Kalli thought back to her days in the pack she’d escaped; her stomach tightened. She’d been hybrid. Her mother, a human, had died when Kalli was only fourteen, leaving her to survive on her own within the brutal pack. Three years later, her father, a mean son-of-a-bitch, had fought to be Alpha and lost. The reigning Alpha had sent for her soon after, attacked her and explained how she’d be servicing his men for the rest of her life. Tired of the never ending violence, she’d made a decision to leave.
She knew that even though she was considered lower than omega because of her human genes, they’d never let her leave their ranks. They’d use her up and spit her out. Death was the only way out of the pack, an option she’d have willingly chosen, if necessary. So one late summer’s afternoon, she’d taken her father’s fishing boat out into the Atlantic off the coast of South Carolina, and jumped off into the cold dark water. Of course, her body was never found, but the small vessel was recovered two days later. The weather had forecast a small squall, so no one had questioned her disappearance; just another soul lost to the sea. With nothing but a backpack and some cash she’d saved over the years, she took off to New York City.
Upon arrival, she’d picked up a waitressing job and saved her money. It was easier than she’d thought it would be to find someone to change her name. With a few Benjamins, Kalli Anastas became Kalli Williams. Afterward, she’d continued working to put herself through college. By her sophomore year, however, she could no longer prevent the wolf from emerging. As a teen she’d starved herself, preventing the shift. But once on her own, she’d gained weight, and shifting into wolf became inevitable. For weeks she’d suffered nightmares, always with the animal scratching to come out and have its due. She’d remembered the tales the other pack girls had told, describing the symptoms of their first time. That was how she looked at it; an illness to be cured. Kalli knew it would come on the full moon, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Scared and alone, she’d managed to get out of the city and into the mountains in preparation. She’d rented an isolated cabin in the Catskills, and waited. The excruciating pain of the shift took her by surprise even though she’d known it was coming. After running and killing throughout the night, she’d woken up naked, curled into a hole of a rotted-out tree. Covered in blood and dirt, she’d cried hysterically, believing she was cursed for life. For years she’d repeated the ghastly process, month after month, until she became a doctor and discovered ‘the cure’.
After graduation, she’d earned an assistantship, which paid for her grad school. The residency opportunity in Philadelphia had led to a permanent position at UVH. She was able to practice, utilizing state of the art medicine, while continuing to blend into society. And it was there she’d found salvation from the beast.
In reality, her drug didn’t cure her of her wolf. But it kept her at bay, caged and unable to shift. Relentlessly, Kalli had worked; she’d rarely eaten or slept, determined to develop a drug to stop the transformation. On the twenty-second trial, it had worked; Canis Lupis Inhibitor (CLI) kept her from shifting, even on a full moon. Side effects, aside from preventing shifting, included chills and aches, but they only occurred if she missed a daily dose. Enhanced hearing and smell were slightly suppressed but not entirely gone. The discovery allowed Kalli to go months without shifting, and she reveled in finally being human. Best of all, no wolf or vampire could detect her wolf, as far as she could tell, anyway. Of course a simple blood test would reveal her true nature, but other than that, she appeared wholly human.
After she began taking CLI, she kept refining the drug, seeking other useful purposes for it. She experimented, theorizing the drug could help aggressive animals in the canis genus to reduce anxiety. Since they were not supernatural, she envisioned a one dose treatment that would positively affect their emotions. She hadn’t come too far with that side of her research, but initial projections looked promising. Still, she kept all of her work under lock and key in an effort to hide her identity.
Truth be told, Kalli avoided purposeful contact with supernaturals. She’d only done one full-fledged test of the formula to see if she could or could not be detected as wolf. By all accounts, the exercise had been a success, yet that one experiment had proved to be her most critical mistake. Last month, she and a co-worker had gone to Eden. Well aware that it was run by a wolf and frequented by vampires, her curiosity had got the better of her.
Kalli had danced all night, hoping her pheromones would attract a vampire or wolf. Yet every man who approached was human. She’d even approached female wolves and vampires, engaging them in casual conversation, and not one had identified her as wolf. Rather, she was called out as a human by more than one supernatural. She’d left the club in triumph, celebrating the success of her drug.
But in her efforts to do research, she’d also noticed the fifteen foot yellow boa slithering around behind the bar. A spectacular and healthy specimen; it was like having a private viewing at a reptile exhibit at the zoo. While she didn’t specialize in reptiles, she held an appreciation for a species that had survived through the ages.
The vivarium, extraordinarily large, with its heated rocks, trees and flowing water, was an excellent example of how a large snake could be kept safely in captivity. Personally, she did not advocate anyone owning or raising a wild animal, but boa constrictors were routinely sold these days in pet stores. It was refreshing to see how a pet owner would go to such great lengths to care for it, as opposed to what many careless owners did when the snake got too large; releasing it into the wild to fend for itself where it could procreate or die. Florida had a serious issue with the large serpents these days.
So that fateful day, she’d known that she had to save the snake. It had been her lunch break, and she’d been out taking a walk, clearing her head. As she rounded the corner, she smelled smoke and watched as two wolves ran out of the building. They were in human form, but she could tell that they’d been about to shift, noticing the claws extending on their hands. She’d ducked into an alley, waiting for them to pass. Wondering where the fire department was, she’d waited. But then when no one came, she ran into the club on instinct, to make sure everyone was out of the building. Noticing no one, she smashed the glass enclosure and pulled out the slithering animal. Unfortunately in the process, she’d cut her hand. But she’d still managed to carry the poor animal out of the building. As the fire engines raced toward the inferno, she’d made a rash decision to take the snake back to UVH to have it evaluated.
When she’d later pondered over the fact that the snake belonged to a supernatural, she’d decided to have a nurse call Eden and leave a message for the manager. But before she’d had a chance to issue the order, she’d been attacked in the parking lot. She wasn’t supposed to have been working that day; having been called in for an emergency consult, she’d rushed into the hospital with only her ID and keys, locking her purse in her car.
After she’d finished, she’d returned to her car. Instantly, her skin had pricked in awareness as she saw two strange men approach her. Trying to run had proved futile, as they’d snatched her up with preternatural speed. Vehemently protesting, she’d kneed the first of her attackers in the groin. And even though he’d released her, the other vamp had quickly grabbed her by the shoulders, slamming her head against the concrete. By the time she’d woken with a splitting headache, Alexandra was at her neck.
As the history of what had happened to her racked her brain, she felt sick. Opening her eyes, unable to rest, she wished she was like one of the butterflies so beautifully reproduced in the lamp above, able to fly away from her troubles. At least she was clean, in a warm bed and about to be fed, she reasoned. She’d been upgraded from the house of horrors and was no longer a blood bag.