Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Percy Jackson series. Rick Riordan does. But the SI, Velvela, and a few minor OCs are mine.

Wolf In Human Skin
by GaleSynch

I

.

I was given the name Velvela in this life. It meant wolf.

My name had a nice ring to it, didn't it? I certainly loved it regardless of its meaning and the irony behind it.

My full name was Velvela Lyall Chase, if you were wondering, and it basically translated to a wolf shielding a wolf in a chase, or whatever. I had always longed to question my new mother—Cho Chase—if she knew my eventual fate and why she still let me and Annabeth leave the house to play.

She could've just let me walk out by myself. But it made sense that I wouldn't go out to the playground to play by myself. It was just pathetic.

Which was why she let Annabeth come with me. Annabeth Chase, name rings a bell?

Yeah, cause she's a character in a fictional world.

Let me give you the three-second version: five years ago, I died in another time, another world, another era, and I was reborn here by unknown means which baffled me greatly. Nevertheless, I got used to having my diapers changed by someone and being breast-fed (I'd smacked my head enough times on the concrete to not remember anything). And I grew up.

I suppose my new parents weren't weirded out that I could be more mature than a kid my age, since they only had Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena here, to measure me against.

If you were wondering, I was not a demigod. I was born a mortal, daughter of Frederick Chase and a mortal woman, Cho.

So, Annabeth was a demigod, and the daughter of the goddess of wisdom to top it at that, which meant that she progressed faster than an ordinary kid. She was a freaking genius. She sat up, crawled, walked and talked faster than a normal baby. She would be flying someday (on a plane, duh).

But I wasn't too far behind myself.

I was two years younger than Annabeth, being five years old, when it happened.

The 'it' was effectively the biggest event of both our lives. It changed everything and It was Annabeth's final straw: after It happened, she turned and ran from home, she never looked back since.

.

Since there were only two years difference between us, we were closer to one another than we were to the newborns Matthew and Bobby. We shared the same room and I sometimes crawled into her bed to accompany her when she was whimpering about spider this and spider that.

I had a dozen years worth of blackmail material on her.

She didn't remember much about her baby times but I remembered enough of her toddler-hood to have teasing and blackmail ammo against her.

Even as a child, Annabeth was very careful and critical, she rejected the idea of anything remotely dangerous or life-threatening. Her childhood wasn't very bad from my point of view. It was not like the books where she and her stepmother fought like cats and dogs often.

And monsters didn't attack until I was five years old.

That attack? It was the Great It Incident I was talking about. It was fatal.

.

I was an easygoing person so I pushed myself to get used to everything going on around me. Reborn into the world of Greek myths? Right, and my sister's a demigoddess. Which she is. I wasn't sure, at first, if I should be glad to be a mortal or not. There was a large part of me who was envious of my sister. She was more than a mortal.

But I had also witnessed first hand how terrified she was of her godly heritage. Especially of Arachne's children. I always rushed to slay the dragon—or spider—whenever she shrieked for help.

I had managed to staunch down the jealousy and only relieved it by teasing her constantly. I stopped when she looked ready to throttle me though.

I wasn't a Clear-Sighted mortal. Many a times, Annabeth had probably glimpsed monsters—and her grip on me would tighten protectively—but I just couldn't see them. So I was never aware of the threat Annabeth faced constantly. It was inborn knowledge that monsters would chase and devour her: Annabeth had always lived in fear.

Often, her face paling rapidly in fear would make me wholly glad that I was just a mere mortal.

I suggested letting her learn martial arts so that she could reassure herself, and she could learn a way to defend herself, however ineffective it was against Greek monsters, she had to realize that there were monsters within humans too. Annabeth learned it with vigor but the lessons didn't go on for long. Not when she ran away from home.

I'd put it back long enough, hadn't I?

.

Monsters usually steered clear of Annabeth since she wasn't a threat yet. I thought she would be safe until she was at least ten, but at seven, the lycanthropes swooped down on us.

Right, I was dramatizing this. Let me tone it down before you panic.

It was actually one lycanthrope—in other words, a werewolf. I thought it was a dog. I loved canines and I absolutely had to pet that adorable poodle. In retrospect, it was a 100% my fault: I ignored Annabeth's warnings and approached it.

The thought that Annabeth might've seen something I could not hadn't struck me until it was too late. I mean, I was not superstitious and if I went everywhere under the assumption that it was a monster in disguise, I would've been driven crazy by paranoia.

The irresponsible part of me wanted to divide the blame 50-50. Annabeth could've warned me sooner or more forcefully. Then I wouldn't be stuck in the bathroom, shivering, teeth and fangs chattering as I struggled to not shift.

