Fighting the Inevitable by J C Gordon Page A

Someone who had been turned into a
Were against their will.”
    Rafe stared at him
blankly, slowly shaking his head in denial. There were no such
things as werewolves. They were a figment of someone’s very active
imagination. Why the hell was this man standing there feeding him
this garbage? He wanted clothes, and he wanted to go home to
Rhianna and no one was going to stop him.
    He growled low in his
chest feeling something stir deep inside him. He was leaving this
room even if he had to go through the man in front of the door to
achieve his goal. He tried to stand up but found he couldn’t. The
man was talking again, and he felt something tug in his head, but
he shook it to get free of it. He moved forward dropping onto his
hands and knees and staring in shock as he watched his hands start
to change a fraction of a second before he felt a deep pain inside
him.
    He threw back his head
and tried to scream, but instead issued an agonised howl as his
face started to ripple and change. He felt bones being pulled and
tugged in every direction, loud popping noises occurring in time
with the pain. He whimpered and fell to his side, letting out
another long howl as his body shifted around him. Then mercifully
the pain was gone, and he tried to stand up.
    He fell down immediately,
his mind registering complete shock as he realised his feet weren’t
there anymore. In their place were paws, four big enormous paws
completely covered in dark brown fur. He lifted a paw, and held it
up to his face and touched a long snout. He whimpered again, threw
back his head, and howled for what felt like forever.
    When he finally stopped
howling he turned to the man Jared, but instead of a man he found a
large black wolf before him, deep blue eyes watching him
intently.
    “ Be calm,
Rafe ,” he heard Jared say in his head, and he looked around for
the man but only found the wolf before him.
    “ What?” he gasped, hearing his throat rumble but no
words come from it. He couldn’t talk!
    “ I can
hear you, Rafe,” Jared said patiently, his tone soothing as he
sensed the wolf’s panic. “You can talk to me like this too. Just
think what you want to say.”
    “ I’m a
wolf,” Rafe half sobbed. “I’m not human anymore.” The
full impact of the changes that had befallen him almost crushed
him. He wasn’t human anymore; he was some kind of wild beast
now.
    The black wolf approached
him carefully and lay down so as not to intimidate him.
    “ You are a
Were now, Rafe. You are not some mindless, wild beast,” Jared
said soothingly . “When you learn control, you will be able to
call your wolf form at will and will no longer be subject to these
uncontrolled shifts. You are doing very well. This is the third
time you’ve reverted to wolf form and the first you have been
coherent enough to understand what has happened to you and be able
to communicate with me. The other two times you were pretty
mindless and acted on instinct to get out of the
room.”
    “ Who are
you?” Rafe asked miserably, lying down across from the other
wolf.
    “ I am Jared
Hanlon as I told you, and I am the Alpha of the Hanlon
Pack.”
    “ Alpha?” Rafe queried. “Is that like the boss or
something?” He blinked when the large wolf raised his head
slightly and grinned at him. A wolf could actually grin? For some
reason Rafe found that even weirder than everything else that had
happened so far.
    “ I suppose
Boss is one way of terming it,” Jared answered. “I lead the
pack, yes. I am the Alpha and everyone is beneath me. They do as I
say when I say it. You are now part of my pack, Rafe. You cannot
return to your old life, it would be too dangerous. It takes a lot
of training to learn to control your wolf. Your forced turning
makes you particularly volatile. If you were to return to your old
life you might accidentally harm those you care about. I am
sure you wouldn’t want to harm Annie in any way.”
    Rafe growled loudly and
jumped up, pacing away from the