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His words bit.
“Lycaon, the first werewolf. Yes.”
Though no one believed it, that Lycaon, a mere mortal who snubbed Zeus, and Zeus proceeded to change him into a lycan, or werewolf. Hence where the name lycan came from.
“Zale fell in love with a witch from your Badbury Rings coven. They kept their love a secret, as you pointed out earlier,” Marrock’s voice was sharp. “Werewolves and witches cannot love each other. But nonetheless, for Loren and Zale it must’ve been true love.” Marrock held my stare. I looked down at the golden liquid in my glass as he leaned towards me. “Because they left everything, everyone. Abandoned their families, their friends. And eloped. Your coven, and my pack, run under Torak, my predecessor, hunted them for years, decades. I’m not sure if you even know how old your coven master is, but Mattie and Torak made a pact to kill Loren and Zale, to set an example.”
I swigged some whiskey to dull the anger rising in me. “Mattie would never kill a witch, not unless that witch had done something seriously evil and I don’t see what this folk tale has to do with-”
Shaking his head, he raised a free arm. “There you go again, jumping to assumptions. Let me finish?”
I raised my brows, exhaling hard.
“Well, the Badbury Rings Coven and my Savernake pack did capture them both. Surrounding them, they burned Loren alive at the stake, and made Zale watch as they whipped him, nearly flaying the skin from his back.”
I opened my mouth, but he anticipated that.
His voice shouted right through me. “I was there, I saw it. Though I didn’t know all of this story at the time. I was a kid then. You have to remember, this was almost a century ago. We, pack members, questioned less, you know, back in those days. We were, in those days, more obedient.But Zale, being one of the first turned by Lycaon, fought back, struggling even as they shot arrows into him. Needless to say, he escaped and no one has heard from him since.”
“And this Lycaon? Why didn’t he save his child, his progeny?”
Marrock shrugged, his voice calmer. “No onehadheard from him in centuries. Of course, there were tales of him. Some said he was living in the Black Forest, others said that he’d gone deep into the jungles along the Amazon. But back in nineteen-twenty-one, we didn’t know much. I do know that it affected me. That’s why I didn’t care if Nathan, or any other pack member shacked up with a witch, or another shifter. Or even a mage.” With his hand around his glass, he pointed with his index finger. “I do draw the line at vampires, though.Dead things… No. But even then, I’d never kill one of my own for it. It would disgust me. But Mattie, well, maybe you don’t know as much about her as you think.”
“What, you’re telling me is that Mattie put the flame to the kindling to this Loren? I don't believe it. She’s so… She’s like a mother. I still don’t see what this has to do with this carnage. Zale, a werewolf from a century ago. Maybe he wants revenge, who would blame him? But why wait for a century? And what we just saw, well, that was more than a werewolf attack. It was dark magic.”
He got up and strode over to the side table bringing back the bottle. I glanced at it. “Apt name for the whiskey, as it relates to the story.”
“Humm, long marriage. This whiskey is over fifty years old, older than you I’d wager. A new witch with so much to learn.”
“So you think Zale has come back, using magic to right the wrongs?”
He didn’t answer, just watched as he poured more whiskey into his glass. He offered it to me. I shook my head. I’d kill for a coffee.
He slumped back in his chair. “Honestly Elsa, I don’t know. Perhaps someone who knows the story is using it as a copycat. There are some biased werewolves, shifters, demons, as well as witches it seems. When Torak was killed by Lucifer, I took over as alpha and I disagreed with a lot of Torak’s ways. As I said, so long as my pack are not screwing bloody vampires. I made it clear to my pack that we would not continue the persecution of those who married outside their packs. I haven’t got a lot of support, I can tell you that. Mattie was livid. She insisted that we persist with finding Zale. And I forbade her from hunting my species and from setting foot on my land. That’s partly why we use magic.” His voice deepened, “To protect us against your kind. That hasn’t worked, has it?”
I grimaced. I didn’t believe they, or he, practiced magic because of Mattie’s coven. That was just an excuse. Still, he wouldn’t let it go. “Look at Emma and Lucius, from Conor’s pack. She’s both mage and werewolf and married to Lucius, a demon.”
“Emma is unusual though. Who knows where she got that power from? And Conor, her alpha and his friend Sabian have always been benevolent. Many think it’s wrong, though, that she and a demon wed. This threat, this abomination has to be closer to home.It has to be from your pack, or my coven. Who else knew about Lisa and Nathan?”
“Shit, they hardly hid it. When did you know?”
I frowned at him and sat up in the chair. “A few days ago, when she went missing.”
“Ha! Dumb… Well, they’d been here and sighted out and about together for quite a while at least. I wasn’t concerned, though I admit Mattie is always cause for concern. I thought at first, tonight, when I smelled that blood magic on you that you were Mattie, come to challenge me, to demand Nathan’s head for defying the rules. I was about to, well, defend my pack.”
A hammering on the front door made me jump. Marrock slammed his glass down on a table beside him, brushed past my chair and opened it warily. Cold air swept through, fresh. Sunrise was coming…
“We found this,” a deep shaky voice said.
I turned to look.
“Thanks Adam. What the…”
The pack member’s lip curled at the edge as he saw me, then held out his hand to Marrock.A poppet. The cloth doll’s arms and legs were hanging by threads, twisted and splattered in blood.
Marrock growled, turning to face me as he snatched it from Adam. Adam disappeared sharply as Marrock paced towards me.
“Yours? Tell me Elsa, whose is it? Because I can clearly see the mark of your coven, look.”
