“No, the first change is always rough. And more so for you. It will not be so bad in the future.” He started to move quickly away from our dorm, toward the wooded area of campus. I knew it should concern me. Why wasn’t he taking me to a hospital?

  “Doctor,” I begged, barely able to speak the word.

  “You don’t need a doctor.” He huffed, now running toward the trees.

  Something was happening. Something, I didn’t understand. I wasn’t sure if I liked it. No, I knew I didn’t like it. It was painful, and it felt as though every cell in my body was exploding; my bones, they hurt.

  Yet, he kept running as I cried out, only to look down at me with worry. Then he swiftly placed me onto the ground. “Listen, you are changing. You will be something different, someone different. It will be okay. I’ll be here with you the whole time.” Then he took my clothes off.

  I pushed at him, screaming, terrified. Was he… was he? I couldn’t formulate thoughts because it hurt so bad.

  He stopped at my underwear, leaving them on, and then disrobed himself. I watched him through pain-slitted eyes.

  “Please,” I begged, tears streaming down my face.

  “You are safe,” he repeated over and over. “I’ll keep you safe.”

  All I could do was keep crying. This, this was worse than all of my nightmares. It was worse than anything that had happened before. I was helpless.

  “Sto-” I started, but it ended in a growl. Then a roar.

  I woke up again the next day feeling groggy. My head felt heavy, but the pain was gone. Only, as I looked around me, I wasn’t in my room, or a room of any kind. I was in the middle of the woods; the thick Georgia woods, where trees intertwined with one another, foliage growing in every imaginable spot possible and obscuring everything from view in all directions, including the blinding sun that only streaked down into my eyes when I searched for it.

  It was then that I looked down. And it was then that I screamed.

  I… I was naked, and I was covered in blood.

  I heard a crack. Someone had stepped on a stick. I tore my eyes from the horror of my naked body covered in blood to see Wyatt holding what appeared to be my clothes. I pulled my legs up to my chest, trying my best to hide all of my parts.

  “What. W-W-What,” was all I could say. I felt traumatized, scared. I looked at him. Was he going to kill me now? Why was I covered in blood? I looked around, wondering if I could run or if I should. He walked toward me slowly, his hands up, seeing the bewildered fear in my eyes.

  “Charlie,” he drawled calmly, as if I were a child. “You are okay. This… this isn’t what you think it is.” He held up my clothes, which he had taken off me last night.

  “Did you… did we?” I trembled uncontrollably again, unable to finish.

  “No,” he answered, trying to sound reassuring. “I’m sorry this happened to you. They should have prepared you. Hell, they should have known this would happen,” he fumed, pulling his free arm up to his shoulders, as if massaging a weight balancing on them.

  “What? Who? Why?” I seemed to only be able to say so many words as the trembling continued. He rushed toward me with the clothes still in his hand.

  “Here, put these on.” He passed them with that same look of pity and what looked like… it looked like admiration. I must really be delirious because why would he look at me that way when I was naked, trembling, scared, and utterly confused. But I took the clothes and did my best to get them on.

  “Wait, my underwear,” I asked, my eyes swiftly flicking to his with accusation; the fear of being violated once again in my dark thoughts.

  “They didn’t survive the change, and it just felt wrong disrobing you like that fully.” He stood there, keeping his distance from me, knowing I needed it. I put the clothes on, realizing my superman shorts and tank were now trash because of all the sticky, metallic blood. “Yeah, sorry. There wasn’t a water source anywhere around here to wash up.”

  I ignored his words. “What happened to me?” I begged him again.

  “You changed. It was magnificent. I’ve never seen one like you before. I mean, I knew what you were but… I wasn’t prepared.” He stood, watching me cautiously and with that look of admiration again.

  “Changed into what?”

  “Into our Queen. Into the white tiger.” He bowed his head, looking up at me from downcast eyes.

  A white tiger? And then like a lightning bolt, I remembered it all. The memory was different, and not a memory like one I already knew. It was primal and full of sensations and feelings. I remembered the strong desire to hunt, to prowl, and to run and climb. There was another there, a black cat. No, it was bigger. A panther. It had been Wyatt.

