Taken & Changed

“Breakfast is ready Mya. Don’t dally or you’ll go hungry again”. Beth stuck her head round the door. The cook for the manor. Her round face was topped by greying hair in a tight bun. Mya had grown very fond of Beth. She guessed Beth was in her late sixties. Her plump body clothed in a black chef’s uniform and white apron had often held her while she cried for her family. What such a lovely woman was doing in such an evil place she just could not work out.“You could of at least let me have a bit of a lie in” she said as she walked towards the open door, flinging her braid over her shoulder to hang down her back.“A lie in! HA! You’ll be lucky in this place you cheeky devil now get on with you or Darren will have both of our heads”. Beth chivvied her off in the direction of the kitchens.After breakfast the first training session of the day was in the outside arena. Tall stately stone bench’s encir

Mya slept surprisingly well given the amount of knowledge that Remus had given her to think over. She had so many questions. One of them being; why had Darren ordered the other shifters to attack her? It made no sense to keep her here this long to then try and kill her off one day. But was he trying to kill her now? Surely an attack from that many shifters would have killed her off for sure. Unless he had ordered them to stop. But what was the purpose of that? She sat up in bed and waited. There didn’t seem to be any rush for her to get out of bed so why should she. She started to get impatient. He had said he would be back for her next lesson. She looked at the clock, 5am. There was a knock at the door and with that in came Beth, her hair curled on top of her head in a tight bun as usual. “Good morning deary, now haven’t you been in the wars!” she looked Mya over from head to toe. She tutted “I have something for you” She turned and pulled from outside of the room a trolley

Mya stood in the centre of the matts dripping with sweat and breathing heavily. Her black tank top and shorts were saturated, sweat sliding down her back. Lisa prowled around her, her huge paws making barely a sound on the padded floor. Her lioness was huge, golden fur with a white belly and a black tipped tail. Large yellow eyes that gave Mya a disapproving gaze as she circled her. The other shifters sat around the edge of the matts watching.“Come on Mya!” Quinn shouted from one of the chairs to the side of the matts. “You’re never going to get this if you keep trying to force the change! You don’t force the change to wolf so why do it to your other animals? You need to relax! Focus on Lisa’s form, how her shoulders roll with ease the gate of her step, the flick of her tail. Everything is effortless. Now, calm your breathing, relax your stance and think of your lion. This is all new to you so the first change to each animal will always be

The next day Mya was sat up in bed in her little cottage. Storm was bustling about cleaning the bloody bandages and clothes they had used to wrap her up in yesterday once she had fallen unconscious. She looked down at her leg which was almost fully healed already. Just an angry red line showing from ankle to knee. The wounds on her shoulders and arms could barely be seen now. “How is Quinn?” Mya called through to the small sitting area.“Mmmm, he’ll be ok I guess” Storm said as she walked back into the bedroom. She sat on the end of the bed looking out of the small window that looked over the lawns.“Just ok? What in the hell brought that on?” Mya needed some answers. The way Quinn had acted was so out of character and irrational.Storm sighed. She looked down at her clasped hands. “Quinn’s mate is dying” she said quietly.Mya gasped “Dying? How? Of what?”“Old age Mya. S

They walked through the corridors in silence as she mulled over this latest revelation. She stared at the back of his head as he walked in front of her. Although he creeped her out to no end, he was proving to be very useful with information. So as long as she stayed interesting to him, he would continue to be useful to her. They turned a corner and the smell of disinfectant filled her nose. Remus opened a door on their right and walked in. Mya followed but stayed in the doorway. Remus walked over to the bed that was in the middle of the room. There lay an aging woman, her silver hair tousled around her shoulders in thick curls. Her wrinkled skin looked thin and delicate. She had a small frame that looked as though it had been athletic at one stage in her life. She was hooked up to several monitors and a drip line protruded from her left hand. Her eyes closed she looked almost peaceful except for a slight tension that filled the air. Remus lent over as if to whisper to her, her hand