Love and Conflict (Mpreg)✔️

Chapter 5

Liam went crashing through the foliage, his rough breathing loud in his ears, sweat covering every inch of his skin as he ran as fast as his legs could possibly carry him. And he may just be imagining it, but he could swear he was getting faster with every passing second, the wind whipping past him, mussing his hair, howling in his ears, branches and twigs scratching at his skin, ripping it open in places, his thin arms soon covered in countless scratches, some of them bleeding in scarlet trickles.

And yet Liam didn't pause. Liam ran.

Because Liam's body was becoming too big for his skin; because Liam's insides were threatening to explode like a virtual bomb; because Liam could see as easily through the dark, as if it were a bright and sunny afternoon; suddenly see a hundred new colours, could smell a hundred new scents, could hear the faintest whisper that sounded hundreds of yards away – because Liam was manifesting.

***

Liam Payne manifested at 2:09am on the morning of 12th January, on his soon-to-be claimed Alpha's twenty-sixth birthday.

His Alpha had followed him as Liam had burst out of the mansion and fled into the woods behind it, his body wracked with shudders so powerful that the frail Omega was already moaning in pain as he ran.

Instantly shifting into his wolf form, so as to be able to smell and track his soulmate easier, Zayn Malik had kept a close eye on him as he ran several yards behind, never losing sight of the thin figure that sped through the trees, the head of chocolate brown hair glinting in the moonlight that filtered in through the leafy canopy above them.

Liam had sobbed as he'd torn the clothes off himself, tripping several times, landing on his hands, stones and twigs tearing the delicate skin open. Zayn's wolf had growled in distress as he'd smelt the blood easily, yearning to go lick the wounds clean, heal them.

But Liam had to do it by himself – there was nothing Zayn could have done for him anyway, not until his darling had fully manifested. He'd been close, just seconds before his body would give away, would embrace the wolf that was snarling to get out. The fight that his human form had put up would barely last – it had already been weakening.

Liam had run all the way to the little stream that cut across the woods. It had gleamed in the dark, the cool, sparkling clean water throwing off beams of moonlight, shimmering like there were a thousand diamonds under the surface.

Zayn had dug his paws into the dirt, forcing himself to come to an abrupt stop, his wolf whimpering at him to keep going, to leap forward and help his Omega.

For Liam had collapsed onto all fours, stark naked, and had been screaming in pain and fear – he'd been losing the last few strains of his weak human form, the wolf finally ready to burst through and establish for itself a stronger, more resilient body.

Zayn's wolf had pawed desperately at the ground but the Alpha had stood still, his hazel eyes not blinking once as his soon to be mated Omega had writhed on the ground and then quite abruptly, jumped to his feet, taken two huge bounds forward, and in the most graceful leap Zayn had ever seen in his life, sprung up high into the air, the long lines of his pale body caught for one quick second against the silhouette of the full moon in the sky, Zayn quickly committing it to memory, holding his breath as awe and love filled him to the brim at the sight – it was breathtaking in the literal sense.

And then, mid-leap, mid-air, Liam had manifested – his body had transformed, turning into a wolf with fur that was brighter than the moon itself, its high, piercing howl renting the air, making Zayn's own wolf throw its head back and howl right along in joyous, elated triumph.