Alex opened her eyes and blinked. Her mind was blank as she watched the moonlight flicker off of the broken glass of the vile beside her head. Her gaze remained on the shards, until her vision fixed on a drop of blood. Gabriel's blood. Suddenly memories flooded back. The feeling of her skin being torn apart, her bones cracking and coming back together, screaming and screaming until...she must have passed out.

"Crazy bitch!" The familiar voice came from a short distance away, just before Alex felt the boat jolt as it was pulled towards shore. "Did you lose your mind with fear, what's with all that mad screaming?"

Alex tried to get up on her elbows, but her muscles felt like jello. Did the blood not work? And yet, something was different. Hearing Katya's voice, being pulled, likely to her death...none of it instilled fear. Was it shock? Is that why she couldn't seem to feel anything?

"Peter is going to be angry again!" Katya continued to mutter to herself. The boat rocked some more before knocking against the bank. Then two wet arms reached into the vessel and pulled her out, shoving her sideways onto the ice-caked ground. Alex barely registered the pain.

"You ruined all the fun!" Katya pointed an elegant finger towards her, her breath forming quick puffs of white in the frosty air. She had taken off her clothes to drag the boat to shore and now hastily put them back on. "Dumb bitch," she muttered while pulling on her dress. "I'm going to make sure you have the most painful death possible!"

The woman's words didn't affect Alex in the least. She pushed onto her knees slowly and felt her muscles drawing together; it was as if they were becoming solid once more. One foot down, then the other; by the time Alex stood on her feet, she felt stronger than she ever had. The cold was simply a nuisance, nothing more, and the pain was long gone.

A thrashing sound had both women turning towards the left just as Peter appeared looking pale. He came to a sudden halt, one hand on his head as his eyes sought Alex. "You!" He couldn't seem to say more.

Alex stared at the man who had murdered her parents and felt a strange pulling in her mind. It was like he was somewhere in there, behind a door, and if she opened it, she would be able to reach out and touch him. There was a second door too, one that had someone else behind it, someone who had been knocking incessantly, but she didn't care to investigate any of that. 

None of it was significant next to the third presence in her head. She could feel the power of the wolf stirring inside her as it prowled. . Her wolf greeted her. , she reached out for it, knowing instinctively that they were more than just friends, that it was a part of her that had been waiting to be set free for years.

"Peter, I can explain," Katya gave her brother a shaky smile as she finished putting her coat back on. "You see what happened was - "

"Shut up!" Peter barked, then he took a step towards Alex. "What the hell do I do with you now?"

Katya looked from her brother to Alex, her face contorted in confusion.

Alex felt her wolf growl, it did not fear Peter. It wanted to take control and teach the bastard a lesson.

"How did you do it?" Peter narrowed his eyes, taking another step closer. "What are you?"

Katya took a step back from Alex, now looking weary. "Peter, what the hell is going on here?"

Good. They should be afraid of her. Alex was not going to let them hurt anyone else. No one else would be killed by their hands, even if she had to die tonight to ensure it.

, her wolf pushed at her again. This time, Alex closed her eyes and stopped resisting the impulse to let go. She could feel her wolf rise inside of her. The blood in her veins grew hot as her bones shifted, the places that had broken before giving way easily to the change.

"What the Hell!!" Katya's shout came from a far away place as Alex fell forward. The sound of tearing clothes echoed over the moonlit waters of the pond. 

She was a passenger now. Feeling as light as a feather she explored the world through her wolf's senses. Out of its eyes, she could see the beads of perspiration on Peter's upper lip, through its ears she heard each step Katya took as she ran away into the woods and though its nose she smelt a scent she had never been able to sense before: fear.

"Al-Alpha?" Peter took a step back as her wolf took a step forward. "How? W-wait just one second. Let's talk about this."

Too late, Alex thought. He had been hurting people for too long and no one had stopped him. She would stop him now.

When Alex took another step towards him, Peter's face filled with resolve. Throwing the ring on his finger to the side, he changed.

The grey wolf snarled, its teeth bright, its eyes burning yellow in the semi-darkness. Here it was, the wolf she had seen in her nightmares day after day. The wolf that killed her parents and put in her a coma for months. The murderer who took away her life.

Her wolf howled her fury.

The grey wolf jumped at her throat.