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It had been almost two months since the fateful day when I'd gone out for a morning of photography and I was feeling a bit out of sorts, I had been feeling this was for the past few days and the approaching full moon wasn't helping matters. When I talked with Oscar about it he had nodded and told me that soon my cat would want use to shift for the first time.

"What does that entail Oscar? All the information I've read has told me that first shift can be, well, rather painful."

"Yes Mark, that is part of it, I can't really tell you what a first shift is like since, like most members of my pack, I am a born wolf and my first shift was more than a century and a half ago."

"I see," I told him and I could feel the presence of my cat in the back of my mind, though recently he'd been a bit more short tempered than before. I could guess that he really wanted a chance to get out and stretch his legs and I could sympathize with him. "How will I manage to handle the moon night? I mean I know your pack is likely to go on a moon hunt, but for me... I also feel that my cat will want to go out for a hunt as well, though my methods are starkly different from yours."

"Well we are considering a hunt on the east side of the property, where we have an abundance of deer. We could leave you to your own devices on the west side, though the deer population there isn't as large since we've been hunting out there recently. I think they can handle it if you limit yourself to one."

"Oscar, I think that one should more than satisfy both me and my cat, any more than that would be greedy." I told him, "Though tonight I think I am going to see if my cat is ready, he really is starting to get short tempered and uncomfortable with the current situation. It isn't your wolves that he's having a problem with it is the fact that he wants to stretch his legs out and really check things out for himself."

The Alpha nodded, "As long as you remind him that he's a guest here and shouldn't be marking the area as his."

"I will keep him on a short leash in that regards Alpha." I said firmly before I stood to leave.

"Mark, I've watched you over the past month and a half since you woke up from your change sickness and already I can tell that you are going to make an excellent were-cat. I may not really feel comfortable around cats, it isn't anything personal, but I can tell that among those few who I've met who've been rogue turned you've probably have had the best reactions of any I've ever met. If you keep developing as a Were like you have recently soon nobody will be able to discern that you were rogue turned."

"Thank you for the complement sir, I will keep that in mind." I told him before I left the room, "Hope those bruises heal tonight," I tossed over my shoulder before the door shut behind me. I wasn't being malicious or anything but I did like to tease him a tiny bit about our twice a week sparring sessions that we'd started a short time after my cat had woken up.

After I left the Alpha suite I went to the gym and began working with a large boken wooden training sword. Though I had much practice with a bo-staff I'd found that the weapon wasn't what I personally preferred and instead had gravitated towards training swords instead. When I had settled on the weapon to specialize in I had felt some approval from my cat as well since that appeared to be his weapon of choice as well.

As I was finishing some of the most advanced forms that my cat had taught me a voice behind me spoke up, "Good grief Mark, when you first got here you couldn't even do anything like that, and now here you are, a match for our Alpha."

Without thinking I spun with a growl, but I stopped my sword mere millimetres from Jack's handsome young face. "Jack! You should know better than to sneak up on me when I am concentrating on practicing."

He gave me a nervous laugh. "God damn you're fast!"

I lowered my weapon and held out my hand, "Jack I'm a cat, we are built for speed and power."

"That's for sure Mark, but sometimes it surprises me just how fast you really are, then again before you came along I'd never met a were-cat up close and personal." He said as he took my hand and I shook it gently.

"Now you have met a cat and you've seen what even a half-trained cat can do. Once I get some training from a were-cat I think I will only get better. Well at least that is my hope, though my cat has almost told me that he'd be disappointed if we don't get better."

He simply shook his head and handed me a towel, "You're panting again Mark." He told me as I took the towel and began wiping my face.

"Can't help it Jack." I replied before turning and placing my weapon on a nearby rack. "Jack tonight after supper can you leave me to my own devices? I need to... stretch my legs."

He stopped for a second before nodding, "Of course Mark, I understand what you need. Should I talk to Sam to get her to keep Katy occupied?"

"I'd appreciate that, as much as having a puppy around is fun, I think I'd like some privacy with my cat if you guys don't mind." While I was saying that I felt my cat give a slight mental push.

