Sitting on a branch, the girl stared downward, orange eyes glowing. She was watching a human scramble through the snow along the path, tugging along a cart with his horse. The animal knew she was there, and she smelled the fear coming from it. However, the horse was not her target;no, she was gazing at something much more appetizing. Licking her lips, she continued her observation; she could hear the man's heartbeat clear as day, how he too was a little frightened by the shifting of shadows.
"You're going to be mine," she whispered quietly, crawling on all fours along the branch. She stopped and the end of the thin limb, priming herself to launch forward. The man was just crossing underneath her, his eyes sweeping around cautiously. A click echoed through the forest and he abruptly stopped his horse, readying the gun on his hip, looking about. Satisfied with him, she sprung forward.
Her body shape changed, from that of a teenage girl to a monstrous beast that looked similar to a wolf. The transformation was grotesque, her jaw elongating, as well as the rest of her bones. Black hair swept over her, of which the thick mane on the front of her muzzle hardened into a dark red beak, while the fur along the spine formed into small spikes. Four thick-muscled legs came down on the man, massive fangs tearing into his torso and killing him instantly. Under the immense weight of the creature's six meter long body, the cart collapsed, pinning the poor horse to the ground and forcing the mount to watch its master be torn apart by something that was the ultimate definition of nightmares.
The wolf-like monster turned her head, orange eyes aglow, fur bristling. The human's corpse rest underneath her large claws, his torso turned in such a way that surely his spine was broken. She wished she could smile in this form; the equivalent was a mighty roar that shattered any peace within the night, the snow around her mouth melting almost instantaneously. Lowering her maw down, she pulled the man apart, filling herself with a weak sustenance of his blood; enough to last for a few days, but she would be craving blood until she found a worthy male to feed from.
Speaking of males, she heard a pack of them headed her way. She started to growl, sending a signal reverberating through the ground. This was her meal; the horse on the ground whined in fear, struggling to free itself from the reins. The larger creature turned her massive head, roaring at the damn horse to silence itself before she ripped it apart too.
The small pack of males came through the trees, their paws heavy as they approached. They were relatively taken aback at seeing a female, especially one of her size, but nonetheless they circled her; five in all, their combined power, she knew they were thinking, would take her down; that was the only possible way for her to submit enough for them to take advantage of her. Blood rushed to the keratin on her snout, brightening the color as she slammed her tail hard against the ground and roared at them.
The first male, the largest yet still barely over half her size, came forward, lips drawn back, ears flattened. "We only want the horse," he growled to her in the werewolf language.
"How dare you ask that from a female," she roared angrily back, snapping at him. They didn't have the red snout like she did; males had blue blood, and their 'beaks' were already started to brighten. They were both angry and aroused; typical pack of rogue males, she thought bitterly. It was obvious from how this small group was handling themselves that they had been humans once; werewolves were the only race able to transform humans into their own. These males were overly-confident and didn't seem to realize that challenging an alpha, especially of her status, was an extremely bad idea. Alphas had a weapon that regulars and changelings didn't; and that weapon was hidden along her tail.
"We'll force you to give it to us," the leader stated, swiping his tail to order the others to close in on her. The five males were growling in excitement, teeth bared and jaws snapping in order to intimidate her. She stood her ground, swinging her head around and giving them one last warning growl. They didn't listen to her, coming closer, snouts glowing blue.
She roared, throwing herself around and rousing the deadly spines on her tail, which had been flattened to make them appear like fur. Abruptly she swung her tail hard, sending spines into three of the males. The poison soon took effect as the spines impaled them; two of the three died upon impact, their spinal cords severed behind the head. The last one fell to the ground, whining in agony as the poison attacked his nervous system. He too died, falling quiet with thump of his head on the hard ground.
The female turned to the leader, who was now cowering in fear alongside his remaining comrade. "Now," she snapped, her own beak glowing a bright crimson, "I'll give you ten seconds to leave." She readied her spines, watching as the two males scrambled away, heads lowered and running as fast as possible.
She was about to relax when she heard worried barking. Two new werewolves, one male and one female, came barreling in her direction. At least these two she recognized; she lowered her guard, flattening the spines once more and turning towards them. Even as they came to a skidding halt beside her, her snout continued to glow, the adrenaline still rushing through her veins.
"Droite!" the male werewolf, a regular, called out, worry in his bark. The alpha sat back on her haunches and settled her eyes on the two, absentmindedly squishing the remaining organs of the human underneath her paws. "We heard you from the manor; are you okay?"
"Fighting off males, Gauche," she replied, head tilted towards the ground. "Normal for me, and you know this."
"We were worried, princess," the smaller female stated, coming towards the alpha. This female had thick brown hair with white spots. Her eyes looked up in concern.
"I'm fine, Cathy," Droite replied. "Honestly, you two need to stop concerning yourselves so much with me; it's irritating."
Ah, typical female alpha personality; didn't need others to help her, no matter what the situation was. Cathy let out a heavy breath, exasperated, while the red male beside her just growled in irritation. Gauche raced forward, tackling the alpha to the ground. He was half her size, a massive amount of effort having to be put into pinning her down. Droite could easily fling him off, or paralyze him, but she wasn't going to do that.
"I'm not allowing my girlfriend to be so ignorant of herself!" he practically roared in her face, his snout glowing blue. She could smell his imprinting scent flowing from him, but she rolled eyes and shoved him off of her. His body fell like a lump of rocks to the snowy ground, his eyes on her as she stood and shook out her fur.
