The locker room was quiet when he walked in. Mr. Hews probably had the kids outside running for P.E. class. Merk didn’t mind the silence. He needed a moment to decide on the approach that he wanted to take with Coach Winston. From what Merk could gather, he was a sympathizer, a human that wanted desperately to be a shifter, so they did the shifters’ dirty work for them, always on their side and carrying out errands for them; they were the servants of shifters, they did the shifter’s bidding. Coach Winston was undoubtedly indebted to Ratty, which meant that as long as he was around, there would be problems for Merk.

Merk sat his desk. He began to go through some papers; he had a mountain of student progress sheets to go through. The end of the quarter was getting close and with that came report cards and whether or not players were eligible for the playoffs – district, regionals, and beyond. Merk skipped through the pile to find RJ’s. This had been his concern since the day before, and what really had started the interaction with Ratty Fairweather.

Damn. The kid fucking sucked in mostly all of his classes. The highest grade he had was a ‘C’ and that was in P.E. He couldn’t even get an ‘A’ in the class that he had with his father’s crony and sympathizer? No. Wait. Mrs. Longburress was his P.E. teacher. Merk didn’t really know her that well, but had heard rumors about her Sergeant Slaughter like tendencies. Still, a ‘C’ in P.E. and you’re the starting quarterback of the high school football team?

When Merk was in school that would have been just fucking embarrassing. But not for RJ. No. He had Ratty and the Fairweather name to back him up, no doubt there was a sense of entitlement that governed RJ’s life and there really wasn’t a need to try to do better, to be better, no drive except to make sure that he truly got what he already thought belonged to him. That was the feeling that Merk had gotten from Ratty. And he had experienced the depths and means and lengths by which Ratty would go to secure and engender those things that he thought belonged to him.

A knock came on the door. Merk looked at his watch. Kara was still teaching. Her last class didn’t end for a few minutes, so it couldn’t be her. For some reason, Merk didn’t want to be disturbed. There was too much to do and there was too much to think about – from football to the wolf shifters, he had to figure the shit out.

He opened the door.  It was Principal Lightwood. He looked piqued and a little flushed. He wasted no time coming in, more or less barging in, brushing pass Merk with an uncharacteristic non-caring nudge. In the coach’s office, he turned around on his heels and pointed at the door.

“Shut that, please.”

Merk did as he was told. He turned back around to face Mr. Lightwood. In the few seconds he had entered the room, his face had gotten redder, more flushed, his visage and demeanor seemed shaken, disturbed. He stepped forward and Merk could see the man actually shaking. Merk braced himself for what was coming next, almost knowing who and what this was about.

“We just can’t have any problems here, Mr. Castle,” said the bald-headed man, sniveling.

Merk lost respect almost immediately for Principal Lightwood, not that he had had a lot to begin with. All of their interactions before yesterday when he had brought Ratty into Kara’s room had been encased with an energy and air of a man that was more like a mouse. This was then confirmed and exacerbated by his acquiescing to Ratty Fairweather’s wants. And now, he was in his office about to unload some more bullshit concerning how Merk did things solely because he too was a fucking sympathizer, or if not one yet, was just as close to being one.               

“We just can’t okay?” he continued.

“What problems are you talkin’ about, sir?” asked Merk, he wanted the principal to be clear and to say it, to have the fucking balls to just say it.

Principal Lightwood paused. Merk saw it working around his head, how to say what he had to say – what he had been told to say – without it sounding as if he had been sent there as a messenger by the Rat-man himself. It was pathetic, but Merk understood. Shifters were supernatural. They were living, breathing, and walking gods on earth. If you really thought about it by comparing them to normal human beings. It was no surprise that a person would become enamored with a being like that, willing and ready to do anything and whatever the shifter asked of them, simply because they were something that you were not; the shifter was more, an extension of a reality that was greater than your own and the shifter was proof that there was indeed more to this world than what the human five senses dictated.