  I remembered hunting. Hunting through the woods together until we found it, a doe. It didn’t stand a chance. I remembered its cries as I tore its neck open. But mostly, I remembered the hunt. It had been exhilarating in ways I couldn’t even describe.

  “You… I…” I just sat there, baffled. Then I realized what was really going on, and the rage took over. “What did you give me?” I shouted.

  “I didn’t give you anything.” He seemed appalled and confused. “You remember. How would I know what you were in your supposed hallucination? Or that I’m a panther?”

  “I must have told you.” I backed away, trying to decipher everything.

  He was right, even though it was unbelievable. Even though it defied logic, science, and reason, I just knew. I knew he was right.

  And then a lock of my hair fell into my face. I stumbled back. My hair. It was white with shades of gray or black, it was hard to tell as I grabbed at it, pulling it through my hands and inspecting it. It reminded me of the same shade of pale off-blond that shimmered oddly… just like my mom’s.

  “Yeah, we take on traits of our animal selves into our everyday lives. You won’t be able to hide this.” He shrugged, coming closer.

  I jumped back quickly, still frazzled and confused.

  He stopped and stood there instead, in the thick foliage and dead leaves covering the dirty ground. “For me, it was my eyes.” He indicated the green eyes that blazed an almost unnatural green. I had noticed his eyes the first day we had met, but they didn’t seem too out of the ordinary. “My eyes were brown,” he answered me, as if he had read my thoughts.

  “What am I? What are you? What did you mean the elixir couldn’t work forever?” I rushed my questions out quickly. I had so many questions as the reality of the situation sunk in. It’s claws literally sinking in.

  “They suppressed your change. They’ve suppressed it for years.” He slowly eased closer.

  “They who?” I demanded, still stepping back to a safe distance.

  “The shifter community here.”

  “The community…” I repeated, trailing off as my thoughts cascaded against each other again. They weren’t fluid, not yet. They were everywhere, and it was then that I noticed it. My senses, they were different. For instance, I knew Wyatt was telling me the truth. I knew it from his stance, his smell, and I just knew. And I could smell him. It permeated out toward me. It smelled good, better than good. I wanted to walk over and rub myself on him he smelled so good. But I planted my feet there and refused to listen.

  “Listen, let’s find somewhere to get cleaned up. I think I saw a brook close by last night, as a matter of fact.” He paused, turning his head to the right.

  I followed his gaze, listening, and I heard it too. It was the unmistakable sound of water. He didn’t need to explain, I headed toward the sound as he followed.

  “The community, you mean the one my dad belongs to?” I made the words sound slightly more brittle than intended.

  “Yes, he is a part of it.”

  “Are you?” I asked, trying my best to keep my wits about me and compartmentalize as much as possible with my brain going crazy.

  “Not exactly. Their community is separate, and they keep off the grid. At least, they try,” he replied vaguely. Looking over at me, he sighed. “There is so much you don’t know.”

  “Start with why you called me your Queen.”

  Chapter

  Wyatt explained it all or, at least, he tried to as much as possible. We cleaned ourselves in the clear, cold waters of a running stream. It covered me still, the crimson metallic smelling liquid known as blood. Wyatt was dirty, but there was less blood covering him. Apparently, I was a sloppy eater. The thought made me gag. He said it would get easier, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around it all.

  I was a shifter, and, more specifically, a white tiger; the rarest shifter, and, as far as he knew, I was the only one left. Which made me shifter royalty. White tigers came from an ancient royal line descended from the very first shifter. I was a descendant. He explained that shifters were everywhere, spanning the globe in small communities. They required each to announce themselves, their offspring, and pledge their allegiance to the clan.

  Apparently, the clan was a group of shifters who turned into wolves. They overthrew the original royal line over two decades ago in a bloodbath. Leaving only one survivor. Or at least that was the myth. No one confirmed this. Well, at last not until Wyatt found her.

  “But how did you know?” I had asked him, because he knew I would be a white tiger seemed a far-fetched conclusion.