"You two didn't just come here to help me out," Droite growled, flaring out some of her spines to get Gauche to stay quiet.
Cathy, who was cleaning her paws while watching the quarrel, looked up quickly and stopped what she was doing immediately. "Your parents requested your presence, princess. It sounded quite urgent."
Droite internally sighed to herself. Being the princess of the werewolves, as well as the firstborn child of the current leaders of the monarchy, was the damned hardest thing to be. Hissing angrily, she stomped off, sure that her snout was still aglow with all the blood filling the keratin hollows. Gauche and Cathy followed behind her, with the former throwing off his imprinting scent still; it irritated Droite to no extent that he had already claimed her as his even though 1) she was so large that he couldn't perform the mating ceremony and 2) her parents wouldn't allow her to mate a mortal regular. Didn't stop her from dating him, though.
The manor was bristling with activity as she approached the back entrance. The guards standing at the doors already had a robe prepared for her, and she changed back into human form, a pale girl with a well-developed figure and black/violet hair. The two guards came to her side, surrounding her in the warmth of the robe; she gratefully placed herself into it, tying the belt around her waist and climbing the steps barefoot. Her mother was waiting for her at the door, allowing only her inside; Gauche and Cathy were locked out, having to take to their posts again.
"You know," Cecilia began, looking through thick bangs at her daughter, "you reek of male imprint. Did that mutt of yours try mounting you again?"
"He's only possessive," Droite muttered, irritated. "Why did you call me back here? I was busy fetching myself some food." Come to think of it, what had happened to that horse she had left behind? Damn, she needed to go back; her stomach obviously agreed with the idea.
"Your father has made a deal with another family." Cecilia lead the way into the study, where Droite's sire was currently discussing issues with a man that smelled awful, at least to the girl. "Heartland, sweetie, I've brought our daughter."
The green-haired man looked up, pausing his discussion with the smelly guy. "Ah, Droite, Cecilia, how nice of you to join us." Heartland gestured to the guy he was talking to, who had crazy blue hair. "This here is Futoshi; he joined us from Japan."
It was odd to see somebody from Japan, since the glaciers from the ice age had nearly destroyed the island country; hell, half the planet was still uninhabitable because of radiation damage. The man named Futoshi and smelling worse than three-week-old rotting meat nervously stuck his hand out, hoping to get a handshake from the princess. She wrinkled her nose but shook his hand politely anyways; something besides his scent struck her as odd and she warily stepped away from him.
"Anyway, Droite," Heartland said, leaning forward in his chair and placing his elbows on his desk, "We have something to tell you."
"What is it?" Droite could already tell she was going to hate this, from the weird look in her father's eyes and the way Futoshi was staring at her.
"I've decided to finally get you mated," her dad explained. She looked at him with a frown; shock was overcoming her but she didn't show it. "Futoshi here is the wedding planner; he and I have been discussing the plans, and we've decided that next Wednesday shall be a good time for you and your fiance to tie the not."
"Next Wednesday, huh." Well, she should have expected this. She was, after all, the heir to her parents' kingdom and this was probably the only way she would have been able to get a mate, anyways. Sighing heavily, defeated, she nodded weakly; Droite couldn't go against her parents wishes lest she want to be disgraced. After all, being one of the immortal alphas, she didn't have a choice in the matter. "Who am I mating, anyway?"
"A fit, young boy. He's about your age, too." Heartland sent a sharp look at Futoshi before the man could speak up. "Now, Cecilia, can you take Droite to the maids? They've been waiting for days to find her a dress."
"Yes, honey!" Cecilia gently took Droite's arm and lead the girl out of the room. As soon as they had left, Droite's mother took her daughter into a tight hug, knowing that the poor girl would be having problems accepting the fact that in less than seven days, she'd be with someone who wasn't Gauche.
"You're so young, my darling," the older female said, gently patting her daughter's head as Droite just fell into the embrace. "You haven't even had your first Haze yet."
"Mom, don't remind me." Everyone knew about a female alpha's time of fertility; and dammit, nobody ever wanted to be in the vicinity if it happened. Only the male she was mated to would be able to stand the waves of crazed sexual desire. Droite knew she was overdue for her Haze; it usually hit alphas at age 125, and she was a healthy 129 year-old teenage alpha. It was close, but it wasn't going to happen for a while.
"Ah, don't worry, my dear." Cecilia released Droite from the embrace and started dragging her daughter upstairs, to where the dressing room was, along with the ten or so maids that the manor possessed just for the princess. As soon as the two had reached the room, Cecilia pushed her daughter inside, saying that she was going to wait for a surprise while Droite forced herself not to transform and tear the maids into shreds as they chattered like birds around her.
I hate dresses, Droite thought to herself, allowing the maids to do as they pleased. They pulled her out of the robe, placing her into a pair of lacy undergarments and started measuring her. She rolled her eyes at the fact that these servants of hers were jealous of the size of her breasts despite her extremely thin frame; she blamed the fact that the monarchy were all built to please. Hell, her mother had a larger chest and wider hips. Droite couldn't help who she was born as.
"Oh, I say we dress her in butterflies," one of the youngest maids said, pulling out some fabric from out of freaking nowhere and going to a sewing machine. The others squealed at the idea, and Droite wanted to burn them alive; she was, however, practically glued to the pedestal they were using to get her figure down right. Awkwardly she looked around the room, at the maids in their cute little black dresses, at the dress that was quickly being formed.
Who was this mysterious boy she was going to mate to? And would he be able to defeat her in the ceremonial battle that every mated couple had to go through?