“Merk, please… “Ratty – the Fairweathers, they’ve been around this town a long time, way longer than me…than a lot of people. They’ve seen a lot of people come and go and those people tried to change things and make waves, but they are not the ones that are still here.”

“Make waves?” Merk questioned. “Am I trying to make waves, sir?”

Merk was annoyed with Principal Lightwood. His view and approach towards Ratty and his shifter pack of goons was one of acceptance, they were the status quo. Merk wondered if this was seriously how the entire town felt. Did Ratty and the Fairweathers have complete autonomy in this town? Could they do anything, get away with anything they wanted?

His run in with the wolves was a lot different, he didn’t have the luxury of having them held accountable through legal means, involving police and all because of the shifter nature of things. There just wasn’t a way to govern shifters, to police them, which was also part of the problem because they were all above the law (including him, but he had a code that he tried to live by, he had ethics and some set of standards that mattered to him, a lot of shifters didn’t). Listening to him, Merk decided that this small Floridian town was under the wolf pack’s rule - it had to be.

He hadn’t noticed it before, maybe because he’d been so preoccupied with coaching and getting the football team ready, settling into his new life, and then Kara. But it was clear: this was going to be a problem and he found himself directly in the middle of it.

“Do we have an understanding, Mr. Castle?” Principal Lightwood asked, his voice fumbling, stuttering some.

Merk stared at the thinly framed man standing in front of him, his body languid, his face and eyes a sorrowful and pitied visage. Weakness emitted from him. It disgusted Merk and he didn’t have time for it. And there was no way that he was going to cower to the unspoken rule of Ratty and his wolf pack. Merk had never conformed to anything or anyone in his life and he never would.

“I understand…” Merk started. “But here’s what you have to understand. I don’t give a fuck who Ratty Fairweather is – I really don’t. However, he does need to be concerned with who I am.”

There was finality in Merk’s voice. It was pushed to the surface by his hate of cowardice and the people who purport such attributes in others; Ratty and his crew were bullies and they had been allowed to push people around for far too long. Principal Lightwood was on that list. Coach Winston, his assistant. How many others? he wondered. Only Kara seemed to be willing and strong enough to face off with Ratty. She had done so in her classroom yesterday. That’s whom he needed to talk to if he was going to do something about it – if he was going to put an end to the wolves’ rule.

"No! No! You don’t understand – No! You – You can’t –! Mr. Castle, you have to –”

But Merk was done listening to his wining. He felt the adrenaline rush through him, pushing his feral nature, then the rise of his animal instincts to attack, to fight, and come forward. The principal was afraid of Ratty and the wolves and what they could do, but he needed to be just as afraid of him, maybe more. He needed to show him. Make him see it. To see him. Merk lunged forward with lightning quick speed, every muscle in his body bulging, vibrating on a different level, he grabbed Principal Lightwood by the collar and shoved him against the wall with enough force to cause an indentation in the wall behind him.

“Oh God! Mr. Cassss…” he started, his voice trailing off with gasps for air and coughs in between.

Merk emitted a guttural and primal roar. He continued to hold the principal pinned against the wall. It was in these moments that Merk was the most dangerous. As a Panther Shifter, he had the ability to channel his panther nature in human form, usually this was done through his adrenaline with his emotions as a catalyst. He was the strongest like this, a man with animal energy and strength, but he was also more vulnerable because of the human anatomy. If he was being attacked, his panther form, would be the best form of protection, as it had been when the wolves attacked him. If he had been in human form during that attack, he wouldn’t have survived.

“Mer – Mer – Mr. Castle, pl – please…” Mr. Lightwood strained.

“Merk!” a voice yelled from behind him. “Merk! Stop!”

