Shifting Fortunes Ch. 01

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Young shifter fights for her freedom; and for love.
2.8k words
4.62
41.2k
55

Part 1 of the 9 part series

Updated 09/22/2022
Created 03/07/2011
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1. Freedom

Sam edged closer to the door. Her chest ached from holding her breath quiet, but she was scared enough that it was only registered as a tiny part of the mix of her current emotions. Fear mostly. Anger. Confusion. Hate. More fear. She edged another step, freezing as the floorboard beneath her creaked softly. Every sense was on end. Sam let out a steady breath as she heard no other sound, continuing to the door. Once she was out and on the darkened landing she felt a little more confident. Down the stairs she crept, terrified of waking him. Waking him and being caught. Again. Her left hand found her right shoulder, held it and winced. She knew it was purple, black and swollen, having been dislocated twice in the last week by his cruel hands.

Somehow, somehow, she made it to the front door and opened it. Scared sick at the sound the click made, her fear amplifying the small sound into a deafening racket. She froze again, waiting for the shifting in the bed upstairs, to hear the sound of his feet shuffling, then his muffled roar of rage as he found her empty bindings. But it never came. She reached down and fumbled gently in the dark, groping for some shoes - any shoes - and grabbed them without looking. She pulled a dark coat off the peg and wasting no more time, she fled quietly out the door. She paused in the yard to look up at the darkened house, expecting to see a light click on, but it remained black. Sam roughly pulled on the coat over the ragged t-shirt and panties she was kept in, and shoved her feet into the too big shoes. Then she ran and she did not look back.

She ran down the dark road lined with big trees and frost, no moon tonight, so no shadows, no glint of light that could give her away. And as she ran, she shifted. God it was painful, especially her shoulder, especially while moving, but now was the time to do it, and she was not going to stop. Her appearance gradually took that of her captor's. Her feet swelled until they fit the shoes she had been stumbling in, her shoulder screamed as it filled in the jacket so it no longer hung off her. Big, brawny hands replaced hers, with a sprinkling of dark, wiry hair on the backs. She tried not to look, but she was grateful when she realized her stride had lengthened as she had taken on his huge ones, which got her further away with every second.

Her breath came in hoarse gasps as the final shift changed her face to have a large hook of a nose, dark beady eyes and a turned in mouth with two front teeth missing and a scar down the left cheek that ran into the corner of the mouth. She loathed taking on his form, but as she gasped for breath and kept running, she knew it was a necessity, that the big shoes would have slowed her, that she was too small to take the big strides needed to get away faster.

STOP! A light appeared in front of her, a car coming toward her. She quickly ducked into the dark trees on the side, stepping into the protection it could provide her. The car rumbled past without slowing and Sam gulped deep breaths of gratitude, waves of relief pouring off her. After taking deep, trembling breaths, she resumed her running until she could run no more.

Sam had turned off the road miles ago now, turning deep into the forest, and had spent the last half hour laying three false trails. Now, hunched over and breathing hard, gasping breaths under the cover of a large spruce tree, Sam shifted back into the shape she had been born into. Her own pale, straw-coloured hair appeared, lengthening to just past her shoulders, tangled and matted, lank and dirty. Her own small nose appeared, the harsh beady eyes lightened to almond shaped green orbs and her heart shaped face replaced the man's square one. Suddenly she was swamped in the big jacket again and her feet loose in the big boots. Now that the adrenalin was fading, Sam started shivering in shock. She had made it! So far, she amended in her head, trying not to get her hopes up too much. To get her mind off the cold and the situation, she resumed her escape, this time at a fast walk, rubbing her hands up and down her arms as she tried to catch her breath.

With her breath fogging in front of her face and lungs burning, Sam inhaled what she thought of as freedom. Too long had she been held against her will in the dark old house. Too long had she been made to pretend she was something other than herself. Shifting after all this time had felt liberating, and it felt especially rebellious that she'd shifted into her tormentor's shape. She stifled a dark chuckle as she remembered that his penis had felt very small inside her pants when the change had been complete. It was so tiny that her cotton underpants hadn't even stretched too much. Sam let the chuckle bubble out into a giggle, and then into stifled laughter. God it felt good to be rid of him. It felt good to want to laugh, no matter how serious her situation was.

She was a shifter. It meant that she could change her appearance to be anyone she touched, right down to the last freckle. There were quite a few shifters in the world since the Reveal, but she was one of the rarest kinds. She could also shift into animals. No one else knew that, not even her captor, and it was a secret she knew she needed to keep. She also needed to find shelter before daybreak came. The thought subdued her once more and clutching her shoulder, she hurried forward in the direction she knew a highway to be, farther enough away that he wouldn't think to look there. Sam knew her path would be quicker if she shifted into a wolf, but she wanted to keep her clothes.