  “My family is pledged in blood to yours.” He shrugged, as if that should explain everything.

  “Your family?”

  “Yeah, I come from the only other big cat family. We are the second oldest family of shifters and have pledged ourselves, with our life blood, since the beginning to your family.”

  “Big cats, like panthers and…?” I watched him, remembering his slick black coat blending into the night, yet I had had a constant awareness of his presence.

  “Yes, my dad is a jaguar, and my mom is a lioness. Occasionally, in the family, we have a lion.” He laughed lightly as we weeded through the overgrowth back to the dorms. He seemed to have a sense of which way we should go. Actually, I realized I did too. It was like a second sense. Like I just knew.

  “A lion? Shouldn’t they be the rulers of the…” I coughed before continuing, stifling my first laugh of the night. “…the animal kingdom?” I felt close to delirious, the information too much to handle fully.

  “No, lions are way too lazy for that.” He laughed with me. Before we reached the entrance to campus and stepped from the trees, he grabbed my shoulder gently and turned me toward him. “I’m sorry this happened, and I’m sorry it happened this way. I thought I’d have time to explain everything to you.”

  “What do you mean?” I huffed, my brow furrowing. “You did this to me?” There wasn’t any shock in my voice after what had just happened; I didn’t think it was possible to be any more ‘in shock.’

  “No.” He shrugged guiltily. “I just speeded things up a bit.”

  My eyes narrowed, but I wasn’t sure where to aim my anger, or who to be angry with. Obviously, my dad for starters. He knew, and he had kept it from me. He had drugged me. And this stupid community he belonged to had as well.

  Oh. My. God. I realized as it hit me like a freight train. My dad was a shifter.

  Who the hell else was keeping secrets from me?

  So, I marched, no, stormed from the tree line, leaving Wyatt in my dust. Anger and betrayal seething in my rage. I had been lied to, deceived by the people who said they loved me. I couldn’t trust anyone, and that’s all I could think about as I slammed open the door to my dorm.

  A worried Alyssa, with tear streaks down her face still covered with makeup, sat on the bed. Just like that, all of my anger was gone.

  “Charlie!” She jumped up. “Oh, my god. You are okay!” she wailed loudly as she grabbed me. It was then that I noticed the outfit she still had on from last night.

  “Me? What about you?” I pushed her back, looking at her hot mess appearance.

  “I came in last night and you were gone. Then Tammy said some guy dragged you out, and that you looked bad.” She sniffled. “I was so worried. I had Tammy call the police. They are on their way now.”

  Great, I thought. That was all I needed.

  “What is on you, and what happened to you? And, oh my god, your hair!” Her hands flew to her mouth as she touched it. It was paler than her hair, now with what I could see was an ashy, almost gray tone. “Honestly, I really like it.”

  “Yeah, I was feeling sick last night. So, I asked Wyatt to come over, and he took me to the urgent care, and then I felt better,” I lied.

  I knew it didn’t explain the dirt and blood caked on me, or the fact that my hair had magically changed, but I realized Alyssa knew nothing else about me. I was marching up here, prepared to confront her and demand if she knew, but that quickly dissipated when I had seen her tear-stained, worried expression, and when she was bewildered about my hair… that sealed the deal.

  “My hair, well, I just wanted to try something different.” I shrugged, watching as she studied my dirty superman PJs. “Oh, and I had a wild idea to go hiking last night, and, well, why not with superman?” I tried to sound nonchalant, like my old wild self, but Alyssa was unconvinced. She knew me. She was my best friend. But, thankfully, she was unaware of all the other stuff, but just to be sure, I needed to do one more test.

  “Okay.” Alyssa rolled her eyes. “If you don’t want to tell me, fine. As long as you were safe.”

  “Yes, very safe. Just like a white tiger,” I annunciated the last words, watching her expression. Nothing. She just laughed, thinking I was back to my crazy escapades. Back before I was fearful, back when it was safe. The anxiety I had before wasn’t gone, but now knowing, knowing what I was, what I could do, it gave me a sense of power. Power that I needed desperately to make sure it never happened again. No one would ever hurt me again, or I’d rip their head off.

