The Shifters: Katrina

"You know, I wanted to laugh when you found me in the forest that day."

I tensed, glaring at Sonya. The fight was between us now, the hunters completely immobile. The girl paced slowly, eyes never leaving me. She stood between myself and the rest of the compound, while I stood alone between thirteen hunters and the rest of the compound.

"I thought you'd suspect me," she snickered, "but you believed my lie like a true friend. You even spilled all your feelings to me!"

Embarrassment, hurt and rage flooded my thoughts. Sonya was supposed to be my friend. Supposed to be a trustworthy student of the compound, someone loyal to Coraline. The gentle, white haired girl that always put everyone at ease.

Instead she was a traitor. Like my mother. Like whoever she was working with.

"I trusted you," I spat.

"You shouldn't have."

The ground rumbled beneath me, and I backpedaled, narrowling avoiding the spike of rock that shot from the dirt.

"Did you even talk to Coraline for me like you said you would?" I demanded, dancing around a second spike.

"Of course not," she hissed, "I only thought your self doubt was entertaining, Katrina. I would've never helped you."

A flicker of sadness crossed my facial features, but I pushed it down. When the next spike rose, I backtracked before pulling back my fist and smashing through it, using my dragon strength. It had been a skill we were working on with Victoria in hand to hand combat.

The class stood at the edge of the gym in lines, anxiously waiting for our teacher. Sonya stood beside me, constantly nudging me whenever I got too antsy. It was the Friday after the end of the festival.

"Alright," Victoria began the minute she stepped through the doors, "one important thing about being in human form is to remember that physically, we're not completely human. Those with animal forms will be familiar with heightened senses, yes?"

I nodded my head along with the other students. Touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. They were all improved after I turned into a dragon for the first time.

"Well, that's not the only thing that's improved."

We watched with wide eyes as Victoria became a blur, appearing at the other end of the room. There, she pulled back a fist and smashed it into the wall, three large cracks appearing.

"If you pull on the connection between you and the animal while in human form," she told us, "you get a piece of their raw power. Their strength, speed, agility, dexterity, etc."

The elite guard surveyed the crowd of students before clapping her hands. "Alright! Anyone without a form, wait for further instructions. Anyone with a form, find a punching bag and practice drawing on the strength of your animal."

I was one of the students that moved, heading for a bag. Sonya was among those who stayed.

I shook my thoughts off as my fist sent the spike crumbling to the ground. My dragon was awake, the familiar cool-headed mindset hovering in the back of my mind. The animal side, its clear, strategic thoughts a breath away from my own. Through the bond I had with that side of me, I called on speed, darting around each spike Sonya threw my way. The shifter gaped as I appeared in front of her, fist at the ready. Blood gushed from her nose as I struck, hearing the sound of it break. The force from my newfound strength sent her backward a few meters, landing on her back.

"If only you didn't train so much," Sonya muttered from her ground. "If only you didn't have two elements. If only you weren't a dragon."

"What would happen then?" I sneered, shaking out my hand. The knuckles were red and cut up from hitting pure stone.

"Maybe you could've joined the tiger's followers," she sighed, "been spared. I really did think of you as a friend, Katrina."

"Well we aren't friends!" I roared, charging.

Even with my speed, I couldn't get to her in time.

She performed the same trick the guards used to hide their vehicles -- the ground swallowed her whole, closing over top of her body. Her scent faded, covered by the musk of dirt. I couldn't hear anything either.

"Damn it Sonya!"

I slumped against the ground, my legs folded underneath me, my head resting on my hands in the dirt. I didn't want to move, didn't want to face whatever was next. Not the rogues, not Sonya, not the frozen hunters behind me. My heart yearned for sleep, for quiet, for my siblings.

A tear slipped down my cheek. I can't give up, I told myself. So what if Mom is a hunter. So what if Sonya is a rogue. I'm Katrina, the dragon shifter. They need my help. I have to push through this.

A month of overwhelming information, missing my family, confusion, frustration, training, learning, fighting and everything else swamped my thoughts. My arms and legs wouldn't respond when I tried to get up, everything weighed down by what my life had become.

For a moment, I thought I was going to kneel there until the hunters' icy traps melted and they killed me.

Instead, there was a voice.

"Katrina!"

An annoying voice.

"Katrina, no sleeping on the job!"

A voice that made my lips quirk upward into a shaky smile.

"Come on, Katrina. I'm not going to be the person that lost to someone who sleeps during an invasion."

Hands wrapped around my arms, pulling me upward. I was dirty, bruised, and dizzy.

But I was also myself. My troublesome, complicated self.

Rowan brushed dirt off my forehead, and behind him I could see Luke grinning.

"Time to rise and shine," Luke told me, "we brought back up."

With Rowan's help, I got to my feet and turned. The others who'd been assigned to different entrances were all here, Emma in front of them all.

"Go crazy," I said, motioning behind me. Eyes passed from my haggard form to the thirteen struggling hunters.

"Not until we join in!"

Actual happiness bubbled up inside me. Approaching our team of twelve, which had become eleven after Sonya's betrayal, were the elite guards, led by Gene and Chloe. Our group of eleven cheered, and I managed a tired smile.

"Are you alright, Katrina?" Koren asked me. I sighed, scanning the faces of everyone here.

Then, I did a double take.

"Where's Xavier?"

Koren smiled. "We sent him with your team that was searching for the rogue. Since he's just as strong as Coraline, we figured he'd be able to deal with the traitor."

"Huh..," I mumbled, something nagging at my thoughts.

Coraline's match.

"Katrina? Everything alright?"

Someone just as strong as Coraline. Who would've been the leader if not for her.

Someone who would still love this compound, but hate the leader.

Someone who would have experience with hunters, and who would know Sonya.

"Wait a minute," I breathed, my friends all staring at me. My eyes were wide, with not only terror but realization.

"Xavier's form... What is he?"

The answer was on the tip of my tongue. I knew it, but I was praying that I had simply forgotten and was confused.

Koren's words sent everything crashing down around me for the millionth time.

"He's a tiger."