Alpha Werewolf Complete Set

It's easier being a kitten- cat, her brain corrects herself. She's an adult now. She's a cat. Not a kitten.

But she's used to being pampered and getting plenty of pets and hugs and delicious snacks. She licks the tuna again and blanches. It's truly awful. It's not even just catfood. It's the sort of cheap tuna that's made of ground bones and discarded bits from fish that nobody in their right minds would eat.

She's really very hungry though. She mewls and mewls, louder and louder until Shadow finds it prudent to come out and check on her. She yelps when her cage is yanked up abruptly and she losses her balance, tumbling around in the cage. She is all but slammed on top of a table. The can of tuna upends, smattering all over her pristine fur and the inside of her cage.

She sees him looking at her now, all human and pissed off as his eyes look her up and down. She whines and curls her tail up around herself, hiding as far into the corner of the cage and as far away from him as she can.

His expression softens. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he says. "I never wanted a pet. I don't know what you want."

Food would be nice. Maybe some water.

He notices the mess for the first time. "Fuck. You made a mess," he says like it's not his fault that the can of disgusting tuna is all over the cage and on her fur. "Come on. I'll wash it off." He gets the door open and she remembers his earlier promise of hosing her down and she panics, claws lashing out the draw three neat lines across his hand.

He hisses and yanks his hand back. Then, his face and eyes shift, snout growing and teeth lengthening, more wolf than man. He's terrifying and she's- she's-

She's snarling at him because it's obvious now that she has no sense of self preservation.

"Have it your fucking way, then," he says, locking the cage once again and leaving her on the kitchen table.

She cleans herself miserably, licking up the tuna and swallowing fur together with it. She doesn't like it. If she could cry, she would, but all she can do in this form is yowl and meow loudly to get his attention. She hears the door slam close a few minutes later and she's left all alone, still covered in tuna and mouth tasting like artificial chemicals. She hates it already and lets the cat take control of the grooming. Master usually grooms her and she's used to having him comb her fur and massage oil into her skin.

She whines and wishes he would come get her. She yowls louder when she's reminded of the fact that her Master is dead and he's never coming back for her. She's stuck here.

Shadow returns a few hours later, remorseful and full of apologies. He has a bag with him that smells vaguely medicinal and she has a moment of panic when she worries he's going to put her down humanely without knowing she's actually human. Well, partially human. Sometimes. Her panic eases when she sees him taking out cat toys and different cans of catfood down. She recognizes some of those brands. They're the expensive sort that Master would feed her as treats every once in a while.

She lets out a tentative mewl.

"I don't know what to do with you," he confesses. "You're a beautiful little thing, aren't you?" he peers into the door as he says this. "The old man must be smitten with you to have left you such a big chunk of his estate." He drags his palm over his face. "I was hoping to make amends wit

h him before he died. Did he suffer, you think? They tell me you were with him. Was he at peace?"

She looks at him, unsure of how to respond when she's like this. Master hadn't suffered. He had been getting sicker and sicker. He refused treatment. It rarely worked with his kind, he said. And he would much rather die in his own terms. She was upset that he didn't want treatment, but a little bit selfishly glad because if Master goes to the hospital, she can't go with him. He didn't suffer.

"Jesus. I'm talking to a cat," he laughs. "Alright. The vet says maybe you're just upset from the new environment and I should keep you in there for a little while so you don't try to escape. I'm not punishing you for anything, okay?" Then, he makes a face and turns away. She spies the slashes on his hand and feels a little bad for hurting him. He clearly has no idea what he's doing and she shouldn't have punished him for trying.

She wishes she could move around in her cage though. It's getting a little cramped in here. She curls up and tries to sleep a little more.

Chapter Three: Half-Human

She is mostly asleep when she hears a familiar voice at the door that follows a confused Shadow. The old woman marches in with all the wrath of an avenging god. Or in this case, a pissed off caretaker. Master Monty's primary caregiver is a terrifying woman and keeps order around the house with an iron fist.

She must have been so sad when she came back from her son's graduation and found out that Master Monty had died.

"Melissa? What're you doing here?" Shadow sounds uncertain for the first time since she's been here. "How did you get in?" he continues, completely flummoxed.

"The staff tell me that you took Anna with you," Melissa says and her ears perk up at the sound of her name. "Where is she?" Louder, she calls out, "Anna? Anna, darling. Where are you?"

Melissa has a sweet spot for her. The older woman practically raised her. She's neither wolf nor cat. Her animal is a bear and she sorts of looks like one, though Anna was never brave enough to say it to her face. Melissa is as big as one, tall and broad with fat and muscle in equal parts and talks with an undertone of 'I can break your bones with my bare hands' that makes the animal side of her tremble and want to hide far, far away. But Melissa has always been kind to her.

"It was in the will. She's important to the old man, I gather?" Shadow is attempting to make himself sound less surprised by the unexpected visit and get a hold of himself, but Anna can hear his heartbeat and he is a little scared. She wonders if Melissa raised him too.

"Where is she?" Melissa doesn't wait for an answer, sniffing the air and following her nose until she is looking down at Anna, curled up inside of her little cage.

"Mreowl," she whines up at the older woman, who lets out an outraged roar that echoes through the room and makes the walls vibrate. She wonders if the walls would crumble from the sheer force in her roar, but they only shake a little, holding firm.

Anna has never seen Melissa shift before. Most people can only shift from their fully human forms to a half animal shift. She's special because she is stuck in her half animal shift and can shift into a fully animal form. It means she's closer to her animal than she is to her human form and it also means she has less rights as a human. Normal humans don't shift much because they think it makes them less human.

Melissa doesn't care about propriety now. She's is half shifted, her tall frame growing even taller. She bends over and grabs her cage by the sides and breaks it apart like it's made of paper. It shatters, the fragments falling into her eyes. She closes her eyes and curls her tail around herself again.