Forced to Become

Ch 12 beast

The following morning I woke when the door rattled. I moved myself into position quickly to hopefully avoid a beating.

"Good morning everyone," the boy called out. He was met with silence. I was scared to say anything for fear I would get beaten for speaking.

I heard the man chuckle from the doorway. "Oh how they love you," he said mockingly. "You will respond when you are greeted," he snarled.

"Good morning," I said hesitantly along with a few others. It was a fifty-fifty shot that saying something would get a beating versus the equal chance that staying silent would earn a beating.

"It looks like they need punished," the man chuckled. "Perhaps I should punish them your way."

I felt terror blossom once more in my heart. Tears poured from me as I waited. I did not want to see what I had seen the day before.

"How did you start yesterday?" the man asked the boy.

"I had them all watch, Alpha" the boy answered sullenly.

"Then make sure they all watch," the man growled out.

The boy moved around the room, turning everyone's head and quietly whispering, "Watch," to each of us. When he came to me, I saw his black eye and the bruises on his one side. He looked like he was about to cry. I wished there was a way to get all of us out of here.

The man waited until the boy was done. "It is time to teach them the rules. I am the one who will be punishing them for their failures this time. Tell them the first rule," the man demanded.

"Call our alpha by his title. He is Alpha. He is your alpha."

The man was already stripping. His clothing was being replaced by course brown fur. His hands became claws. As he slowly turned around in a circle, I make out the beginnings of a snout pushing its way out of his face.

My eyes closed automatically, my mind not wanting to watch his transformation. His growl had me looking again. I cringed, knowing I was going to get punished. He had commanded us to watch, and I couldn't. Watching the boy from the back had been bad enough; watching the man made my stomach churn.

"Repeat the rule," the man's coarse voice rang out.

"Call our alpha..."
"He's our alpha..."
"Call alpha by his title..."

Nobody said the same thing, which didn't please the man... the wolf. He was a wolf now. I cried out when he pounced at me. He was snarling in my face, his teeth snapping in front of my nose. I couldn't help moving away. The boy was suddenly behind me, practically draped over me. He shoved me forward.

"Get down, bow before your alpha," he urged me.

I closed my eyes, moving my body into the proper position on all fours. I remembered to tuck my head in. The boy's hands were on my head, tilting it slightly. I cried out in terror when once more I had teeth around my neck. It was bad enough when I was chained in a car thinking it was a dog that had hold of me. Now, knowing it was a werewolf, a grown angry man who was a wolf, who had his teeth pressing into my throat, I was terrorized. I was ashamed when I peed in fear, but I couldn't help myself.

Our boy lord tried again. "Always call Alpha by his title."

"Always call Alpha by his title." Most of us repeated the rule, but not all of us. There were a few whose sobs kept them from speaking.

Alpha got off me and pounced on a different boy. His growl, even though he wasn't on me this time, still filled me with fear. It was only after he had pounced on everyone as a wolf that he seemed satisfied. Or so I thought. He moved to the center of the room. He stood there, changing from man to wolf to man as if he couldn't decide how to be.

"Who am I?" the half-formed man roared.

"Alpha," our boy lord answered immediately, leading us in our answer.

"Who do you obey?"

"Our alpha," our young lord called out, the rest of us repeating him as fast as we could.

The man/wolf didn't stop. He growled out the questions, our boy lord answered and we repeated until we knew the answers ourselves. We were never good enough. Our alpha went around the room, attacking one after another of us. He kept shifting between wolf and man, hollering out the rules, demanding we repeat them. Even the bad one was repeating the rules. We were all crying, sobbing out the words our alpha demanded from us.

"We have no name until we are given one."
"Don't avoid punishment."
"Speak only when commanded to."
"Always use our Alpha's title.
"Obey Alpha."
"Submit to our alpha."
"Show respect to Apha by assuming the proper position before him."

Hours it went on. I was exhausted. My terror had settled into a permanent fear. By the time Alpha commanded our boy lord to feed us, I was no longer referring to the man as anything other than Alpha, even in my thoughts. I didn't even dare look up when the boy brought our food.

"Alpha says you all did well and deserve a treat."

Our boy lord was crying when he set my bowl before me. My mouth salivated at the smell. There were chunks of potato and steak mixed with a bit of the dog food. I almost dug in, lowering my head toward the wonderful smell. The boy's hand on my head brought me to my senses. I tucked my head in, waiting on permission.

I was, after all, the good one.