Though I know he survived this ordeal, I worry about his wellbeing in this chaos when he is cornered and surrounded by wolves. His anguish permeated throughout the memory as he watched each and every member of his family brutally slaughtered before his eyes. Fear etched into his beautiful features were marred with blood at the realization that he would be next. I ran to each of his fallen members in hopes of trying to help them, even fight off some of the wolves, but just as before, they go right through me and I was helpless, if not more so, than he was to do anything. I fell to my knees and wept beside his fallen mother and sister or what was left of them. I realized in despair this was probably how he felt times 100 while he witnessed his loved ones fall prey to these werewolf monsters.

When I looked to him, I noticed the wolves had not attacked as him viciously as they had the rest of his family. They seemed to be holding him in place and keeping him from aiding the others, let alone himself. They circled but defended themselves when he fought back and keep him in line.

“Stop!” a smooth, female baritone voice reverberates from the forest. A tall regal woman of the same ebony visage from my dream stood at the edge of the forest in only a cloth wrapped about her lithe form and stepped into the clearing towards the carnage before her.

“What is the meaning of this?” Her voice asked heavy with the gravity of the situation around her. The wolves parted and formed a path as she made her way to him and glared icily to each and every one of the wolves, who in turn, shrank away from her reproach. He and I watched her, mesmerized by her commanding stature as she practically floated through the wolves that followed her every movement with their undivided attention.

“What have you all done?!” She growled the demand to the rest of the wolves around her and many flinched at her tone. “These people are innocent – are defenseless! How dare you all act without my consent!

She looked at their remaining victim with compassion, turned abruptly to the pack, and banished them with a dramatic sweep of an arm. “Leave! All of you.” She commanded with finality.

Lyssandra turned to him with an extended hand and naturally, he backed away from it in fear and anger. “Please, I promise, I won’t hurt you.” She beseeched.

“How can I trust you?! You and your wolves slaughtered my family and were about to eat me as well!”

“I swear to you, I had nothing to do with this. My pack took matters into their own hands and did this of their own volition, which they will be gravely punished for. I had no hand in your family’s demise.”

“I don’t care! My family is dead! No punishment will ever make up for the loved ones I lost today!” His anguished shouts echoed through the area as he, too distraught, collapses to his knees and pounds at the ground fruitlessly.

“I know, young one. There is nothing I can do to bring them back but I can offer you peace of mind and you never have to remember what you saw today.”

“…impossible.” Still skeptical, he looked at her wearily but clearly contemplated about her offer.

“I promise, I will right everything between us.” The willowy nymph-like woman coerced him gently.

“I will never trust you.” He spitefully proclaimed under his breath as he looks at the corpses of his dead family. Lyssandra gently placed a hand under his chin and guided his face to look at her.

“I don’t expect your trust at this moment but I would hope that you would ease your suffering by accepting my offer to help me make amends for this tragedy.”

Her slender hand still extended out towards him. He looked down at it in defeat and takes a hold of it.

“Let me heal your pain.” She whispered lowly as she grasped his hand tightly within her own. Suddenly, she pulled him to her body and held him to her and she leaned in.

“You’ll learn to trust me. But over time and not as you are now.” She declared with a wicked glint and then swooped in to his neck and bit him.

He struggled against her grasp but no matter how hard he hit and kicked her, nothing shook her grip on him. He fought for a few moments before he finally sagged against her. When he practically hung from her arms, she pulled herself away from him and laid him gently on the ground. A few moments later, his eyes start to flutter and focus.

“What happened?” Groggily, he woke up from his stupor and clapped a hand on his gaping wound without realizing why he was doing so.

“Nothing, my love. You were exhausted after the hunt and just fell asleep.”

He looked around dazed and spotted the remains of his family but with no hint or recognition of what had happened just a moment ago.

“Who are they?” He asked, genuinely confused at the carnage.

“They were hunters that tried to kill you. They tried to take what is mine and your pack protected you from harm. They were presumptuous when they were encroaching on our territory but no one dares attack us without being punished.”

