Chapter 5

I take a deep breath in front of our front door. My tail is swishing restlessly behind me. This is it. The moment I've been scared of all day. Showing myself at home, where our father is. I really hope it'll go well. But I know it won't. He's too close-minded. Too... I can't even think of an adjective to describe how he thinks.

Maybe 'machism'? He does think a man is above everything, especially women.

"Aah..." I sigh, my hand on the doorknob.

"It'll be alright, Jane. I'm here with you. And if we need to we'll flee in Eliza's home!" Anna quip at my side, squeezing my right hand with a reassuring smile.

The corner of my mouth lift slightly at that. Yeah. She's right, she is right here with me. My dear sister.

I'm about to turn the knob when an arrogant voice sounds behind us, making me freeze on the spot.

"Oh? Is that our freak of a sister? You finally came back? Bringing a 'conquest' at home? Who's that girl?"

I know who it is. One of our brothers. And based on the voice it's Phil. The 'oldest' of the triplet. Well, by a few minutes only though. But he always used that to impose himself as the leader of them three.

I turn around and indeed, it's him. Flanked by Pete and Mike, the other two. They are looking at Anna like she's the weirdest thing ever. For a reason I don't understand, those looks really anger me. I mean, I always hated how they looked at her. But not this intensely. I can feel my tail swishing behind me at those emotions.

That motion did catch their eyes and they all turned to me at the same time. Their eye lit up with wonder and greed. Pete even whistled.

"Wooow. She's cute! Who's this Anna? Care to introduce us? We'll take good care of her, promise!" His voice is laced with promise, but not the good kind.

"Hey. Are you really trying to pick up a girl in front of your girlfriend ?!" A high-pitched voice chimed in.

Three girls passably beautiful comes out from behind my three brothers.

Ah, amazing. The sluts are also here. I don't know their names, so I usually just call them 'Slut A,B and C'.

A frown form on my face and I scrunch my nose in disgust. I smell something weird on them. Something that is, less but still present, that I can also detect on my brothers.

My eyes widen at the realisation. They had sex and I can smell it. My face scrunches even more at that. It's not that I'm not interested in those 'activities'. But smelling the aftermath between a man and a woman... Ugh, it's disgusting.

"Babe don't you think it would be fun to play with her? Look she's got fox ears and a tail!" Pete grin at his girlfriend, putting his arm around her and pulling her close. She melt in his embrace but don't stop glaring at me.

"No. But I do want that tail as a shawl though. It must feel incredible. Phil get it for me." Slut B chimes in, clinging to my other brother's arm.

I feel Anna's hand tightening around mine, and a low growl start to spread from my chest. I don't want to deal with them.

So I just turn around, ignoring them, and reach for the doorknob. Twisting it to open the door in one go. I tug on Anna's hand without a word and she follows me in after sending a withering glare to our brothers and their sluts.

They look at each other in surprise. Phil suddenly smiles and beckon to them.

"Let's go, I think we'll see an interesting scene in a few moments." His voice is laced with amusement and it's a wonder he isn't laughing outright.

I still ignore him, entering our house. The smell of blood instantly hit me, freezing me in my tracks. It's the worst kind of scenario. He already drank blood.

I glance at Anna and see she noticed too, based on the frown on her face.

"Anna! Jake! Come in the living room right now" Our father's voice boom across the hallway and I shudder a little, my ears flattening on my head and my tail curling around my leg.

I take a deep breath before finally crossing the door to the living room. He's right here right in the middle of the room. Glaring at me with his red eyes. There's still a trace of blood lingering on his lips. His fangs are bared.

I feel like he's about to scold us. But he stops and look at Anna then me, confused. I don't know what realization but his eyes widened suddenly.

"Anna. I already told you haven't I? A girl shouldn't woo another girl. It's not natural" His words are scolding her, but he's trying to make his tone gentle.

Oh I see what he thought. Like our brothers, he thinks I'm just a girl Anna took home as a girlfriend.

I shake my head at that. How come Eliza recognized me after only a few seconds looking at my face, when my own familly don't?

A sigh escape my lips and I take a step forward, letting go of Anna's hand. I'm still very scared of his reaction. But I have to do this. I'll just treat that as removing a band-aid in one go.

"Father. It's me. Jake. Well, now I'm Jane." I say, my eyes fixed on his.

I hear an exclamation of surprise coming from five people at the same time behind us. Seems like our brothers and their sluts joined us.

I can see the confusion on my father's face deepening, bringing a deep frown. His blood muddled-brain is working full steam trying to understand what I just said. It's almost funny to see him thinking so hard. Even without being drunk on blood, our father has never been very bright. Well, it shows with how he think.

After some long seconds of trying to figure out the situation he seems to give up, and just start glaring at me like I just stole his lunch.

"Jake? Is that a prank? Change back immediately!" His tone is demanding and cold, the fury emanating from him could be felt all the way to where I am.

