“Good morning. Officer Yearwood and Watts from RCMP Banff detachment here to investigate an accident. May we come in?"

It had been the morning after the full moon back in January. Luka and his mom had just returned to their rented cottage in Banff National Park when a police car pulled over their driveway. Two men stood by his door. One had a thick moustache and the other had a fake tan.

Luckily, Luka had taken a shower and cleaned all the blood that dried up on his body. If the policemen had come earlier, they would have suspected him and his mom to be a pair of serial killers. 

"Of course," answered Luka, letting the two men in. They immediately spoke to Mrs. Cunning who was in the living room and explained that there had been an accident and their cottage was the closest to the spot.

"Did you hear anything?" asked Officer Yearwood, the moustache man.

"No," Mrs. Cunning shook her head. "We're so tired after snowmobiling yesterday afternoon so we went straight to bed."

She wasn't lying about not hearing anything, but they never went on snowmobiling. Luka was so impressed with his mom's ability to outright lie in front of the law enforcers. Well, she wasn't completely truthful about what she was all his life, so lying like that wouldn't be so hard for her. He made a mental note to learn how to do that. 

"It's uhh..." Officer Yearwood glanced at his partner, "it's quite of a big accident, might involve explosion or wild animals." 

"Wild animals?" Luka couldn't hold himself.

"Yes. The car hit a tree, but then there must be some kind of an explosion because  the doors are thrown around five meters away from the car. And it might involve wild animals because the two passengers are found in, uh..." 

"Gruesome condition," continued Officer Watts. "We couldn't even identify them yet." 

"But they came from Fairmont Chateau and the others are running the license plate, so we'll get to know..."

"Wait, Fairmont Chateau?" Luka barged in. "That's where Stella's aunt's wedding is held. Are they..." 

"No, the female victim was not wearing a wedding dress, so it can't be the newlyweds." 

"Maybe you should call Stella," suggested his mom. "Just check if she's okay." 

But Luka stared at the officers. His werewolf senses were tingling. There was something wrong. 

"Do you have the photo of the victim?" he asked. 

"Well, yeah, but... I don't think you want to see it," responded the moustache man. "Even if it's someone you know, I'm not sure you can identify them." 

"Show me," demanded Luka. 

The Asian man reluctantly dipped his hand under his jacket and took out two sheets of polaroid picture. Even he flinched when he was picking the picture before he gave it to Luka. 

The guy in blue sweater received the picture. His stomach churned as he recognized the destroyed figure of a girl. 

Stell... 

The police radio turned on as it stated, "Victims are Harry Shen and Stella Hao." 

Luka lost his breath. His mind slipped into the restaurant where he just met her on their way to their own destinations. She had laughed. She had been happy. 

Then it glimpsed. Her torn gold dress. The crack as he crushed the guy's head between his teeth. The smell of her blood, dripping from his mouth. The softness of her flesh after he ripped the back out of her body. A scream. Someone was shouting his name. A girl hiding in the woods, seeing everything.

Luka dropped the photo and ran toward the bathroom. He slid on the floor and stopped in front of the toilet. The splashing sound of his vomit hitting the base of the toilet was the only thing they could hear in the cottage. 

His mom quickly escorted the police officers before she rushed into the toilet. 

"Honey," she kneeled beside him and rubbed his back. "I'm so sorry." 

"No." 

Luka's sweating face turned to her. His eyes were red. A drop of puke dripped from his mouth. 

"It was me," he whispered. "I killed Stella." 

Mrs. Cunning grew up with four other werewolves in her life: her parents and her two older sisters. Then Lasse Bjornevik married Annemarie, and together they had five werewolf children of their own. Yet none of them, not single one of them, had ever killed a human being. Even if they did, not one of them remembered any of it. 

It had only been seven months since the entire family reunited to welcome him into their pack when he came of age. He had barely controlled the awakening of his enhanced abilities. He was just enjoying all the cool things he could do. And now he was faced with the consequences of his new power. Now he understood what it's actually like to be a werewolf.

