AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rolf, you hardly know me.”
“Lycanthropes are different. A claiming goes deep. I already had the knowledge you were meant for me when we first met, I told you that.” He pulled himself up to sit and gazed down at her.
“Buthow did you know?”
“Your scent overwhelmed me, drew me like a bee to nectar. That is the way with our kind…Surely you felt a similar draw to me?”
“I guess I fought against it because it seemed utterly irrational to want a man as badly as I wanted you after only one meeting.”
“You didn’t understand your heritage—”
“I still don’t. How did you know I was one of you?”
“Your scent, your eye color, your name, they were all giveaways.”
“How so?”
We choose names that are a part of our heritage. I am, Rolf, which means famous or head wolf. My brother’s name, Connal, means powerful, or strong as a wolf—"
“Your sister Susi doesn’t have a wolf name though. Susan is a normal name.”
He smiled. “Ah yes, but you see her name it is spelt, S-U-S-I which is actually Finnish for wolf.”
“Oh! So, what does my name mean then?”
“Selene means Greek goddess of the moon. A lot of female lycanthropes are named for the moon, or goddesses of the moon. Now,mygoddess, I need you to listen. I have things to explain which will upset you. Can you hear me out to the end before you interrupt me when I’ll be more than happy to answer your questions?”
She didn’t like the look of sympathy in his eyes. “Is this to do with my parents?”
He nodded solemnly. “Yes.”
“I want to sit up.” Upright, he pulled her back against his shoulder, his arm encircling her protectively.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
“You’ve probably guessed that both your parents were lycanthropes. They were the last of a very old family as old as the Mactires. There had been intermarriages in the past between our families. We may even be very distant cousins, who knows? Anyway, there have always been those who have not understood our kind, people who labeled us as evil werewolves. We have been maligned and hunted for centuries. One group in particular has been murderously intent on finishing off lycanthropes for good. They are a secret sect, a group that has changed their name many times over the centuries, but they became at their worst during the founding of the Spanish Inquisition with papal authorization in 1478.”
“That long ago,” she mused.
“Yes, your adopted parents are a part of that ancient sect. I can find no details of an actual wedding being held at Dùn Airgid, which by the way, means the silver fortress, or castle. That is significant to us because silver is our kryptonite. Silver isn’t from Earth. All the silver on the planet actually comes from the moon after a comet strike…or perhaps the comet itself contained the silver, who knows? Silver forms a poisonous compound when it comes into contact with proteins unique to lycanthropes. Like any other animal if you want to kill it, you have to hit certain vital spots. I suspect they were going to find out if you could shift into a wolf using some such method as moonlight and silver.”
She gasped and stiffened. Rolf’s hold tightened about her as his palm swept reassuringly over her arm.
“I remember seeing an old black and white movie where they used Wolfsbane to kill a werewolf.”
“Killing a werewolf with wolfsbane is a joke among us lycanthropes. It actually has many helpful uses to us like antibiotics. It can forge a transformation when used in large doses, but in very small doses it can also prevent transformation.”
“I confess studying werewolves hasn’t exactly been top of my priority list,” she replied dryly.
“It’s okay to feel anxious and confused by this information. It’s not every day a bombshell of this magnitude is dropped on you out of the blue.”
Her lip trembled and she dipped her head allowing her hair to fall forward and hide her emotion.
“Selene?” he prompted; his voice full of concern.
“S’okay.”
“Shall I continue?”