"I'm sorry but it's not a prank. And..." I take another deep breath. "Even if I could, I wouldn't change back. This." I gesture at my body and face. "Is who I really am. I don't want to be who you want."

"You... You useless shit! You are a man! Not... That!" He snarl at me, fang bared for all to see.

I can feel the sluts taking a step back in fright, my brothers snickering at their reaction.

I don't really know why but it makes my blood boil. This family is stupid. They can't stand transgenders and think males are at the top of humanity. Putting womens down. But still protect and dote on the women in the family. I really wouldn't mind, if they were treating all women the same as long as it wasn't in a position of dominance.

I turn around so fast that my hair fly around me, sparks of lightning dancing on the tip of my hair, tail and ears. And I glare at my brothers.

"Shut up now, scums. You don't even deserve to have the love of a girl. Now just stay in a corner and be quiet" I snap at them, a low growl resonating in my chest.

"Don't you talk to your brothers like that Jake!" I hear my father screaming behind me.

I feel the air shift, alarm bells ringing in my head. I try to turn around but a hand suddenly grip my right shoulder hard, like it was trying to break my bone.

God damnit, is he trying to break me?

I don't know what his awakening gave him except his race. But what I know is that right now it hurts and I want to make him pay. Something in the back of my mind is telling me he's not my match. Even if he's older, it's whispering me what to do to break free of his hold.

So I listen.

My dagger materialise in my left hand and I stab backwards into his leg. The sudden foreign object in his body makes him relax his grip, but I don't intend to let him go yet. I let got of the weapon and my left claws find themselves anchored in his hand. I tug on it, crouching slightly and darting backward between his legs, taking his hand with me. For once I'm quite glad to be way smaller than someone.

Thanks to me taking his hand with me his whole body flip in place and his back hit the ground hard, a dull 'thud' making the floor tremble. My dagger disappear from his leg before reappearing in my hand and I bring it near his throat. His eyes widen at that.

The room is in a stunned silence. Nobody can believe what just happened. Heck, even I don't believe it. I always knew the awakening gave some knowledge linked to what you can do with your bound item, be it a weapon or something else. But I didn't expect myself to be able to do that this smoothly. It's like I trained for years, and it feels just natural to execute. Of course the knowledge we get isn't all we can do. That's why people still go to academies to learn. If it was so easy to learn how to fight or fish or cook or even cast magic, the world would be far less peaceful.

"Now, let me tell you what will happen father. First it's the last time I'll call you that. You lost your right to be my parent a long time ago. But I said and did nothing, for Anna's sake. I don't want her to be caught in the cross-fire. But I'm tired of accepting everything and pretending I'm fine." My voice is steady, my tone so cold I can see our brothers and their slut shiver in the corner of my eyes.

I also catch Anna wide eyes and a little bit of... Pink? On her cheeks? What? Anyway. I bring my attention back to that failure of a parent.

"I will walk away from this house. You will never hear of me ever again. You can think you never had another son other than those three. Well, it's kind of true since I'm a daughter now. But that's besides the point. I will attend Euclydia Academy with Anna to learn and dive into dungeons. If you try to stop us from going, try to find us and bring us back... Trust me when I say I will kill you where you stand." To make my point across a little better, I press on his throat and a drop of blood slip through the small cut.

We stay like that for a while before I finally straighten myself, making my dagger disappear.

I turn toward Anna and walk to her, taking her hand in mine with a smile that I wanted reassuring.

"Let's go to my room, I have some bags to make" I say, my tone back to a gentle and sweet one, contrasting heavily to earlier.

She barely manage a nod and let me guide her. We stop in front of our brothers and I glare at them.

"Move, now." I bark, not even bothering to smoothen my words toward them.

They all scramble out of our way and I don't know why but I can feel Anna almost vibrating in glee? A little confused I shove that observation in the back of my mind and make my way toward my room.

Once inside I close the door before sagging on my bed with a heavy sigh of relief. I didn't know I had it in me. But the instant his hand grabbed my shoulder something in my mind just... Snapped. I was sick of how he treated me for a long time. And today was the last straw. Maybe it was mostly because he denied me of myself after the awakening. Denying me of being someone I'm comfortable being.

I'm interrupted of my thoughts when Anna just launched herself at me, pinning me on my bed and hugging so tightly it seems she's trying to merge us together. She start to nuzzle her cheek on mine with a wide smile.

"That was amazing! How did you do that? Can you teach me? What will you do now? Where will you go until the Academy start? I'll go with you!" She start a rapid-fire of question, her voice giddy for some reason. But her last sentence isn't a question, just a fact.

"Calm down Anna! Too much at once and you are also crushing me again!" I struggle to answer her, tapping on her back with one of my hands.

She lessen her grip a little but don't stop nuzzling my cheek with wild abandon. I laugh a little at her shenanigan but still hug her close, letting her do whatever she wants right now. I even wrap my tail a little around her waist, making her shiver briefly.

