• Chapter One


    The day was so beautiful. The sun was shining high in the sky and the sky was the bluest blue it could every be. The gentle breeze of the summer winds made the trees sway and dance lightly. song birds chirped throughout the forest. Animals grazed as scampered on the forest floor. Playing like there was nothing wrong. But really. Everything was wrong.
    In a house that was surrounded by forest and fields things were not as calm and sunny inside. Screams echoed through the old ranch house. Female screams. My screams. I was in pain. Nothing I have never felt before in my life, and according to my boyfriend I should of been through this already. I didn't know what he meant. All I knew was that things were weird lately. I was feeling weird. Ever since I met him.

    .........

    Two months earlier

    "Caren do you think that you could come over for that party that the boys are having tonight?" that was Suzanna, my roommate. This was my second year in photography. I was always studying and taking pictures. I never really had time to do any partying, but Suzanna really wanted me to go to this party because Jason, her boyfriend, had a friend in town and he was single. I hadn't even met Jason and now they wanted to set us up.
    "Yeah I'll be over. Eight right?" I asked sighing slightly. I didn't really like partying.
    "Yep. See you there!" she gave me a overly happy smile and waved as she walked out the door of our room. I was left alone to finish looking over the pictures I had taken over the past week.
    My name is Caren Henson. I am 21 and single. I started collage late because I didn't have the time when I had finished high school. My mother had been a alcoholic. She died when I had just turned 20. I had just left for collage. She died of alcohol poisoning. So now it was just me. I had no one left. My father never stayed with my mother. My mother told me while I grew up that he died shortly after I was conceived. It didn't bother me. All that bothered me was that my mother was a drunk and couldn't take care of me most of the time. I learned to cook, clean, shop for things we needed at a young age. I took care of my mother while she was drunk and hungover.
    I shook my heads from the memories and stretched. I looked at the clock and it was 6. I had to start getting ready. I got up and sighed as I walked to my closet looking for something to wear.

    I had found something to wear. It was hard. I wasn't use to going to parties, I didn't really know what to wear. I walked through the campus heading over to the guys house. I was there within minutes. I walked in the open door looking through the crowd for Suzanna. I hadn't been watching where I was going when I bumped into something solid. I muttered a curse and looked up into a baby blue eyes guy. His shoulders were broad and his shirt stretched against well defined pecks.
    "Oh um," I stuttered, "I'm sorry."
    He narrowed his eyes at me confused about something. I backed away and excused myself looking for Suzanna again. I finally found her cuddled into, whom I guested was Jason, on the couch. She looked up from laughing at something and spotted me. She waved me over through the crowd. I moved through bodies stepping on toes once in a while. There was music blaring through the house.
    "You made it!" she said excitedly.
    "Yeah. I said I would come. If I blew you off I wouldn't hear the end of it." I looked to Jason, he had green eyes and was as built like the guy I bumped into. He kinda looked like him in some features. He was looking at me like the other guy. That was starting to creep me out. I knew it wasn't my looks. I was quite plain looking. My hair was black and wavy and my eyes were dark brown. I didn't have much curves. But these two looked at me intensely. Suzanna noticed my discomfort and looked to Jason elbowing him in the ribs. He let out a rush of air and looked to Suzanna.
    "Who's your friend?" he asked looking to her.
    "This is Caren. She's the one I was telling you about."
    Telling him about? I thought.
    Jason then noticed something and waved someone over as I stood there like a idiot. I stuck out like a sore thumb. The person that Jason waved over was none other then, Mr. Stare At Me Weirdly. Small world.
    "C.J. this is Caren." Jason said and his eyebrows rose high onto his forehead.

    After that we talked and I found that he wasn't a creep. He was actually very sweet. We started seeing each other. He stayed with Jason every weekend. We had fun and I found myself falling for him. I was the type that fell easily.

    ...........

    Two weeks ago

    We were sitting at a restaurant eating dinner talking about random things. We were laughing and having fun.
    "Caren, I know that it's thanksgiving and you have no where to go so I was wondering if you would like to come home with me and spend it with my family?" he asked.
    I swallowed hard on the food I was chewing and looked at him in surprise, "Wouldn't your family mind?" at this point things started to get weird. I was hearing things better. Like the girls in the room next to use really like each other's company. The walls weren't that thin. I was able to smell things I've never smelt before and I was eating more then usual without gaining weight. My reflexes were getting better to.
    "No they wont mind. They said that it was a good idea." He smiled charmingly and laughed lightly.
    I smiled. I couldn't help it. He was so hot and I was plane. Yet he wanted me, "Yeah alright."
    "Great. Jason will be coming with us. Considering he's family." he smiled and took a sip of his drink.
    "He is?" I asked confused. I thought they were good friends not family.
    "Yeah. He's my cousin."

