Ellie and Elsie suddenly burst into the room, their mother right on their heals.
“Lia?” Elsie dropped to her knees on one side of the cot and Ellie on the other. Damned if he could tell which of the girls was which. Usually there was a way to tell with twins but he really couldn’t see any difference between these two.“Come on Lia, we know you’re waking. Open your eyes.” The other begged.Marie sat on the cot by Lia’s hips and held her hand. “Come now, sweetie. We feel you stirring. Open your eyes.”David had followed his girls in and stood beside Jake now. “So...Lia’s wolf talks to you, but she doesn’t know it exists? And Selene’s wolf is completely silent?”
“Selene’s wolf has chosen to be silent. She spoke to us when we first met her but stopped not long after Lia was born. I don’t think her wolf talks to her anymore either, or if she does Selene completely ignores her. Lia doesn’t really link with us the way other werewolves do, but my girls can usually tell how Lia’s feeling. Not words or conversation level, but they know her health and emotional status. Apparently, they can tell when she is recovering from being poisoned, but this is a first, so...” David shrugged, “it might just be wishful thinking on their part. Selene hears more of Lia’s wolf than anyone. She knows if Lia has a secret or if her wolf has made a comment or suggestion that Lia knows she’ll get in trouble for.”“Does that happen often?”“Often enough.”“What does Lia’s wolf-like her do that gets her in trouble?”“Chase sheep, heard baby chicks, play tricks on people who pick on her or her friends,” David shrugged again, “normal stuff for a pup. Selene wants Lia to fit in with humans so she scolds her wolfish behavior as humans would. Right from the time Lia was small, Selene has told her that the voice in her head was really the voice of the evil moon goddess.” Jake’s head reared back in surprise.“The evil-”“Yep,” David interrupted with his confirmation. “That will be one of many hurdles you’ll have to deal with after the whole being a werewolf thing. She believes the moon goddess is evil, mating means torture and enslavement and all werewolves want to harm girls. To her the woods is scary and the night dangerous. She’s been taught that the moon goddess is spying on her and sending huge male werewolves and Lycan to hunt and enslave her… It could be a long haul.”“The old woman rewrote our religion to poison her pup against werewolves?” Mark’s tone was harsh and angry. The two men turned towards him in surprise, they’d been so busy talking that they hadn’t noticed his entrance. David’s expression was understanding and tolerant, Jake’s angry and accusing.
“She felt she was protecting her cub, Beta Mark,” David said in a calm voice. “Ask any mother wolf and they will tell you that there is nothing they wouldn’t do to protect their pups.”“How is an evil goddess more protection than a guardian and benefactress who will provide wise guidance?”“Fear of the moon goddess kept Lia out of the moonlight,” Marie said softly, joining the men. “Surely you noticed the colour of Selene’s wolf when she flickered? She was in full wolf form while she ran for her life, but she hasn’t shifted even once since she settled to make a home.” Marie shrugged, “A scarred, pure white wolf with blue-violet eyes living south of the tree line? She’d stick out like an injured paw. Even a white-haired woman with a white-haired child are rare. An old, white-haired grandmother with a white-blond child, both of whom barely smell of wolf would attract much less attention. This way they are much easier to hide, whether the one looking is a man, a werewolf, or a beast. She had no male of her own to protect them. Once she was with us, David would have of course, but she had no mate of her own.”Mark glanced at the sleeping old woman, his eyes only slightly less accusing than they had been.“Who are they hiding from,” he asked. Marie smiled, even though it was obvious that his question wasn’t simply born of curiosity.“We aren’t entirely certain,” Marie confessed. “Selene once said it was her mate, but a mate couldn’t be as cruel as that beast was to her. If they were mated, he couldn’t have injured her the way he did without also injuring himself. She was near death, he wouldn’t have had the energy to do it with himself in the same state. Selene can’t even talk about it. Shortly after Liana was born I convinced her to share what lead up to her leaving him. I thought it would help her to heal or find a way to reconnect her with some family. She tried to show me through a link, but she broke down, the images shredding as she whimpered and shivered in the den. It was the next morning before we could get her to respond to any communication, and then it was only verbal. As far as I know, her wolf hasn’t spoken with anyone since that day unless it was to call us for help.”