She paused a moment in the dark woods and had a think. The wolf she'd touched had been a big black fellow, surely big enough to carry a jacket with shoes and shirt in his mouth. Quickly now, she stripped off until she was naked and shivering, her nipples puckered and standing painfully erect in the cold, the swell of her ample breasts quivering, her shoulder throbbing. Her waist narrowed in delicately and curved into soft hips and rear. Large purple and yellow patches littered her skin - new and old bruises, healing scabs and several cigarette butt burns. She knew she was painfully thin. Shivering and feeling much too exposed, Sam quickly packed all the clothes into the jacket and tied them off with the sleeves. Task complete, she fell onto all fours, exposing her nether lips to the cold for the first time. It sent a tingle through her as her legs spread a little to aid her transformation. Her shoulder stabbed at her, but she pushed it out of her consciousness.

Closing her eyes, she focused on the big, black wolf and felt the change begin. First her shoulders prickled with hair sprouting, and she fell onto her elbows clenching her teeth, a sharp gasp as her hard nipples delved into the snow, her arms shortening into legs. Sam took her last breath from a human mouth as it elongated into a snout and her sense of smell suddenly heightened exponentially. She felt her pussy close over and a large male organ take its place where her belly had been. A tail sprouted, her hackles grew and she was changed. Taking a moment to revel in the wolf's shape, Sam howled joyfully and ran about in a small circle, the change as natural to her as flying was to an eagle. Recovering her senses, she sniffed carefully, her lip curling back at the jacket's scent - the stench of her torturer strong in the wolf's sensitive nose - and distastefully took it in her strong jaws. Then she started running.

Ignoring the jacket's taste, the speed started to exhilarate her as she tore through the woods, dark as the night around her. She tested her paws as she leaped over a fallen tree effortlessly. A suppressed giggle burst from her, but came out as a wolfy growl. Sam pricked her ears at the sound in surprise. Her tongue lolled out in a grin as she gamboled to and fro effortlessly. After a while, she settled into a good pace and knew she was making exceptional time, faster than any human form she could have taken. He would never guess that she could reach this far - not as a human - and he did not know she could take animal form. He never would.

Her wolf lips curled back again, this time in a snarl, her teeth gnashing on the bundle of clothes as she thought of him. Earl Rutherford. The reason her shoulder ached, now greatly lessened in this wolf shape. Just a twinge as she raced forward, only letting her pace dwindle as her sharp wolf ears let her know the highway was close. Her keen nose lowered to the ground as her pace dropped from a lope to a swinging walk, hackles raised. Reassured all was well, Sam relaxed and allowed herself to shift straight into another shape, not her own, but not Rutherford's either. All of a sudden she was a middle-aged woman with soft brown hair, dark eyes and a rose bud mouth. Her rounded shape suggested that she had borne children, and her worry lines about her eyes suggested strained living.

It was Sam's mother's shape. She took it when she felt most lonely, most desperate for the gentle woman who was no longer on this earth. It was the only way she could feel close to her. It would also be the most non-threatening, non-memorable shape to take when hitching for a ride this time of the night. Quickly now, Sam pulled on the only clothes she had, pulling the long coat around her and belting it. She bent to tie the too-large boots onto her feet, her heart skipping as she saw her mother's birth mark - the sun shaped mark - on her left inner calf. She took a second to touch it and spared a thought for her gentle mother. Tears blurred her eyes for a moment as she remembered her swift passing, but she grew resolute, swiped them away and stood. The wolf ears had told her that a truck would be approaching soon. They did not let her down.

**************

Two hours later, Sam thanked the truck driver who had kindly taken her over the state border, three hours and many miles from her torturer, and stood in the truck's wake at the neon-lit diner in front of her. Still in her mother's shape, she strode towards it and tried to look like she belonged. It wasn't hard, much to her relief. Most of the people sitting at the bar or in booths were all in clothes as dirty as her own, hardly anyone spared a look for the middle aged woman who looked cautious and tired. Tinny music was playing through tired speakers, the waitress was a buxom black woman in her fifties, in sensible shoes, her eyes flicked onto Sam and then onwards again as she poured coffee into a diner's cup.

Sam slid into a booth at the back where she could watch the door but not be seen immediately by anyone walking in. The red leather creaked as she shuffled her body into the booth, and pushed the used cup away from her. She closed her eyes for a moment to refocus, and felt her body relax just a fraction.

