Alpha Gabriel's Redemption

Saved.

Gabriel's POV.

Cold. That’s the first thing I take note of when I come to – the chill and dampness surrounding me. Green shrubs with thorny stalks surround me and I can feel a sharp pain constricting my ankle. The next thing I become achingly aware of is the accelerated heartbeat of a human. I can tell that the sound is coming from above me and I glance up quickly, expecting to see a human standing above me, but I don’t. Instead, I became acutely aware of just how high the fast beat is coming from and I swing my gaze upward, the pain in my leg suddenly forgotten as a strange emotion floods me.

I don’t know how I came to be where I am but there’s a large marble housing in front of me, as tall as my cave and maybe even bigger, and at the peak of this monstrously decorated dwelling place is a lithe figure perched at the very edge of the top, limbs dangling on empty space. I watch as the human scurries back till it’s out of sight and after a while, it’s able to regulate its heartbeat back to the normal pace and I forget that I’d even seen something like that up there, although I still feel an awkward feeling in my torso.

Grunting, I struggle to crawl forward, my leg constricted by the thorny vines as they wrapped tight around the appendage. I squint, stretching my paw out to the stalks to pull them off when a door directly in front of me at the far end pushes open. A female human walks out, her small frame shrouded with a big shirt and short trousers. Something tells me she was the figure I’d seen on the roof earlier and I watch as she walks outside with a basket of dead leaves. She drops the basket outside and heads back into the house.

I go back to what I had been doing – trying to free my leg. The vines are prickly and so dense with leaves, it’s hard to see and untangle the knot twined tightly around my ankle. I’m deciding if I should force my leg out – damn the pain! When the door pushes open again and the same small person walks out, a long stick in hand. She’s frowning, muttering to herself as she uses the stick to gather the dead leaves and pull them slowly towards my direction. I watch as she runs back to the wall and drags the basket along with her, stopping to continue pulling along leaves.

She pulls the last basket to the fence and is about to overturn it, dumping the withered leaves on the already tall pile, when my legs suddenly cramp up and I settle myself behind the leaves more comfortably, and my movement makes a soft rustling sound. I watch as her head snaps up and turns to my location, easily singling me out among the lush greenery. She hastily takes a step back and I grunt in annoyance, tired of constantly inflicting fear in people when harm is not in my mind. She stops suddenly at the sound, c*****g her head to the side as she regards me.

I have to had made a sound because suddenly she rushing towards me, her knees sliding against the damp grass as she crawls closer to me. Her napkin is suddenly I’m my line of sight and I figure out what she’s planning, her eyes zeroed in on my left leg. I give her the go ahead, stretching out my left leg, my right still being held hostage by the brambles. I watch warily as she wraps the napkin around the large gash, making soothing noises. She scrambles back immediately as she’s done, fear in her eyes but also something like resolve.

“Stay. Let your wounds heal.” She points deeper into the bush and I get her memo, she wants me to hide. I acquiesce and watch as she rushed back into the house. I spend the next hours trying to untangle the knot but my paws are too big for handling the vines and the thorns prevent me from just sawing through.

The next time I see the female human is when she comes outside the next day, seemingly sad. She raves about her problem and I find myself being more angry at her situation than my normal unfeeling self. I balk when she cries and she notices it, instead asking if I can understand her. Finally, she notices the vines around my right leg and exclaims, speaking quickly as she stands and dishes away from me.

This time, when she shows up, it’s late at night or very early in the morning, and the monstrous house is deathly still but I still hear her racing heartbeat from within the walls, even before she steps out of the house, something attached to her back as rounds the corner of the house. I sigh, resting my head down on my paw and waiting to see what exactly was happening.

I hear a bang from the direction she’d headed to and I’m immediately on high alert, my heart doing the racing this time and worry overcomes me. I wait in silence, eager to make sure she’s okay and I almost purr in happiness when she steps around the bend, heading straight for me, a bright light coming at me as well. I watch as she finally sees me and before I can make sense of what exactly is happening or what she’s tightly gripping in her fists, she lifts an axe over her head and swings it down, the sharp blade catching the knotted vines. She has a very good aim and I watch as the vines fall away.

A dawning sense of foreboding creeps along my spine as I see the metal contraption on my ankle. The female human lets out a little cry and dives forward, trying to pry the trap open. Once she gets a sliver of a space between the teeth trapping me, she slides the handle of the axe between them and struggles to pull my leg out. I stare at the female human, wanting to show how grateful I am for the help.

Our camaraderie is broken as a scream pierces the air. I slither back into the bushes and watch as the human runs towards the house but freezes by the door.

“Alistair! My God, Alistair, Get down here quickly.” Shouts sound inside the house but the female human is frozen by the door. I have a feeling that something isn’t right here and I struggle to free my leg.

Something shifts in the air and I glance up, staring at the man that walks out of the house. He shoots me a glare from all the way over there and I seethe as I watch him pull the female human towards himself. He says something and then pushes her on the ground, a blow following his attack and landing on her face. I hardly notice the people that fill the space at that moment, my gaze fixed on the hunkering female human, my blood sizzling with a wrath I’d never felt before.

The man points towards my hiding place and I watch as two men step forward. The female human rushes towards one of them, hugging his legs. He slaps her down, knocking her out cold and then comes at me, dragging me from the thorny bush. The contraption on my ankle comes off easily when he yanks it off, taking fur and muscle along with it as he pulled. I let out a howl from the pain and my vision shakes a bit. The female girl is crying intensely now and is smacked across the face by the man again.

I can almost feel her pain with mine and it annoys me so much, and the thought of protecting her overwhelms me that before I know it, my paws are morphing into the smooth five fingered hands of mortals and my torso elongates, my bones stretching achingly. I was transforming?