Beast Master anyone? God, I just love this manga! I wish it would have been longer. ):
This is based on Lora Leigh's Breed series; I beg you to go read them!
Disclaimer: I do not own Beast Master.
Chapter One
The only secrets are the secrets that keep themselves.
Monster. Abomination. Animal.
They had spit the words, the insults at him day after day. They had hoped that their harsh words would destroy the humanity he so desperately clung to. That it would release the monster within him and create the solider they had always wanted.
There were others, sure, but he had the best genes. He came from a strong line of humans and his DNA was mixed with the most powerful leopard ever captured. Sure, there were men whose blood had been mixed with tiger and lion blood, even bears and wolves, but he was the only leopard child to survive. He was destined to be the stealthiest of all the creatures they'd made, the most potent killer. All they needed was for him to embrace the monster that dwelt within him, deep in the back of his mind.
But, despite all their training, he remained more human than the others; none of their exercises could break him. While the others became mindless killing machines, he grew more and more withdrawn, hiding from them rather than attacking the bars to get at them. They had seen great things from him in the training ring, whenever he was threatened, but remorse always closely followed. He would not kill his opponents. Ever. And that's what they needed him for.
He had no purpose, therefore, he was a liability.
He wasn't fully human, so their plan to put him down would go unopposed. There was no reason to have nightmares over the death of an animal.
Their plan was a complete failure, though knowledge of it never leaked.
Because there were no human survivors.
They had stormed into his cage—though they said it was a room—waving guns in his face. They'd shouted at him, ordering him out of what had become his only sanctuary. Never before had so many come to take him from his bed before. It had always been two at most because he was not the type to fight.
"Stand, creature."
The order put him on edge. The man that spoke was the only one that he didn't recognize, but by the way all the other men stood around him, he was sure that this strange middle-aged man was very important. Maybe even the leader of the pride.
He was sure that something was wrong, since pride leaders were only there to weed out the weak and protect the others. He did not like that he was being weeded out. He wasn't ready to die. He wanted to leave this horrible chamber and never look back.
Still, he did as he was told, rising shakily to his feet. His long black hair hung in his face, having only been cut a handful of times over the span of his eighteen years of life. Each of the men tensed as he suddenly staggered forward, closing the circle tighter around their leader. One, who was almost as young as he was, twitched over the trigger of his gun. It was easy to see that the boy was anything but confident with the weapon; his finger tightened in intervals, fear pouring off of him.
I will keep my eye on him, he decided, though he managed to make it look as if he weren't paying any attention to the boy. His leopard instincts made it easy to do so; that was how they hunted their prey. Stalking from the shadows.
"Creature, you are to follow these men and do as you are told. Otherwise, we will be forced to put you down here. In front of...all your little friends," the leader said harshly, his voice sounding as if he had just gotten punched in the throat. However, the offensive odor of cigarettes was crawling off of him, making the animal-like young man nearly retch with disgust.
He understood what they meant to do to him. They were going to kill him, to do away with him as they had other troublesome creatures. The first of his brethren to perish by their hand had been an upstart Celt with wolf DNA. He'd torn through his rivals with an unnatural ferocity, tearing throats out with long canines that showed heavily whenever he opened his mouth.
Then he'd gone up against the young leopard child. The creature had been fourteen then, and small. His movements were slow, almost lazy, as the wolf had paced the space with predatory grace. The wolf had been shocked at the leopard's indifference to the prodding, though he was obviously still no more than a cub.
"Well? Fight me!" he'd roared, baring those canine fangs at the feline's languid stretch.
The cat had blinked at him. "Why would I fight?"
The wolf laughed darkly at the boy's innocence. "They wish that we fight, so we fight. They want me to show them if you will be able to live up to your name, cat." He spat the last word as if it were the worst insult he could come up with.
Then, without warning, he threw himself at the small boy, fangs streaking across the fragile skin of the boy's arm. To his surprise, the child hadn't cried out. He'd simply looked down at the blood streaking down his arm and a change came over his demeanor. Rather than curling up in the corner, he'd stood to his full height, those strangely glinted eyes shining with animal instinct.
After he'd attacked, it took two heavy sedatives to get him off the wolf.
Of course, after that, the wolf had accepted the leopard as his alpha. He would protect the alpha child until the death, which was why they had ultimately put him down. He would go against orders to protect a child that wasn't even his. He would disobey his commanding officers to pacify a kid.
He was no longer a good solider.
They'd made the leopard boy watch as they killed his only friend.