I saw its truest form the moment sharp teeth sank into my palm. I was so stunned I just gawped, not possessing a demigod's battle reflex to react.

"Velvela!" Annabeth had screamed.

It seemed useless but her voice snapped me out of it. I started squirming, struggling to free my hand and it did release me—for a second only to reopen its maw and grab a bigger bite. It had a coat of grey fur and it was far larger than any wolf I knew: its teeth sank into my torso and ripped me off my feet.

I screamed like a freaking girl—which I was—but that didn't make me feel better. Especially since the wolf-monster took off.

Annabeth would probably be able to narrate what happened next but as she's not with me currently ... I just have to skip that part to where I woke up in a freaking forest, far away from home.

.

I woke up knowing full well that I had my torso bitten by a wolf and I imagined myself in several pieces, or had lost a significant chunk of meat. I had not expected to wake up feeling my bones grinding together, a growl bubbling in my throat, and the feeling of skin being shredded.

A jerk of my head and I assessed everything from my limited view of myself: my blonde hair was muddied and bloodied, there was blood everywhere, and what little hairs I had on my forearms kept growing and growing, blonde to gold to brown and it enveloped my whole arm.

I screamed and screamed until my voice broke into an ear-piercing howl.

.

My clothes barely clung onto my skin in tattered shreds. I registered, amidst the wracking pains and growing nausea in my gut, that I was on all fours, knees digging into muddy ground. I flexed my fingers, gagging, and I noticed how red my skin was. My knuckles seemed to be bulging.

A man's voice shouted in the distance: "I smell it!"

Considering the fact that I had no idea what'd happened aside from being nearly torn to shreds by a wolf, you think I would've been more afraid. But I wasn't. I stared, startled, as a pack of wolves of every color imaginable flitting out from the trees. A man was in the lead, tanned and dark-haired and blue-eyed.

I was completely surrounded and helpless.

"Hey," his voice was husky and cautious. He took several steps forward, eyes wary, a hand held out. "You alright?"

"I was ... " My shoulders jerked. I hunched into myself. "I was bitten by a wolf!" I exploded, whimpering thereafter as pain wracked my body, crawling from my spine to my neck. "Y-You t-think I would be okay?"

The whole world spiraled into black before I could hear his response.

I imprinted his scent though: he stunk of smokeand burnt wood. It carried everywhere and the next time I woke, I knew he was in vicinity. Expecting to wake up on the forest ground again, I was disappointed to be proven wrong. I was on cold, hard tiles. I jerked so quickly that my head smacked into the sink.

"Argh ... " I rubbed my head, backing away carefully. I did a quick inventory of my surroundings and noticed instantly that I was alone in the rather cramped bathroom that had a bath, a toilet seat and a sink. There was no identification cards or anything informative when I rummaged around the cupboard.

Except that this guy, whoever lived in here, used cheap hotel provided toothpaste and toothbrush.

I was in an unfamiliar home. I had no weapons other than water, it did not seem remotely useful to me. But I turned on the shower anyway.

I was not as intelligent as Annabeth, I wasn't a planner. I was more impulsive than she was and I was prone to improvising than planning.

Someone knocked on the door and I tensed. I kept my mouth shut though, even as a voice called through the door to ask if I was awake. I rolled my eyes: well, duh. Did he think the shower turned itself on?

"You don't have to be afraid, we're here to help," his voice was muffled but I recognized it as the man from earlier. "I swear I'm not a kidnapper. We're people like you."

"Caucasian?" I asked sarcastically, turning off the shower to hear him better. I edged towards the door and pressed my ear against it.

I heard a long, low chuckle. "No, kid. I meant lycanthropes though you might be more familiar with the term werewolves."

"The wolf that bit me—"

"Is a lycanthrope. I know you may think this is just a bedtime story—I dunno, we've never seen a lycanthrope transformed so young before—but it's real. You know about the Greek gods?"

I paused. "Yes."

"They're real. Look, this is really hard to explain through the door when I can't tell how well you're taking this, can you open the door?"

Greek gods? It was too ridiculous of a reason for them to use so it had to be real.

I opened the door.

.

Published: 16 Dec 2014.

[AN]: Other PJO SI portrays the OC as demigods, I wanna try my hand at a monster!OC. So I'll be basing this off the lycanthropes that showed up in BoO—apparently, they could transform whenever they wanted to and they would be immortal. So, what do you think? Any ideas or suggestions springing up? I'm always welcome to ideas.

About spawning too many new stories ... don't worry about it. I want to finish the PJO stories first. All my Naruto stories are on hiatus. :P

Review!