Shapeshifters - Rex the Lynx

Chapter 1.

"Rex"

"REX!"

I turned towards my father. The daydreams kept creeping upon me, it was a struggle to catch up. He slowly took a deep breath and didn't look the least happy with me. His hands combed through the rather thin hair on the head, even his hands had deep traces of lifes up and downs, his eyes had deep rings beneath and the beard was marked with gray stripes. When did he get so old? My father. My king.

"Your mother...." he began before taking a deep breath of the cigar he was holding in his right hand. He blew out a grey cloud of smoke towards me, spicy scent drilled into my nostrils, a familiar smell I was accustomed to by my father. His eyes narrowed and he changed tactics. "Come back with a mate" his words were solid and the word - or else - hung in the thick air between us. It was a threat. But I understood.

The prince of the Blackblood tribe, the king's only son, that was me. My father says the day I was born was the best day of his life, but also the worst. My mother had only held me for a few minutes before she bled to death. Our shifter tribe was one of them bigger along the land, my father ruled with solid claw as well as justice and openness, I looked up to my father, my king, the big black bear.

I loved my tribe, my people. We were an united pack, everyone doing the best for the tribe, contributing where they were needed, there were no weak links. My father saw to that, everyone had their place. "There are no weak links only weak leaders," my father used to bark at me growing up, and he was as always right. It was tough for him you know, raising me on his own. And I assure you I was an handful.

Shapeshifters have been around for a long time, from the beginning of time. And we had the ability to transform into our inner animal. It was a protective instinct shapeshifters could easily tap into and were an accordance to our land. It was magical, our human form glowing and shifting into a animal, our cloths even didn't matter, they sort of just were gone, inbetween, and then appeared again when shifting back to human form.

I was told in Woodlandtribe, our closest neighbor pack, had gotten a young boy who could transform to both a eagle and an hawke. Only a few handful were gifted with more than one animal form, usually in the same breed.

Our tribe were located way up in the north and we had a wide variety of animals. Wolfs, bears, moose, foxs, deers, eagles, hawks, owls even some rabbits, marten, beavers and smaller birds. Some animal shapes were more rare than others, and there you had me, I was a Lynx.

The Lynx was fast and strong and my body thereafter. My hair was dark brown and a bit lighter at the tips, it was sort of spicky standing straight up since it was so thick, never laying down where I wanted it to, so I kept it rather short.

"We're here," Rupert announced as we arrived at the palace of King Graydon of the Red Mountain tribe. I blew out a sigh and tugged my shoulders closer to myself. "At least pretend you're happy to be here." Rupert's hand squeezed my shoulder.

Rupert was a tall dark haired man in his early thirties. He was a nice guy, funn to be with, always telling stories, some of them are so crazy I wonder if he makes them up. Usually stories about girls, how he lures them, sneeking around, trying not to get caught, that fox. No mate tho. Not yet.

And yeah a mate were a big thing for shifters. Its the animal in us, eat, fight and mate. Hence my problem, finding a mate. And my father was pushing it hard. I know the tribe needs a successor, and I am sort of the only one next in line to make it happen. But im also just barely turned twenty, trying to find myself, figuring things out, and all the girls just... smell wrong.

Our animal forms were more sensitive to touch, taste and smell. I've tried to tell Brax my problem but he just laughed and said I was stupid, in his mind girls smells sweet, like flowers and stuff. I mentally barf. We were ten at the time so guess I'd just hoped I would just grow into it. But....yeah.