"Yes sir." Jack answered quickly and I growled softly to myself, I'd caught myself, more in the past two weeks than before giving wolves orders that had a slight mental push to them that would make them automatically obey.

"Sorry Jack didn't mean to do that, I need to learn not to do it around wolves..."

"Think nothing of it Mark, you are a dominant cat. I can feel that much, if you aren't at least a Beta I would eat my shorts. Furthermore, I think your cat would get offended if we didn't listen to what you say."

"Jack, it isn't that, it's that I'm just a guest of your pack, I shouldn't be telling pack members what to do, it isn't my place."

"I think the Alpha understands Mark, and he knows the current situation is only temporary, though how it will be resolved is anybody's guess." He told me as I headed for the showers to get cleaned up before dinner. I hated having my cat push on members of the pack but I knew that some of what Jack had told me was true, he didn't like it when the wolves didn't treat us with the respect that he felt was his due. "We deserve to be treated right." Was all he said to me as I showered.

Two hours later after dinner I sat on the balcony of the guest room where the pack had placed me and closed my eyes inviting my cat closer to the surface. "I can feel your stress my friend." I told him in the silent places in my mind as I inviting him closer to the surface. As he came to the surface my whole body from head to foot started to ache and then worse as the skin, muscles, and bones writhed and changed configuration.

Two minutes later I was laying on the floor of the balcony panting softly feeling the light wind of the valley ruffling the thick fur on my ears. "We are one now!" My cat shouted in our mind before we stood and our massive chest expanded and after a moment a thunderous roar was let loose before we stepped from the porch and out towards the trees. As I reveled in the feeling of power, and an almost absolute mastery of my surroundings a mental voice came into the silence.

"Congratulations Mark, after our meeting today I had figured that you'd change soon."

"Thanks Alpha, and sorry I kind of pushed Jack to keep Katy occupied this evening. It isn't my place to be telling him what to do." I apologized as I made my way through the bushes letting my superb senses guide me along the almost invisible trail.

"Think nothing of it Mark, we both know that you are a dominant cat and it is something that happens at the level that you are at." He told me before breaking off contact and giving me the privacy that I had asked for. I needed the time to really get used to being the cat that I was, though I relished the feelings that finally, after decades of being stuck as a mere human I was getting to experience for the first time. I was almost thankful for my cat's help in understanding the massive amounts of information that I was getting from all of my senses. I could smell the wolves, see their signs, and hear not only the wolves in the area but also most of the animals that lived in the forest and even feel some of them on the air currents around me with my long sensitive whiskers.

Ten minutes later I climbed into a small clearing and laid down on top of a log before I relaxed and spent time really communing with my cat.

The next morning, I woke up on the log and was surprised by a light dusting of snow that had settled on the area over night, though I didn't feel even slightly chilled. My cat was almost over the moon by the sight of snow. "Yay! Snow!" I felt him shout in our mind, though I could also sense that he was a little disappointed at how little there was on the ground, and on our fur. After standing and shaking the light snow from our fur I directed my body back to the room where I was staying. I'd only managed to get into the room before the door opened, thanks to Jack though the pup that followed him was probably the one who'd been the one that wanted the door open.

"Kitty!" She shouted before running up and jumping to hug me around my neck, burying her face in my thick ruff of fur around my neck.

"Wow, impressive Mark. You're even bigger than the cat the turned you." I heard Jack say as he looked at me measuring me with his eyes. "I have to say that you are one handsome cat too."

"Thank you, Jack, I feel much better today that I did yesterday, though I am absolutely famished! Can you take Katy for a few minutes while I change and get ready for breakfast?" I asked Jack, making sure that I didn't push him to obey before I headed to the bathroom and suffered through the pain of shifting back to human. As soon as I had and saw myself in the mirror I knew I had a slight problem and I would need a whole new wardrobe. I'd gained more than a foot in height and over a hundred pounds in mass. Simply put none of my clothes would even come close to fitting anymore. After a moment's thought, I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my waist before stepping out into the living area.

