The Original

Chapter One: Rieka's Control

The wolf hunched over her prey, snarling a warning to the approaching humans. Fingers brushed over her spine gently. Her ears echoing with the cooing of the man and woman who surrounded her and the small buck beneath the brown pelt of hers. The animal below her pathetically gasping for air, the large puncture wounds on its neck betraying his plea.

Rhea could feel her rabid wolf give in to instincts, delivering the final bone-crushing bite onto- the neck of her meal. Tears poured from her eyes, the human guilt suffocating the beast that took control of her body. Flattening her ears, the wolf growled, ripping into the flesh of the dead buck, punishing her human by making her endure the way she ripped the guts out of the small body.

"Pitiful, human." The beast howled, tearing the leg of the buck out and laying near the fire the elder man and woman had spent an hour trying to light.

"Rhea." The wolf snapped her neck to the woman, emanating a growl of dislike toward the end of her meal.

The beast stood, taking the sickening sharp pain of her shift as pleasure. Individual patches of the hair on her petite body disappearing into the golden skin of her human. Each canine of hers detaching from the jaw, the snout molding back into the face of the woman the beast despised. The claws she had spent hours releasing from their caged body, clawing back into the fingertips that formed in the place of her large paws.

"Fucking beast!" Growled Rhea, her shoulders arranging themselves onto the sockets they had abandoned. The wolf inside her howled in dislike, forcing the shift to take longer than the human could handle.

The man sighed, capturing Rhea's attention. Her father, Charles, had grown tired the past few years since her tenth birthday. "That is enough."

Rhea bowed her head to her father, the beast inside her respecting his dominance over her. Wrinkles formed on her father's forehead, a sign of disapproval towards the submission of Rhea's wolf.

His once brown hair lost in sea grey, clinging to his youth before stripping them of all color. Much like Rhea, Charles' dark brown eyes burned with mischief. The chin of his round face, home to a grey field of stubble. A raised scar rested on the bridge of his pointy nose, his family oblivious to the story of his wound.

"Happy birthday, Rhea!" The woman's face stretched with a childish grin. Her short black hair curled around her face. The soft hazel eyes wrinkled at the genuine smile she showed her daughter. Unlike her Rhea, Elsie stood at five feet, her slim body marked with different shades of tans. The endless amount of time spent gardening painted her once pale golden skin.

Rhea huffed, angered at another year she had gained with her beast. "What is there to celebrate? I'm stuck with a monster inside me."

"It's your nineteenth birthday," Elsie took hold of Rhea's face, brushing the long chestnut brown strands of hair away from her face. "Celebrate with us."

"I'll try my best." Rheas disliked saying no to her mother, the warmth radiating from the petite woman could be contagious.

Rhea tried to smile, failing miserably at the thought of starting another year of her life stuck to a monster she had no control over. Her tongue was still stained with blood from the buck, the metallic taste making her stomach churn. Guilt took over her clouded mind, the sickening memories of all her kills looming over like thundering clouds

"Now, have you given her a name?" Charles interrupted the dark thoughts forming in Rhea's head.

"How do I name a beast? Like I would a puppy?" Rhea snickered, feeling the wolf within her stir at her disrespect.

Charles chuckled. "Don't think of her as a puppy. Picture her as a version of yourself."

Rhea shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to picture the wolf as a version of herself. A part of her knew she wasn't as cold as the animal that rested in her. "Rieka."