Merk looked over his shoulder. It was Kara. Merk turned back to face Principal Lightwood. He had the man at least two feet off the floor and there was enough strength behind his pinning of the principal to the wall that the man was struggling to breathe. What was he doing? Merk relaxed his grip on Mr. Lightwood’s collar and let him down. The disheveled and utterly frightened principal hurriedly ran past him, brushing against Kara, and out of the coach’s office.

“What the hell, Merk?!” Kara reprimanded.

She came over to him, but Merk shied away. Everything was wrong, had been that way since yesterday when Ratty walked into his life. Merk flopped down in the chair behind his desk, burying his head in his hands, frustrated, unnerved, the muscles in his arms bulging from how tight his grip had been on the principal. He could have killed him. Easily. For a moment, no matter how brief, he had lost it. That happened sometimes when his anger was unchecked and his emotions ran free. His panther nature was so raw, primal that sometimes it was hard to control rationally and still harness the power of the panther; it just wanted to roam free and complete balance between human and panther form just didn’t exist.

“Merk…” he could hear Kara call for him, he kept his eyes closed tightly and his head buried in his hands.

Suddenly her hands were on his shoulder – HE GRABBED HER WRIST – the inclination to twist and break, the kneejerk response, hit him but her smell (his senses were still heightened from his panther nature), it whiffed by his nose and then played around in his nostrils; Kara’s scent was soothing and it almost immediately calmed him.

Merk could feel his mind quieting, his anxiousness dissipating. Her hand was still on his shoulder. He peered up at her. Kara’s face seemed to shine down on him like the sun. Her eyes were like disks of rays of light shining forth, breaking through the darkness inside of him that lay behind his eyes, deep down in the recesses of who and what he truly was. He noticed that Kara hadn’t jumped when he had grabbed her.

“We have to get you out of here…” she said, stooping down to be with him, to be eye-level with him.

She put one hand on his leg and the other on his arm. Her touch did something to him and it wasn’t all in his mind. That’s what he was starting to realize. Like earlier, he could feel something coming off of her, something that was misty and airy, just like before. It was light, damn near invisible, and Merk knew somehow that it had something to do with how he was suddenly beginning to feel: he felt light, like the mist. He felt okay, as if he knew that everything was going to work out. There was a calmness that washed through him, a peacefulness that had fallen on him. And it had everything to do with Kara and her touch. He knew it. Merk lifted his head, peering up at her, curiosity filling him; he needed answers.

“What are you?” he made himself ask.

Kara paused. She looked at him. It was a deep look, arcane. He could see the opaqueness about her; it was unsettling to him, making him want to draw away from her, to free himself of her touch. But he didn’t. Then he wondered if he could even if he wanted to. His animal instincts were still high from his panther nature, and he felt, sensed something supernatural about her. It was soft and barely noticeable. But it was there. He met her eyes, willing himself to pass on whatever it was she was doing to him.

“Merk…”

But he didn’t answer. Something told him not to, that he had to remain focused. He pressed harder, leaning on his resolve, he stared at her until she looked away. Kara stood up. He did the same. She walked away from him, her gait shaky and her body language distraught. 

“Kara… What are you? Why –?”

She wheeled around to face him. She stood in a manner that suggested that she was trying to regain some of her composure. Merk’s resolve had done something to her, whatever she was doing to him, wouldn’t stick.

“Kara…”

A flash. A flicker in her eyes. He saw it change. No, it was more like a pass through – it was like something passed through her eyes, it was so faint and if he had blinked that second, he would have missed it. Kara stepped forward, she suddenly seemed so unsure of herself, uncharacteristically so. She started to speak but hesitated, then found her footing again. She cleared her throat. Merk readied himself.

“I’m –”

Coach Winston burst through the door, entering the coach’s office frantically and in a frenzy. His eyes were wild and his skin looked sick, like he had spent the better part of the day in cold sweats and feverous. He was panicked. He passed Kara who was standing near the door to approach Merk.

