Bite Marks

Changes

Kane put on a burst of speed as we broke into the clearing around the house. Everything was chaos. I recognized some of the pack members who spent more time here fighting some of the wolves. I had to assume the wolves didn't belong to Kane, but I had no way of identifying them. Wouldn't it be nice if I was like Kane and could identify everyone by smell.

Kane let out a roar of rage and everyone, myself included, paused to cringe. He wasted no time jumping into the fray. I knew that the wolves had an upper hand in this fight. Many of Kane's people were showing signs of injury from bite marks and claws alike. I stood frozen at the edge of the woods not knowing what to do until I heard a cry.

"Mia..."

She sounded scared, and pissed. It sounded like she was on the other side of the house. I didn't wait for Kane, I just broke into a run heading toward the sound of her voice. I rounded the side of the house in time to see two more wolves dragging an unconscious Mia into the woods. I could smell her blood and I was angry. Mia was my friend. She was hurt. They would die.

I growled and one of the wolves looked up. They each had one of Mia's arms clenched in their teeth. Blood was pouring down onto her shirt where they had broken the skin. The wolf growled back at me and I felt the tingle in my fingers begin. I looked down as hair sprouted. I had seconds to rescue Mia. The farther away they got the worse she would be. I knew I couldn't fight them as a human. I had no training and no help. They weren't taking Mia, though.

I didn't waste any time stripping out of my jeans and shirt. I got down on all fours and willed the change on. As the pain spread up my arms and legs all I could think was faster there wasn't time for this. My nose elongated and my hips cracked and realigned. I ignored the pain, closed my eyes, and thought of the terror I was about to inflict on those wolves who dared to hurt my friend. Mine, she was mine.

The pain finally eased and I opened my eyes and shook myself. Everything looked a little different. Colors were different and my eye level was lower than I was used to. But as I sniffed and again smelled Mia's blood and fear I knew I didn't have time to adjust. I had to get to her.

I took off at a quick jog, getting used to running on four legs instead of two. As soon as it started to feel more natural I began to run. I stuck my nose to the ground and followed the strong scent trail Mia and her captors had left. I wasn't dragging a person with me so I quickly covered the ground between us. A low growl slipping out of my throat the closer I got. I could hear them ahead of me, cracking leaves and twigs as they drug her along. She moaned quietly.

I broke through a patch of thick trees and finally saw them. They paused at the sight of me and sniffed the air looking puzzled at my presence. They recovered quickly. The larger wolf dropped his hold on Mia and turned to face me fully. I showed my teeth in aggression.  I was confident this would not end well for them. I pulled the familiar feeling of anger toward me and wore it like a suit of armor. I would end them.

The wolf lunged with only a twitch of the tail to give him away. I wasted no time, but met him head on. I was surprised to realize that I was bigger than him. Not much, but enough. We crashed together rolling along the forest floor, biting and tearing with tooth and claw. I managed to avoid any real damage by keeping his teeth away from my throat. His claws raked down my side and I growled. I was too high on my rage to feel pain.

We rolled away from each other and squared off. I glanced around for the other wolf, but he was still dragging Mia away, determined to have her. Thankfully I could hear her struggling. She must have regained consciousness, but that wasn't going to help me with the monster growling at currently baring his teeth at me. 

He jumped at me again and I tried to roll under him, but his claws caught my back leg as he landed. That one I felt. I rolled to my feet keeping weight off my injured leg. This needed to end quickly. I could hear Mia fighting with the other wolf, and as angry as I was that didn't completely make up for lack of training. I had a feeling the only reason Mia and I were still alive was because they wanted us that way. 

I decided to pull out one of my old tricks and began to limp more heavily, and whine from the burning in my ribs. If there is one thing an asshole will fall prey to every time is the confidence they have in their own ability to cause damage to someone weaker than them. Sure enough the rogue licked his lips ruffled his fur and ran at me. 

Come and get it you mangy bastard.

I ducked at the last possible second, buried my fangs in his throat, and held on for dear life. Claws raked down the front of me, white hot pain following in its wake. Did he dip those suckers in boiling lava before he left holy hell. My body was begging me to let go and curl up in a ball of pain, but I didn't do that anymore dammit and slowly I felt him start to sag. Some instinct I had yet to fully discover told me to shake my head. I did and was rewarded with the spray of hot blood over me and a heart that finally quit beating. 

I opened my mouth and let his body fall to the ground, another whine of pain slipped out of me this time involuntarily. I could still hear Mia crashing around with the other rogue. The fight of my life felt like hours, but I knew it couldn't have been more than a min. I tried to run towards the noise of their fight, but my back leg wouldn't support such vigorous movement so I settled for a jogging limp. 

Mia was on her back on the forest floor, both forearms braced against the throat of the rogue on top of her trying to keep from getting a face full of snarling teeth. I growled and lunged, knocking him off her. We tumbled against a tree, a bark of pain coming from me when my side hit the wood. He jumped up quickly in much better shape than me. I got to my feet again growling my threat at him and putting myself between him and Mia. I was about to lunge when I noticed his ears prick, he quickly glanced behind me.

"Kane!"

Mia's exclamation soothed something wild in me that was sure I wasn't walking away from this. The rogue on the other hand had quite the opposite reaction and the sudden smell of sour fruit leaking off him had me crinkling my sensitive nose. Before he had a chance to tuck tail and run a blurry figure sailed over the top on me and into the rogue. The fight was over in a blink and Kane was standing there breathing hard with murder in his eyes.

He turned to look at me and I flinched. He took a step toward me and I resisted the urge to tuck my tail and show him my belly. Was this the alpha that all the other wolves bowed to? 

"Kane! Calm down it's Cassie!"

"I know who it is," he bit out.

He was furious, I could smell it. The blood loss finally caught up to me and I sway. It seemed to bring him back to himself and he quickly knelt down in front of my. His hands passing gently over my injuries.

"She saved my life, Kane."

"I know what she did," he replied quietly never taking his eyes off me, the burning anger scent never easing up. Before I could think to much about how I could have possibly pissed him off I swayed again. This time he caught me just in time for everything to go black.