“Let's go to the shed, there is more space and my equipment is there”.
“What equipment?”
“You'll see!”
They went to the shed where she had stored the firewood. Lucine hadn't noticed before, some equipment that seemed like a martial arts gym, but all very improvised. There was even a punching bag, the kind used for boxing training.
“There are no gyms around here, so we have to improvise. In the elders' house there is a bigger one, for the betas to train”.
“Cool”, she said, touching the punching bag with her fingertips, as if she wanted to check its texture.
“Let's get started. Try to hit it as hard as you can, so I can get an idea of what we're dealing with”.
“I don't think so, it could be dangerous”.
“It's a punching bag, it won't get hurt”, Aram insisted.
“Fine, but back off”.
He took a few steps back and she prepared to throw a punch like she'd seen on television, which didn't mean Lucine had any idea what she was about to do. When she hit the bag, it tore and spread sand everywhere.
She jumped backwards to try to escape the dust, without much success. Aram approached her somewhat incredulous, assessing the damage.
“I think that was very enlightening!”, he said.
"It was, wasn't it? I don't think it will be necessary to repeat”, she asked, trying to make fun of the situation.
“Well, since that wouldn't be possible, let's go to the next part, where you try to transform”.
She was silent for a moment, as if her mind were working turning gears, until she answered.
“All right, but I have no idea what to do”.
Aram positioned her right in front of him, making her face him.
“With me it works like this, I take a deep breath and bring the beast from the inside out. I can feel the energy growing inside me, and when it takes on an almost uncontrollable proportion, the transformation happens. You need to concentrate and take a deep breath”.
“Got it”.
Lucine took a few steps away from him, fell silent, and closed her eyes. At first she didn't feel anything, but then she began to notice that she could manipulate the energy she felt inside her. Gradually she grew and grew, until she transformed into a she-wolf.
Aram was quite admired, her fur was a gray tone, exactly the same color as her hair. She was bigger than a normal werewolf, certainly because she was a supreme.
“Okay, now let’s see if you can easily return to human form”, he suggested.
But the she-wolf glared at him and circled around her clothes that had been scattered on the floor. Immediately he got the message. When she transforms back, she will be naked and will need to dress again. The memory of what had happened earlier immediately returned to his memory.
“All right, I’ll turn around”, he said, turning around on his back.
Returning to human form was easier than she imagined. She did that thing with the energy again, and it happened. Lucine quickly dressed because besides the embarrassment of being naked near to him again, the night was very cold.
"Okay, you can turn around".
He obeyed and stood in front of her.
“Let’s go in, it’s late. If my arm feels better tomorrow we'll go to the forest”.
“Okay. But you know what, I realized that transforming isn’t necessary. I feel like I have the same skills, transformed or not”.
“You probably do, but mastering transformation can be very useful. If you need to spend days in a forest, for example, it is much more practical and safer to stay in wolf form”.
“You’re right”.
The two walked back to the hut in silence. When they were entering the kitchen, Aram called her.
“Luciene, with all this, I forgot to mention. Ruthe invited us to dinner at her house tomorrow”.
“Ruthe?”
“The woman who helped you on the wedding day”.
“Oh, and wouldn’t you better go alone? I know I’m still not welcome in the places around here”.
“Well, at Ruthe's you are, apparently. She made it very clear that the invitation was for both of us. She also said that it's past time for Luna to start interacting with clan members”.
Lucine smiled, imagining the woman using that authoritative tone of voice she remembered, with the Alpha.
“It's just that the last time was very strange”, she said, alluding to the day she was attacked in the shed and he transformed into a beast to defend her.
“Yeah, but I think it’s time for everybody to get over it. Anyway, I don’t think you’re gonna be around much longer after all”.
For some reason his comment didn't please Lucine very much. She knew that he was only stating the obvious, that she could leave if she wanted to, but still it was not comfortable to hear him speak.