“You can’t fucking do it! Please tell me you changed your mind – that they changed your mind! They’re crazy –”

Merk was on him, putting him down to the floor, the tackle, a hard spear, exactly how he would want his defensive safeties to hit flankers floating around carelessly and freely down the field. Merk could hear when the wind went out of him, then he landed on top of him.

“Oh my God!” he heard Kara squeak in the background.

But it didn’t matter to Merk. His panther nature was too close to the surface, it was easy for him to be triggered now and his strength and force was so brute in this form and feral. Kara ran over to him. She grabbed him trying to pull him off of his assistant coach, but Merk was too big and too strong. 

“Merk, you’re hurting him. Stop!”

He could hear Kara but only behind his own growling mind, an echo of the low gutturals that were stirring inside of him, just like earlier with Principal Lightwood. However this time, Merk wasn’t going to back down. Kara had saved the principal but Coach Winston, his assistant coach would not be so lucky.

“Merk! Please –!” she cried in the background.

Merk cocked his arm back ready to strike down on Coach Winston. With how he felt, he knew that he could probably kill the man, if not the damage would be so severe that he would wish that he was dead rather than the invalid and vegetable state he would be in.

“Please…” started Coach Winston. “Do it.”

Merk gave pause. He hadn’t expected that, not his assistant coach’s approval and desire to match his wanting to end him; a hit that would potentially kill him. Had the man lost it? Lost his mind?  But it didn’t stop there. Coach Winston seemed to all of a sudden be invigorated. He pushed and pulled at Merk, trying to get him to hit him. There was desperation on his face and within his grip.

“Do it! Do it, please!” he begged.

Hearing a man beg for pain and punishment and even a possible death, took the desire from you to inflict such pain on them, no matter how deservingly. That was the case for Merk. The man’s voice was hollow and the ache in it pulled at Merk, his nerves, the anger and stirring rage that he wanted to unleash. Merk found himself letting the man go and standing up. Kara was behind him. He could hear her sigh. He smelled fear on her and something else – that scent again. He whipped around to face her, a sliver of anger back, his eyes daggers pointed at her.

“What are you!?” he roared.

Kara staggered backwards – more fear, he could smell it. She cowered, pressing her back against the wall, her eyes bouncing from him to Coach Winston and back again. Merk was done. He was tired of everything. He had come to this town to start over, to be someone else, and to definitely not be a shifter anymore. But he was right back where he had started. Trouble seemed to find him and as much as he wanted to stay clear of it, to walk away from it, there was something inside of him that kept bringing him back there, to that place, petitioning him to do something about the wrong, to fix things, to make everything right. He hated whatever that was that made him think and feel those things. He cursed it. 

“You should have done it,” said the quivering voice of Coach Winston behind him. “You should have killed me.”

Merk turned to him. Coach Winston seemed smaller. Or maybe Merk was still just so full of his panther nature that his vertebrae and endoskeleton had enlarged, there was literally a chance that he was indeed towering over the comparatively puny assistant coach.

“Why?” Merk growled.

“Because Ratty has his hands in every single thing in this town and there’s no escaping him, Merk. Either you do what he and his… Family wants or you pay the price,” said Kara, answering for him.

That sounded right. Probable. Except that she was the living and breathing proof that that was not the case.

“You survived,” Merk answered her.

“I did,” she replied back.  “But I’m not like everyone else.”

That was the first time she had ever spoken of herself as being more than what was in front of him – a woman and a human being. But she knew she couldn’t go any further with it, not in front of Coach Winston.

“Coach Castle…” Coach Winston spoke from behind him. “Are you… Are you like them?”

 

***

 

They sat around Merk’s desk talking. Kara, Coach Winston, and Merk. It was kind of a meeting of the minds, a joining of forces in that there was a lot that each person knew. They all had had run-ins with Ratty and the wolf pack. Specifically for Merk, the Rat-pack (as he began to think of them and call them) and also his past experiences with other shifters, the latter neither one of them had. Merk found out that Coach Winston was indeed a sympathizer, but reluctantly.