“But, there are women and children among the dead.”

“They were hostages of the hunters and an unfortunate casualty in the fight. We tried to save them but the hunters were ruthless. They paid for their transgressions with their lives and justice was meted out.” She crooned when wrapped an arm around his back and guided him around the bodies of his lost loved ones, into the deep, dark forest.

“Come, my love. Let’s let them rest in peace.”

From there, the next memory we encountered was his first transformation during a new moon. Me, watching him change, was a painful experience to witness as all his joints shifted, dislocated, and popped into new places. He writhed in agony, suffering from the excruciating shifts in my bones and muscles. Seeing it in these memories felt almost as real and painful as though I were going through it myself.

What must have been on a minute’s time to transform and change into his new form felt like an unbearable decade of torture and I wasn’t even the one going through it personally. I wouldn’t wish this sort of pain on anyone yet, here was the one person that I realize that I have developed strong feelings for, love even, going through something so awful and against his will. When it all finally stopped, he laid on the floor panting and licked his paw in helplessness for a few moments.

His snowy white fur – similar to the fine, pale locks he normally sports while he’s a human – was a stark contrast compared to the dark foliage of the surrounding forest floor that he laid on. When I looked into his eyes, he still had his startling silver irises, now down casted from exertion. He was larger than most wolves I’ve seen, heck even large dogs like mastiffs, but I guess that must be a physical trait of being a werewolf of sorts. I checked the area around us before I decided that I wanted to make my way to him and see him up close with my own two eyes. I heard her before I saw her; the ebony monster that terrorized me in my dreams stalked out of the shadows and appeared before him in all her awful glory.

It suddenly dawned on me that that was Lyssandra in her Lupinine form. I don’t know why I didn’t put two-and-two together before now but when I look back at how she threatened me over the last few days, I realize that I definitely encroached on her mate and territory without realizing it.

That thought made me uneasy with fear and maybe a bit possessive over someone I hardly knew for more than a few days. That same someone communicated silently to the she-wolf that was almost two times his size. They ran off into the woods together and I am transported to the next memory.

I stood in the middle of the forest and wolves darted around and past me to a prey up ahead. They were all too fast and I couldn’t keep up when the pack raced off in full speed. No sooner did I try to run to them, did I stop in my tracks as all the wolves gathered around a circle and darted in and out of the middle. It was a similar formation as I just saw when they attacked his defenseless family and my stomach roiled. I knew what to expect; the wolves were attacking another innocent family.

The screams of terror and the bestial growls were more than enough to haunt me but a movement in the periphery caught my attention. I was surprised when a snowy white Lupinn, now larger in size almost seemed dwarfed as he cowered at the sight in front of us. When I looked at his light grey eyes, I felt like he could actually see me as I approached him and we were in agreement that we didn’t like what was happening to that poor family. A final scream from a victim ripped my gaze away from his and I cried aloud when this particular killing made his family’s massacre seem like a mercy.

“Why do you not partake of the hunt?” A smooth sultry voice asked from behind us. He turned his head and slowly morphed back into his human form, crouched on the ground almost like a lost little boy cradling and rocking himself for comfort that no one else can provide.

“I’m not hungry.”

“The hunt is not just about hunger, my love, it’s a communal activity.” Lyssandra reasoned with him diplomatically. “We hunt for one another and give each other the power from our kill. Each new kill will help strengthen you and enforce our unbreakable bond as a pack.”

And bind you further to me. A voice hisses through the air, almost no discernibility from the wind but I heard it. He must have as well when I noticed a slight widening of his eyes.

“My heart is not in it tonight.” He replied lamely and looked down at the ground dejected.

“Hmm.” She places a hand under his chin so that she could guide his gaze upon her once again. “Perhaps you are interested in other activities to strengthen our bond, no? Tonight, I’ll share more of our older traditions that I’ve ever with anyone else in this pack.”

