Page 99 of Monster. Me.

Okay… this might actually work to my advantage.

I spring to my feet and rush toward the gate to clear it in a single leap, despite it being over nine feet tall.

As I land, I hear a sharp crack of the concrete pavement below my feet.

Well, I weigh close to nine hundred pounds, so it’s no surprise it gave in.

Wait.

That's not all I hear.

Are those the sounds of wet, smacking kisses coming from beyond the gate?

Yeah. That should slow them down for a while.

I walk away from the gate toward the parking lot, glancing around for a moment, lost in chaotic scenarios.

So, yeah. I don’t have a car. Duh!

The parking lot is full, but all the vehicles are locked, and the keys are with their owners, of course.

Frustrated, I cut diagonally across the lot, heading toward the road, in hope that someone might arrive or leave, but nothing like that happens.

Behind me I hear rising shouts and calls.

Oh. Looks like they finally managed to break free from the grip of my pheromones and have gone back to doing their security job. Fortunately, they’ve given up on a physical chase.

"Drax!" the alphas shout.

They must be using some kind of megaphone, because the voice carries with a metallic, slightly echoing quality. "Come back immediately! We don’t want to call the police; this is your last warning!"

I ignore them, rushing along the road.

But after running maybe three hundred yards, I realize I won’t reach Franklin this way. I'm not a wolf shifter. My kind is built for short, insanely fast bursts. Sprinting with this much body mass would wreck me.

Damn it, what now?

I need to get at least to Rainbow Springs and find a taxi. It’s a much shorter distance, but even then I need to cover almost seven miles.

For this, I’ll have to transform.

The problem is that my shifted form can fly, but that’s not its main method of locomotion. The creature I become is built more for brief glides and powerful leaps, not long sustained flight. And my weight limits the distances I can cover, so they’re going to be fairly short and rather exhausting.

I have no choice, though. I have to reach Rainbow Springs.

So, I head deeper into the forest so nobody can see me from the road. There, I strip off my clothes, bundle them up so I can easily carry them in my shifted version, and start transforming.

It’s much easier for me to take this form when I’m emotional; sometimes it happens almost spontaneously when I’m angry, a bit like the Hulk. But because my nature is both monster and shifter, I can also transform at will, though it takes longer.

Slowly I let my body expand and grow, taking on a monstrous shape.

And anyone who thinks this is the purple alpha’s imago form would be wrong. I only look like them on the surface; that’s how I present myself to people. I sometimes pretend to be one, so they accept me a bit more. In reality, I have nothing in common with them except for my size.

Soon, I’m in my full glory. The world around me shifts as my vision sharpens, picking up every smallest movement. My predatory aspect has a hyper-focus on everything that is potential prey.

I start moving. I’m too large to land between the trees, so I move across the canopy, leaping from tree to tree. My flights are about two hundred yards at most, then I have to drop down and recover my strength because my weight, magically increased by the transformation, is close to a ton now, and even my double pair of wings can barely support it.

It’s extremely exhausting, and I’m not used to moving my body this way. Soon, I feel my stamina fading, and the target is still at least five miles away.