Author's Note: This is supplemental writing for the story Babe in Vampire Land. Monique is an OC.

Monique's POV

My destiny was set long before my mother ever had me. She was promised to Quinn right after he was born. It is weird in the shifter communities parents control the mating habits of precious offspring. The elders really don't care about love and mutual respect it is more who has the best breeding stock. Anyhow, as you can already guess mom did not end up with Quinn 'cause I am not calling him 'dad' but she did fall in love and marry my dad, Darius.

In order for my mom to get out of the marriage contract with Quinn's family she had to promise her first born daughter that could shift into a tiger at her initiation ceremony. My parents never dreamed they would actually have to sign me over to the tiger. I was the one who screwed all of it up. But you are probably wondering what I am talking about. Here let me tell you.

Right after my 5th birthday things started to happen. I was able to sprout feathers, fur and claws at will. By the time I was 5 and a half, I was able to shift into almost any animal. Just two weeks after I learned how to shift into a tiger we had a visitor to our community.

When my ability to shift manifested I was only able to transform into juvenile animals. Also, I was unable to control the shifts completely. After the first few times of trying more complex animals I chose I liked to be a tiger. There speed and strength from the Discovery channel appealed to me. Always I was bugging my mom to take me to the Denver Zoo so I could watch the tigers there. When the circus came in the fall I was taken on a private tour and was able to pet and snuggle one. It was rare for kids to be about to shift into a complicated beings before they hit puberty, but I was able to do it because of the mixtures of blood from my parents.

When Quinn showed up at our door that spring I was in awe to have the mighty tiger so near me. I begged and begged Jox to let me go met him while my parents had him in just the next room. But I was restrained so I could not interfere with the adults talking. There was some growls issued and Quinn left slamming the door behind him. He was banished from our community for a year because of that.

The next time he was allowed back into our community I was 6 and a half. I was going to watch an initiation ceremony and he would be presiding over it. There was much discussion as to what led to his banishment in the Colorado territories. No one really found out why he was excluded from our area for another six months. But it was because he had heard I could shift into a tiger and wanted to make sure I was going to be pledged to him at my initiation. There was a big fight that I could shift into anything and maybe I would just shift into a mouse. Because of the stipulation in my mom's breakup to Quinn they did really write I had to shift into a tiger, only at my initiation. So if I shifted into anything else me and my parents were off the hook.

There are two ceremonies one is held in October and the other in April. This ceremony was the fall one. There were leaves falling from the trees; golden, orange, purple, red and brown flitting on the wind. During the day the sky was a pretty blue, clear and cloudless. For the season it was crisp through the night but warm in the high 70's when the sun was up. The ceremony was just a day away and I was looking forward to go and watch one. I had a beautiful dress all picked out. Not being part of my mom's pack yet I was unable to run with them at the full moon. My father and Uncle Oswald would always take me to a private reserve and I would chase different animals but never had killed one yet.

That day I was hot, I had been running around in a skort outfit and a tank top. Everyone was looking at me funny because I should have at least had jeans and a t-shirt on. Mom said it was the combination of bloods in my body that made me hot all the time now. I was trying to cool off. I had just turned on the front sprinkler when a black SUV pulled up with license plate MAC3774. Wondering who could be inside and what they are doing in our community I approach, my mother rushes out of the house and ordered me back inside.

Grumbling I stomp into the house and shut the doors but went and peeked out the front window to see who was there. A tall, broad, bald guy gets out of the driver side and comes around to greet my mom. I had never seen him before so I didn't know I was looking at Quinn. He is kinda scarred up and not too great to look at; he also has these funny yellow eyes that are really creepy. At first I am not worried about my mom talking to this giant of a man because my dad is pretty big too and he would never do anything bad to my mom so I didn't realize until a few seconds too late that dad should have been outside with mom.

A growl ripped through the neighborhood just as I turned away from the window. My head snapped around the room thinking I left the TV on but as the realization dawned on me that the sound was coming from outside, I whipping back around to see mom was being pinned to the ground by a tiger. The only tiger that I knew of that was around was Quinn. He was going to be doing the initiation ceremonies free of charge until he didn't see a benefit in doing them anymore.

I was upset to see my mom lying on the ground underneath all that weight. When I was little and became angry or scarred I always shifted, this time was no exception. Without my permission my body responded to the threat against my mom; orange hair started to sprout all over my body and my clothes ripped right off me. Claws were digging into the soft brown carpet in front of the window. By the time I was fully changed I realized I had shut the door when I came into the house, the only way I could get out to my mom was if I went through the window. She had left the window up to watch me play and had forgotten to shut it when she went out to get me.