I could tell by his body language that he really wasn’t interested in other such activities that she had in mind. With a heavy heart, it seemed he knew he had no say in the matter, especially against the pack’s Alpha. He just followed her lead out into the clearing under the full moon’s rays and was swallowed by the forests shadow. I did not follow.

The night changed to day and we were in the heart of the woods. I hid behind a tree and watch as two other men slink by silently. When they look around them and saw no one else in the area, they whispered to one another.

“I don’t know how long we can keep living this lie.”

“We keep living it as long as Lyssandra wants us to. She’s our Alpha. What say have we of such matters.” The eldest of the two asked rhetorically.

“Yeah, but her Consort is getting stronger by the day and will break from her bonds soon. I can feel it in the moon’s pull and even a blind man can see he is not completely fooled by the charade. She’s too enamored to see what the rest of us can scent with our very noses!” The junior of the pair remarks bitterly.

“Well, as long as he doesn’t find out the truth about his family, I’m sure he’s enchanted by her cunt and is only too happy to be kept in the dark.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, a shadow dashed up to them and tackled the last man that spoke. His friend tried to help but only got swatted away.

The anger I saw upon his face was akin to the day he helplessly watched his family perish. With a snarl on his lips, he was practically choking the man in his grasp.

“What did you just say?” His voice deep and deadly when he asked what he already knew the answer to. He looked older than in the last memory yet younger than he is now.

“Nothing, I swear it!” The man in his grasp rasped desperately.

“Wrong answer.” He growled lowly before he morphed into his wolf form and brutally clamped down on the older man’s throat.

I gasp at his sudden display of aggression and cover my mouth to stifle my cries. Moment like now when I see his eyes flicker onto me for a millisecond made me realize that he must sense, if not see, me even in these visions of his past. His victim slumped to the ground dead and he turned his gaze to the younger man of the duo – still his senior by a decade or two – as he slowly edged away with his hands up in surrender to the angry Lupinn.

“Easy there.” The other pack member halted him before he became the next target. He took one look at the dead body apprehensively and turned back to him. “I won’t lie and say I’ll miss that old codger, but I’ll also not follow him to the grave and tell you what you want to know.” He relented hastily, trying to calm down the very upset werewolf. “I need assurance that I won’t be him,” pointing to corpse, “after I tell you everything I know.”

Shifting back to his human form, he crouched low as though he’s prepared to spring on the edgy pack member if he so much as moved a muscle in a wrong way. “Talk.”

“Do I have your word and honor as a member of the pack not to harm me in anyway and to keep me from harm from others should they find out that you know the truth?”

“You have my word and honor as a member of the pack that no harm shall befall you, Alec, should I have any say in your wellbeing. I will defend you if I must to keep true to my word. As a man.”

That seemed to be enough for the other man as he settled down on the forest floor opposite of him and retold the tale from the night when Lyssandra first encountered his family.

“Lyssandra hated humans coming into her territory and your family had unwittingly come just within the borders while she was patrolling.”

“My family.” He stated as though testing the word on his tongue as he tried to figure out the meaning and its relation to himself.

“Yes, you had one before us but after they had a run in with the pack, we became your family.” Alec explained before continuing. “Lyssandra watched as your family moved and settled on her territory and instantly wanted to punish them. You may have noticed that she has a bit of a sadistic streak and is a bit territorial. She waited until they let their guard down and then attacked when they least expected it but she decided to spare you – in her cruel sadistic way, all this made sense to her.

“Why?”

“We weren’t sure at first but she became obsessed with you as you built your cabin on her grounds. She watched your every move and made sure that you didn’t suddenly leave so we were patrolling and keeping an eye on you all for months. The day that you completed your house and the rest of your family came to celebrate, she decided that would be the day to act and the swiftest way to eliminate any further connection to your family would be if they were all dead. We all didn’t know what her intention was for you but all we knew was when she gave the signal, we were to eliminate the trespassers but keep the eldest alive for her to deal with. We had no idea she was going to use you as a Consort.”