She had to lock Luka up in his room because he tried to surrender himself to the police. He didn't understand that the human law did not apply to supernatural beings like them. There was no human prison strong enough to contain him, especially during full moon. It would be useless to imprison him at all.

Luka insisted that there was a witness across the road. A dark haired girl wearing an orange sweater. If she told anyone about a white werewolf eating two car crash victims, she’d expose their existence. Not to mention the name calling. Someone knew that the werewolf was him. Was it Stella? Did Stella shout his name before he killed him? Did she know?

The family worked out this situation together. A relative of the Bjorneviks who worked in the Parliament of Werebeasts was notified about the accident. They sent a team to investigate the case and give counsel to the Cunnings on how to proceed with this matter. Luka and his mom proved to be too close to human safe zone. They were fined and the money were donated to Stella's family under the legal name of the Parliament of Werebeasts. A lot of damage control was run. There was even a discussion whether they should move out to another place since Luka insisted that there was a witness, but knowing that he was heading to a higher education system, the parliament strongly suggested to send him to Erebus University.

It shifted Luka's life into an entirely different direction. Luka had been on track to go to University of Toronto alongside with Daisy and Stella, but then he singlehandedly destroyed all the plans they all had mapped out. Daisy's immense grief even made her rethink her decision to go, but with everyone's encouragement, including Luka's, she managed to bear the pain and start anew.

This turn of event devastated Luka. He didn't stop looking for penance. Until one day, Ariane made a conference video call with him and her brothers. Sepp lived in Auckland, New Zealand, while Kjell was based in Stockholm, Sweden, yet they all took their time to be there for Luka. Ariane tried to cheer him up by talking about all the things they could do together in Erebus. But even after her brothers' story about all the magical shenanigans they had done, Luka was still unaffected.

"Luka," Lenz, the oldest of the bunch, called him out when he looked away blankly. "What is it that you're thinking about?"

Luka sighed. "It's just that... you know my mom didn't even graduate from Erebus, right? She came in, got the shifting suit, and took off. She can't stand being there. What if it happens to me too?"

"Tante Elise left out of spite," responded Sepp. "Because Opa and Oma kept telling her that the only way for people to recognize her art is if she's an art school graduate. No art school accepted her, so she followed the others' footsteps to Erebus. She couldn't stand it so she left and tried to make it on her own."

"And now she has her own annual exhibition," Ariane's eyes glittered with admiration. "What a badass way to say 'fuck you'."

"Opa and Oma didn't think that anyone could live off of being a sculptor," added Sepp. "So it's not because of Erebus, Luka. It's because of herself."

"I just don't see how this uni can help me," crowed Luka. "Our full moon form can't be taught to not eat people, can it? So why bother? They should just lock me up in a dungeon."

Jørn snickered, "I think that's what they'd do to you if this was... 1521."

"Yeah, man, we've come a long way from imprisoning, beheading and burning supernaturals," bragged Kjell. "This is the 21^st century. Supernaturals have found their way to make themselves useful for the continuation of the Earth. You wanna be a vet? Be a fucking vet and save all those animals. We don't fear what we are anymore. We face our fear, we embrace our darkness and we rise as a better human being."

There was only silence for a couple of seconds before Lenz squinted his eyes and pulled his phone closer to his face, "Did you just quote my speech for your initiation dinner?"

His other brothers chuckled. They all remembered it because Lenz sent the copy to them before he finalized the speech.

"You sounded like a super villain," Kjell tittered. "I think if Zazzie could, he would have pissed himself.”

"What initiation dinner?" inquired Ariane. "Do you mean the freshman orientation? I didn't know an alumnus must make a speech."

"No, no," answered Lenz. "It's our fraternity initiation dinner."

"Fraternity?" Ariane burst out laughing hearing Lenz's answer

"That's what I did the first time I found out that they're in a fraternity," Kjell remarked. "All of them. Including Sepp. Even Frode too."

There was a subtle amusement on Luka's face when he glanced at the second Bjornevik brother. He used to wear glasses, sport a mushroom haircut and stayed indoors to read comic books. After he came of age, his vision perfected itself in one night. Now he grew out his Swedish blonde hair, but his awkward mannerism still couldn't cover up how much of a nerd he was.