  Monday was a hard day. I had to make it through my classes with this new bit of knowledge, knowledge that I was different, that I’d always been different. It made me fume. I couldn’t pay attention in class, and all the attention I was receiving in my classes and on campus about my new hair made me feel, well, exposed. I knew they didn’t know what had happened. The only person who knew was Wyatt, who, oddly enough, was absent from our shared class.

  I had sat there, class by class, thinking why was I still here? But I was also working out the pieces. Each one was a puzzle that fit into the whole scheme of my existence. My dad knew something, something he wasn’t sharing… No, something he was hiding. And Claire was involved as well. I just knew it.

  I skipped breakfast to sleep in a little longer, and, honestly, my usual, unquenchable appetite was not as ravenous as normal. I was, the only word I could think of, satisfied. Which made me remember the doe, but I didn’t get queasy this time. I knew from my animal studies class that it was an instinct to hunt and kill to survive. My animal self was just reacting to instinct.

  My animal self? I was beginning to think I was going mad. Here I was, logically trying to rationalize this situation when there really wasn’t a way to put logic to it. Maybe magic, but not logic.

  “Oh! My! God!” I pulled myself out of my deep thoughts with the sound of Simone’s unmistakable voice. “Charlie!” she squealed even louder as I turned to see her dashing toward me.

  Her attire today was slightly less bright than it had been last night; a mere pale yellow instead of the gold and black long shorts and suspenders she’d donned yesterday. Her gold hoops were in place as usual. Her short, bleached blond hair was spiked in the front. “We are all almost twinsies!”

  She was right. Each of us had a shade of blond now. I groaned realizing it. As much as I loved my friends and thought they were beautiful, I had never coveted Alyssa or Beth’s hair color. Simone’s hair would probably be blue by next month, so she didn’t exactly count, but as we stood there, Simone, Beth, and I, we were each as bright as the sun. If only Alyssa wasn’t staying in sick today, we’d make a nice team of Pale Heads? Or the Blond Squad? As if we were some kind of super team.

  “I thought you were sick last night?” Beth looked at me oddly, stepping forward gingerly to look at my now pale ashy hair in her hands. “It’s so soft. Like fur almost.”

  “Yeah, I’m feeling better now, but Alyssa isn’t.” I shrugged, trying not to bring too much attention to my hair, even though I knew it was futile. “And so, I dyed my hair early this morning.”

  “Hmm. It doesn’t smell like any chemicals,” Beth mumbled as she leaned in close. She touched my hair again, as if to pet me. “I’m sorry, it’s just that it’s so soft.” She was right. My hair was softer, like the hairs of a cat, just longer.

  “I used hydrating shampoo and conditioner.” I shrugged, and Simone clucked in disapproval.

  “Girl, you don’t use shampoo and conditioner after a coloring. You are lucky you didn’t ruin your hair dye.” She raised her perfectly arched eyebrow. “Speaking of lucky…” She winked. “Last night was off the chain.”

  Beth shook her head, her cheeks turning pink. “No, it wasn’t.”

  “There was this guy,” Simone continued, ignoring her. “He wouldn’t leave Beth alone. But in a sweet way. You missed it.”

  “Stop it, Mo!” Beth exclaimed, using Simone’s nickname while her cheeks flamed.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” I reassured her. “It was some crazy bug that hit and then was gone. I ended up going out last night, but…” I trailed off, looking into the distance while trying to gather my thoughts. “…it was more like hiking.” I shrugged.

  “Hiking in the middle of the night?” Simone snorted.

  “Yeah, I mean, not far, just a little way into the woods and then back.” I knew I had to continue the story I had told Alyssa this morning or it would turn into a big mess of lies.

  “What were you hiking to and with whom?” Simone raised that eyebrow again and puckered her lips out as if she didn’t believe a word I said.

  “A friend I met.”

  “And do I know this friend?” she asked, peering at me closely, as if she disapproved, but there, in her warm caramel eyes, was that mischievous twinkle that told me she was just being intentionally nosy.

 

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