Jack looked over and then shook his head, "Having a bit of a clothing problem there Mark?"

I laughed, "You could say that, if my clothes didn't fit very well before now they definitely won't fit at all."

"Yeah, I can see that now." He said, still barely able to suppress his laughter. "I'm telling Alpha that you need to borrow some more clothes."

"Kitty!" Katy shouted again before running up to tackle one of my legs.

"Hi there puppy." I said to her, bending over to pick her up.

"Kitty you bigger now... pretty kitty!" She told me resting her head against my shoulder before the door opened again and her mother came into the room.

"Mark... oh... wow." She managed to say as she caught sight of me standing by the fireplace with her daughter in my arms. "I guess you shifted last night and when you changed back..."

"I got a bit bigger," I completed for her before handing her daughter to her and grabbed one of my largest belts. It had been adjusted by me to fit by the simple expedient of making a hole in it so that I could use it at work, now though used it to hold the towel up and found myself using the middle hole.

"Looks good on you, for some reason my wolf thought that a cat such as a tiger shouldn't have a small human body." She told me before my door opened again, with both Oscar and Olwen coming through carrying four large bags of clothing.

"Looking good Mark." Oscar said, "Though I suspect that as soon as you get dressed you're going to try and eat the entire breakfast buffet yourself."

"Yeah, not looking forwards to it." I told him as I quickly found something to wear in the bags that him and his mate had brought me before I retreated to the bathroom to change. As much as I was aware that most Were didn't really mind casual nudity I wasn't looking to put on a show, especially with the Alpha and his mate in attendance.

When I entered, the dining room a bit later, with Katy being in her usual place in my arms there was a slight stir from the wolves in attendance as they came to grips with the fact that I had expanded on them. There was even more of a stir when I got up from my seat for my third helping with Samantha commenting, "You trying to polish the entire buffet off by yourself Mark?"

Shaking my head, I replied, "No, but my cat and I both know that we need to eat to sustain this massive frame of mine especially considering the difference in size between yesterday and today."

"That much is true." She told me before I reached the table, though this time I didn't try and cover my plate in food.

After breakfast was done I headed to the medical room where the doc was working on one of the other wolves, a young fifteen-year-old pup who'd managed to hurt himself badly a few days before. She looked up from what she was doing and then did a bit of a double take. "Mark?" She asked looking slightly surprised.

Laughing I replied, "In the flesh doc, though there's quite a bit more of me here than there was last night."

"I can see that." She replied shaking her head, "Now Ben I want you to be careful, that was a bad break." She said returning her attention to the pup on the exam table with the huge cast that ran almost from his hip down to his foot.

I shook my head getting close to the youngster. "Good grief Ben..." I commented. Ben was one of the pups that normally did his homework in my group of youngsters. "What were you trying to do?"

He looked up at me and shivered, "Sorry Mark, me and Chris were having an argument and he gave me a push..."

"Let me guess you landed wrong... off of a balcony?"

He looked slightly ashamed of himself and nodded. "We had to tell my teachers at school that I got sick, cause if they knew the truth they'd probably wonder why my leg would be all healed up after less than two week's healing."

I patted his shoulder, "I'll still check up on you to make sure that you do your homework Ben, you can't get out of that." I told him with a chuckle as I thought about my own lack of anything more than a basic high school diploma. I'd never been anything more than a lousy student in school and at just over 36 years old I knew that by in large, I was past the point at which most students took up university. To make matters worse before I even tried that I would have to try and repair my horrible grades from High School.

"Silly human, we can do it now, we aren't all that old by our standards. Besides that, I will help you learn." I heard from my cat as he told me that we were going to upgrade ourselves and get the education that I had wished that I'd gotten when I was younger.

The doctor tapped me on my shoulder and caused me to blink before I realized that Ben had left the room and I was standing beside the exam table, alone with the doctor.

"Sorry doc, my cat had something to say." I told her with a shrug of my shoulders.