At the memory, a small snarl rose to his lip, though he made no sound. He was a careful abomination, compared to the rest. If he made himself less noticeable, they would be unsuspecting. Without their knowledge, he had become the hunter they wanted him to be. He knew what he would have to do for survival.
And even his humanity wanted him to live.
His eyes immediately flashed to the master control hanging on the pride leader's belt. He had heard the soldiers talking about it before, wondering why there would be a button to open all of the cages. Why would they want to be able to release all of these monsters? Even if the building caught on fire, did they really want to save these creatures that even God couldn't want?
But there was a reason behind it, the "abomination" was sure. And now it would be their weakness. All he had to do was get close enough to the man in charge and he would release the entire population of his brethren. They would take their revenge on the people who had created and tortured them for so many years.
Feigning innocence, he moved closer to the door—truly, he was going towards the button. He knew that if he raised too much suspicion, they would simply shoot him and be done with it. If he was close enough, however, before he made his move, they wouldn't have the room to get a kill shot. And once he pressed that button, it wouldn't matter how many guns they had. None of them would survive.
However, the majority of the men tightened the circle around their boss. They knew that animals could and would attack an alpha to prove dominance. But their guards weren't as up as they should have been; they thought he was weak, shy.
Not when his life was in danger.
Men and women in the cages around him snarled and hissed, distracting the armed men, though. It was almost as if they understood what he intended, wanted him to have every chance to do it. No doubt they wanted their chances at the men that had prodded, insulted, raped, and tortured them.
He would be giving it to them.
As the young man fiddled with his gun, glancing down as the others threw orders at the feral animals surrounding them, the leopard saw his chance. Without a sound, he threw himself into the circle, shoving guards out of his way.
The leader's eyes widened with fright, but he had no intention of taking that man's throat. No, he would leave him to the monsters that he had truly hurt, the ones that recognized him and hated him with all of their being. With a swipe of his hand, the leopard hit the button, snarling with victory at the buzzing sound that informed him his brethren would soon be joining him in this fight.
All hell broke lose the moment the doors slid open. Roars and howls echoed as the males and females flew from their cages, unerringly finding those with guns and absently tearing through them.
The leopard's eyes met the young guard's just as animals flung themselves at him.
Sympathy fought with the ultimate need for survival within him, soon winning. "Don't touch him!" he roared, throwing himself into the fray. The attackers, as if he were their leader, left the boy, watching the leopard with wary speculation. Still, he kept himself in front of the guard, turning his back on the boy since he had been disarmed. "He's young. He has done nothing to warrant this. He lives."
As the pain-filled screams of the others surrounded them, the leopard looked over his shoulder at the boy.
He was surprised to find the semi-automatic weapon aimed at his heart.
Snarling, he grabbed the boy by the neck, lifting him to his feet. "I spared your life; don't make me regret it." He watched as the boy continued to aim at his vitals, wondering what was driving a boy who'd barely seen life to throw it away. Narrowing his cat-like eyes, he demanded, "Why?"
"You stole my father from me. He donated and they killed him. Because you lived."
The seconds became hours as he saw the boy's finger tightening on his trigger. Only thinking of survival, the leopard squeezed his hand tight, smashing his brother's windpipe beneath his grip, letting him fall to the ground.
He stood there for a few moments, regret and disgust assailing him. He'd killed the only relative he would ever know. So easily he'd destroyed a life; did he deserve his own? Did he deserve to be called a person when he killed like an animal? Perhaps those insults that had been hurled at him since he could remember were true. Perhaps he really was the monster that stalked his own nightmares, reminding him of what they had intended for him to be.
Without really seeing, he gazed at the scene before him. Blood and gore. Everywhere. Men had tried to escape up the stairs—including the master of this place—only to be torn apart. This is what they created, this is what they wanted, he reminded himself, trying to force back the nausea in his stomach. They had brought this upon themselves, with their "training" and insults. They hadn't thought that the creatures they had made would fight back, would be smart enough to break out.
And none of them lived to regret the decision.
He walked past the bodies, moving up the stairs purposefully, wondering to himself whether it was day or night. They couldn't see the sun from their cages, only knew what the warmth of it on their skin was during their forced "exercises".
Wolf, he thought to himself, I wish you could have seen this day.
Swinging the door open, he turned to the others, who watched him with expectant eyes, faces and bodies smeared with blood. He couldn't help but blink at how they watched him, wondering why they had decided that he was the right one to lead them.
All he could manage to say to them was, "We're free."
That was how the revolution began. Using the knowledge they could acquire, the abominations traveled around the country, releasing all the others that they could. Soon, there were too many of them to count, too many for the government that had sponsored their creation to ignore.
