Caine

I throw my head back and let out another strained scream as sweat drips from my forehead and rolls down my neck and chest. I pull my arms and the tight chains burn as they forcefully rub against my wrists. There isn't a part of me that doesn't hurt.

My jaw clenches as it reshapes itself to fit my new, larger, sharper canines. My head pounds as my ears and nose shift, allowing me to hear and smell things from farther away. As I continuously pant, I look at my strained muscles, already finding them larger than normal. I am constantly changing between forms as my body adjusts to my new status; it is out of my control. The human part of me is currently destroyed. I am an animal, and all I want is to kill.

Even in my human form, my fur keeps growing and retracting back into my skin, each time the light brown tone getting a shade darker. By the end of the night, it will be jet black, the only wolf in the pack with that color.

My eyes burn as my vision becomes sharper, the irises changing from my old, plain brown to a sharp, icy blue: a color only possessed by the Alpha and Luna of the Obsidian Pack.

Legs, arms, back: stretching, bones breaking; those and my nonstop growls are the only things that can be heard in the room. Sweat and blood being the only thing I can smell.

As my arm snaps yet again, I growl and look up at my father, who is standing in front of me with his arms crossed, watching as I suffer. I stand there stark naked and sweating, all of my muscles flexed. Clothes would be pointless, they wouldn't last two minutes during a changing.

My best friend, who is now the current Beta, had changed a few weeks ago and replaced his father. He is standing next to my father with the same expression.

"It wasn't this intense when I changed," I hear him mumble as I spit more blood out of my mouth and stare at the floor. The moonlight sparkles so brightly through the small window that I have to squint to keep the light out, trying to somehow ward off my pounding headache.

"You changed into a Beta, Brayden, there's a difference," my father says back. The next time he transforms his fur will change to a silver color, and I can already see his eyes fading to a dull blue as I take his title.

I throw my head back and let out another loud, grumbling scream as I feel my spine break and readjust itself. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Brayden cringe at the cracking and popping sound it makes.

This was why we can handle so much pain, this is why we are stronger than everyone else: because of our changing.

"How much longer does he have to deal with this?" my father shrugs at his question.

"However long it takes."

The collar around my neck tightens as I clench my jaw. I had worried about it being too loose before this all started, but I had filled it in within the first hour of the change, and now it is too tight.

I slump over, letting the chains around my arms hold me up as I feel heat overtake my body, once again. I brace myself as my wolf takes over. The metal collar around my neck breaks off as my now giant wolf makes an appearance and Brayden takes a step back.

My wolf is getting bigger and bigger every time I transform. I growl and snarl while showing my teeth. This is why they have me chained in the first place, I can't control myself during my change.

Still in my wolf form, I once more throw my head back and howl in intense pain. My howl turns into a scream as I change back to human form. The pain doesn't stop, though. I feel a spasm overtake my whole body and my muscles clench. My arms pull back and one of the chains holding my wrist up breaks. My father looks impressed.

"He's going to be a strong one. The other packs are in trouble," he opens the metal gate and walks over to me as I pant, finally having another small break from all the changing. He quickly fixes the chain on my wrist, leaving the metal collar alone, before returning to Brayden's side of the cell just as I start to growl again. I can't control my animal side, it has completely taken over.

"Just breathe," Brayden directs his comment towards me and I snap at him, my canines still sharp. I didn't mean to, but I wasn't controlling my actions, hence the chains.

"Don't address him right now," my father grumbles.

My mother wasn't down here, in the cellar where they have locked me up in a concrete cell. She wouldn't be able to watch without worrying, although she can still hear me; the whole pack can.

Again, I scream as my legs kick out from under me and my shin bone cracks in two. I look down to see the bone poking through my leg before retracting as the skin quickly heals itself. The chains on my wrists hold me up and my legs crack again.

It has been four hours since this torture started. This is why I'd always dreaded my twentieth birthday. I was warned it would be painful.

After all, I am becoming an Alpha.