The Alpha's Missing Mate

Chapter 1

She had been in the system less than a month when she was placed in the first home. At first, they seemed nice enough. The woman was kind, the man was understanding. She had actually hoped they would keep her until she was old enough to cycle out of the system, at least until the man started to hit her. What started out as a slap on the face if he thought she was being disrespectful turned into punches whenever she got near him. If she tried to avoid him, the beatings were that much worse. When she went to school with a black eye the wife couldn't cover with make up, child services had removed her.

The second family used her for free slave labor. They had cut her luxurious, waist length, blond hair to a couple inches from her scalp. They made her wear second hand clothes and sold what little she had brought with her, along with her hair, to pay for alcohol and drugs. She was expected to tend to the younger children in the house, clean up after their parties, do all the laundry, and cook every meal, even though she was only a little over thirteen. When she turned up to school looking as though she'd lost fifteen pounds in a week, child services had again been called in. This time, she wasn't the only one taken from the house.

After that, she spent a year and a half in a group home where the supervisors liked to "visit" children while they slept. When it happened to her, she'd been there for about four months. She'd been dead asleep when the creaking of the door to the room she shared with five other girls woke her. A tall, dark shadow crept into the room and made its way between the beds. At first, she thought they were just doing a routine check, but when the night shift guard came to her bunk, he stopped and lightly stroked her hair. A feeling of unease came over her as he leaned over her, trying to see if she was still asleep. When the man noticed her eyes were open, she saw what little light there was glint off his ugly yellow teeth.

"Well, well, well," the man whispered. "Look who's up and not sleeping like she should be. I think you need to follow me out into the hallway, girlie."

With that, he had flung her blankets off and grabbed her around the arm, pulling her out of bed and propelling her before him out the door and into the equally dark hall. He led her down the hall to a nearly empty room, where he stopped and looked inside before shoving her in and following. The sound of the heavy door thudding shut had sent icicles of fear through her. She had screamed and fought the man as best she could, but she was little more than a child. She stood no chance against him as he slapped her and threw her around the room before pinning her on the bed and using her like she was his own personal play thing. When he was finished with her, he told her to go back to her room, threatening to find and kill her if she told anyone what he had done.

That abuse had gone on weekly until the Shephard's had finally agreed to take her in. She had been with them now for nearly a year and a half. The day she left to go camping was only one day before her seventeenth birthday. She felt as if it should have been her thirtieth. Sometimes she wondered what she had done so wrong in a previous life to warrant the pain and abuse she received in this one.

Another sharp pain accompanied by the loud crack she was becoming accustomed to brought her out of her stupor. It now felt as if days had passed as the agony continued. Every bone in her body had been broken, and she lay in a puddle of not only vomit, but urine as well. The pain had caused her to pee on herself. If she could have taken a breath, she would have cried, deep wracking sobs, at the mortification and injustice of it all.

As the pain finally started to recede, her skin began to itch and feel tight. Unable to relieve the itching, it turned into a burning sensation, almost as unbearable as the breaking of her bones, and she couldn't stop the whimper that rose in the back of her throat. Would she ever not be in pain? She felt as if her skin rippled, and couldn't help but wonder, yet again, what was happening to her. It was at that moment, she saw a shadow being cast on the outside of the tent. Relief flooded her as she realized there was someone there she could beg to help her. She opened her mouth to call out, when she felt her bones start to snap back into place. Only, they felt wrong. They were snapping back in the wrong shape!

A low moan passed her lips, changing slightly at the end as the zipper lowered and a black haired man, not more than a boy actually, stuck his head in. His eyes widened when he saw her, and he quickly reached in and grabbed her under the arms, dragging her out into the cool night air. A gentle hand stroked her hair as he made soothing noises, trying to calm her down.

"Sssh... It's nearly over, little one," he said in a deep voice that sent a shiver down her spine. "Just a little while longer. It will all be over and you can run, I promise."

She whimpered as his words sank in. She still had more of this excruciating pain to go through? One last, searing pain assaulted her and she arched her back and howled. Wait, what? Howled? That wasn't right. She should have screamed, not howled.

The man quickly backed away from her as she doubled over and coarse hair sprouted from her pores. Her hands mutated and her fingers shrank as long claws grew from her nail beds. A pressure in her face forced her to open her mouth again, and she felt her teeth shifting, growing. Long incisors formed where her normally even canines once were. Her mouth pushed out, growing into a long snout. Her ears grew, and shifted to the top of her head. Her legs and arms popped into new positions, holding her body up equally. Pressure on her spine suddenly released, and she felt something hit her in the side. Turning her now misshapen head. She noticed... A tail? Where had that come from? She didn't have a tail.

She watched as the tail became covered in fur then turned back to face forwards again as one last surge of pain coursed through her body and she felt the pressure in her head suddenly dissipate. She collapsed where she stood, her sides heaving as she tried to catch her breath. After about five minutes, she was able to breath correctly again, only this time, the air was different. It tasted sweet and fresh, but there was an undercurrent of decay to it as well. She could taste the previous fall's leaves where they lay in piles, rotting. Her hearing was sharper now as well. She could hear something scuttling under a pile of leaves somewhere deep within the woods that surrounded her. She glanced around and realized everything looked so clear. Had her eyes been bad before? Every thing looked so clear now. It was the middle of the night, yet she could make out the tiniest detail on the trees one hundred yards away from her. It was almost as if the sun was high over head instead of the moon and stars. She didn't understand what was happening.

A twig snapping quickly brought her attention to the clearing she was in and her head jerked in the direction the man had moved to. She regarded him with caution. Who was he? What did he want? How did he know what was happening to her?

Seeing the terror in her eyes, he slowly reached out a hand. "It's okay, Little One. I mean you no harm. I only want to help you, I promise," he spoke in a soothing voice, but she still didn't believe him. When he took a step towards her, his hand still outstretched, she did the only thing she could think.

She ran.