“I have trouble believing that,” Mark said.Jake growled at him.“If I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t believe it either,” Marie said sadly.“From the day we met her it was obvious she was terrified of someone finding them,” David said, “I was surprised when her wolf stopped openly communicating, but I didn’t know you’d had that sort of conversation with her, Marie.”Marie sighed and looked at Selene, biting her lip and fiddling with the small stone she wore around her neck. “Under the circumstances, I think you need to know.” She sighed again. “This will likely cost me a good friend, but the way things are she cannot protect Lia, and I can not be with them both all the time. Her mate's face was the last image she was able to share with me. If I share the memory with you, Jake and Mark, you will understand why Selene has raised Lia the way she has, You may also be able to recognize the beast she needs protection from. Selene’s wolf isn’t focused on him though, it was completely preoccupied so you’ll have to try to focus on him yourselves and pay close attention to the brief glimpses of the beast. He seemed oddly tall to me,” her tone sounded far away and distracted as she tried to conjure enough of the memory to share with the men. “Mark, Jake, you’ll have to open your mind to me yourselves, I can’t look into both of your eyes at the same time.”“Look in mine,” Mark ordered, “Jake will be able to see it from his link with me.”“Alright,” she said, “Girls,” she spoke over her shoulder, “You are not to watch this. Do not try to sneak a look into any of our thoughts. If you do, you will regret it. Understand?”“Yes mother,” they mumbled together.“Now gentlewolves, you need to remember as you see this that Selene was barely fifteen when this memory was made. The room is dark, so there aren’t any objects in the background to gauge his size from. She said she had been living in this room for several months before her first escape. This memory is what happened after he found her.”The faces of all three main drew into pained scowls as Marie began to share the images from Selene’s memory with them. A dark room slowly took form in their minds and a bone-chilling cold caused them to begin to shiver almost instantly. The smell was muted at first, the images hard to make out as though they had walked from outside on a bright, sunny afternoon into a darkened room. A large shapeless figure loomed high over the original viewer. Most of his shape was just a black mass, long, stringy hair in the shape of the head was the only thing that made it look human. From the vantage point of the original set of eyes, he seemed at least three feet tal
Lia took a deep breath, filling her nose with the relaxing scent of sun-warmed pine needles and fresh air tinged with the dampness of a light rain. It was as though a sun shower had just washed over the yard and she was dozing in a lawn chair under a tree in her yard. She felt a gentle breeze coming and retreating like breath through the hair on top of her head She could hear a steady thumping, like the bass of a song beating out a steady rhythm through earbuds that must have slipped from her ear as she slept, just far enough away that she could make out the rhythm, but not hear the tune. She felt warm and tingly from head to toe. Perfectly happy and comfortable. It must have been a good dream, she thought vaguely. She decided to try to go back to sleep and dream it again. Rainbows spread across her closed eyelids and she sighed happily.“Home,” she whispered softly, snuggling into the warm, pleasant scent with a smile on her lips. Suddenly the sweet-smelling warmth that enveloped her
“The smell?”“Well you know how Gran has always given me smells to learn?” Lia said, “It isn’t always a herb or flower. There is one scent in particular that she never named, but she told me it was pure evil, the worst kind of danger and I should always be afraid of it. If I smelled that smell, I was supposed to get to your place as fast as possible. The strange thing was, I sometimes caught a whiff of it at your house, which was confusing because why would a scent I should run from be in what was supposed to be the safest place? But I guess if she wanted me to stay away from werewolves, she would have taught me to stay away from some smell almost every werewolf has, but that smell would also be in your house at least sometimes if you were all werewolves.” She shrugged, looking from one girl to the other to see if she was making any sense.“You’re taking this a lot better than I expected.” Ellie said.“It’s been years since you thought all the werewolf tales were anything but silly sto
