'I guess I didn't make your life any easier, did I?' Mark asked his stepmother as she walked into his room in the Teine's city mansion. He had spent the past two weeks in something like a fiery disaster of a puberty.

Wrestling his inner Phoenix over and over again whilst reconstructing his brain as he had been told by Lisa. She had consoled him and taken him away from the murder-scene, the one he had created. His stepmother had told him that his brother-in-law had orchestrated this very one-sided fight in order to make him cross his last border of humanity.

The murder had been a short-cut to speed up his merging. Mainly the rebuilding of his brain though. He hadn't been himself as he annihilated that were-panther.

Though he had often thought about it in the past weeks today was the first day he felt calm and level-headed again. He had behaved like a raging monster, a sulking and melodramatic teenager or a psychotic mess. Stating he was the born killer and other nonsense. Mark felt ashamed.

Lisa who knew her son took a deep breath and relaxed as she realized, that the creature in front of her was back to being her stepson. Even if she would have never admitted it, his drastic mood-swings had crept her out. She felt like she was about to lose him.

Even knowing that this kind of behaviour was perfectly normal and healthy for a merging member of one of the great clans, she had for the first time seen the differences between the minor and major clans. The members of the major clans were far less human than she had guessed.

The fiery monster that had killed her subordinate mercilessly didn't have anything in common with her down-to-earth son. She had calmed him down and transported him back into the mansion where he belonged. There they had locked him up in a fireproof room for two whole weeks.

She had talked to John about the incident and he was not only not concerned about it but outright elated. He had asked for details about the fight. His verdict had been that his brother-in-law had presented himself splendidly. He was actually proud of him. The murder was not only expected but downright desired by the Teine's upper echelons. It was indeed considered necessary as it sped up Marks merging significantly as John had told her.

Lisa shivered at the thought knowing that those monsters were actually the ones she had thought the easiest to get along with. The great clans were insane... And her, Lisa, she had knowingly delivered them her son.

She saw his despair and fear of himself as she looked him in the eyes that started to change now, too. Lisa sighed. As an alpha werewolf she knew what it was like to be part animal and had thought she knew what Mark was going to go through after his transformation. She had been wrong. The great clans were not arrogant humans with animal-traits, as she had thought, but mystical creatures with a distant link to the human race.

'Well, I don't think it was your fault. You have gone through a brain-reconstruction worth half a year in two weeks of time.' she finally offered. Lisa could see him relaxing at her consoling tone. He had clear feared he would have lost her due to the actions of his Phoenix. His fears hadn't been entirely out of track but right now speaking to him in his sane state let her totally rejoice. She smiled.

'yes, I was told so. They told me it was a necessary step for me to make my first kill... Like I am some bird of prey now.' he muttered and shuddered at the thought. 'maybe they are right though... I was rampant like a wild beast.... And I start to think like a god-damn bird I haven't slept in this bed once since I was brought here. I actually slept on the beam up there. Me who has always been afraid of heights. It felt perfectly normal and comfortable though.' he added in a devastated voice and pointed at beam nearly four meters above ground.

Lisa shrugged and said 'well the choice of your sleeping place won't be the last thing to change, dear. You are a bird of prey, you know, no way to deny it. You should inform yourself about all your features as soon as possible, otherwise you will only end up in a mess you can't cope with. I have heard that you will develop real bird-eyes. Those are fairly different constructed than your current ones...' she explained and laughed at his horrified expression. He was back for sure. There would be alterations, no doubt, but it seemed as if the main part of his personality had survived. The reconstruction of his brain had been the most dangerous part of the merging in this area. The other changes would be much more physically straining, though they too might have a psychological impact, they were nothing compared to having your brains very structure rewritten. She sighed - in relief this time.

It had to be rewritten, as it was in puberty by the way, it had to be rewritten to support the changes in behaviour, in controlling one’s body and so on. Lisa could remember reading an article that stated teenagers’ frontal lobes and serial killers’ frontal lobes didn't show much of a difference at one point of time. She could only guess that merging, which was much less studied, had the same effects. The major clans’ youths absolved both at the same time... Mark had to do it separately and much faster... she was worried about him.

Her worry must have shown as his gaze grew much more observant. Her wolf whined internally as it registered to not only have caught her son’s attention but his phoenix', too. His eyes had always been sharp but now his whole body-language changed as his phoenix-side awoke. A bird of prey hidden under a thin human covering. But even though her wolf registered the apex-predators attention, it felt no menace further than not being the most powerful in here. The phoenix' gaze offered the same intention as her sons worry and interest.

Mark shot his stepmother a glance or at least he intended doing so. He ended up staring as his phoenix awoke completely and caught himself tilting his head sideways just like the falcon he had seen in a zoo, when he was younger. The young phoenix closed his eyes forcefully to break the intensity of his own gaze, knowing how disturbing his predators gaze must feel. It carried no ill intent though. The big schism he had felt when he had first woken up as a phoenix had completely disappeared, he was a phoenix now. No split personality. Mark felt relief as the last two weeks had been hell, especially yesterday when he had relived his past deeds as a whole. Accepting to be an inhuman monster that could murder without a shred of regret, had been a bitter pill to swallow. His last shred, that had still thought of him as a human had died. Mark had accepted to be a bird-of-prey, though it didn't imply a lack of manners or an uncivilised behaviour, his way of thinking was heavily influenced.

He looked at his stepmother and for the first time in his life he did not only see the woman, who had raised him but also a slender grey wolf, who looked back at him with her silver eyes. The white phoenix smiled at the alpha-wolf. Wolf and bird-of-prey hidden under a thin coverage of human-form and manners. At this moment he accepted though he had changed, the change wouldn't change the most important things in his life. A great load had been lifted and he felt himself relax as his future looked now much more favourable than it had moments ago. More of a life than an endless burden. He smiled genuinely this time.