Ursanthropy
66. Turn Around

Doreen

Some Alphas began to stand protectively in front of their Lunas, others stood proudly alongside them, some Lunas even took their own weapons or took upon a battle stance. Bears, leopards, rhinos, wolves and what not more, began to appear in between each and every tree of the forest.

Fear, confusion, anger, determination… I could see and nearly feel all those emotions radiate from all of the shifters that stood in front of us.

Guns clicking, car engines rolling, helicopters raging… On the right stood a devastating sight. Something so violent, cruel and dominant. Reeking with arrogance, they thought that we were the monsters. They were trained to believe that we were the beasts that had our planet defiled, destroyed and violated, that we were the ones that had taken all the women, all the Earth’s riches and what not more. But the truth couldn’t be further away from those thoughts, than our current situation.

My father’s hunters weren’t even aware of the amount of idiotic firepower that they brought along. Couldn’t they see that this was just outrageous? That their goal to want to eradicate a complete species of people, is creating even more friction and evil to be spread on our world; that this might actually do the exact opposite of creating peace? When this war would start, and I’m fearing that it will, a lot of people, both shifter and human, would find their ends.

My heart was already throbbing with the ache of all those dead people, and not only shifters, but also that of the ignorant humans, as I bet that nearly half of the humans on my father’s side were either paid, brainwashed or just simply stupid enough to stand here right now. They all only had ideas of how shifters live, none of them had real proof, none of them had real facts. Yet, they are all determined to follow my father’s lead. I pity them!

They are all determined to eradicate my kind from the face of the Earth. And even though my heart goes out to the humans a little, it goes out to the shifters more. My loyalty lies with my own kind, my own creatures of nature, my people!

I am their Queen, and even though plenty of people here in this forest, aren’t yet aware of that fact, as they haven’t seen me shift yet, only apparently heard my voice shouting in their heads, I am going to lead them!

“Are you really going to do this?” I asked my father.

“Well, you could still decide to go with me, on your own free will. But I am going to capture some of these Alphas as well. No matter what you decide.” He said, while folding his arms over his chest.

“I can’t let you do that.” I replied.

“Who are you to defend us like this! Traitor!” One of the Alphas suddenly said, and I could hear my father chuckle.

My father still wasn’t aware of my true origin, and this ignorance makes him even more cockier than he already was. I knew that I had hesitated to agree with Jack, that my father wouldn’t get to live another day should they come to stand across each other, but that same hesitation has left my thoughts, the moment I had talked with my father earlier. Even though he is my father, he is going to die. And both me and Jack are going to make sure that it will happen.

I smiled towards the Alpha who called me a traitor, while I could hear Jack growl behind me, and I took a few deep breaths. “Haven’t you learned by now, that I’m the one that got you out in time?” I linked over the now well aware, complete open-wide shifter’s link.

Gasps were heard, confusion arose.

“Who is this?”

“Where is she?”

“How is this possible?”

Questions like these, crowded my mind.

I had never thought that I was going to do this, that I was going to feel comfortable doing this. But it doesn’t matter how I feel about my own nudity, all that matters is that my people are to be safe, that my people get to live in peace and prosperity, without the intrusion of my father’s hunters or any other danger.

Earlier, Jack had given me a shirt to cover me, and I could feel my back getting sticky against the fabric now. But I took it off, without hesitation.

“What are you doing?” Jack suddenly whispered to me, but for once I ignored him.

“My name is Doreen May Berestine. I am the daughter of the last known princess, Ophelia Margarethe Berestine.” I said out loud, while I threw the shirt on the ground. “Yes, my father is the hunter King, but what he didn’t know is that his own wife,” And I turned to look at my father, while I could see the creatures coming towards us in the clearing, between the forest and the former pack house.

“…was bound to become Queen of the shifters.” I ended my sentence and my father was finally able to show me a different expression than the smug face he had plastered on his face for the past ten minutes. A confused expression.