In this way, ten minutes later with her face semi-hidden behind a steaming cup of black coffee, Sam noticed, then felt, who next entered the diner. She saw him stiffen the same time she did, and he looked around quickly. Startled, Sam averted her eyes just in time and continued sipping her coffee. She had the bonus of knowing what he was but luckily he did not know which of the customers in the diner was her. To be honest, Sam had thought she was the only one with the gift of sensing other shifters - it had proved useful many times. It appeared that this shifter had the same gift. But apparently not as honed as hers - she could have told exactly what person in a crowded bar was a shifter, but this man obviously could not.

She felt his eyes on her, taking in her position in the corner booth, and she could feel his eyes curious on her middle-aged face, but just as quickly he was studying the next person. She took the moment to surreptitiously study him back. He was handsome and young, but older than her nineteen years. Probably mid-twenties. Dark, curling hair reached his neckline and framed his brown eyes; stubble dusted his cheeks and chiseled chin. She suddenly was very aware she was naked under the long coat, and fought herself to cinch it a little tighter at her waist. Stop that, she scolded herself, wanting to roll her eyes at her reaction to the first good looking man she'd seen in a long time. And he was a shifter. And he could be dangerous. He was definitely a bit of a rookie, giving away so much with his actions; he obviously hadn't been hunted much.

If it was her, she would have walked into the bar and kept walking when she sensed the other, taken a seat somewhere and over a cup of coffee checked each diner out for suspects (well, luckily she would know exactly who it was), but this guy could learn a lot from her. She gently arched an eyebrow as he then took a seat with his back to her in a booth by the window. In plain god damn sight of anyone and everyone. He really didn't know the first thing about hiding. Or maybe he wasn't hiding. A sudden panic gripped her. Maybe he was looking for someone; looking for her.

She forced herself to look away and put the mug of half-drunk coffee down. When she looked up she saw the dark haired shifter get up and head to the toilets. Relieved, and taking her chance, Sam threw down the dollar bill she'd found in the coat pocket, the only money currently to her name and stood up, and casually walked outside. It was only a minute after she'd done so that she cursed herself as the door flew open behind her. Of course he'd know when the shifter had left the bar wouldn't he? Dammit she was stupid!

'Hey!' the low voice rumbled behind her, full of honey tones and caramel tenors. Jesus! Sam didn't stop walking towards the highway, and completely ignored him, her heart starting to pound in her chest. 'I said hey!' a rough hand gripped her arm and pulled her around. Sam came around swinging, adrenalin bursting in her veins, and struck him upside his face. He staggered, unprepared for the magnitude of her blow. His grip loosened and Sam took advantage of it. She bolted for the forest on the other side of the highway instead. Her feet clattering in the big boots across the tarmac, she didn't wait to see if he was following. Cursing herself for her stupidity again, she started stripping her clothes from herself the moment she hit the trees but kept running. The black fur erupted from her back again, and just as her shape completely changed, she flung the coat in front of her, picked it up in her jowls and bolted.

The wolf ears heard the man cursing and running across the road, hesitating when he saw the boots that she'd had to leave behind. Maybe she could come back and get them later. Then something happened that she did not anticipate. She felt a strange shift in the atmosphere behind her, something which was vaguely familiar, but not known to her. Then the wolf ears picked up another sound. Another animal racing after her in the forest. Shit! What the hell was in this forest that would chase a wolf?

She soon she got her answer as a huge white tiger leapt ahead of her and twisted so it threw itself across her path. What the fuck is a tiger doing in the damn woods?! Unable to slow down in time, Sam braced herself and hit him with all her spectacular force and was thrown ten feet in the air, landing heavily on her side, winded and bruised. Her eyes blurred, but she stayed conscious long enough to see the snarling white and black face of the tiger above her. It shimmered in the moonlight. Pretty, Sam thought before blackness met her and she was gone.

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14 Comments
Troubled_RoseTroubled_Roseover 12 years ago
Beautifully written.

Amazing and so sad, glad to see you've written more chapters.

You're a very talented writer. :)

angin_berhembusangin_berhembusabout 13 years ago

Nice and very good introduction. It is compact into the pages and fulfill the needs of the readers to learn what they are readings but still give a lot of promises in the next chapters. Cant wait for the next ones.

cantfightfatecantfightfateabout 13 years ago
Intriguing.

Looking forward to more.

gw0313gw0313about 13 years ago
Really good start

I will be watching for more...:)

mokkelkemokkelkeabout 13 years ago

what a nice first chapter. so many intriguing things to tell and explain. hope 2 gets approved soon :)

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