Chapter Four - The Winds of Change Liana's POV

Liana lay on the hardwood floor by the fire, staring up at the bunches of herbs and flowers that hung from the ceiling. Her calculus book was open beside her but not much of her homework had been finished. She’d been up late but forced herself out of bed early so Gran wouldn’t be suspicious. Her head was aching with the lack of sleep and she was more than a bit distracted but what she’d seen. Nothing could hold her attention for more than a few minutes, certainly not enough to answer these math questions. She could take the few steps to the kitchen and brew a tea to get rid of the headache, but that seemed like too much effort at the moment. It was cold out today and smelled a bit like snow. Would the wolf come back in the snow? That would be dangerous for him, Albert will be on the lookout. His black fur would really stand out if everything else was covered in white. His footprints would be easy to follow too. It would be nice to have snow for New Year's though. There hadn’t been any for Christmas. Liana sighed and rolled back over to her book. Her eyes glazed over as soon as she tried to read the question and her head started to throb a little. It was a good job she still had a week of winter break left to do this. She certainly wasn’t going to get anything accomplished today. The front door opened just as she closed her book. A cold breeze followed her Gran in from outside and Lai shivered.

“You went outside last night,” Gran said accusingly as she hung her coat on the hook by the door. Liana sat up and tucked her legs under her. Gran never yelled, but rule-breaking never went without repercussions of some kind. “Are you going to deny it?”

“No. You know I don’t lie to you Gran. I was out in the yard last night. It was lovely.”

“Albert says there were wolves.”

“One wolf. We heard one wolf howl. Albert and I both heard it and were looking for it. Then I came back inside and Albert paced his yard with his stupid rifle. I sat inside listening for quite a while but there weren’t any more howls, just the one.”

Gran sighed, “You are seventeen years old and still you won’t keep yourself safe.”

“I was an arm’s length from the door Gran. Surely Albert told you that.” And she had been, when the wolf howled...

“But the moon - “

“Is nothing but an uninhabited lump of rock, thousands of kilometers away Gran, it can’t hurt me. Besides, there were too many clouds. Albert wouldn’t have even seen me if he hadn’t had that flashlight to blind me with.

Selene sighed again and shook her head sadly, “The moon goddess is watching child, whether you believe in her or not. She will send a werewolf to carry you away. He will force you to mate and you’ll be his slave for the rest of your life.”

Liana tried desperately not to roll her eyes. Sometimes the things Gran said made her seem a bit senile, but aside from lycan and goddess stories, Gran was sharp as a tack. “That’s just a story, Gran. Lycans, werewolves, and a moon goddess... those are just characters from stories to scare little kids so they don’t stay out past dark. Things like that don’t really happen.”

“It does happen.”

“Gran-”

“IT DOES HAPPEN!” Liana’s mouth snapped shut in surprise. Gran had never yelled at her before, not even once that she could remember. “We’re only here because I killed my mate,” she whispered. All the hairs on Liana’s back prickled and stood on end. The word mate brought dozens of stories to the surface of Liana’s memory. But Gran had never told her a story that involved murder before, and she’d certainly never put herself into one. The old woman came and sat on the hearth, looking down at her, but her eyes weren’t focused so Liana knew she wasn’t really seeing her at all. “I was only fifteen, but he hunted me down, found me, and took me from my home. He said I was his mate and I would never belong to anyone else. I cried that I was only fifteen and I wanted to go home, but he insisted that I was his and drug me off. He was so much bigger than I was,” A single tear slid down her gran’s wrinkled cheek. “After a while, I managed to escape and ran as fast as I could trying to find a way home, but there was nothing familiar. No scent or trail to follow, I was just wandering in new territory, scared and alone. He found me before I got anywhere. He beat me unconscious and took me back to his place. He said I’d never see my home or my family again. He kept me in chains after that, chains so tight I could barely move and certainly not escape. He beat me daily, raping me frequently no matter how much I begged him not to. When I realized I was pregnant I knew I had to find a way out. I couldn’t let him raise my child, assuming he didn’t just decide to beat it out of me before… Gran shivered. The night I realized that he had been out drinking. He came back, raped me, and kept drinking. He was so drunk that he wasn’t careful about keeping his clothing out of my reach. When he passed out I managed to push him off me and get the key to my collar from his pants to free myself. On the way through his yard, I found some wolfsbane, so I slipped back into the house and dropped some of it into what remained of his whiskey. Then I ran to the river. I let the flow carry me downstream, even over a waterfall. We were up north, but fortunately, it was summer so the water was ice cold, but not frozen solid. I stayed in the water as much as possible so I wouldn’t leave a scent trail, but sometimes I had to get out to warm up or I knew I’d die. I swam between islands and rode rivers inland when I could. I didn’t get out until the water ran to a damn. From there I headed to the woods and found warmer streams to float down. Eventually came across a few scattered houses. There was a young family who took me in and said I could stay with them until I was able to care for myself and my child. They helped me to hide so I stayed near them and raised my daughter. One day they decided to leave the area, and I went with them. We traveled here and settled by the time my daughter was three. I was always in fear of the day my mate's family would find us and she would be taken.” Gran grew quiet and shook her head sadly before she got up and walked past Liana to the kitchen. “Enough of that. We’ll not speak of it again. Just please Liana, be more careful.”