"Hey, I lifted Delta's reputation, okay?" boasted Sepp. "Does any of you have your photo hung on the Wall of Legends? No. Who has it? Me. Not Lennart Bjornevik, not Jørgen Bjornevik, and most certainly not Kjetill Bjornevik."

"But hey, Lukes, you should join Delta," advised Jørn. "I think it would be good for you, with all the shared suffering and the competition."

"I think the word you'd like to use is 'support'," corrected Kjell. "It would be good for Luka with all the support."

"Luka doesn't need support right now," Jørn argued. "He needs to see that he's not in this alone. A lot of us are fucked up too. Plus, there's a chance that there are some of us that are more fucked up than you are, Lukes."

“That's why you need to be in Erebus,” added Lenz. “First, the university itself has a safe and supportive environment. You will be able to further your education and understand your new form. Second, Delta Pi Kappa will take care of you the way it took care all of us. It's embedded with support system that neither of us have thought would help much but it did.”

“That I agree,” Jørn confirmed. “Honestly, eighteen year old boys are one of the stupidest creatures on Earth. It’s helpful to have an entire house guiding you so you can be less stupid.”

“Correct,” Lenz nodded. “At least for now, you will be busy trying to sell yourself as the best pledge they can have, that you'll work so hard until you are the best pledge they can have. You will forget about all your irrelevant worries and focus on reaping the benefits of Greek life.”

"See?" Kjell pointed at the camera. "Super villain."

That conference call had put new ideas into Luka's mind. Yes, yes, Kjell's speech about rising as a better human being had been quite stirring, but it had been Jørn's statement of shared suffering and Lenz's advertisement of support system that had piqued his interest about the Greek life. 

Finlay and Castor still stared at Luka, waiting for him to answer their question. Summarizing that important conference call, Luka answered, "From myself."

Castor scrunched his nose. "What?"

"I'm used to have a big support system, you know, werewolf family," explained Luka. "I need to be surrounded by people and to feel that I'm not in this alone. You... you guys won't get it. It's a werewolf thing."

"You mean friends?" asked Castor again. "You need friends. Is that it?"

"No, not just friends. Support system. It's more complicated than that."

"'Cause if you need friends, you know you can count on me," said Castor. This time it was Luka who blue-screened. Castor got up. "Oh, well, I'm gonna head out. I got a class in two minutes. See ya!"

And just like that, he burst back into thousands of black particles, teleporting himself out of the room.

Finlay exhaled. "Support system, huh?" he asked. "I may be an only child, but I got what ya mean. Must be nice."

Luka tapped the baguette in his hand. "So what do you think?" he asked. "Don't you wanna join in?" 

"I will in me ring," Finlay raise his eyebrows.

"Huh? Then why did you seem against it?"

“It means 'no' ya thick dope! Why the fuck would I join a fraternity? Also, me aul dear's gonna kill me if I do. She has this sibling rivalry with Uncle Eoghan, okay? Conall's aul fella. Now I gotta prove that I can get by without being in a fraternity. And I will fecking prove it.”

“Okay, good luck on that.”

“Is that sarcasm?”

“No. I sincerely wish you good luck.”

“Hmm… anyway,” Finlay realized Luka was not the bantering type, “after our encounter with Raoul earlier, maybe joining a fraternity will give ya some kind of backup if he does something radical.”

“What do you mean?”

“If ya need extra power to go against him, ye definitely can get it from yer fraternity. It’s basically a brotherhood, yeah? Brothers don’t let brothers suffer on his own. So, if he tries to fuck ya up, ye’ll be fine.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. Conall had a problem too once. His frat brothers just… hey, aren't ye gonna do something with that bread?" 

Luka's werewolf sense crept up. "Oh shit." 

He dropped the baguette, opened the door and ran to the kitchen. The burnt smell was easily picked up in the hallway. Shades of orange welcomed him into the room. What used to be his stripes of bacon had been swallowed and replaced by flames.