His family had come to this town as nothing and with nothing and only began to gain money and any respect or status by basically doing the dirty grunt work for the Fairweathers. Since time immemorial, they had been the most well off, and if not respected then feared, family in the small Florida town. When his father passed away, all the Fairweathers’ scavenging and dirty work had fallen to Coach Winston. However, he was just one of them. There were plenty more families that had Fairweather sympathizers; their wolf pack was a distinguished group in town, like royalty, the only shifters there, ever, until Merk.

Merk could immediately see why his arrival would be problematic. And then factor in his lead role as coach for the high school football team that was obviously an important staple in the community, him and Ratty were bound to bump heads.  

“So, what can you do?” Coach Winston asked, a glint of hope on his face, a speck of relief in his voice.  “I mean, are you going to end all of this or – or are you just going to replace them?”

The words really hit Merk hard. He never wanted anyone to think that he could be the kind of man or shifter that used his abilities to make people his slaves, servants at the least.

“No. I’m not here to replace them,” he answered. “And I’m still trying to figure out what it is exactly that I need to end.”

“Them,” Kara gave the answer.

They both turned their attention to her. But Merk saw her eyes shoot him a quick look. She was something too. He knew that for sure now. But she didn’t want him to include her in this meeting. For whatever reason, she was desperate to keep what she was secret. Merk eyes searched her as he tried to see past her to identify what she was.

She sat up some in her seat, then scooted forward.

“Well, you already know my connection to Ratty and –”

“Right, I do…” he slid up to the edge of his seat. “And for the life of me, I don’t know how you got away from them – no one gets away from them. How –? How did you do it?”

But Kara never got to answer that. The door burst open and a group of kids rushed in, their clothes torn, some shredded, their faces bore scratch marks like claws to flesh, everything about them was disheveled and panic was in their eyes.

“Fight!” one boy yelled.

“There’s a fight! Hurry!

Merk was the first one on his feet. He sprinted by Coach Winston and the group of kids that had just entered. Kara followed him, then the kids, and finally Coach Winston.

“Oh my God…” said Kara as she looked out onto the gym floor.

 It was RJ. But he was different. He was hairier and taller, bigger. It seemed impossible but he was no longer the skinny boy they had seen the day before, rather, in a matter of moments, it seemed, he had hit a growth spurt, an exponential one. Merk knew for certain that shifters, panthers and wolves in particular, experienced a supernatural growth spurt if it was triggered by something. Evidently, something had happened in the gym or outside of the gym that had caused RJ to grow.

Merk moved closer to him. RJ was close to his height now. He still had a wiry frame but his muscles within that frame were bulging. His face was more chiseled around the jawline, he had facial hair, along with hairy arms, and his clothes were torn from the change.

“They were at practice – we saw it when it happened. He was running the ball and then he got hit and when he got up…”

Merk knew the rest. He was in human form but the wolf shift was happening inside of him. This was his first time and because it had been spurred on by a hit, something that was forceful or violent, his wolf force was reacting, causing him to become imbalanced. It was like being caught in a change. His mind wasn’t all the way there and neither was his body or physical abilities. It all fluctuated and would do so now for several days. The only thing that they could do was get him away from everyone so he didn’t seriously harm anyone.

“Is this because he’s a….?” Coach Winston leaned in to ask Merk.

Merk didn’t answer him. RJ needed to be stopped. He was swinging and throwing his body around carelessly, attacking his peers and classmates without any provocation. He was like a runaway train. Merk looked at Kara. She eyed him. He knew what he had to do and so did she. If he didn’t then…

Merk took a deep breath and then ran out on the gym floor. Kids ran by him trying to escape the suddenly wild and crazed star football player. There were times when Merk was still controlled by his emotions when it came to shifting or when his panther force came forward. The power of a shifter, no matter who or what kind of shifter, always carried variability and a random penchant for chaos and carnage. But over time, as you grew older and wiser, as the shifter force within matured and settled, the shifter learned ways to control it. At that point, you could summon your shifter power and abilities and channel them how you saw fit and to what degree. Merk did just that as he ran out to meet RJ. He was the only one that could.