Aram woke up with his arm better and they went early into the forest. Lucine was able to freely test her skills, view, smell, strength and agility. She did well in both human and wolf form. They took a snack and ate there to utilize the time. “You're doing well, you can already control the force. What remains to be worked on is the emotional, knowing if you can control yourself under strong pressure, that's what we need to train. You also need to learn how to track, but this is something more complex. Lucine, I think we're going to need someone's help and Szafir is the only one I trust for this. He can train you while I'm at the lumber, the faster you evolve, the safer it'll be”. She bit the sandwich and shrugged.“Okay, if you think we can trust him”.Aram smiled, finding her placement funny, as if the two were a team. In fact, in the current situation, they weren't too far from it.“Don't worry, he is reliable. Let's stay here a little longer and then we'll go back home. I’ll set
The Lycans and Werewolves are two different species of wolf man but they carry a common past. The ancient legends speak of a king named Licaon who lived in Greece, southern Europe, more precisely in the city of Arcadiae who would have been cursed by Zeus for committing unholy and cruel acts. It is said that he was a sadist, who murdered the visitors of his castle and used to serve his meat to guests at the dining table.One day Zeus himself would have disguised himself as mortal and visited the Licaon’s castle, when he sat at the table, he found out that human flesh was served to him. He would then have cursed King Licaon, making him turn into a wolf every night. Unable to keep control over his body, he wandered hunting and eating raw meat, without sleeping or resting. Due to the weight of the curse and the stress it caused him, he had a few years to live, but her wife gave birth to two children before his death. She prayed to the Moon to deliver her children from that evil, was in pa
Lately Aram hated the visit of his uncle, in fact, he hated any visit that came to interrupt his successful and satisfactory ordeal of pain and self-pity. Yasmina had left for life beyond life, and he deserved all that suffering, for he had not protected her. The Moon Goddess had blessed him when she placed her in his destiny and he was not worthy of that grace, sometimes choosing to stay alive was much harder than dying.Now he would have to live the rest of his days under the weight of having been indirectly responsible for her death and the pain of no longer having his destined Luna. To live his ordeal, he only needed to be alone, which was very difficult, since he was still the Alpha of that clan, despite coming for months neglecting his duties. He did not care to hear the many laments of his uncle, who came to bring news from the council of elders. The man told Aram that the elders were about to give up on him, and they were already looking for a way out of that situation.— Aram
The girl arrived in the village one week after the agreement between Lycan and werewolves was signed. Aram sent his betas who had better training in combat to go get her, he was still not sure that the agreement was not some trap.She was handed over to them halfway that connected the villages, right in the middle of the forest. Szafir was Aram’s beta of trust, they had fought several battles and built together a stability for the clan. The friend was a wolf of honor, whom he could trust. If it was really a trap, he was the right person to identify and neutralize the attack.However, everything went smoothly. When the group of Betas arrived at the indicated place to pick up the girl, their leader, Szafir, was very impressed with the aspect of the female that would be the new Luna of the pack. She really looked pretty young and scared, it was obvious she wasn’t a welcome guest in that werewolf pack. She had her hands and feet tied and her mouth gagged.That seemed a little exaggerated,
Lucine was a wolf of the Boram pack, the almost extinct Boram pack, a bunch of rogue and cruel rascals, including her parents. She would never forget the day they cornered that female, what they did to her was cruel, and all that just because she was from the Lycans clan.Their leader had hunted them down and finished off almost everyone, only two gammas, Lionel and Ralf had managed to escape taking Lucine with them. She had lived only as a burden to the pack, for she did not share their ambitions. Her parents only thought of the damn war, about acquiring power, money and applying blows.The night the Alpha Lycan killed them all, the Gammas took her and could do with her what they always wanted, they took revenge the way they were treated by the Alphas and Betas of the pack.They put her to do all kinds of work at the hideout, in the months they held her captive, until Lionel decided he needed a female, and that he was good enough to have an alpha. Ralf at first was reticent, doubting
The Alpha’s house was a hut like many others Lucine had seen in the village. It was not large, but it seemed comfortable for a single male. It had a room with a large sofa and two armchairs that looked very inviting. It had a fireplace and a piece of furniture with a modern Led TV, most of the floor was covered with a huge carpet.The kitchen was small but had everything we needed, and the only room in the house was the suite in which she had arranged for the wedding. When they left the wedding, they walked to the cabin. The place where the festivities were set up, was a central square, located right in the middle of the village. It was a few blocks from the house, and the path was walked in silence by the bride and groom.Aram opened the door of the residence and gestured for her to enter first, he then entered and closed the door behind him. He also closed the windows and curtains, to bar any vision that someone outside could have. At that moment Lucine began to get even paler and t
