Shifters

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

 I concentrated on what a bear looked like and for some reason a polar bear was what popped into my head. My body felt like it was going to come apart. I felt stretching, my bones shifting and lengthening to grow to the mass I needed to become as big as a bear. I grimaced and clenched my teeth to keep from screaming out in pain. I prayed I shifted right and didn’t end up some deformed animal, not even resembling a bear.

Ian was staring at me, but I didn’t have time to tell him what I was trying to do. I think he could tell because he started his own shift. Pain wracked my body and I could no longer tell what was happening around me. I could only concentrate on my shift so it would turn out right.

The pain quickly dissipated as my shift finished and I swiveled my large head from side to side looking down my snowy white flanks on either side of me. I lifted a huge white paw with black nails and roared with delight. I had done it!

I looked around to see the elders had shifted along with Ian, surrounding me with wolves. They looked at me cautiously but soon their attention was drawn across the lawn by a deafening roar. My father had shifted to a large Grizzly bear like I had suspected he would and our sizes were about matched. There was a small black bear beside my father and I had to assume it was Alex. What an idiot. He would be no match against me, but the elders and Ian would have to fight him together if they hoped to overcome him.

I stood up on my hind legs and let out a deafening roar. There was no way I was going to be taken alive and I would fight till the finish. Deep inside my heart I was sad because I knew that I might not live and I had only just found love. I loved Ian and would fight for my freedom and my family’s safety, his safety. I knew he would not like the fact that I had to be the one to fight my father, being the temporary Alpha and the fact that he was a male, but mainly because he loved me and would want to be the one to protect me.

My father took the challenge and stood up on his hind legs and responded with a roar just as loud. Some of the wolves around me started to growl and I knew they were showing me their support. I decided I wasn’t going to wait for my father to make the first move and charged him.

Seeing what I was doing the elders and Ian followed suit and were close on my heels. My father charged forward from his spot, followed closely by Alex. My father and I met in the middle of the lawn, our large bodies slamming together. Jaws snapped and great growls came from both of us. I could feel pain as his claws furrowed great gouges in my skin as I grappled with him, sinking my claws into his pelt.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the elders circling around Alex, not yet attacking. Perhaps they were hoping he would submit. I didn’t think he would, he was too stupid for that. I hoped they would keep him busy so I wouldn’t have to fight them both at the same time. I was matched for size with my father, but if Alex managed to join my father I would be outnumbered.

My father bellowed with rage and he paused in his attach upon me as I seen a black wolf jump on his back and sink his fangs in the bear’s back. I had a feeling Ian would try and help me with my father and I was grateful for the distraction he was causing. My father turned, trying to swing at Ian and swipe him off with his enormous paw. He wasn’t having much luck. Finally he managed to swipe at Ian, sending him flying across the grass. That pissed me off!

I took the opportunity of my father’s distraction to lunge forward and sink my massive teeth into my father’s exposed neck. It was instinct to go for his throat, his weakest spot. A flash of regret stole over me at the thought of ending my father’s life before I clamped my jaws shut on his throat. There was no time for regrets now. I would have to worry about that later.

Warm blood spilled down my throat and I felt my father roar, vibrations could be felt from it down the length of my body. He tried to struggle out of my grip but I could feel the blood gushing forth like a fountain and I knew he would weaken soon. I just had to hang on. Stumbling my father tried to push me off with his front paws, digging them flaying my fur and flesh. The pain only made me clamp down harder on his throat and soon his struggles lessened.

A keening moan escaped my father’s muzzled and I knew he was suffering so in one last crunch I crushed his windpipe with my teeth and felt him go limp. I released him and he fell to the ground. Standing there, staring in disbelief that I had just killed my father his body shifted back to its human form. The sight almost made me retch and I was still in bear form.

My father’s body was covered in blood and there were deep gashes all over him, but the worst part was his throat. It was lying open, torn and mangled. I had to turn away.

Feeling the ripple as I shifted back to my human form, I lay on the ground and wept. There was still fighting going on around me but it soon died down. Alex either had taken off after I killed my father or he ended up the same as my father.