RJ saw him coming. But this was RJ’s first shift. Merk was too far removed to be handled by a firstling. Merk felt his adrenaline rush through him, his feral nature rise, and his body increase in mass from the panther force within. Mostly, all of the other students had cleared from RJ. They had run off to the side and behind Merk, some of them clearing the gym. Merk could still hear the screams and the frantic pitches of everyone in the background.

RJ was only a few paces away from him, his face devil’d in a ‘V’ and his teeth fanged from his new canines.  It looked like he was caught in the mid-shift, his body unsure of which way it wanted to go. And then it happened: just as Merk was about to reach him, RJ shifted fully into a wolf. It was amazing to watch, even for Merk. The way his skin folded back, almost like a banana peel, removing its layer. Underneath was a newly christened wolf, its thin wet coat with a light grayish sheen. RJ’s eyes glowed a piercing yellow with a pupil that was more than just black but devoid of color, emptiness.

Merk hadn’t anticipated a change, not a full one at least. Most firstlings never shift fully to their animal counter parts. Being in his human form, he knew he was at a terrible disadvantage. He contemplated shifting to his panther form but it was too late. RJ in wolf form was already lunging at him, his full body completely outstretched; his claws thick and razor sharp. Merk caught the wolf in mid air but the weight of the animal crashed down on him and then they were both on the floor.

 

 

 

***

 

Merk and the wolf rolled around on the gym floor with the animal trying to get the best of the human that seemingly had super strength, enough to hold him off from clawing straight through his chest. Merk fought hard. He held the wolf off with all of his might. He had a few opportunities, as the wolf tossed and turned and tried to tear at him. He could break his arm or leg. A wound like that would incapacitate him but it would also hurt RJ in his human form. The break could be worse as a human and it might not ever heal. Wolves didn’t have the same healing abilities as Panther Shifters. So Merk had to give up that idea which made his struggle with the firstling beast that much harder.

Merk was back on his two feet and the panther was on all fours. The wolf circled around Merk, sizing him up. It was the first moment since Merk had thrown himself into the crazy fray that he had a chance to catch his breath. He scanned the gym. Everyone was watching, the gym was crawling with students and teachers, faculty, police, fire fighters. They all just watched. No one dared to jump in and try and help.

Merk was sure it was one hell of a spectacle to see - a giant wolf clawing at a human being with the human being moving as fast as he was. It must all seem impossible. But still, there seemed to be no end in sight. Merk didn’t know how he was going to get RJ to shift back and when he did, in front of everyone, his family’s secret would be out for sure if it wasn’t already. RJ would never have a normal life again. And as much as Merk now hated Ratty, his father, he didn’t want that for RJ. He was just a kid.

But then Merk had an idea. He needed to stop him, but he also had to get him out of the gym. The wolf wasn’t faster than him, there was no doubt about that. So if he could just get a little ahead of him, and close enough to one of the side doors, he could get him out in the hallway and out of the sight of everyone for a few moments. Just enough time and distance possibly for him to shift into his panther form and then the race would be on: he could lead RJ away from the school. A wolf chasing a panther.

Merk was ready to try it. He waited as RJ circled him again. When RJ lunged at him, Merck spun out of the way. RJ was off balanced and it was the perfect opportunity for Merk to act. He took off in a sprint. He pushed himself. He could feel the panther force flowing through his body. His senses were heightened and he could hear RJ panting behind him, his paws pushing against the gym floor, his legs bounding hard. Merk broke through the side door and felt his skin shed and in its place the panther body – smooth fur to the skin and sinewy. Merk rounded the hall and the wolf was right behind him.