Mother got to the table just after Jared left, hopefully without getting too much of a good look at him. "So Rose, who was that gentleman you were sitting with?"
I expected my mother's question so I already had an answer ready. "I don't know, Mother, he didn't exactly state his name when he sat down." Hopefully, she hadn't seen us dancing, otherwise I would have some explaining to do. My mother seemed to accept that answer, saying "Well, at least you actually interacted with someone here that didn't require me introducing you to someone."
Later that night, I was sitting on my bed when I heard the cry of a wolf. It was a cry that called to me and stirred to life something inside me. I couldn't explain how I knew but the wolf's howl sounded lonely, like it was longing for something. As soon as the howl ended, something inside me wanted to answer the call, to let my mate know where I was.
Wait a second, mate, where did I get that idea? Why does something inside me want to go to the wolf that howled? I looked out the window and saw a wolf peering at me. It was a grey wolf that seemed familiar, it had silvery blue eyes that I could have sworn that I have seen before. The wolf was just sitting there and waiting for something but I could tell that there was something majestic about this wolf.
I decided that maybe some sleep would help me process everything, but it seemed that even my dreams would be strange tonight.
I was in the woods, and there was a pond that had a clear reflection of a white wolf, with my eyes. A look at the ground showed that the reflection was real, and a look under proved that the wolf was female. I looked up and there was the grey wolf I saw outside my window, one glance in between its back legs proved that he was a guy, and I somehow knew that he wanted me to follow him. He took off at a run and I ran after him.
I wasn't paying attention to how far we went but when we stopped, we were in a clearing and I heard Jared's voice say in my mind 'This is how we meet our wolves, Rose. We meet them and they become a part of us. They give us strength and guide our instincts, but they are their own entities as well and at times they can have their own will. It is said that werewolves are humans cursed to have become like animals. That is not true. We are humans blessed by the Goddess to have supernatural powers. Regular humans simply fear what they can't understand, and because they didn't understand werewolves...'
'They fear us and hunt us.' I responded. I knew and understood what he said about werewolves being feared and hunted, in fact they still were. I overheard a hunter talking with my parents about werewolf encounters just last month.
'Yes, we are hunted, by humans who have no idea what they are doing. But still, there have been occasions where they've gotten lucky. The hunters tend to use weapons with wolf's bane in them but as they are finding out, it doesn't work that well. Our healing abilities make it so that wolf's bane really doesn't affect us other than causing nausea and diarrhea. None of our wolves have been killed... yet.
'Silver is also another weapon that doesn't work as well as it should against werewolves. However, just because we have advanced healing abilities doesn't mean that we can't be poisoned or incapacitated due to drugs.'
'How do werewolves live?' I asked. The entire prospect of being one was fascinating. The wolf in front of me made a huffing sound and I realized that he was laughing. Probably because I asked a silly question and I could feel Jared trying not to laugh as he said 'We live in much the same ways that humans do, with some exceptions of course. All the werewolves in the kingdom obey me as their Alpha King, meaning my word is law, however there are some other wolves, such as the beta and the gamma, that hold high positions among us. The Beta is the second most powerful wolf in the whole kingdom, and will act as Alpha King in the absence of the Alpha and his Luna Queen. The Gamma is the third most powerful wolf in the kingdom and will act as the Beta in his absence.
'On smaller level, werewolves live in group called packs, with the packs being the equivalent of fiefs and the Alphas and their Lunas acting as lords and ladies. The leadership structure is the same at the pack level, with only two or three of the smaller packs not having a gamma.'
'How are you the Alpha King while your father is still alive?' I asked
'I was wondering when you would ask that? My father stepped down as the alpha king, but has yet to abdicate his human throne. He told me that it was my destiny to lead our wolves and our kingdom.
'There is one more thing, every wolf has a mate. A werewolf's mate is basically the other half of their souls. Our mates can be either werewolf or human and they are both revealed when they have reached physical maturity, meaning when they are both done with puberty.
'So our mates could be someone that we've just met or that we've known for years.'
It was a lot of information for one person to just absorb, but I seemed to be processing everything alright. I reached inside myself to try and talk to my wolf, I only had one question I wanted answered.
I asked my wolf, 'Have we met our mate?'
'We have.' she said, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Prince Jared was my mate.