They were finally acknowledged. They were finally equal.
And they were led by a young leopard who, after finding his genetic records, took his father's last name and gave himself a first name that spoke of his animal heritage.
Leo Aoi was reborn.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Yuiko Kubozuka hated the powerlessness invading her. It was as if there were nothing she could do, no way that she could help someone she desperately wanted to help. She felt useless, her entire existence meaningless. As she looked up into the leaves of the tree she stood under, her desperation finally took hold.
"Kitty!" she cried, waving her arms wildly. "Come down, kitty! I only want to help you!" Knowing that the branch was too far away from the ground for her to actually make it to it, she still climbed as far up the trunk as she could, ignoring the stuck cat's hiss of fury. When claws struck her across the face, she fell to the ground without so much as crying out. "I just want to help you!"
She repeated this process several times over the next half hour, ending each time with a new scratch somewhere on her body.
Yuiko loved animals. She would do anything for them because of that.
But they hated her. Dogs would snarl and nip at her, cats would scratch her. Even rabbits would snap their teeth at her.
Her father, the veterinarian, explained that it was her enthusiasm that had animals on edge. When she threw herself at them, she made animals wary of her, frightened of her exuberance. He explained that you were supposed to be calm with animals when you first met them, making them feel comfortable with you before you so much as touch them.
Still, she couldn't help herself. She just wanted to pet them, to love them. When she saw animals, she was overtaken with the need to show them that emotion. She could never just...calm herself. Her father swore that it would be the death of her, but she couldn't help it; she wanted an animal to love her, too.
Sighing, she plopped down on the ground, looking at the base of the tree. There was absolutely no way for her to get the cat down until it came down on its own. It didn't matter if she climbed up the trunk; the cat would simply climb higher. And she couldn't risk it going too high. It might hurt itself if it fell then.
No, I will save the cat!
Determination filled her gaze and she moved with purpose towards the trunk. Perhaps if she climbed up one side, the cat would go down the other. If that were the case, she could drop to the ground and catch the cat where she was more comfortable and knew they were both safe from falling. Maybe she could even get the cat to rub up on her and purr in gratitude for getting it down.
With a wide smile, Yuiko started to claw her way up. She would get the cat down. For once, she would be an animal's friend.
Suddenly, there was a rustling in the leaves and a thump behind her. She looked up, desperate to see that the cat was all right. However, it wasn't in the tree. No, it had disappeared.
The young woman spun around, hoping that the cat was all right, and caught sight of something she had never before witnessed in her twenty years of life.
A black-haired man with dark, glinting eyes was crouched, holding the cat to one shoulder. He wore no shirt, showing the scars riddling his back and sides. She had no doubt that they had to curl around to his torso as well. The fingers on each hand were long and dirty, mud and grime under the fingernails that told her he'd been digging. But it wasn't all this that shocked her, that made her give a small gasp and take an instinctive step backwards.
No, it was the blood streaking down his arms and face.
He looked like he was covered in it, marinading in it. Was that even possible? How could someone be so...soaked?
He rose with predatory grace, letting the cat run away. As if testing the waters, he turned towards her, taking two forceful steps forward. Those strange eyes never left her as she took another involuntary step away from him. Every primal instinct within her told her that he was dangerous, that he was a much worse animal than anything she'd ever encountered before. And this one she couldn't coerce with food or shelter.
They continued the dance of predator and prey until Yuiko's back hit the bark of the tree. She had no where else to go, not without turning her back on him. Every movement of his was like a jungle cat's; lethargic and full of purpose. Nothing he did was by accident; he knew everything that went on around them.
God, she just wished she hadn't let that cat out the door by accident!
When he finally got close enough for her to smell the coppery odor of drying blood on him, she took a deep breath, careful to hold it in. She didn't know what to do, had never been so petrified in her life. Her father often chastised her for being too violent, too confrontational. She had gotten into too many fights at school and had never been frozen by fear before in her life.
Now was a different story.
The man opened his mouth as he loomed over her—was it possible for a human to be so many inches taller than her?—and she saw that there were four fangs in his top row of teeth. First, two long canine teeth, the most noticeable of any of them. But right behind those were smaller, sharper looking fangs that seemed to gleam with menace.
Without warning, all of the man's breath flew out of him in a heavy sigh and he slumped against her, his entire body weight threatening to crush her.
But she couldn't bring herself to push him away or run.
She could have sworn he spoke the words, "Help me," just before he fell on her.