"I wonder how different Frankenstein would have turned out if Victor had taken the time to know the monster instead of deciding in an instant that he was a horror. I never believed the monster was bad at his core. Not really. If Victor had taken the time to know him without fleeing I believe the monster could have been kind. I judged you for a monster. I judged my daughter for a monster. I ran away. This child, my boy, will never appear a monster to me. I know what he is and the more I learn of what he is the more I will love him. Do you think that is a ridiculous reason to name him Victor? It all sounded so much better in my head. I wish you could tell me what you were thinking," Sophronia said. Nathaniel laid his head between his paws again.
She was not sure how she managed to fall asleep but somewhere in the night she did. If Nathaniel had been able to talk he might have chided her for being reckless in his presence but he could not and she trusted him even in his werewolf form.
When she awoke, his human hand was through the bars of the cage grasping hers.
Epilogue:
Nathaniel rushed up the front steps of the home he and Sophronia had recently moved into on his father's estate. He still went to the main house to care for his dogs and to be updated on news from his father and brother. That was where he had just come from.
He passed his sisters on the steps of his house. Claire and Mercy were almost daily visitors to his home and especially to his nursery.
He hurried to his room and through the door that connected it to Sophronia's. Ruth's daughter, who they had taken on as their housekeeper, was instructing a maid, taken from the children of the tenants, in the proper art of cleaning the room.
Sophronia was not there.
He popped back through the door and into the hallway. Across from their room was the nursery but one look from Alice told him that Keturah and Victor were napping.
He wandered to a room at the end of the hallway and found Sophronia with a book on her lap. She looked up as he approached.
"A letter just came. Seidel was apprehended," he said. After their escape Seidel had not returned home. Instead, he had headed to the western states and hidden there until Una had led a conglomerate of were-creatures to track him down.
"Was he executed?" Sophronia asked.
"No. He will be tried for illegal trading," Nathaniel said.
"Not murder?"
"It was not his hand that killed any of the were-creatures who died. He was with Astor during almost every one of the attacks. If furs had not been found at his house there would have been no legal authority to prosecute him on at all," Nathaniel said.
"Why did they not take justice into their own hands?" Sophronia asked. He had asked his father the same thing.
"Many reasons. Firstly, can you imagine the uproar if Blacks and Indians killed a man as powerful as Seidel?" There were Chinese weretigers as well as several werewolves that had followed Una on the hunt for Seidel and his hunters but they were a ragtag group who would get no thanks for killing a wealthy white man.
"What of Astor?"
"So far there has been no way to tie him to Seidel's illegal behaviors. Astor made sure to protect himself. He has even publicly denounced Seidel for his illegal trading. As he publicly left fur trading for real estate and there is no proof of his involvement in illegal activities he will likely remain untouchable," Nathaniel said.
"It is unfair," Sophronia said.
"It is. But there is naught to be done. Several buyers were arrested as well and so there should be much less demand for were-pelts and fewer people taking the risks of hunting our kind."
He was sure her mind, like his, jumped to their children. As a mother, it likely broke her heart that one day would come when she could no longer protect them. She would always need to stay home during the nights of the full moon. She would never be safe roaming with the werewolves. She would never be safe even alone with him. Under the light of the full moon he or her children might harm her in the fog that overtakes the werewolf brain. It would be up to him to keep his children safe. He would guard them with his life.
"Were you sad not to be able to join in the hunt for Seidel?" Sophronia asked. Her question caught him off guard.
"Not in the least."
"You were a captive in his home. Not one other werewolf who hunted him could say that," Sophronia said.
"That was not his doing. That was all Vivian. I am a second son. It was right for Eldon and my father to join them in the hunt. I think they were only disappointed that they were called back before his capture.
I was where I was supposed to be. I was caring for my wife and my children. I would not have missed the birth of my son to execute Seidel with my bare hands," Nathaniel said.
"Will Vivian or her mother be called on to testify against Seidel?" Sophronia asked.
"No. The werewolf pack leaders decided it was better to leave her where she was. They did not want to run the risk of them escaping," Nathaniel said.
The choice of what to do with Vivian and her mother had been a difficult one. On one hand, it did not seem right with such low werewolf numbers to kill a female of breeding age. Nathaniel had not wanted their deaths on his conscience and when his father and brother consulted him on the matter he had agreed that letting them live would be best so long as they were closely watched.
They were sent to live with sheep farmers in the highlands of Scotland. Both were married off to werewolf men of a pack with a reputation for hardy roughness. Vivian and her mother were warned that if they left their new husbands lands they would be killed without mercy. So far, they had complied.
"I wish things could have turned out more justly," Sophronia said.
"I have no complaints at all about how things turned out," Nathaniel said. He took the book from Sophronia's hands and pulled her out of the chair and into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her as if she was a waterfall and he a lost desert traveler.
She opened her mouth to him and he plundered her with his tongue.
He could feel her body trembling against his and he knew she was feeling the same desire he was. He reached down and swept her into his arms.
"I love you," he whispered into her ear.
"And I you," his wife said.
Hopefully, the housekeeper and the maid had vacated Sophronia's room. If not, he would chase them out so that he could enjoy giving pleasure to his wife and getting it in return.
Indeed, he had no complaints at all about how everything had turned out.
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Coming October 2016:
A Werewolf at Hampton Court
Thomasina Wolstenholme was raised to be a werewolf but when she failed to change her father sent her to Hampton Court in the hopes that she would catch the eye of the king.
Walter Crake wants nothing more than to return to his seven children but the safety of King Henry and his second wife Queen Anne must be preserved at any cost.
Together, Walter and Thomasina uncover the greatest threat to England yet. Will they be able to save the King and Queen?
Other Books by Jane B. Night:
Singing the Last Song
Educating Autumn
His Doctor in Training
Wedding the Widow
Her Forever Husband
Loving a Fallen Star
Desiring the Doctor
A Family for Nicholas
The Secrets of Arach Innis
About the Author:
Jane B. Night was born in central Ohio. She graduated from Hocking College with a degree in Health Information Management. She has worked as a Medical Records Technician and a Switchboard Operator since earning her degree.
When Jane isn’t writing or working, she loves to read, play videogames, and take her children walking.
www.janebnight.com
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