“Yes, father, I am able to talk to every shifter here, I am able to heal faster than a human being, I am able to fight off Alphas, should I have to. Because father, dearest, what you don’t know, is that my mother has protected me from you, from your cruel intentions, by not letting me be able to shift for all these years. Well, guess what? I have faced my tortures, had my body be boiled alive, trained myself to endure even more pain than you have probably felt in your entire life… Only for this moment.” I said to him, as my father’s face kept being confused, kept rattling his brains to figure out what I was trying to explain to him.

“You have done too many cruel things, things that would make the most evil men turn around in their graves if they knew what you have done. You have murdered innocents, tore apart families, complete towns and communities. You even experimented on plenty of captured shifters, forced them to do things, that a normal human being couldn’t comprehend to even think about, yet you did. And you will face the consequences.” I continued.

“Doreen, I give you one last chance to get away from this, unscathed.” My father dared to say. But I chuckled at his comment, if only his cruel mind could imagine the severity of trouble that he is in right now, he would have run away, hours ago! I turned myself around again, to look towards my people.

Still very much naked, of which I didn’t give one single hair to care about any longer, I focused on my most primal urges, my most beautiful skill, the only thing that can make my existence whole... Jack completes my heart and love, but my soul, that is completed by my creature!

I let the familiar feeling of the skin tickling sensation, embrace my body, as the soft golden brown hairs sprouted out from within. My bones shifted into their position, a soft sizzling noise followed after, as the skin on my back was instantly being healed by the power of the shift itself.

My snout pushed its way forward, my claws extended, and finally when I was almost done, I let myself drop on all fours.

“I AM YOUR QUEEN!” I roared through the open broadcasted link.

Justin

Her roars shook my brain, as I could hear her yell towards her people. Her people… My sister is a Queen? She is able to shift, even though no other woman can do that? This is some information that is rather confusing and most devastating to hear and see.

I don’t know what to do with this information, besides the fact that I’m now highly doubting the ‘good’ relationship I have with my father. Has he been wrong all my life? Has he been feeding me the wrong information about them?

A headache started to grow, as I now stood right behind my father, as he had released me from the tree when she had taken her run towards the house. I tried to read his expression, but all that he showed was some thickening of the veins in his neck and his fists being balled tightly, so that his knuckles turned white.

Yet, when he would become angry on any other day, his character never faltered, he always remained the calm yet very determined man that wanted to release the punishment, when someone had done something wrong. But this form of anger is something beyond his ‘normal’ composure, this was something that went so deep, that I bet no one has ever seen him like this.

I know him too well, that the information of my sister being able to shift, is new to him too. Together with this strange form of anger, he is feeling confused. He had always the intention to take her home with him, as he just told her, but now that she is truly one of them, as in the broadest meaning of the word, I guess he is second guessing his own decisions.

His breathing got deeper and shallower, and his heart rate picked up in speed. But when he noticed this himself, he took a few deep breaths, crossed his arms over his chest again and relaxed the muscles in his neck and upper arms. Returning him to his sadistic self again.

I waited a few more seconds, before I queried about my thoughts. “Did you know she could do this?” I asked my father, but his angry demeanour suddenly sprung back to life as he turned himself around and looked me straight in the eyes. “What are you going to do with her?” I asked, as I knew that the answer to my former question was answered by his silence. Besides, I wasn’t in the slightest afraid of his anger towards me right now, so I just kept on asking. “What are you going to do with her?”

“Nothing has changed! She will come home with me!” He shouted as he tried to take an intimidating stance to tower over me.

“You are going to experiment on her as well, right?” I asked, knowing the answer already, but it didn’t sit well with me.

All this time that he has trained me to kill these creatures, that he has changed my mind into believing that what they did was wrong, was making me doubt heavily. His sick twisted mind even dares to think about hurting his own daughter!

I pushed my father to the side, knowing that he couldn’t hurt me, even if he wanted to. For a moment I saw his confused expression, but that soon made place for anger. “Where are you going!” He yelled to me, but I ignored him.

My feet pulled me forward, to the golden brown bear that stood a few yards away from us. Her partner immediately stepped towards me as well, clearly wanting to protect my sister from me. But I wasn’t going to hurt her, I just needed answers!

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