When you go to one of those anonymous groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, you have to admit you have a problem. They say that's the only way you can begin fixing the problem – to admit you have one.

Hello, my name is Atheal, and I am a wereling.

Being a wereling has two problems: one, humans and two, werewolves.

Humans just plain don't understand the changing mongrels. If it's human and it changes into another wolf-like creature, it needs to be exterminated. No second chance, no explanations.

They fear the strange and weird and even those fascinated by our kind tend to have fear grip their hearts and suffocate them with emotion. Then fascination becomes horror and horror becomes hate, and they hunt us down.

We aren't strange. Our kind has been around just as long as mankind. The snake that told Eve her eyes would be opened when she ate the forbidden fruit was cursed to become a man and walk in one form by day and the other by night. His genes passed along the line and later the wolf shapeshifters came along and split into two groups – the werewolves humans tell horrifying tales about and werelings.

Werewolves hate us. Why? Because we are fully wolf. They are the mistake of nature – neither man nor beast, but caught in between forms, they only change once a month – on the night of a full moon. They nearly go mad when the Change comes upon them, and they attack anything near them that's considered living and breathing, other than plants. This subtle difference has separated us for years.

Werelings are wolves too – lycanthropes – and from the same bloodline originally, but we are different. We have two complete forms: our human form and our wolf form. The only difference between a wereling in canine form and a wolf is the size. Werelings are almost twice the height of a wolf – their shoulders leveling out at the waist of a six-foot human. Plus, we have the advantage that we can change at any time – day or night, full moon or not. We have so much more freedom than wolves because our sanity remains the same in either form. In the canine form, our mindsets are those of the wolf, and in human form, our mindsets are those of a man.

We werelings are blessed despite our enemies. We have power, strength and speed; the ability to see, hear and taste better than humans; to make the Change whenever we want to without repercussions. We are wolf. We are man.

My name is Atheal, and I am a wereling.