Busting through the window screen I charge at Quinn. My mom was just laying there pinned to the ground and he had most of his focus on my mom. Jumping on his back before he could react I bite into his neck and pierce my claws into his hide. He acted like it is funny that I would have come out to save my mom because he just shakes his back and I swear he acts like he was laughing. I chance a look at my mom and she was mad but I think it was directed at me. Quinn gets off my mom and I get drug off him by the scruff of my neck. Hissing and growling at Quinn I tried to escape my mom to get back to him to hurt him for pinning her.

Mom brings me into the house slams the door and shuts the window. I was grounded and unable to go to the initiation ceremony. I had to go to the reserve with Uncle Oswald and my dad.

Eventually I forgot about Quinn until it was time for the spring ceremony. The leaves were growing out the ends of the trees; the week before the ceremony we had a really crazy spring snow storm. There was about a foot of snow covering the front yard and I was outside making a snow man and snow fort for my aunt to look at. She wanted to come outside and play but the baby Mindy was keeping her cooped up in the house for most of the winter. My birthday would be in a couple of weeks and I was hoping the pack would bend their rules and allow me to be initiated before my 12 birthday.

It was being discussed in counsel meeting in Uncle Oswald's house. There were a lot of discussions going on in the weeks leading up to Quinn's arrival. Normally I was allowed to sit in the court but something was going on and I had a feeling it involved me. I tried everything to find out what was going on, even to the point of shifting into a mouse and sneaking into the throne room. When I was hiding in the corner Uncle Harold sniffed twice and that was it for me. I got grounded for that too. Early bed times were the worst.

Finally it was decided that I could be initiated into the pack in the spring ceremony. Mom had put a loose fitting dress on me, it was ugly but it was hers' from when she was a young woman being initiated into her pack. My mom said that there was really nothing little about me. I had just gone through a major growth spurt and would soon be taller than her. At 6 almost 7 years old I was just under 5 foot. We didn't talk about my weight because it was going through the roof and mom was trying to keep me skinny but my body had other ideas. I was close to 130 pounds already and had been gaining about a pound a month for the last six months.

The adults were discussing the ceremony and how I was to be presented. They told me I was to shift into the same thing everyone else was going to do, mainly a wolf. Under no circumstances was I to shift into a tiger. Agreeing to their conditions I didn't take into account Quinn was going to be there and I was still pretty angry that he had pinned my mom.

Being super excited, I literally bounced in the snow on the way to the nearby wooden area. We were staying in a hotel near Estes Park and would not be returning until early morning. Dad would be keeping watch from the hotel and Uncle Oswald was going to be in the trees to make sure everything was safe for me to run.

Getting to the clearing I waited at the edge of the dais where there were three boys about 12 and a man that was being inducted into the pack because he had just been bitten. On one side was a curtain that was drawn and I was unable to see who or what was going on the other side. I was going to be the last, Uncle told me it was because I was the best and most special.

A man from the pack came to the curtain and waved me through, the first thing I saw as I stepped away from the curtain was my mom. She was standing in a group of women, smiling at me she nodded to the end of the platform. Quinn was there, standing in some dark chocolate brown robe, there were tigers chasing one another around the bottom in gold and red thread. His bald head gleamed in the moon light; briefly I wondered if he had a buffer to make it shine like that. Stifling a giggle I walk towards him the way my mother had been instructing me to do for like the last year! Getting nearer to him I start to remember how my mom looked on the ground and how he laughed at me. My face started to itch like it does right before a change. Nervous that I was going to embarrass my family, which in retrospect was probably not a good idea because it caused the shift to happen faster from that point then I had ever done before, I focused on my breathing. I couldn't remember if it was short quick breaths to calm down or long deep ones. I messed them up and started to do the short quick breaths and within a matter of seconds I felt the dress become too tight for me and the button popped off and left me on all fours in my hide.

Standing in front of Quinn, I was growling. Looking to my mother in the crowd she shook her head, her face pasty white, I wanted to run to her and comfort her. She was really upset about something. At the time I really had no clue why she was so upset I had transformed but later when I found everything out about the marriage contracts I understood I had sealed my fate with that single shift.