Lia sat cross-legged on the library floor, leaning back against the base of the overstuffed sofa and flipping through the children’s books and werewolf chapter books for young pups. Ellie and Elsie had left a while ago, promising to be back soon. All these stories about the moon goddess were so captivating! Why had her grandmother told the stories so differently? Here the goddess is seen as a protector of werewolves and the guardian of the earth! That is so much more consistent with the healing properties of the plants picked by moonlight. They say she watches over people and influences their moods and choices to keep them safe. Gran always said that Eric had too much energy during the full moon. She obviously knew the goddess effected moods, but had never once shared that information. Then there were some about the goddess match making and planning the destiny of werewolves, trying to bring peace and unity to all. She is always making happy unions and granting fertility to worthy wolv
Jake’s heart skipped a beat as he looked down into the crystal blue eyes of his intended. They were the same colour as the water around a glacier, with a darker, almost violet ring in the center of them. He remembered her mother’s wolf, then looked at the thick, shinny white hair that was cascading over her slender shoulders and realized her eyes would be blue as ice water and her fur as white as snow. His wolf growled in appreciation. Jake didn’t realize he’d actually made a noise until Liana’s eyes widened and she stepped back in alarm.“It’s alright, Lia,“ David said reassuringly, “When a wolf rumbles like that it’s sort of like men whistling from a construction site, but it isn’t considered rude among werewolves. Once a female has found her wolf she usually really enjoys hearing that sort of appreciation from a male. It makes her feel pretty and cherished….or so my wife tells me.”“I’ve heard you do that before,” Lia said accusingly, her attention still fixed on Jake. “I’ve heard y
“Are you going to say anything Lia? We’ve still got a half hour left to drive.” Lia ignored David’s question and leaned forward to turn up the radio. No. She was NOT going to have a conversation or even make small talk. She sat stiffly in the cab of Jake’s truck, wedged in between Jake and David, squeezing herself even tighter than necessary as she tried not to brush up against either man at all. Annoyingly, Jake wasn’t taking the hint and seemed to be spreading himself out to brush up against her every chance he got. The tingly feeling on her skin and the stupid buzzing noise in her head were not helping her mood. A Department of Natural Resources van was following behind them filled with what Jake insisted were his ten best warriors. It was the only way he would agree to let her go to her own home to collect some of her things. He’d only agreed to the trip at all when she’d yelled at him over breakfast that she was not his prisoner and he had no right to keep her there against her w
Jake sighed and shifted his weight a bit, trying to get the feeling back in his left leg. He was pressed up against the door so tightly he’d cut off circulation, and still Lia wasn’t happy. Why was she acting like this? David and Marie insisted that she was normally very friendly and rarely complained about anything. To him, she seemed to be socially avoidant and perpetually grumpy. He understood that she was worried about her Gran, but there had to be more to it than that. Reasoning with her was impossible, she wanted what she wanted and that was it. Every time she didn’t get her way she became silent and sulky with her arms across her chest like a spoiled brat. He felt her perk up in her seat when they rounded the corner and could see her cottage. As soon as he began to slow down to park she lunged over David and was out the door of the still moving truck before either man could get a good hold of her.“Liana!” David yelled, but she didn’t even look back. She stooped by a rock on her
“Don’t you dare break the door down!” She yelled at them. “I know how to take a shower. What is it with werewolves and a total lack of boundaries? Haven’t you been around enough humans to understand the concept of privacy? Leave. Me. Alone! Get me some clean clothes if you need something to do. Put them by the door. Or what is it they say in all those old movies...go boil some water. Just leave me be!”“If you pass out in the shower you’ll drown.”“At least I’ll die at home,” she muttered.“Lia honey,” David said softly with his forehead on the door, “we need to know you’re okay.”“Stay the frig out!” She yelled when David began trying to pick the lock. “I’ll sing in the shower so you know I’m conscious. If I stop singing for more than a minute you can barge in here like a bunch of bafoons and save the naked princess from the evil shower monster.” There was nothing but silence.“Lia?”“I’m thinking! I can’t exactly take my phone in the shower for karaoke now can I? Nothing is coming to