I’d only transformed for the first time a month ago, after Jenkins’ brew broke through the Neuri Syndrome I’d been born with, which occurred sometimes in human/Were marriages.It acted as a type of immunity to the Were bite, ensuring that the resulting children could never Change.So when I did, it was the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of longing, but it had also created some problems.
A few of which I was still working out.
Among other things, I’d gotten the impression that my Were thought I was pretty damned slipshod as an instructor.Cubs needed to be trained, lovingly, if possible, but correction should be applied swiftly and painfully when needed.How else would they learn?
Which was why I felt my hackles rise when Sophie continued to ignore me, and my eyes go wolfy before I could stop them.
Calm down!I told myself, which did no good.The Nagual’s eyes narrowed as her own hackles rose, and great.This was just all I needed.
“Hey.What’s going on?”Caleb asked, looking between the two of us.
I doubted he could see the ghostly snout now all but engulfing Sophie’s human face, but he knew something was up.Probably because of me, I thought, wrestling with my other half.Who wanted to put a paw on the rebellious cub’s neck and press her in submission to the floor, while the Nagual’s expression clearly said: “Try me.”
And goddamn it!That was a challenge.Not spoken, but Weres don’t talk much when transformed, and my wolf had read it loud and clear through body language alone.
“Down.”My wolf voice was harsh and resonant, echoing around the small space and coming back to us.
Sophie didn’t answer, but she didn’t back down, either, whether because of her rebellious streak, which did not like authority figures, or because of her beast’s, I didn’t know, but either way—
“Down!”
It was a roar that time, and the challenge was no longer unspoken.My wolf had had enough of the cubs’ insolence lately, as they struggled to adjust to being out in the everyday world, yet not truly a part of it.I had known this was coming, but damn it, not here!
Only my wolf didn’t agree.
“And if I say no?”Sophie asked, her voice also half transformed, but lower, silkier, less a roar than a murmur.One she did not get to finish before—
Damn it!That was a new outfit!Which was now in shreds on the ground because my wolf had decided to emerge unbidden.
“Holy shit!”That was Caleb, scrambling back from the huge, silky-coated, black wolf with firelit eyes that was suddenly taking up all of the room—and jumping the Nagual.
Sophie squeaked, whether because she’d just been borne to the floor or because her other half had torn loose from its own fleshy cage, I didn’t know, but she sounded scared.And I remembered that she was just a girl, not quite sixteen, and likely overwhelmed by all of the recent changes in her life.But my wolf didn’t remember—or didn’t care.
She was whirling with lightning speed on the ghostly Nagual, which was now fully free of Sophie’s body.So the rumorsweretrue, I thought, as it landed yards away.It was beautiful, a black jaguar with barely discernible rosettes, crouched low to the ground, its long tail whipping behind it, and ready to pounce.
Only I pounced first and got my claws in it, bearing it to the ground once more.And causing an almost comical look of shock to take over its features for an instant.Right before the fight was on.
The damned thing was fast as well as big, being almost as large as my wolf.But like its mistress, it was untrained and used to using its ability to vanish like smoke as it had just done, only to reappear out of harm’s way, something it couldn’t do with my claws in place.That seemed to surprise it, like the fact that I could both see and touch it, which didn’t appear to be normal, either.
Of course, none of this was!
“Cut itout!”I snarled at my misbehaving other half and got only another roar back in response, while my students scattered, hugging the walls and looking very confused as to what, exactly, I was fighting.But none were flattened when my wolf ignored me and threw the rebellious jaguar the width of the room, despite several of them being in the way.
The big cat remained a spiritual manifestation when the sun was high, I remembered, yet it had some sort of substance.Aki gave a shriek when it passed through him, and then grabbed Kimmie and teleported them both out of there.And Dimas shielded and screamed when that didn’t work, because shields don’t impede spirits.
He abruptly vanished instead, not shifting out as Aki had done or going invisible so much as matching the color of the floor like a chameleon and scurrying off.I didn’t see where he went; I was too busy seeing the massive jaguar pushing off the wall and coming back at me, apparently not yet having learned her lesson.And was met halfway through her leap and taken down by a furious Lupa.
More specifically, byherLupa, and a Lupa’s word is law.Having to repeat herself was already enough to infuriate my wolf, but being ignored after that, and thenchallenged?Yeah, that was a paddlin’.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
“Stop it!Stop it, both of you!”Jen yelled, her necro abilities allowing her to see what was going on in the spirit realm.She had not fled but had crawled over and grabbed the human part of Sophie and was now shaking her.
“I’m trying!I’m trying!”Sophie shrieked.“My beast isn’t listening!”
“Then try harder!”
It was the same advice I was giving myself, with the same result.I didn’t understand what was happening, as my wolf had never been this defiant.Most young Weres were Changed as children, and learning control was just another rite of passage as they grew up.My Change had been delayed for years, but that shouldn’t make this much difference, should it?
