The world just loves throwing things in its attempt to make things fun. It turns out that the person who was to escort me was one of the people who tripped me coming up the stairs. He seemed shocked at first before his face settled into a frown. He seemed rather annoyed that he was wasting his time with anyone other than the person who left the bright pink lipstick on his neck. Oh well, not my problem, he is free to leave me as soon as we get to the stupid ballroom.
I gave him a smirk that was laced with hatred. That is when I noticed there were three more people standing behind him. They seemed just as annoyed to be roped into escorting people. I didn't know the girls had escorts as well.
The boys simply turned without saying hello. They started mocking us, all except one, that kept glancing back sadly at Claire. When we glanced at Claire, we saw she wouldn't meet his eye and was hiding rimmed tears.
Sherri and I looped our arms through hers and began following after the boys, Kat on the other side of Sherri and almost falling asleep on her shoulder. We watched the boys cautiously, waiting for them to do something stupid, until we saw the boys meet up with an older man. One of the visiting Alphas, who seemed to be the leader of the boy sent to escort me. They chatted for a while, every once and a while gesturing back towards the four of us. The boys did not hold back in voicing their displeasure at having to walk us to the ball. They were mentioning how they all had girls waiting, the boy who looked at Claire keeping his head down and eyes to the floor. Tired of their cruel words and knowing we were to make an appearance sometime this night, we strutted past them, tripping the closest one Kat could reach. They growled at us as we turned our backs on them and continued.
All of us girls were mumbling to each other about what we should do as we entered the room. That is when we noticed the closed doors and smiled. We lined up as we heard some song start playing and we all slammed into the closed doors. They flew open wide, crashing into the walls and scaring some of the girls at the punch bowl. We all sort of sashayed into the middle of the floor through the now gaping crowd.
"Well, you wanted us here? Now what are you going to do?"
The clock seemed to chime in a deep tone as it struck midnight, the full moon filling the dance floor. I felt my stomach turn to knots and my arm snapped up behind me.
I let out a scream in pain that slowly turned to a growl. My head began to twitch and roll. I dropped to my knees and my nails dug trenches into the dance floor. I could feel my spine start to pop up to my skin one by one. Blood started to drip down onto the floor as the teeth started to switch places. I felt as if I was choking on my own blood. My jaws started to elongate and I started snapping. I some how managed to pick myself up off the ground and started to run out of the room, which the closest way was out the very closed window. I heard the sound of shattering glass and screaming as I was now gliding down 7 floors to the ground. I landed on my hands and knees, the rain washing the makeup, tears, and blood off my face as I ran out into the street. The woods were close, I knew. My feet dug up clumps of earth as my body started to snap foreward. It began to get easier running on my hands and feet, more snaps and breaks as the bones realigned. The red lines that were once on my body were snapping out into the world in tendrils and mist. As I got a good 10 miles into the forest, my body collapsed on the ground. I started to wither and howl through the pain. The bones had finished their shifting, the human skin stretched over an unnatural body while I lay on the cool wet grass in the moonlight. I gazed up at the sky, watching as the storm clouds passed around the moon, full and beautiful as it glowed in a marvelous light. I felt the first few sprouts of fur and I blacked out.
I'm not sure how much time passed between when I had got to the clearing and when I woke up. The moon was now veiled with a layer of black clouds and the rain was coming down harder than ever before. Even though I understood it was incredibly darker than when I had made my way out here, I could see as if it was daylight. The rain felt cool and crips as it collected on my fur. I trotted calmly over to the river that was flowing at the edge of the clearing to get a drink.
A voice at the back of my head softly called me to go back to the apartments. I huffed, my breath in a cool mist cloud. It didn't take very long to get used to moving in this body. I now understood why you could kill someone during your first shift. I certainly saw some people I would have liked to take with me. The movements were fluid as I traveled back to the highway. The trick was to get across and into the apartments without being seen. I suppose it is selfish but I just met my wolf and I was not about to give her up now.
Hiding in the edge of the woods, I watched as car after car flew by. This road seemes to hold much more traffic than it did when I left. I don't suppose they would stop for a wolf to cross either. We were all stupid like that. I paced back and forth for a while before I found a break in the traffic. The way across was easy, and I found myself standing in the back alleyway of the apartments. I noticed there seemed to be a window open to one of the office rooms of the apartment and wiggled through the small space. I took the back halls when I saw movement in the lobby. I had to get to the ballroom. I heard the sound of metal on tile, glancing around confused before noticing my paws. Iron claws extened from each of my paws except for the middle toe, which held silver ones.
I continued to trot down the hall until I happened past mirror. My wolf was an interesting sight. She was mostly pitch black. A blood red slash of fur settled on her face and the misty blood red ropes wrapped around her body and continued to twist and move. Deep glowing blue eyes stared back at me and iron teeth smile back at me. I tilted my head in awe. I was so different and it was wonderful.
By the time I had made it back up to the ballroom, the other girls had shifted as well. Sherri's wolf caught my attention first, her wolf was golden with white curving lines with light silver eyes, she was slightly bigger than the other wolves around her. She had what looked to be clear claws that shined and much as her fur did. She was a beacon and she drew the crowd.
The next I saw was Kat, a deep earthy fur coat that seemed to be able to blend in with whatever terrian that was around her that was natural. Her coat shifted in the light and never seemed the same. Her claws seemed to be the structure of rock varied between each toe. Her green eyes burned brighter and sharp, she was awake in this form.
The one that surprised me the most was who I assumed to be Claire. Her wolf was the size of a small blue healer and she an orange that I couldn't quite describe. It was natural and unnatural at the same time. Her eyes were a bright yellow and her head fur was a mixture of red going into orange as it moved down her neck. Her tail ended in a tip of blonde. I couldn't see her claws and all I could focus on truly was that she was pinned in a corner as normal grey wolf blocked her path of escape.
Sherri and Kat were pacing behind the grey wolf, trying to figure out the best way to get to Claire. I started to move towards them when all of the Alphas came into the room at once. Their voice echo all at once as the comand us to shift. When we shift back, all of us stand up in our ball gowns, seemingly unfazed by the shift.
My appearance changed as my human self as well, and I could feel my magic flowing through my veins, crackling and burning to be used. My eyes glowed, the incomprehensible shifting of colors that never stay the same. A ring of trees decorated my neck as if I had gotten a tattoo of intertwined limbs as a necklace, dark as night. A cresent moon burned into my forehead and my nails were sharp and pointed in black.
I couldn't see the changes in the other girls, but you could feel the world had change for the dangerous as the girls all looked the alphas in the eyes....and stepped forward in challenge.