Beastman Revenge 短篇故事與小說

At my coming-of-age ceremony, I failed to shift. I was the heir to the Silver Serpent tribe, but all I could grow were a few ugly scales. My fiancé and my best friend stepped in front of me and roared at the crowd. "Shut up, all of you! Anyone who dares mock the heir is making an enemy of us!" While I was still downcast over my failure to shift, I overheard my best friend complaining to my fiancé that someone with inferior blood like mine had no right to hold on to the position of heir. She promised to help him take my place. Before long, rumors swept through the tribe that I had betrayed the Beast God and was nothing but a lowly lizard. My fiancé tied me to a stake in the ceremonial square and raised a torch to burn me alive. No one knew that the fire wouldn't take my life. Instead, it would burn away the final shackle that had sealed my superior bloodline.

The Hollis twins were prodigies. They never needed sedatives to keep their wolves under control during full-moon trials, because they had me. I was 19, and I still hadn't shifted. My parents said I had a weak heart, that I couldn't stop taking my medication or leave the house during a full moon. But whenever the twins trained under a full moon, my mother rolled up my sleeve and connected a collection tube to the machine. By the time I was too dizzy to stand, Jace and Skye Hollis were already back in front of the cameras, acting as if nothing had happened. When I was seven, Jace went into a frenzy and bit straight through my arm. My mother stitched up the wound, gave me a piece of candy, and said next time she'd protect me first. When I was 13, Skye's claws tore open my back. My father praised me for being so understanding and promised that once I shifted, he'd take me up into the mountains to run all night. I held on to those promises and waited six years. At 19, I'd passed the admissions interview at an out-of-state university. My application was in, but my father still hadn't signed my out-of-territory clearance, and my family hadn't agreed to cover my first year of tuition. He kept telling me to wait one more week, until the twins' coming-of-age trial was over. He wrote the promise on the back of a treatment consent form but left out the date and tuition amount. This time, I didn't just nod along. I told him to put the terms in writing: one more bag of blood, then the day after the trial, he would return my documents and sign my out-of-territory clearance. My father looked at me as if he'd only just realized a bag of blood could be leverage. And he had no idea that two labels with my name on them were already hidden under the insole of my shoe. Seven days before the full moon, I was back in the blood-draw chair at our family clinic.

My sister and I transmigrated into a savage beastman world where females were terrifyingly scarce. For the sake of reproduction, the Grand Druid allowed us to take our pick of mates first. Whoever gave birth to a child first, her husband would be crowned the Beast King. My sister, Chloe, was power-hungry. She immediately claimed Lucius, the noble and devastatingly handsome Merfolk Prince. I chose Bjorn, a werewolf guard who seemed honest and loyal. Chloe mated with Lucius, but she gave birth to two deformed half-merfolk pups, making her the laughingstock of the horde. Lucius was sadistic by nature and beat her constantly, while Bjorn treated me with the utmost care. After I gave birth to our first child, he successfully ascended to the Beast King's throne and crowned me as his supreme Queen, revered by all beasts. Chloe went mad with jealousy. At my Queen's coronation, she drove a poisoned dagger straight through my heart. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day we chose our mates. Chloe rushed forward and latched onto Bjorn's arm. "Elena, this time, the Queen's throne is mine." I instantly realized that she had been reborn, too. I looked toward the small, reddish-brown wyvern huddled in the corner. "I choose him."