Though when I looked back at Quinn his eyes were dancing and all I wanted to do was pounce and scratch his yellow eyes out. But I remembered I am the niece to a King and a descendent of a God. Gracefully as I could I walked up to Quinn and sat on my hindquarters, waiting for him to bless me into the pack. He started the blessing with ritual movements but then he took off his robe and draped it across my shoulders. Having never seen an initiation or betrothing ceremony before I didn't know the difference between the two. When a male presents clothes to a female or the family does so in their behalf if they are too young to do it themselves, a marriage contract ensues after the clothes are on the female.

Smiling at the audience, gasps were issued from many of the women and my mother passed out. Since I was the last one to be initiated everyone began to shift to go for their run. There were about 35 or so people there that night and most of them were related to my mom and Aunt. Once everyone had changed, and my mom had woken up and shifted. I leapt off the dais and went to greet my pack members.

Most of the older members knew about the charm my mom had put on the clothes to protect my identity from Quinn. When I shifted I ripped the fabric and tore the protection spell to shreds. During the discussions that I was excluded from, it was suspected Quinn was doing the initiation ceremonies until he forced me to change into a tiger at the right time to claim me. The adults should have included me in their plans because if I knew what was going on then maybe I could have controlled my shift better. But as it was I was standing surrounded my most of my second cousins and family, they were all agitated and wanted to take Quinn out.

Quinn was the last to shift, he was huge. Leaping off of the dais into the crowd, he approached me and began circling me. Hisses and growls reverberated around me. My mother was the first to draw blood against Quinn; even I knew that was a blood offense worthy of her death. But Quinn licked his wound and started for the woods for a hunt. My mother pursued him and some of my younger cousins stayed with me to prevent me from going after my mom.

By dawn my mother was found dead in the woods, her naked form lying in a pool of her own blood. It was assumed Quinn had done it but even if he did he was in his right for the blood offense my mother inflicted.

Three days later I laid my mother to rest with father's previous wives. My sister's and brother's mourned their step mother. While tears leaked from everyone else's eyes I sat staring at the inky sky. Stars twinkled, and I could hear my mother's voice on the wind. Everything was still and going at a mock speed in the same breadth of time. My life was halting in the wake of my mother's death and marriage contracts were speeding up time to my impending time with Quinn. I was torn in my feelings about everything. Shouldn't the death of my mother cancel out Quinn's claim on me? Wasn't there anything my Uncle could do to save me from my own worst nightmare? I was lost.

Time started to move again at regular pace but my mind was always a constant whirlwind. Knowing after my first menstruation I would have to go live with Quinn's sister Franny. I prepared for battle. I had been training for two years. Two years of sweat and tears. Two years of demanding physical traingin and emotionally draining teachers were preparing me to fight for my life. At only nine years old I had murder on my heart and mind. There was going to be little to stop me unless he killed me first. Having no internal battles of right or wrong, knowing this was the only way to avenge my mother. He was going to die the same brutal death he inflicted on my mother.

My Uncle and Father did not agree with what I was about to undertake but they nevertheless went ahead and made sure I had the finest trainers in the entire Kingdom. They even sent away for a shifter from Louisiana. He wasn't a total old man, probably just a few years older than Quinn. He taught me how to control my shifts, make them smoother and make my animals adults rather than the juveniles that I really am.

Sam, a rusty man, who looks like he should be a lion rather than the dog he prefers to shift into. He was nice and told me all about his little bar in the back waters of Bon Ton, Louisiana. I was intrigued. There was a barmaid who he really was in love with but she could care less about his amorous feelings. I found out there was a pack of werewolves in the area that had recently had a pack master contest. It was really quite brutal and the mighty Quinn had presided over it. The barmaid, Sookie, had played an important role in shaping the contest. He really didn't go into detail about what happened other than now Quinn was sniffing around at Sookie's skirt. It is amazing what adults will say to little kids when they don't think we are capable of understand them. That is one of the reasons I miss my mom so much. She never talked over my head and if someone did she would explain it to me.

After Sam left I told my Uncle and Father about Quinn and his possible cheating on the marriage contracts. There was little to do, if he was cheating they would have to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt to the council. Then the council would have to prosecute him accordingly. Unless he could be caught with video or buns in the oven then he was off the hook. My family had honor to up hold and even though my mother was still not alive I had to abide by her contract or my living family would have to pay the price.

I wonder if Sookie knows what a pervert Quinn is. He wants to take me to his family home and have me with child in under a year after I start my periods. His desire to sire cubs is unreasonable. I imagine he knows that Sookie could have supe blood in her if she influenced a pack master contest. I wonder what she really is. Maybe someday I will meet her.