She sighed, "Sometimes I wish some of the pack members would listen to their wolves half as much as you listen to your cat." As she directed me to disrobe and sit on her exam table. "So, you've finally managed to shift. Besides the discomfort of the shift itself, how was it? Everything work out okay?"

I gave a soft smile, "Doc I couldn't begin to explain how it felt to finally be able to walk around as a tiger, and my senses... I thought my senses were good after I was bitten and began the turn but as a cat..."

"They were even more amplified?" She completed the thought for me as she checked one of my arms, which was almost as large around as my thigh had been when I was human. "As far as I can tell, and with the information I've managed to glean from Blackwater Pride's medic your change is proceeding as smoothly as any."

"You've talked with their medic?"

"Yes, I had to, because each species of Were has different adjustments that happen during the change. Their medic isn't as well trained as I am, but he is competent and knowledgeable enough about what a Siberian Were-Tiger should look like in all three forms, though I don't suspect I'll have a chance to see your Were form." She informed me firmly.

"Thanks Doc." I told her before she told me that she was done.

"Your appetite should tapper off in a few days, however for those few days I have the same advice as I had when you first woke up, eat lots and snack when you can. Now though you will have to eat even more since you are physically very active and training."

I nodded to the doctor as I finished putting on my clothing and headed down the to the gym to train, and get used to my expanded form. I needed to become comfortable not only with myself as a tiger, but also of my larger human form.

When I picked up the training sword that I had been using before I shook my head. It no longer felt right, it was too light and small, almost like a fencing rapier instead of a proper weapon for a cat like me.

As I was looking for a proper weapon to train with the senior trainer for the pack came up to me and shook his head. "Mark? Good grief man you aren't exactly one to do things by half measures, are you?"

"I know," I told him before I stopped looking at the training weapons for human and instead focused on the Were weapons. After a moment, I found a large long sword that perfectly suited me, though this weapon was live steel instead of a practice weapon. "This I like, and my cat approves as well."

"You have good taste Mark. That weapon has been in our collection for about fifty years. The wolf who made it is a master smith from Germany, his swords are expensive and highly exclusive."

"How come it is here instead of in the Alpha's office?" I asked drawing the weapon from it's scabbard.

"I don't know, the wolf who made it said to us, in a note, that we would know who it was for when he handled it."

I swung the weapon gently for a moment, getting a feel for its balance but I could already tell that my cat was really happy about it. "Ours!" Was all I got from him. "Great... just great... my cat thinks this is his blade."

"Well how about you run some practice forms, get a better feel for it before you make any judgements" The trainer told me, though I could sense a certain reluctance on his part, though considering the obvious value of the weapon I could easily see why.

Ten minutes later I was panting slowly and enjoying the feeling of the weapon in my hand, the hilt was perfectly shaped for use in either two handed, or one handed mode. The balance might as well have been made for me, and the aesthetics of the weapon were sublime. "It is going to be hard to convince my cat that this blade belongs here." I commented, knowing that Oscar was dressed for training behind me.

"Ah... Master Gunther Sien's blade, the one he sent with the blade that I ordered, He didn't even charge for that one which is highly unusual since his pack makes a fortune off of his craft." Oscar replied as I sheathed the weapon and handed it over to him. He looked at the weapon for a moment and then held it out at me. "Mark, I think this is what Sien meant in his note. He didn't know who he was making this for, but I have a feeling that I now know, take your sword and bear it with honour."

I looked at the weapon he was holding out to me and after a moment of thinking, in consultation with my cat I knelt and accepted the weapon. "Thank you Alpha, words cannot express how honoured we feel to accept this weapon."

"Now how about you grab a practice weapon and we can see how much your new size has changed your fighting style."

When we finished our sparring session both of us were panting hard and I had a number of very sore spots, but I could also tell that I'd given as good as I got. "That was fun Alpha Oscar, you are a healthy challenge for my cat."

"I could say the same for you Mark, you are developing as a fighter much more rapidly than I've seen in almost a century. I'd hazard to guess that you aren't a scholar but a warrior at heart."

I grabbed a towel and mopped my face, nodding slightly. "I've always felt a certain affinity for warriors, true warriors that is. People who fight with honour and integrity."

