by Adam Millard
“You must be careful; in three lunar cycles you will perform the ritual that is your birthright. We must have you chaste and pure to ensure the ritual works. Many lives depend on you, Katharine.” He turned to the guards and waved them off. “I will keep an extra eye on you for these last cycles I fear. I sense something afoot and the earth-mother is not happy. You will go to the temple now and supplicate yourself to her alter.”
Iden turned curtly around and stormed out of the room, leaving Katharine to prepare herself for supplication. The lashes would leave their marks, but while putting on her prayer robes she glanced down at the pelt and smiled. The lunar cycle for the priestess would be a long one.
*
Outside the window, Hemming morphed into wolf form and ran up into the heavens.
*
On the forest’s edge, the alpha noticed this and slinked back into the woods hoping this meant food.
*
High priest Iden felt Hemming’s presence and watched as the wolf departed back into the night sky. Something was happening and it didn’t please him at all.
*
Meanwhile, in the temple, Katharine accepted her lashings at the altar with a look of contentment on her face.
2
The lunar cycle proved to be long and daunting. The days crept by and the nights brought time to a halt while Katharine longed for the full moon’s return. She slept with the wolf pelt as a blanket and told no one, not even Danni, of her encounter one month ago. Danni left for the night and Katharine immediately hopped out of bed and ran to the balcony. The full moon broke through the last of the cloud cover and illuminated the temple grounds below. She quickly threw her robe off and started to feel the burn in her loins. Her breath quickened, her fingers explored her figure, and then she saw the wolf appear on the grounds.
Katharine wasted no time grabbing the pelt and rushing to the secret chamber door behind her devotional altar. She silently stalked down the passageway leading to the gardens. In the middle where there stood a statue of Demeter, the wolf would meet her, she remembered the man saying. The dreams that had faded away with the waning of the last full moon came rushing back with the appearance of the new full moon.
The gardens were situated in a large circular shape with two entrances on the outer ring of bushes and the path spiraled along a shorter and shorter route until it ended at Demeter’s altar in the center. The shrine contained her totem, areas to pray, and devices for supplication to the goddess. Katharine hurried through the rings, listening for her love. She reached the shrine and saw her wolf pacing along the altar.
Up close she found him breathtaking. Something within her stirred and giving in to her lust, she took the pelt and draped it around her naked body. Suddenly it latched into her flesh and she felt the heat between her thighs rise to an unbearable needing. Her legs gave out from underneath her and falling to the ground, she landed on four legs with a coat of fur. She became a wolf.
The alpha drew back in alarm. What was once human, now sat before him as a mate. He detected the twang of her fertility in the air and cautiously approached. Her new ears perked up at the sound of his paws behind her. She heard him back away, but then he mounted her and his claws dug into her back. For a split second, she felt pressure and a touch of pain as the alpha gave into his animalistic nature.
Within a few seconds the act ended and the alpha climbed down from her. He turned back towards the woods and ran into the darkness. A low growl emanated from her in anger. Every prayer, every oath, every moment and breath of her life were now shattered in her moment of weakness.
*
In the shrine, next to Demeter’s statue, Hemming laughed knowing the pact was now voided.
*
Katharine lay on the ground and the pelt slipped from her shoulders. Without the pelt, she reverted smoothly back to her own human body. She rolled over, hearing the footfalls behind her. Hemming strolled over and patted her on the head like she was still a wolf. He bent over, picked the pelt up, and threw it over his shoulder.
“Thank you my child. We have suffered over four hundred years of hunger under your goddess. I was patient and I waited. Now because of your transgressions, the truce between me and your goddess is over. Now we shall ravage the countryside and feast on the flesh of men again!”
A loud thunder crack shook the shrine as the high priest slammed his staff down onto the garden’s floor. He muttered a few quick words and Hemming found he couldn’t move. Iden moved towards Hemming and got eye to eye with him.
“What have you done?” he screamed at Hemming.
“I have done what my children bade me to do, undo the covenant between man and wolf. We will now take our rightful place in nature!” Hemming stated as he licked the tips of his fangs in the high priest’s face.
Pointing to Katharine he ordered, “Go and clothe yourself. Punishment for your part in this matter will be severe on both fronts.”
Hemming tried to move and found his feet unable to step away; he remained grounded where he stood. He disrobed and wrapping the pelt around him tried to morph, but he stayed in his human form.
“How do you trap a god?” Hemming asked and his fury with the high priest evident in his tone.
