Werebeasts

Chapter One:

When a pack gathers around it's new prey, I generally lurk in the shadows and watch as it torments they torment their victims. 

I'm something of a cold, aloof predator in that regard, as I wait for them to finish in the hopes that I might get something left behind. Sometimes they do leave things, since I am a member of the pack, regardless whether or not they want me to be. After all, I'm not allowed to leave until I'm of my naming day, and even then-I fought to stay with the pack. 

Oh, not because I want to still be a part of it, no. But once my father passes away, then I will fight all of them, and have every last one of them bow down to me...and then I will decide whether or not if I want to leave them all...or stay. 

Back to the matter at hand. 

These hounds were almost done with tormenting their prey, a young human girl who couldn't have been more than eighteen, and who was clearly terrified. She obviously had gotten lost. A twinge entered my heart, and I wondered if they were going to eat her or change her, because humans weren't allowed to leave once they'd seen us...

I was currently a human, crouched and watching them torment her in the dark. She was crawling around on the ground, on all fours, trying to escape the massive shaggy wolf that was in front of her. 

I should likely explain-we're not just werewolves. There's a few of us that shift into other animals. I, myself, shift into two different kinds of animals-a werewolf...and a jaguar. I know it sounds impossible, and I can't explain it myself, but I think my 'unnaturalness' is part of why my father spurns and fears me so. 

In any case...

Things were about to change, though I didn't know it. The girl was crawling around on the ground, looking frantically for an escape-

When she saw me. 

"Help!" She called, stunning the pack abruptly as they realized that she was actually coherent enough to call for help, let along that she could see me. Me, that was hiding in the darkest part of the woods, in the shadows of the trees, and though the moon was full, I knew that even the pack couldn't see me. 

"Help me...please!" She begged, sounding frantic, even as she let loose a startled shriek when one of the actual werewolves snarled at her. 

I think, to this day, it was the 'please' that did it. Or maybe it was the fact she saw me, when she really shouldn't have been able to. 

I transformed faster than I had ever done before, into my favored jaguar form, and launched myself, falling onto all fours and snarling at the wolf that had moved towards the young girl. 

SHE IS MINE, I snarled at him, and the others all looked at one another, uncertainly, but then my father's wolf form stepped forward, and I withheld a cringe. The last time that I had gone up against him, I'm been lame for almost three months with two broken ribs, a broken ankle, and a cracked wrist.

We will see about that...Orpheo.

Let the battle begin.