"I think I may crash at Eliza's house until it's time to go to the Academy. I don't really like imposing myself. So if it's not possible I'll just go to a hotel I guess." I shrug a little in our hug. I don't mind paying for that for a while.

I do a little math in my head. Virina said the entrance exams are soon, just after summer vacation. It leaves us with... A little bit less than a week to wait. Euclydia Academy isn't that far, around a day by train if we take the high-speed one. Thinking of that, we didn't tell Eliza about our invitations. It's their fault, who asked them to scratch behind my ears like that?! It made me lose track of the conversation and by the time I was capable of coherent thoughts it was already time to go back.

"Anyway, I'll send her a message while packing. But Anna." I push her a bit with my arms on her shoulders, fixing my eyes in hers. "You know they do dote on you, you can simply stay here until it's time to go you know?"

"No way! I'm coming with you, be it in Eliza's home or at the hotel!" She immediately shut down my proposition, shaking her head with wild movement and sending her hair in a frenzy around her. Even her wings seems outraged I could say something like that. They are standing straight out stiffly.

"Okay okay, then let go of me now. We need to pack." I laugh at her reaction, trying to push her off me a bit more. "Oh right, we need to buy you new clothes no? You grew taller. Damnit why didn't I too?!" I pout when I recall that.

Anna just giggled at that. She bent down toward me to put our forehead together, closing her eyes. I smile and do the same.

"You were really cool earlier Jane." She whispers, her voice taking a sweet tone. Then her voice drop even quieter, so much it's hard even for me to hear. "It's not good for my heart"

While I'm confused by her meaning, I feel her lifting her head slightly, then she kisses me on the nose. I feel my cheeks warming but I don't even have time to register what just happened that she's already up and at my door.

She open it and almost flee out toward her own room, probably to pack her bags.

I stay here, laying on my bed, stunned. I lift a hand and lightly touches where she just kissed. She never did that before, even just a cheek kiss never happened.

I sit-up straight and decide that I can't understand what she means, and I have a feeling she won't explain anyway. Well, maybe I have an idea. But for now it's better to let it go.

I grab my phone and open the chat with Eliza.

[Jane] : Hey Eliza ! You know what you proposed earlier? Us crashing at your home? Well, uuuh, things happened and we may need somewhere to go for a few days. Is it still possible to come?

With how late it is, almost eight and half, they must be eating dinner and so I don't expect her to answer me immediately.

So I'm pretty surprised when not even ten minutes later the familiar chime of a message ring.

[Eliza-Best friend ever] : Hey Jane, of course it's totally fine. I just asked my parents and they said yes! Do you need me to come pick you both?

Between us three, Anna, her and me, she's the only one with a driving license. She got it pretty fast after her awakening and even if she doesn't have her own care yet, her parents let her use theirs. But she doesn't live very far, that's one of the reason we're childhood friends, so there's no need for her to do that. Actually it would even be slower if she did come pick us up.

[Jane] : Say thanks to your parents then! But there's no need. We'll manage! It'll take a little time though, maybe an hour or something. Need to pack.

[Eliza-Best friend ever] : No problem! It'll give us the time to tidy the guest rooms! See you later then!

[Jane] : See you!

I put my phone on my desk and start to pack my stuff away. I don't have a lot anyway. Not in my room at least.

[Anna's POV]

I lean my back on my door after closing it behind me. That was quite close. I almost said something I shouldn't. Well, not yet anyway.

But damnit she's not fair!

Why? Hmm.. For starters how is that fair how cute she is?! Those ears and tail are so fluffy I want to drown in them! I've always loved fluffy things, it's so soft and warm!

Then when Eliza and me started to scratch her ears... She just melted, all red-faced. She got even cuter! And I swear I heard her purring! Well, that I'm really not sure. I may have been a little to absorbed at that time.

And now? Damn, she didn't notice but when she turned around toward our brothers and their sluts... All electric, her eyes changed. Usually it's a warm amber, going very well with her red hair. But at that moment it was a mix of the original colour with specs of violet and gray in it. And they were shining. I don't understand why it did that... But that was so beautiful. And cool! And s-

No Anna, not this rabbit hole

I pat my cheeks slightly, feeling them pretty warm. I try to distract myself by moving around, packing my bags. But my mind goes back to the moment she beat our father. No, that man. She was way too cool. There was no hesitations at all, even when threatening to kill him. It was a little scary, but I know for a fact that she will never do that to me.

I just have a tiny problem. Eliza. I know what she think of Jane. It's hard not to notice. And I'm not sure how I feel about that.

On one side I'm proud someone else noticed her awesomeness. On another I'm scared of what will happen between them at some point.

Because even if Jane is a little dense, she isn't completely. She's dense for now because of her old gender and her trauma.

But once this passes and get more confident in herself... Well, I'll cross that bridge when I need to.

For now I need to finish packing. Even if most of my clothes don't fit anymore. Not only because I'm taller, but also because of those wings.

I'm almost finished when I hear my door open slowly, Jane peeking her head in with her ears dropping a little side-ways.

Damn that's cute.