“My devotion to my goddess has been rewarded. Now the power to punish you for your deeds also falls to me. You will lead me to the pack; the alpha and his kin must suffer.”
The high priest reached over and felt Katharine’s stomach. Through the insight the goddess granted him, he felt the stirrings of a new life within her womb already. He sighed and dropped his hand back to his side. Deep down he always knew the girl had failure’s taint. The first day she came to the temple, the portents were bad and the omens unfavorable. His doubt got overridden by the will of the goddess and like a sheep, he followed her wishes.
Now everything that stood for four hundred years came crashing down on his watch and he would make those responsible pay. The high priest stood with his head bowed and prayed for the goddess’s intervention. He needed her strength and grace to do what he found himself tasked to do.
“Hemming, you will take me to the pack, now,” ordered the high priest, turning towards the forest.
Hemming laughed and stood his ground. “You can’t force me to do anything, Iden; you are a mere mortal with no authority over us gods.”
High priest Iden turned back to Hemming and tapped his staff on the ground three times. Hemming cried out in pain and dropped to his knees. He looked up at Iden and spat on his feet. The priest slowly raised his hand and Hemming rose from the ground to his feet.
“You will follow me. Katharine, you will join us into the forest. Your actions are an affront to our religion and to the will of the goddess. Your lust and selfishness has ended the peace between us and the wolves. The gates have been thrown open for them to rampage through the countryside eating and devouring all in their path.” He turned from Katharine to Hemming, “and you engineered this. I shall let you bear witness to the punishment Demeter is handing down to your precious pack.”
Iden walked into the forest while Katharine and Hemming followed. Katharine’s head stared at the ground in shame and humiliation while Hemming walked next to her with a mask of rage and anger. He seethed at being pushed around and controlled by a human. He struggled to walk a different path, but his body remained bound to the path Iden walked.
3
Elsewhere in the moonlit forest, the alpha returned to the pack. His arrival back meant food the other wolves thought, but instead he came trotting back with nothing and they smelled the stink of human on him. His mate got up from their young and came sniffing around him. She smelled the fertility blood tainting him and growled. Another large wolf came over and joined her in her protesting barks of anger. Soon the entire pack circled him and howled their disapproval.
“Enough!” shouted a human form walking into their lair.
The wolves turned and barked at him. Not only was the alpha str
icken, but he also brought humans to them. Two other forms entered and stood behind the robed man with the staff. The shape in the back with the pelt on his shoulder waved his hand and the wolves sat down silently on their haunches and watched. The other human shared the musk their alpha had on him.
“Your alpha has committed the gravest of all sins and for that the pack must pay the penalty.”
He tapped his staff on the ground and the alpha paced in front of him, ready to pounce. The alpha quickly dropped to the ground yelping and howling out in agony for his god to save him. Hemming reached out to him and Iden motioned for him to drop his outstretched hand. The alpha bayed at the full moon that now was forsaking him.
His skin began to tingle and his dark gray coat started to recede from his body. A loud snapping followed as his paws began to expand and grow out. The claws that once protected and provided for the pack pulled back into his half-formed fingers leaving a bloody path in their wake. The tendons and muscles slid and shifted, separated and formed new configurations. His jaw dislocated with a sickening crack and shortened back towards his face, his fangs retreating into his gum line. His tail folded back and grew into the base of his spine.
The transformation went on slowly for ten minutes while Iden watched, Katharine wept, and Hemming turned his head away so he didn’t have to witness the scene before him. When the change ended, a naked man laid on the forest floor before them. Without his thick coat, he shivered in the cool autumn breeze. His once silver eyes gazed up at Hemming with new brown ones and a look of betrayal. Iden, Hemming, and Katharine backed away from the scene as the pack began to circle their changed leader.
His mate approached him and sniffed the sick stench of his new body making the hair on her back raise. She growled at him and he could see the anger, hunger, and hurt flaming through her amber eyes. He reached out to her to comfort her and she snapped her jaws at his quickly retreating fingers. The other members joined her in her growling.
Iden walked over and stood next to the alpha. He struck his staff into the ground again and muttered an ancient rite. Howls of pain erupted from the pack, their own transformations beginning. They writhed on the ground, each changing to human form, not even the pups were spared.
Katharine rushed over to Iden and pleaded, “Stop this! They’re innocent.”