    ...........
    Present

    I was on the floor in the living room screaming bloody murder. I had been sitting with C.J.'s family when I started to get dizzy. I excused myself but as I stood up and took a few steps pain shot through my body. It felt like I was being ripped apart. I could hear my joins popping and muscles tearing. I fell to the floor and on my side. Tears running down from my eyes as I screamed. C.J., his father and Jason came over to me. C.J. kneeling at my back and his father kneeling in my line of vision when I was able to open my eyes. Jason stood there looking amazed.
    "Caren dear listen to me." It was C.J.'s father. I nodded and looked at him through squinted eyes, "You are going through a change. It's something we call Shifting. Don't resist the pain. Let it happen."
    I heard my cloths tear and got frightened. My whole body was screaming in pain. It was then that C.J.'s mother ran in and looked down at me. Smiling in sympathy. What was going on?
    I blacked out from the pain for a few minutes. When I came to things looked different. I was still on the floor but the pain was gone. I just felt stiff. Like I didn't fit into my body. I stretched that was when I noticed my hands weren't hands. I jumped up with speed I didn't know I hand and landed on, 4 legs?! I looked down at my body seeing yellow, white spotted fur. I looked behind me and saw a tail. I started to panic. I didn't understand what was going on. I then realized that I was there alone. What the hell! I tried to say but it came out as a roar. Roar? I then heard foot steps and took a cat stance my instincts cutting in. I growled. That was when C.J.'s father walked in and stopped suddenly with C.J. behind him to bump into him. My ears and tail were down and I looked around panicked.
    "Caren." C.J. said my name in a low soothing voice as he pushed past his father. He walked forward slowly and knelt down 4 feet away from me. I looked at him confused. I walked to him slowly stepping back when I heard a noise from somewhere in the house, "Caren, listen. We'll explain everything once we get you back to your human self. Nod if you understand me."
    I nodded and blinked once. I understood him but I didn't understand. My stomached then growled frightening me. C.J. just chuckled lightly, "Food is on it's way. By the looks of it you're a whooping 120 lbs. That's big. That's good." he said smiling. He was making idle chat while I was there on four large paws and furry. I snorted and gave him a angry look. He laughed, "Well you got expressing yourself down pat already." My ears rose and I tilted my head to the side, "I'll explain later I promise."

    An hour later after I was fed, C.J. walked me through the steps of "Shifting" back. It was less painful but it still hurt like hell. I was shivering on my stomach naked when I was finished. C.J. took off his shirt and gave it to me to put on. I thanked him and slipped it over my head right before his dad walked in.
    "Well young lady, what my son tells me is true." he said as he took a set in a high back chair. He folded his hands over his stomach like he was the king. He was very built for a 60 year old man.
    I looked to C.J. confused, "True? What just happened to me?"
    "You see we are were leopards." C.J.'s father said bluntly. My head turned back to him so fast that my neck cracked.
    "Were leopards?" I said in disbelief even though I saw my own furry paws.
    "Yes. Usually we have our First shift when we are 13." he said.
    I looked at him confused and was about to ask him how that was when that was the first time I ever turned to a 120 lbs cat, but he cut me off.
    "We shift because we are around our own kind. There's a, scent, we'll call it, that the adults give off that will trigger the children on their 13th birthday. We're not sure exactly how it works. I'm guessing that you were raised around all humans. With no others around you. But where were your parents?"
    "My mother was Liz Hanson. She's never talked about this. I didn't know my father. He apparently died before I was born. My mom said he drowned in a river."
    C.J.'s dad's mouth was in a thin line and he was almost frowning, "So you're Lawson's child."
    "Lawson?" I asked.
    "Yes. He was the Alpha of another pride. He was killed after he had sex with a human. Cheating on his wife. But that wasn't why he was killed. He was slaughtered by strays on his way home from a visit to the woman." he rubbed his chin, "She went into hiding and we couldn't find her. We told her that his car went off the road and into the river. After that she was just gone."
    My head spun. Alpha? Pride? Strays?
    "Dad I think we should take it easy." C.J. said and his father nodded that was when he took over, "We are a pride. My father is the alpha. A group of us live here protecting our land and alpha. There are different prides and we all have our own territories. We are the east Territory. Your campus is in our territory. If you had met Jason before that night then the same thing would of happened. You would get the scent and start to change."
    I was confused and horrified, "Is this why you're with me?"
    "No!" he shook his head firmly, "I really do have feelings for you."
    I gave him a disbelieving look.
    "I'm telling the truth." he said looking me in the eyes. His father cleared his throat. I turned to look at him.
    "I'm sorry but this means you can't leave the ranch now."
    My whole world shattered in that instant.