The living room was devoid of any decorations. No photos hung on the wall nor on the single table that held only a lamp. A recliner chair and a fireplace were the only other features in the room It was a lonely looking place to spend an evening.
Just as I headed for the next room the sound of boots on the back porch made me tense up and slip my hands into my pockets. The heavy cold feel of the gun bolstered my spirits and I returned to the kitchen.
A giant of a man shoved into the room. The shock of seeing me standing in the middle of the floor had him gaping. A thrill ran through me as I
met his eyes.. his red eyes so like mine.
"Hello, Father, I'm back." I said quietly.
A sneer crept across the big man's face and he leaned back against the wall.
"So, the young pup returns after such a long many moons. I figured you dead or at the least a coward."
Anger coursed through me but I held his eyes and spoke again.
"Why? Why did you do that to her?" A single tear trickled down my cheek.
"I had to, it's the way of the pack. She was weak and sick. When the blue moon rises and the change is upon us... well if you don't change then you must die."
I shuddered at his casual dismissal of the one who had nurtured and loved me so dearly.
"Why not me then? Why didn't you kill me as well? I never changed that I recall."
"The change doesn't begin until you have hit maturity. You were just a child and should have been safely at your Aunt's. But once again you disobeyed me and saw what a pup shouldn't see."
A shiver of rage shook me as more memories of my dam flooded my mind. Her sweet scent and soft hugs. The melodic rise and fall of her howls echoing across the valley. The warmth of her tongue lapping at my face.
"There has to be a better way than what you did!! I saw you! I saw you tear her throat and eat her!" The horror of that remembered scene made me sway a bit.
My sire looked at me and grinned. His teeth looked sharp and white. "There's no better way than what I had done. You don't know the reasons and it's best you don't ask about them. "
This really pissed me off. I pulled my gun out and with a shaky hand pointed it straight at him. "Why couldn't you just let her be? If she was so sick than she would have just died, right?"
"Yes, she would have wasted away in a few days. But then... she would have came back! When the blue moon rose next she would have clawed her way out of her grave and returned here. She wouldn't know who we were but she would only be satisfied by killing us. Then she would have roamed to the next den and killed them too. Every blue moon she would rise to kill and kill and.." At this point my sire actually showed some trace of emotion. He wiped his face and went over and sat down at the kitchen table.
This new information was startling but yet there were more questions I had to ask. "Why the savagery? Why eat her? Why couldn't you have just shot her or poisoned her?"
With a sigh he slowly answered me. "If the body is intact a Blue Moon Wolf will rise and kill uncontrollably. Since they are already dead it's very hard to destroy them. It really is the only way other than death by old age."
I placed my gun back in my pocket and sat in the other chair. All my hatred for my sire drained from me. I had just been a child who had seen something that I shouldn't have. Overcome by fear I had ran out the "elsewhere" door that I had been warned to never go through. That same fear had blanked out much of my memory. Time had sowly allowed those memories to resurface bringing me back to my home.
I looked at my sire and extended my hand. "I'm sorry... I didn't understand."
A gleam entered his eyes and he said "I'm sorry, too... sorry that you came back."
With that he started morphing. Blue hair sprouted all over his body and his frame began to swell and change. His teeth grew long and curved. He fell to the ground and writhed. With a barely understandable voice he told me to run. And I did!
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