Liana looked to her wrists, remembering the bands of discolored skin around her grandmother’s wrists, ankles, and neck. Gran had always said they were built-in decorations so she didn’t have to buy jewelry. Were they scars from handcuffs and a collar? Liana swallowed hard, if so, they had cut deep and often. No wonder Gran turned the man into a beast for her stories.

Was that why she had no mother? The man who had abused Gran had shown up and taken her? Up until today, Liana had been led to believe her mother had abandoned her, just dropped her with Gran, and disappeared. No one had actually said so Liana realized, but from the pictures, Liana had known she had been really young to have a baby so she’d just sort of assumed her mother and taken off, leaving her with Gran when looking after a baby and trying to finish high school was too much for her. For a while she’d even dreamed her mother would come back. First she thought it would be when she finished school. Then when she had a house and a job and could take care of both herself and Gran. But apparently, she’d gone with a man. “The werewolf” in Gran’s stories. Had her mother left willingly or had she been forced? Had it been her grandfather or his family that had caught up with them, or had her mother simply fallen in love and left? Wanting the man, but not the child they had created.

Liana looked up to watch her gran moving around the kitchen. She knew nothing about those men, but at least now she understood why Gran never mentioned them. Never before had Gran’s stories of werewolves and moon goddesses seemed to have any basis in reality or anything personal to them at all, they’d always just been Gran’s creepy version of fairy tales. Sort of like the brother’s Grim, except that Gran’s grim tales had always involved a big bad wolf and a wicked witch-type goddess who lived on the moon. Was it possible that they had some basis in reality? Many songs and stories that had been passed down through generations were life lessons or cautionary tales, maybe Gran had twisted her own stories into tales to warn against what had happened to her. If so, who was the goddess and why had Gran chosen to call her a goddess rather than simply a wicked witch? Was it someone who could actually be watching them regularly, as gran insisted, or was that just Gran’s fear? Some PTSD or something.

“Come here child,” Gran’s voice called softly from the kitchen, “I’m making you a herbal tea for that headache and fatigue you’re trying to hide from me.

Liana smiled and got to her feet, lugging the school books to the table with her. Gran always knew when she wasn’t feeling well, even if she didn’t say anything.

“Here you go dear,” Gran said, putting the cup in front of her, “when you’re feeling better we’ll head over to the Rogue’s home for the afternoon. You can visit with the girls while I tend to Eric. He’s broken another limb. He tried to hide it this time, but you can’t hide pain like that very long from the ones who love you. That lad just can’t seem to settle during the full moon. He’s going to have to learn better control now that he’s an adult.” Lia sneezed and twitched her nose, then glanced over to a small wooden chest that sat on the floor by the back door. “Wolfsbane coating again Gran? I thought we only coated the bullets in spring.”

“Hmmm,” Gran muttered as she studied her book of remedies and scanned the shelves for the next ingredient. “No, but the box was open.”

“You needed a poisonous plant to heal a broken leg?”

“Some plants can be poisons but still have beneficial uses. It’s all in the preparation and the dose. I’m glad aconitine still makes you sneeze, you’ll know if anyone ever tries to dose you with it. Now tell me, what is in that cup I just gave you?”

Liana sniffed her cup carefully, trying to inhale the smells of the tea, but not the wolfsbane. “Ginger, willow bark, and feverfew,” she said confidently, “but… there’s something else...I can’t...what is that?”

“Vervain,” Gran answered, “I don’t use that one often because of the flavour.”

Liana winced “this is going to taste like shit, isn’t it.”

“But it will get rid of your headache quickly and give you some energy. You’ll need both to spend time at the Rogue’s house. Though I suppose I should leave you as you are to suffer some consequences for the choice you made last night.”

So, the repercussion of going out last night was a nasty tea. Or was the nasty tea a result of being too lazy to do anything about it for herself? The Ginger and willow bark would have done the job and she could have actually enjoyed the tea. She could have prepared that for herself hours ago, had a short nap and been fine by the time Gran had returned from her rounds.