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“Yes. Tell me what I need to know.”
“Okay, well then, the full moon for this month occurs in the second week on Saturday, September tenth. They would have weakened you and exposed you to the moon in an attempt to force you to change. If you had, they would have executed you. Had you remained human, they would likely have drugged you and married you off to a member of the group, most likely a man who lived abroad in a country where women have very few rights.”
She lifted her head. “That kind of makes sense. The one thing I’ve never understood is why my mother, I mean Mrs. Reyes, allowed her husband to bully and speak to her the way he did. That man is an out and out misogynist!”
“It’s part of their philosophy to subjugate women. These are the same people who were responsible for tampering with your parents’ car, killing both your parents then stealing you.”
“I thought you were leading up to telling me that…Oh no—Rolf, I mentioned you lived in Northumberland!”
“Did you mention my surname to them?”
“I don’t recall, I might have done…”
“They will put two and two together—Mmacc tíreis ancient Irish Gaelic for wolf. Our pack’s name originates from that.”
“Damn! There is so much I need to learn or I’ll be a dreadful liability!”
“Don’t worry about that,macushla. I’ll help you, and so will the pack. You could only ever be an asset to us.”
“Macushla?”
“Akin to my darling in Irish Gaelic.” He planted a kiss on her cheek.
“I just can’t believe that my mother, no—Mrs.Reyes, would hurt me? I’m not so sure about Mr. Reyes, he’s always been a cold fish, and now I know why.Shit,this is beyond horrible!”
“It is…I needed to keep you safe which is why I had to kidnap you. I have men tailing—I don’t want to call them your parents…what about your abductors?”
“How did they even get away with that?”
“These people have friends in high places. Luckily, so do we.”
She twisted to face him. “We do?”
He grinned, “Oh yes, in all walks of life.”
“So, what now?” she asked.
“We have a plan which we should be able see some of on our screens. Selene, I need to know how you think you might react to their deaths?”
She dropped her head to her chest and pondered her inner feelings. It was difficult to answer a question like that. To all intents and purposes, she had seen the Reyes as her parents. It was difficult to know what she would feel witnessing their deaths.
“Does it have to come to that?”
“I’m sorry, please try and understand that this is a case of them or us. These people will never give up their persecution. If we can eliminate them before they can do the same to us, then all the better for our survival. D’you see?”
She understood, but that didn’t make it any easier. “I don’t want to watch that part.” To her surprise her throat suddenly tightened, and tears welled in her eyes. Rolf made a gruff sound and pulled her into his arms, his lips pressed to her temple as he crooned comfort in what she assumed must be Gaelic. She calmed gradually and rested where she was, contented by the steady rhythm of his heartbeat under her ear.
“Macushla, you don’t need to watch any of it, or even know the details. I understand all this has been the most dreadful shock. I’m amazed by how strong you are, absorbing everything that has happened to you in the last twenty-four hours after your world has been turned upside down. I’m here, I’ll always be here for you. I swear I’ll keep you and our pack safe.”
“How can you promise that when you could be killed at any moment!”
“It’s not so easy to kill a lycanthrope. We live to a very great age and heal phenomenally fast. Ordinary bullets won’t stop us, only a silver bullet in the heart can kill us. Feel your neck where I bit you, it is already healed. Now you have shifted for the first time you will feel the full benefits of our species.”
He leant over to pull a tissue from the box on his nightstand. Tilting her face, he wiped away her tears.
“Why did I never shift before?”
“That is quite normal for someone raised amongst humans with no knowledge of what you are. We have not discovered why that is, but I suspect it is like a built-in safety mechanism.”