Oscar nodded as he grabbed a towel and began mopping his face. "Mark tomorrow evening, before the hunt I would like you to join us, at the first part of howl. I know that you don't feel that it would be your place to join us, but my mate reminded me that no Were should spend a full moon night alone."

"Sir full moon night is for you to bond you pack, and I am not a member, nor will I accept a membership. You and I both know that the current situation with me being stuck here, isn't going to last."

Oscar reached into a pocket and pulled something before he held it out to me. "Mark, I know that you won't accept a membership in any Pack, but both my mate and I both agree that you should be a friend of Forest Edge."

I looked down at his hand, in it was a gold chain necklace with a wolfs head made of gold and silver with sapphire eyes and two small trees flanking the head. "Alpha..."

"Mark you've shown yourself to be a true friend of the pack and I believe that this is something you've earned. Now don't be late tomorrow, howl starts at ten." He told me, dropping the necklace in my hand before turning to leave.

I showed up, as Oscar had instructed, just before nine thirty where the pack was congregating and was almost instantly surrounded by wolves, over a two hundred of them. Most were already in wolf form though I could feel them all talking with mind-speak. I myself was in my tiger form and was slightly amused that the wolves, at best, were shoulder high on me. As I walked through the press of wolfy fur I found myself mobbed by puppies as the pack's pups made their presence known to me. From the horde of pups one tiny little pup stood out as she took a place between my forelegs and sat down with a soft yip of happiness. She had rather unique pattern for a wolf, in that her basic background fur colour was black, though the tip of her tail was white. Over that background was a series of lighter grey streaks that ran from the center of her back down.

I looked around for a moment and found her mother, "You and Damien have an adorable pup, she almost looks tiger-striped."

I sensed a soft sense of accomplishment from Katy's mother as she replied. "We are very proud of her, and we love how unique she is." Beside her appeared Damien and he almost seem to beaming he was so pleased.

"I feel that we are truly blessed to have Katy in our lives." Was his comment the other wolves continued to mingle about.

Once I got the happy little puppy to go back to her mother I found that I had to be careful when I engaged in playing with the wolves since I was so much stronger than they were. Furthermore, a light tap for a tiger could be a brutal blow for a much smaller and more lightly built wolf.

When Oscar began the Howl, I had to restrain my cat from joining and instead listened and enjoyed the wolf-music since I didn't think many of the wolves would enjoy the sound of a tiger's roar mingled with their song.

"Mark, you're staying quiet? Why?" Oscar asked me after several minutes of interweaved howling of the wolves.

"Alpha you wolves sound wonderful... a tiger's roar doesn't have the intricacy of your howls, instead it is a rather brutal sound that conveys the power of the one who is roaring. At least that is part of what my cat has told me. Part of a roar is an implied threat and deterrent to all who hear it."

"Mark, I invited you to the howl, I knew that you'd make some noise and all the pack members fully expect it, especially now that you are a friend of the pack."

I nodded my great head slightly and pointed my head up as I inhaled, filling my massive lungs to capacity before I gave voice to the thunderous roar of a dominant male tiger. As the echos died away I noticed that all the wolves had stopped howling for a moment before the ducked their heads for a moment before they started howling again. "Alpha that's why I didn't want to roar... it interrupts your howling."

"You have a fine and powerful voice my young friend, don't be afraid to use it." Was his reply. "You are growing into a superlative specimen of your species and I feel that you are going to do great things with your life."

"Thank you Alpha, I am proud to call your pack my friends, now if you don't mind I want to go find a deer and have a light night snack..." He gave me his release and I went off to conduct my own hunt while he led his pack in the opposite direction to do the same thing.

Three and a half weeks later I was taking care of Katy, her parents had gone out to spend and evening together. They liked to do that every so often, and with me around to take care of Katy it made things easy for them to spend time in the city with each other. It was around ten in the evening and I had just managed to get Katy to lay down when she sat bolt upright and screamed like she was in unimaginable pain before passing out.