Queen of the Shifters

Chapter 6: Bitten

TALLIA

The scruffy man let out a low growl and lurched toward me.

I sucked in a sharp breath and stumbled back a step. I'd only wanted to help. He'd seemed hungry and had been digging in the dumpster, but now he was mad. Really, really mad.

He was almost six and a half feet tall and really muscular. More than I'd expect someone in his position to be. I shouldn't have come down the alley. I shouldn't have tried to help.

He lurched forward again and fell to his hands and knees with a deep, rumbling growl that raised all the hair on my body and shoved my heart into my throat.

I needed to run. I should go home and never look back.

But as his skin started to ripple in the watery moonlight, I couldn't move.

Hair exploded from his form, and snaps and cracks and pops filled the air.

My stomach churned as his body twisted and writhed until in the man's place stood a shaggy, light brown wolf.

He was a little under four and a half feet and wiry. His bright gold eyes locked on me, and my heart stopped when his lips raised in a vicious snarl.

“I'm so sorry. I'll leave you alone. I swear," I said, fighting and failing to keep the quake from my voice. I held my shaking hands out in a placating gesture, but the wolf snapped at me and took a step towards me. My eyes flooded with tears.

I was going to die.

Ripped apart by a wolf.

Suddenly, he lunged and all I could do was scream as his weight slammed into me. We crashed to the ground and my shriek was cut short as all the air was forcefully shoved from my body.

I kicked and shoved, but the wolf ducked his head, opened his jaws, and bit.

I screamed again as his teeth sank into my bicep like hot knives. The stench from his rotting mouth filled my lungs, and I gagged and shrieked as he ripped into my arm.

My world tilted and surged.

The wolf pulled back and blinked down at me like he was seeing me for the first time. He let out a low whine before he leapt off me and tore off into the night.

I rolled to my side with a whimper and clutched my arm. Hot blood leaked between my fingers. I had to get home. I had to fix this. I didn't have health insurance and couldn't afford a trip to the hospital, but I knew this could easily get infected, especially in this damp, reeking alley.

I climbed to my feet, still clutching at my bleeding bicep, and staggered toward where I lived. I just had to get home. Everything would be better once I got there.

Tears raced down my cheeks and I sucked in shallow breaths as I stumbled out of the alley and down the sidewalk.

I'd been bitten by a wolf. By a shifter.

Oh no.

It hit me like a tidal wave.

I'd been bitten by a shifter.

Everyone knew the shifter had to have consent for that because of the consequences.

I was going to turn into a wolf.

As if it'd been waiting for me to realize it, something hot and twisting surged in my guts and pressed outward. I doubled over with a groan and clutched at my stomach as it pushed and pushed until I felt like I was going to explode.

I had to get home. I didn't want to shift on the street and hurt someone.

I stumbled up my front steps, barely holding in my sobs, and made it to my apartment. I closed the door behind me and locked it before I fell to the ground on my hands and knees.

A low whine built up in my chest and tumbled out of my mouth. It wasn't a human sound.

And then she was there. Something… other. I could feel her in my mind. She was happy, excited, and ready to shift. I didn't understand how I could know or feel such things, but I just did. I could picture her bouncing around, ready for me to let go.

I shook my head. I couldn't let go. I wasn't ready. I didn't want this.

My wolf whined.

I shook my head again. I was a human. A normal average human...

Not anymore.

My wolf smirked at me and then shoved with all her might.

It was agony.

From the inside, something pressed on every inch of me. My bones snapped, and I screamed, but it quickly turned into a whimper as I collapsed to the ground.

For what felt like days, my bones broke and rearranged themselves. Hair that felt like hot needles pressed up from underneath my skin until I was covered in a steel gray fur. My clothes ripped and fell away, leaving me a naked, trembling mess.

And then suddenly it was over. I lay on my side panting and sobbing, but the pain was gone. Even my wounded arm didn't hurt anymore.

I sucked in a deep breath and moved to sit up, but my paws slid across the linoleum floor.

I. Was. A. Wolf.

My breath sawed in and out of my chest. I scrambled to my feet and rushed to my bathroom on clumsy legs. I clipped the doorframe but made it to my vanity, hopping up so my front paws were on the counter.

I stared at myself in the mirror, and horror quickly became awe.

My fur was steel gray everywhere but for the white tips of my ears. My eyes were similar to my human eyes, but now the blue glowed insanely bright. I was at least four and a half feet tall and built slender but athletic. I was magnificent.

My wolf hummed her appreciation at my complement, and we hopped off the counter, stumbling before we regained our footing.

I exited the bathroom and spent several minutes just walking around my studio to get a feel for this new body.

As I adjusted, I also attuned myself to the onslaught of smells and sounds. It was as if everything was right there in front of me. I could smell what everyone in the building had for dinner and hear that most of my neighbors were snoring in their beds. I could smell mold growing behind one of the walls and a mouse crawling around in the attic. It was too much. I slammed my eyes closed and shook my head.

The sudden and sharp craving for meat hit me right in the gut and saliva gathered in my mouth.

I shook my head. No. No way. I may be a wolf, but I was still a vegan, and nothing was going to change that. I would just have to be a different kind of wolf.

My wolf whined and something opened up in the pit of my stomach, gnawing on me from the inside.

I let out a low growl and laid down. I ached to go for a run outside, but that wasn't happening. For now, all I could do was rest. I was exhausted from everything that had happened. A nap sounded perfect.

My wolf and I curled up together on the floor beside my bed and before I knew it, my eyes slid closed.