Lycaon of Arcadia's curse was spreading creating a race called werewolves. Soon they began fighting for territory with Hades' solution for humanity's mass of souls, the soulless, vampires. The mortal population was dwindling so Athena and Aphrodite decided to create a solution.
The werecat. She would be beautiful yet ferocious in battle. Modelled off the curse of Lycaon yet made to solve any problem the gods had. Athena and Aphrodite took their designs to Hephaestus who carved 5 beasts out of Marble, the Lioness, the leopard, the tiger, the cheetah and the puma. Pan mixed together a potion of life and so they were brought to life. Zeus wasn't happy with their creation as they had been created without consulting him, just like the vampire. Unlike the vampire the werecats were all female. He banished them from his domain, telling the goddesses that if a werecat were to fly he would strike them down with his lightning bolt, he made his brother Poseidon do the same. If a werecat were brave enough to venture into the sea Poseidon would stuck them down and drown them. This wasn't enough for Zeus though he was about to blast them to pieces however Athena suggested they make a sixth werecat, the Lion. Zeus was pleased and allowed the Lion to travel into his territory as well as Poseidon's.
Werecats were living marble and everything shattered against them except the metal that had carved them, bronze. Their true weakness.
The addition of werecats to the territory conflict between the werewolves and vampires calmed it. For hundreds of years there was a balance and the werecats were passed down to mortals, females for the tiger, leopard, lioness, puma and Cheetah and male for the lion. Unlike the werewolves there could only ever be 6 werecats. Even when one died Pan would find a mortal worthy of the powers of the werecat.
The lion was too prideful and controlling of the other werecats even though his power was equal to theirs. The natural leader of the Pride at the time was the Lioness and she sought to do something about him. She couldn't kill him as Pan would just pick another so she locked him away inside a bronze cage.
The balance was disrupted when both the Cheetah and the Puma fell in love with werewolves. The vampires believed that the werecats were favouring the werewolves and plotted against them and the war was enflamed once again.
The vampires enlisted the help of the most powerful witch alive. She was able to make Pan forget the cheetah, so all they had to do was kill the cheetah and she would be gone forever.
The Lioness let her all female pride through anything and had all the wisdom of Athena and the charm of Aphrodite, naturally the goddesses adored her. But she had one soft spot, a love of mortals. In particular one mortal man. The other werecats warned against loving a mortal as they were so weak. But the Lioness couldn't deny her heart and she fell deeply.
The cheetah was too fast and too strong for any of the vampires to catch and have any chance of killing so they sought revenge on the leader of the Pride instead and bit him, turning him into one of their own. When the lioness discovered this she was overcome with grief abandoning her Pride. She wept for days over his changing body. Her sobs were so loud Aphrodite could hear them from Olympus and took pity on the poor werecat. She granted the Lioness and all other werecats the power to cure bitten vampirism with their tears.
However Aphrodite wasn't fast enough, the werewolves saw the leader of the werecats weeping over a vampire and wanted revenge on the werecats too. They broke into Hephaestus forge and found his bronze carving knife. While the Lioness was weeping the werewolves used the carving knife to slaughter the werecats.
The Lioness's lover turned back to his mortal state but she had lost her sisters.
