Furious.

ALEXAKIS POV

When I was younger, I'd wondered how it'd feel like if one day, I'd finally be able to morph into a human, claiming my werewolf gene and finally belonging with my true family.

I'd always thought it'd be a smooth transition, almost like a sensual dance - with ease and a flow, forgetting that my body was made of bones and muscles, blood.

Reality slammed into me just as I was shifting. I let out a loud howl as my bones broke - or felt like they were breaking, but then I felt them stretching, readjusting themselves to take the form of a human. My torso stretched as well, my ribs shifted and that pain was so excruciating that I growled loudly, my head bowed.

It was my face that hurt the most though, because my snout retracted, my eyes reformed and my mouth and jaw feels changed. Completely altered. I blinked furiously, my vision getting smaller till all I could see was the man directly in front of me. I stared up at him, hunched over, even though I knew that I should probably stand straight if I wanted to best the man. From my periphery, I could see the girl straighten up in shock, and could feel her gaze roving over my form.

The man drew his hand out of his pocket and I saw that he was holding a miniature model of the firing guns hunters use, like he wanted something handy that he could easily pocket and carry around. My brows caved when I realized that he had to be a hunter as well, a part of the people preying on animals as well as my pack. My frown became more severe and I was convicted the more of the need to do away with this man.

He whistled long and hard, what I was sure was a call for reinforcement.

"You beast!" I heard him whisper, the words strangely clear to me.

When I hear humans speak, I never really got the words. It was more of a sense of what they were referring to or talking about. But this time, I clearly heard the words, understanding them at the same time. I could feel the earth tremble beneath me and somehow, I knew that more men were about to invade the house, to kill me. Small hands gripped my arm and tried to steer me away from the stare down I was in with the man and woman. I looked down, taking in the girl's panicked expression and noting how she tried to steer me away. I turned back to the other humans.

"We have to leave! Now!" She yelled, pulling on my arm to get me moving. She was sobbing hard now, her body making little jerks and somehow, that pulled me out of my head, out of my irrational hatred for the humans in front of me, and I turned with her, pulling her along with me quickly, till we were running - although barely, because my wounds had reopened on the event of the shift and my bones still hurt and felt foreign.

I glanced behind me, taking in the scene around as men filtered into the compound. I wouldn't be able to beat all of them when I've barely gotten my strength back and when I'm riddled with wounds, barely able to lift myself and defend even myself, let alone the human girl. I grunted, pulling the girl faster and placing myself directly behind her, incase anything happened. And then an arrow wheezed past our heads, sticking to the soft ground.

My head swung back, trying to find who had done such but almost all the men where armed with bows and arrows and only a few clutched the slenderness of a rifle. I was too late to stop the arrow that came toward us next, going straight to the girl and embedding itself in her torso. I looked up at her, forcing myself to look away from the wound and how tightly she was clutching the base of the arrow to her torso, blood seeping through her fingers and coating her flesh, as well as her clothing. She stared back at me in shock and then she looked over my shoulder, disbelief clearly written on her face.

"Father." She choked on her sob. Her lids going lax over her eyes was the only warning I got before she slumped, with me barely holding onto her in time. I barely felt the bullet that pierced my skin, although I heard the shot. The bullet wound wouldn't heal unless I got the bullet out and I was currently occupied with an unconscious human. One who'd helped me earlier.

Decision made, I scoop her up into my arms, just as another bullet pierces my shoulder, the space being littered with flying arrows and bullets, aimed at us. And then I ran at a speed that puts them far behind me in a few seconds time. They were still littering the space with bullets, like they were so overcome with the thought of killing the both of us, that they don't realize we were paces away from them.

That girl had called the man her father, but I couldn't imagine a father ever doing that to his child, wanting to kill his child. Not like I have much to compare to, but I'd seen the way cubs were treated in my pack, and it was with love and not with the evilness I'd just witnessed.

I righted the girl in my arms as I struggled to quicken my pace, because if I knew anything from the hunters that regularly hunt is, it's that they're tenacious - as well as stupid, and wouldn't stop untill they've hunted and caught their prey. I looked down at the girl, my brows caving in with worry at how pale and still she looked. Blood dribbled from the wound and was bound to leave a trail leading the hunters to wherever we're headed.

I stop at that thought, realizing what I have to do.