“My child, none are innocent in this matter. They are receiving their due and you will now get yours. You are hereby exiled to live the rest of your life with them. Your child can be raised by its father and mother out here. You will teach them and integrate them into the world of man.”
“Our child?”
“Oh, yes, I can already sense it growing within you. My work here is finished, I shall return to the temple and meditate on our goddess’s new intentions,” he said while he turned and walked off into the night.
Katharine rushed to the alpha’s side and brushed his hair from his new beautiful human face. She looked around at the rest of the pack and sighed, her prison for the rest of her life. A tear fell down her cheek.
Hemming bent down and whispered in her ear, “I still have some say in this my lady. I can’t undo what has been done, but I can grant a small reprieve.”
The wolf god stood back up and began whispering to the full moon. Katharine got up and came over to him.
“What did you do?”
“I have given my wolves a gift. On the full moon, those humans who descend from this pack’s bloodline will be granted the power to return to their native form when the moon shines full and bright. For those days, they can be wolves until the moon begins to wane again. I wish I could grant them more, but I am limited in what my power as a lesser deity can do.”
“Thank you,” whispered Katharine as she lowered her head and returned to the human pack.
Hemming shifted into a wolf and ran off into the approaching dawn.
4
“That is some story,” the psychologist said, putting her pen down on her desk.
“Look Dr. Shelby, it’s true. My grandmother told me the story when I turned ten, to… you know, explain certain changes in my body.”
“So, your family can change into wolves on the full moon? I think you need further evaluation, because it sounded more like you found hair in new places.”
“You have no idea honey,” the man said sitting upright on the couch. Dr. Shelby picked her pen back up and began writing. Jonathon stood up and paced the room, his eyes darting to the window every few seconds. The moon remained hidden behind the blanket of clouds. He felt his rising agitation and broke out into a sweat, drenching his tee shirt.
“Beth, look I just want to clear things up between us.”
“Hey, you’re the one who decided it was a good idea to ask me out months ago.”
“You have to know that story from my grandmother wasn’t a euphemism for puberty. She was telling the origins of my kind and about my curse.”
“I guess you were bitten or something?”
“Beth! You have to listen; my curse doesn’t transfer through a bite. It is transferred through my bloodline; only my family can change from man to wolf and back. My family’s name ‘Whalen’ is Celtic for wolf.”
“Why are you telling me this shit? Ha, ha, very funny, do you want me to leave and this is your way of forcing me to end it, with some story about you being a werewolf? Jesus, Jonathon, I love you and right now you need help! Let me help you,” Beth pleaded on the verge of tears.
In the sky the moon rays started to sneak out from behind the clouds. They danced on the floor in front of Jonathan’s feet. He felt the heat rise within him like his blood was boiling. He shook violently and fell to the floor.
“Oh my god, are you okay, Jonathan?”
“You will…be…protected. You carry our child. I can’t hurt…you,” he grunted and rolled over.
“Our child?”
“Have…to…show,” he screamed in agony and looked up at Beth, his eyes an amber hue.
“No, no, no,” she repeated over and over while she watched her lover sprout hair and claws in front of her. Jonathan let out an ear splitting howl towards the window and ripped his tee shirt and jeans to shreds.
Then she felt something in her stomach move.
AFTERWORD
The mythology of werewolves can be traced back to the 2nd Century BC, when a man named Lycaon was transformed into a werewolf after ritually murdering a child. Shift forward a few thousand years, to 1981, when a little-know director by the name of John Landis (with the help of Special-Effects guru, Rick Baker) created one of the most amazing transformations ever committed to celluloid. An American Werewolf In London will long be remembered for that Oscar-winning scene, and it is one of the reasons why I wanted to put together this anthology.
I'm a firm believer in werewolves, or at least the folklore surrounding them. As a child, I dreamt of sprouting hair all over my body and howling at the moon. I can honestly say that I have achieved the first part of that dream, but that can be attributed to middle-age creeping up on me quicker than I'd anticipated. I have yet to howl at the moon, though there is still time.
I would just like to thank the authors for their terrifying and twisted tails (yes, I know it's tales, but I'm working on a werewolf theme here). And thank you, dear reader, for purchasing/borrowing/stealing (delete as applicable) this book. I hope you had fun along the way. I have to go, now, for the moon is shining bright in the sky, and I'm pretty sure I've left the back door unlocked.
And remember, keep off the moors, stick to the road, and next time you see a massive pile of shit in the road, just take a moment to ponder its origin.
Adam Millard
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