Matthew was always a Giant amongst his peers growing up, but he wasn’t really the brightest crayon in the pack. Kids who weren’t his friends would call him various names like Dumbo. Sometimes when it was too much, he would lash out resulting in some kid brandishing a black eye or busted lip. It wasn’t until high school and tries out for the football team that he found his place. It was a way for his physical abilities to be truly appreciated while finding an outlet for his anger.

Unfortunately, the school was rather strict about athletes not sliding on their grades and still being allowed to play. Matthew has to do almost daily tutoring to be able to pass his classes, so he could continue doing what he loved. When he would pass by his tutors in the hallway, sometimes they would get picked on by the jocks and popular people. Matt remembered what it was like to be in their shoes and empathized. A quick push into a locker or headlock was usually enough to send the would be bullies scurrying.

His grades and athletic career were soaring over the years. Some called him Juggernaut or Titan, but he never liked those names. With his skills and physical strength, he led his school to four straight State Championships with only a handful of losses that were by slim margins. Multiple athletic scholarships to prestigious universities came in promising full rides including room and board. Life was going well for him. Well until he wound up at the wrong place at the wrong time.

He was paying for gas at a local gas station when a couple of men came in to rob the place. Matt tried to stop one of them, slowly putting him to sleep in a headlock. The other man came up behind and shot him right in the back of the knee. Matt went down hard screaming in pain. He saw that the bullet had gone straight through his kneecap and he could barely bend his knee. His whole future flashed before his eyes. Colleges no longer accepting a ‘broken player’, his dreams of getting a good college education gone, and hobbling around being made fun of as a has been and a joke aroused within him a rage he had always known was there but never allowed it to surface. He hobbled on one leg after the men who fled the scene down a dark alley. The full moon in the sky gave him just enough light to see where they went.

Then all went blank. Next thing he knew, he felt two large men on top of him pinning him to the ground as he struggled against them. “Damn this guy is big! We gonna be able to move him out of here?” Matt could see from his position on the ground that the two men he had chased had been torn to pieces and splattered all over the alley. “Hurry up will ya Bonespur?” The man called Bonespur was standing over the bodies and sprinkled some dust on them. Within seconds, the two corpses shriveled up and blew away as dust in the wind. He walked over and crouched over Matt. “Look kid. You got two options: stay here and get sent to prison for your double homicide or come with us to know what you truly are and why you did what you did to those robbers. What’s it gonna be?”

Matt relaxed as the memories of what happened slowly came back to him. The carnage  and death he inflicted. The three men appearing and transforming into some Wolf-man hybrid to pin him down after he was about to walk out of the alley. He remembered his reflection in the puddle of dirty water as he fought to get up. It was the face of a monster. It was his face. Matt simply nodded and was allowed to stand up. He took one long look back down the alley at his past and walked toward his future.

Years later after becoming used to his role as a Blood Talon Rahu, he was contacted by a totem spirit called Murder-of-Words after he had prevented one of its brood from being killed by another spirit. He met its pack and after hearing what they were about demanded he be allowed to join the pack or try to kick the Alpha’s ass. No bloodshed occurred as the alpha had already considered bringing him on. The threat and aggression just sealed it as the alpha was entertained by Matt’s style of getting things done.

The area was slowly being overpopulated by too many Uratha, so the group decided to head for greener pastures. His past work history of being a security guard for a club landed him a job at a university of what would soon be their new stomping grounds.