I'm A Shifter Queen

CHAPTER ONE: TSUBAUKI

It was a typical Monday morning at the Saint Vandburg Shifters Academy; I could hear snickers as I walked through the halls mixed with words of sympathy and pity. I looked to the picture on the grand walls to help escape the words directed at me; the orphan with out any type of mind link. As I stepped into the courtyard I watched in awe as people transformed into animals from all over the world. You could tell their origins from the animals they transformed into. There were many birds native to Canada, along with a few wolves, lynx, mountain lions, cougars etc. There were even a few horses and exotic animals from giraffes to hippos. One animal that is hardly ever seen is a deer. It is believed that if your animal form is a deer you have a pure heart.

They used to be a flourishing type of shifter, but as people got more greedy and forgot about others the deer shifters were born less and less often. Eventually it became a hereditary trait; every second or third child born to a deer shifter was a deer shifter even if they weren't of pure heart so that the deer shifters could live on. They only down side is that most deer shifters can only have one child living at one time making them even more scarce.

Suddenly I was thrown to the ground hitting my head on the cement walkway.

"Watch were you're going orphan." A familiar voice sneered. Victoria Crenshaw leader of the popular female shifters- which all happen to be bird shifters- stood above me with an ugly smirk on her face. "Got anything to say for yourself?" Two beautiful but ugly people stood behind her snickering. The one on the left kept twirling her hair around her finger like her life depended on it while the other kept batting her eyelashes. I almost asked if she had something in her eyes, but thought against it as I would most likely end up going to class with a black eye and a few broken ribs.

"Victoria, I think she's to scared to talk." When they laughed I almost had to cover my ears from the squeaking noises they made. When they walked past me Victoria spit on me. I wiped off the spit with tears in my eyes. I was fine with being punched or kicked it didn't make me feel disgusting or like I was worthless like being spit on did. I wiped away my tears stood and took off my backpack before shifting and running in to the building with my backpack in my mouth. I shift into a golden brown wolf. I was small for a wolf- tiny actually only reaching four feet six inches tall. The normal wolf shifter is around six feet for a male and five feet eight inches for a female. They picked on me for the small size my wolf form is. I was small because when I was younger I lost my mother and my father soon after I had shifted so I wasn't able to take care of my wolf form or my human form very well. I listened as the bell rung signaling that class had begun. I was nearing my class room as the teacher began to shut the door; I ran forward and squeezed through the door just in time.

"Late again, Tsubauki. One more time and you will have a severe punishment to go along with it. Do I make myself clear?" I nodded before heading to the back of the room to the section that was cut off so I could shift then get to my desk. I pulled a box in front of the opening and shifted sighing as I heard the familiar sound of bones popping into place. Mr Cortez began the lesson as I pulled on the spare clothes I had in my backpack.

"What are soul mates?" Mr Cortez asked my class as I slipped into my desk by the window. I studied the people as many answers fluttered through their minds. A boy with dark hair on the far side rose his hand. "Yes, Tyler?"

"A soul mate is the other half of your soul fashioned by the hands of the Gods for you." I watched as the girls and some boys drifted into thoughts about their mates. Honestly I'm terrified of having a mate by what I can remember of my parents my father would beat my mother and she was his soul mate. What if mine treats me like that? I can't just leave them.

"Tsubauki!" I ducked just in time to miss the marker thrown by my teacher. "Pay attention. Anyway Simon continue." I glared at Mr Cortez.

"Is there a reason we have to go to the ceremony tomorrow?"