned away and padded back over to her mate and family.

Lydia wasn't going to the kennel like the other two. Instead Doctor Rory wanted to keep an eye on her so they went to the medical clinic at the back of the pack house.

I turned to Grace and smiled tiredly at everyone who was left. Which consisted of Saffron, Derrick, Grace, Alpha Leyton and Luna May. Everyone looked bone tired.

"I think everyone deserves the day off tomorrow and a really good sleep in." Alpha Leyton informed us. "We can get together and figure out what just happened once we've all woken up."

I nodded my head at Alpha Leyton as the tiredness started to press down on me. It honestly felt like I'd used every ounce of energy I had this evening.

I knew someone was talking to me but I realised that I was phasing in and out of consciousness so I couldn't hear what was being said. Luckily a strong set of arms that I recognized as Grace's picked me and started to carry me back to our room.

The exhaustion overtook me shortly after Grace picked me up and I was forced to surrender to its depths. The last thing I heard before completely passing out was the little voice in my head. "Rest now. You did well Eva."