Aram woke up early, as was his custom when he was sober. He looked at his cell phone and it was only seven o'clock,he had nothing scheduled for this morning, as well as for any time of day. Everyone expected him to want to be alone with his wife and enjoy the honeymoon as much as possible, which was a long way from his reality. He couldn't stay in bed all day, but he also couldn't go out and be sharing the room with that female who reminded him of everything he wanted to forget. Firewood, he remembered he needed to cut wood. The winter was near and he needed to replenish his stock of dry firewood. That would certainly keep him busy in the backyard of the cabin for at least the whole morning. When he got dressed and left the room he found her still deeply asleep on the couch, approached closer and shook her slightly to awaken. — Wake up girl, I said you need to get up early and put the covers away. She woke up scared looking around, seemed, for a moment, not to realize where she wa
Aram felt watched, raised his eyes and the she-wolf was standing at the kitchen door staring at him. He could smell her fear, and he didn't understand, since he hadn't even noticed her there. When he looked at her longer, he saw that she had changed clothes, she was wearing a sweatshirt set that appeared to be 5 times her size. What a fine job Szafir had done.— What is it? Do you have something to tell me?— I, I was wondering if you have any tasks that I can do. I don't want to sit on the couch looking at the walls.He supported the axe blade on the ground before responding to her.— You can, I don't know, watch TV. Take the opportunity to catch up on your favorite program.— I don't have a favorite show anymore.She replied to him in a very serious tone. Aram took a long breath, knowing that it would not be so easy to get rid of her company.— Then you can go get all the firewood I crack and take to the pile in the shed.He said, pointing to the large wooden building that was almos
Aram woke up with his arm better and they went early into the forest. Lucine was able to freely test her skills, view, smell, strength and agility. She did well in both human and wolf form. They took a snack and ate there to utilize the time. “You're doing well, you can already control the force. What remains to be worked on is the emotional, knowing if you can control yourself under strong pressure, that's what we need to train. You also need to learn how to track, but this is something more complex. Lucine, I think we're going to need someone's help and Szafir is the only one I trust for this. He can train you while I'm at the lumber, the faster you evolve, the safer it'll be”. She bit the sandwich and shrugged.“Okay, if you think we can trust him”.Aram smiled, finding her placement funny, as if the two were a team. In fact, in the current situation, they weren't too far from it.“Don't worry, he is reliable. Let's stay here a little longer and then we'll go back home. I’ll set
“Let's go to the shed, there is more space and my equipment is there”.“What equipment?”“You'll see!”They went to the shed where she had stored the firewood. Lucine hadn't noticed before, some equipment that seemed like a martial arts gym, but all very improvised. There was even a punching bag, the kind used for boxing training.“There are no gyms around here, so we have to improvise. In the elders' house there is a bigger one, for the betas to train”.“Cool”, she said, touching the punching bag with her fingertips, as if she wanted to check its texture.“Let's get started. Try to hit it as hard as you can, so I can get an idea of what we're dealing with”.“I don't think so, it could be dangerous”.“It's a punching bag, it won't get hurt”, Aram insisted.“Fine, but back off”.He took a few steps back and she prepared to throw a punch like she'd seen on television, which didn't mean Lucine had any idea what she was about to do. When she hit the bag, it tore and spread sand everywhere
Lucine kept seated on the couch, wrapped in the blankets that had covered them both moments before. She kept her head down while he moved away towards the fireplace and stared into the fire with the expression of someone whose mind was somewhere far away and scary.“It's been six months...six months that you have been here. How come I didn't notice anything before?”She looked up as she answered him.“You had no way of knowing, I gradually developed the skills. The night I killed them, I transformed even though it wasn't a full moon. Now I can feel a huge energy inside me, even in human form. I have long range vision, strength far beyond normal, and some other bonuses. Not to mention my nose, this mixture of smells drives me crazy sometimes. Everything was appearing little by little after that day. I still have a hard time controlling it, but I think I'm doing well”.“Doing well? It's a miracle that you didn't kill anyone or yourself”, said Aram, visibly worried.Lucine pushed the cov
