Shifter Domination Complete Set

"Is it because of my ears?" she asks and reaches up to her beanie to tug it off so she can show off her ears, but Auntie Aria smacks her hands away quickly.

"Don't do that, darling," she scolds.

"It itches," Aria whines.

"Alpha Franklin says you can't take it off, so you don't, okay, darling? We'll be home in a bit and you can take it off then."

"I want to take it off now," she says.

"No, darling."

"Why not?"

"Just- just, no," Auntie Darla smooths her palm over her head, which just makes the beanie rub against her ear more and is even more unpleasant.

She pouts unhappily.

The man's gaze drifts to Auntie Darla. "You know keeping her in the dark isn't going to do her any good. Ignorance will make it more dangerous for her."

"She's too young," Auntie Darla says defensively.

"I'm not," she interjects, not liking how they're talking about her like she's not standing right there.

The man kneels on one leg in front of her so he can look her in her face. "You know the world isn't a safe place, don't you?" he asks.

"I'm different," she says with a firm nod. She knows that much. "That's why I can't go to school with the other kids and why I don't stay upstairs with everyone," she says and doesn't understand why Auntie Darla grimaces at her admission.

The man's face remains calm. "Yes. It's more than that," he says. "People hurt shifters like you."

She frowns. Well, people hurt each other all the time. Her cousins and her play fight and she gets hurt sometimes because she can't change into a giant cat like they can. Then, even if she wins, Alpha Franklin would pin her down and remind her of her place in the pack. He's mean and it hurts sometimes, but she's used to it. She doesn't tell the stranger though. She doesn't want to get in trouble. "I know," she says instead and instead of placating him, that makes his brows furrow.

"You know," he echoes.

"I know there're nice people too, though. Like Auntie Darla," she beams at her Auntie, who smiles back weakly. "And I don't think you're hurt me."

He frowns. "No one's going to hurt you. Not if you keep close to your family and don't wander off."

"I won't wander off," she huffs. She knows better than to do that.

He has that look again, like he doesn't know what to say and is thinking hard. She wants to ask him what he's thinking about, but then there's a loud roar from somewhere in the middle of the crowd and then she smells blood. He stands up abruptly. "That's my cue," he says. "Keep her out of sight," he says to Auntie Darla in a tone that Alpha Franklin uses when he's giving instructions.

Auntie Darla bristles, but quickly picks her up and wraps her jacket around them both, zipping it up and hiding her from sight entirely.

She didn't understand what happened that day until years later, when she comes across an article written about it, about how a rabbit shifter who can't keep her rabbit ears and tail away like her was brought out in the middle of the street by her pack and shared by strangers as a punishment for something she had done. It's terrible, but another pack, a Werewolf Alpha pack led by a pair of twin brothers had put a stop to that and forced the Rabbit Shifter pack under their rule.

She sees the man's picture in the newspaper often over the next few years. He's consolidating power by gathering all the shifter species together, challenging Alphas one by one and putting himself in charge, an Alpha of Alphas. It's a little frightening. She thinks of Alpha Franklin bowing for someone else and shakes her head.

It's a ludicrous

though. Alpha Franklin is a Lion Shifter. A king. He'll never lose.

Chapter One: Home

There's something happening that nobody's telling her and she doesn't understand why nobody's telling her anything because it seems to be related to her. Whenever they think she's not paying attention, her pack members would give her these pitying looks that make her feel small and weak.

It's not in her place to ask question though, so she doesn't. She takes her place by the Alpha's side and keeps quiet, knowing her pack would do what they think is best for her.

Aria is sixteen now and she's no longer the naive young girl who doesn't know what happens to shifters like her. She's a genetic anomaly. She can't achieve full shift in either form and is perpetually stuck a quarter of her animal form. Twice, Auntie Darla had to fight off people who tried to snatch her off the streets. And they were travelling in a pack then. Alpha Franklin thinks it's easier to just keep her home after the second attempt so she stays home, reading the books her cousins bring her and listening to their stories, wishing she would be out there too.