Lucine decided to take advantage that Aram was at the logger to use the shower room with tranquility, would take a long and relaxing bath. Since she had lived in the cabin, she had not missed an opportunity to take a hot bath. As usual, she put a song in a loud volume on television and went to the bathroom, leaving the doors open to listen to the "Playlist" she had selected.The afternoon could not have started better, Aram angrily pondered. He had had an accident with the saw and ended up cutting his arm, was attended by the doctor and released from work for a few days, took some stitches in the forearm, and without having another alternative, returned home.When he arrived at the cabin, he was surprised to find that on TV was playing a song at a very high volume and Lucine was nowhere, certainly should be doing some task outside. He dropped the backpack in which he carried his things on the sofa and headed to the room, was in great need of a bath, the cut had not been deep, but his
On an afternoon when he was not working, they went to a small town near the village to buy groceries. The place was only 20 minutes drive from the village, and had a well-stocked warehouse and some small clothing stores.The two went first to the warehouse, passed a candy aisle and he noticed that she was looking at some chocolates that were on the shelf, but said nothing. He then took some and put them in the shopping cart.- You don’t need any specific product, like shampoo, deodorant?He asked, when he realized that she would not choose anything for herself.- I’m fine with what you have at home!Aram stopped pushing the cart and stared at it.- Lucine, my bathroom shampoo must be expired for a few months! And do you really plan on wearing my deodorant forever?Lucine blushed a little with his questioning and simply took a shampoo from a random mark, walked a little more and found the place where the deodorants were on
Time passed mildly, with the Alpha regaining the respect of the people. He worked like the others in the wood industry, and on his free days he helped repair the houses that needed some renovations. Lucine did not give up learning how to prepare a decent meal, and with real food, which was not for dogs, it was not so difficult. In the days when he did not go to the lumber, Aram helped a lot, with the house and with the meals. Lucine began to record people’s faces, as she saw them almost daily when she was taking lunch to her husband at the factory. As the days went by, he began to receive some nods and even a few more. The fact that she went every day, apparently, was making people believe that she took good care of her husband. The fact that the Alpha always received with a modest but sincere smile, and showed a lot of warmth when she came, was also influencing everyone’s opinion of her. Six months had passed since the fateful day on which she had been assaulted in the assembly, the
As everyone was heading to the supply shed, Lucine was still waiting for Aram, who was talking to some older men. The fact that beta came to talk to her, slightly decreased the discomfort of feeling hated by everyone there. Not that she would care about anyone's opinion, but feeling sharp gazes in her direction wasn't pleasant.Szafir had also given good advice, which she needed to always bring in her mind. He said Aram was a good Alpha, but that his patience was not known to be infinite. That she'd have more to gain if she didn't test him in clashes and preferably not offer him any more dog food. She smiled as she remembered his relaxed speech. He had given the advice and withdrew, leaving her pensive, moments later she realized that the Alpha was coming to where she expected him. He had a very serious expression, with the countenance closed, not for nothing, the spirits had become very exalted in the meeting.— Let's go to the supply shed, I have to supervise,
— Dog food? How would I imagine? You don't even have a dog! Lucine tried to explain herself, visibly confused. — You arrived here yesterday, how can you tell if I have a dog or not? — Where is this dog then, and why wasn't it written on the package that was dog food? Aram dried his mouth with a dishcloth that was on the stove. Despite everything, the stew had not tasted so bad, only the texture was strange. When Yasmina died, he couldn’t keep their dog, Eros. Szafir then took the animal to his home, so that the dog would be taken care of decently. The rare times he went shopping, he bought food for the animal and delivered it to his friend. With the latest events, he had forgotten to deliver the dog food to Szafir. — The dog doesn't live here anymore, but I still bring food from time to time. Well, but it doesn't matter, there's no way to eat that, I'm going to make some sandwiches. She started emptying the dishes back into the p
They ate in silence and when they finished Lucine went to collect the dishes to clean them. Aram held her wrist when she went to take his. — After you do that, wait for me on the living room couch. She did as he asked while Aram headed to the room. He returned with a box of first aid supplies and sat on the same couch as her, but further away. — Now take off your sneakers and put your leg on the couch. She obeyed him, put her foot already without the sock up the couch, near where he was. He took her leg, put it in his lap and began to carefully examine her injuries. He realized that there were several scars, one on top of each other, which meant that she spent a lot of time tied with the ropes hurting her. The wounds healed and others were opened. At that moment he knew that the female had gone through something truly bad. He thought it best not to make any comments, washed the area with serum and applied an antibiotic ointment. — You’re