So we’ve covered quite a lot. Many of my boyfriends have passed over the years through idiocy and pure bad luck. I’ve nearly lost my own life twenty times over the course of it. That’s practically once per year. I’m not ashamed to admit that I myself have experienced moments of stupidity. The werebat is a great example of that. I let my emotions cloud my mind and didn’t realize how obvious it was that that vamp was bating me something fierce. Anyways the whole point of me writing this novel is to help those lycans who need to interact with humans and their society have guidelines in order to keep the peace between our two species. I have actually been tasked by Großjägermeister Jeremy Bärenwald to write this book as an atonement of sorts for my failures to my many mates over the years.

Anyways, I’ve been going through many of my male mates that I’ve had, but I haven’t only dated males. However, female lycans can be more trouble than they’re worth. I haven’t had much luck in the dating game, it seems. However, I will only say this about female Lycans—and this goes for both lykos and humans—Use protection. Heterosexual interspecies relationships between lykos and humans are extremely common and have been known to happen in male/woman situations and man/female situations. The latter is the only one known to produce a successful pregnancy. The problem seems to be because of the hormone produced by female lykos during pregnancy which seems to halt transformation. Naturally Human females do not produce the same hormone before they’re first change. As I’ve said before, the mystical lycanthropy virus is transmitted through the interchange of fluids. So if you do end up mating unprotected with a lycan understand that you will become one. On that note let’s introduce another Rule. Rule Eight: Pups Are the Number One Priority. Now what does that mean? I’m specifically speaking about when your family comes under attack. The sole thing that must be done is to protect the pups. They are the future of our race. As much as we can bite humans the more we interact with them the more looked down on that will be, so in order to ensure the continuation of Homo lycaon we need to reproduce sexually. Besides a purebred even of bitten origins will be a hell of a lot stronger than a bitten lycan. This is the reason that pups should be protected at all costs.

Großjägermeister Bärwald has recounted scenes of an entire pack dead surrounding groups of children. Who through their own fear were changed and had their tails between their legs, their forepaws covering their eyes as they shook intensely. I have never lied to the readers that being a lycan is something that should be looked up to or pursued. It is a life filled with worry, strife, and violent death of loved ones. This is something that I will continue to stress. Especially to any humans reading this book. It’s something that I wouldn’t push onto anyone who didn’t absolutely want to be one. This isn’t a life for the faint of heart.

I still have yet to introduce you to the character we’re following to introduce the importance of this rule. However, that is because this story is one I’ve absolutely wished to avoid telling. It is one of my biggest failures and one that could have absolutely destroyed me if not for my first mate. Yes once again, I am the main character of this story. Let’s see what I did wrong.

***

I was home for winter break from my private boarding school and it was almost Christmastime again. For lykos this time of year carries with it a special significance. The lykos that lived during the time of Christ were actually a very significant part of Jesus’ life. Simon-Peter, John the Baptist, and James, and the other Simon were all believed to be members of the same pack. A pack who apparently still resides within the Holy Land. Last I checked the name of the current Alpha was Ezekiel. During this time of year it is required that the entirety of a pack come together and celebrate a time where family is of great importance. One thing that is always true of a pack is that it always felt like a family.

I was talking…well…arguing may be a better word for that conversation. Anyways I was arguing with my mother about school and what had happened in that particular semester. She was worried about my grades not being high enough to satisfy our alpha, who at the time was Javier’s father, Jaime. It was the night of the eighteenth and we were getting close to the full moon. The moon this year was supposed to be on Christmas Day. It only happened every nineteen years. Well thereabouts. So we were extremely emotional and our change was always on a hair trigger. It was always this way near the full moon. It’s about the most annoying time of the month. Especially for females. Their menstrual cycle almost always coincides with the full moon.

Anyways as we were discussing my grades I heard something that sounded oddly like the pulling of the string of a crossbow. I immediately went quiet and my mom did as well. She looked at me and mouthed run to me before she changed and turned around growling. I tapped her lightly on her flank and mouthed what about Veronica? She looked at me and sighed, “No time, just run.”

So I did an about face, changed, and ran. I ran and ran on the verge of tears the entire way. My mother had decided to save me. She would do her best to protect my younger sister, who had only turned six a month ago. She was still so adorable. I didn’t want to think about what might happen to the both of them. So I just put all my concentration into running. Where I ran actually surprised me. I ran to Ariana’s house. I skidded to a halt on the ice and snow and changed back to my human state and walked up—completely in the nude, mind you—to the door of her house.

She opened the door and gasped in shock “Gabriel, vehr are your close?”

“Destroyed on the floor of my house. My mom and I were talking and…and…I heard a crossbow…” I started bawling.

She hurried me inside and just hugged me while I bawled in her entryway completely nude. When her husband walked down the stairs of the loft which they called their bedroom, he took one look at me and run over and joined in on the hug. “Ariana, was ist passiert? Warum weint er?”

“Er ist von seinem Zuhause hergekommen, und anscheinend wurde sie vom KKK attackiert. Nun, ich kenne nicht, wenn es das KKK ist, aber die Gruppe ist die Einzige, die noch Lykaner und Wolfmänner jagt. Wir sollen nach seinen Eltern gehen und machen sicher, dass sie in Ordnung sind.”

„Und als er ihre Körper sieht?“ Jakobus asked.

“Wir trösten ihn. Wir geben ihm allen Trost, den er braucht. Er ist unser Patenkind, Jak. Wir müssen ihn schützen. Du weißt das.” Ariana replied to Jakobus. I looked at her somewhat confused. She looked down at me, “Ve must go back, Gabi. Ve need to see ze damage.”

***

“Mamá, ¿Está Ud. bien?” I called out into the house. I received no response. I called again “¡Mamá! ¡Respóndeme! Por favor, Mamá, ¡Respóndeme!”

“¿Gabi? Estoy enfrente del dormitorio de tu hermanita. Ven acá, por favor. No creo que yo tenga mucho tiempo.” I heard a faint reply.

I ran to her. She was laying awkwardly in front of Veronica’s door. She was bleeding and there was the scent of aconite heavy in the air. I started crying, “Mamá, Mamá, ¡Por favor no! ¡No! ¡No! ¡No! ¡No! No pueda pasar. Pensé que nosotros vayamos en el bosque. Pensé que anunciemos mi primer novio a la manada. No pueda pasar si esté Ud. muerta. Por favor, Mamá ¡Sobreviva Ud.!”

Ariana came over to me and hugged me again, “Mariela, ¿Dónde está Veronica?”

“Ella está en su dormitorio. Tiene miedo, estoy seguro.” She said with a quiet chuckle before her head dropped to the floor and she slowly lost consciousness. I watched my own mother die right in front of me. I cried profusely over her lifeless body slowly changing. I let out a sorrow filled howl into the night and my sister opened the door.

***

“Veronica where are the men who attacked the house?” I asked her.

“I heard them say that they were going after the rest of the pack. I thought that I was going to die Gabi, where the fuck were you? You could’ve helped mom. Why the fuck weren’t you there, Gabi? Mamá está muerta porque no estás acá. ¡Idiota!” She said.

“He vent to grab me, Veronica. Your mozer asked him to go und he did.” Ariana replied for me.

I just sat there, realizing I had run away in a time of need and now the entire pack may be under attack. “Did you see what these fuckers were wearing, Veronica?”

“Typical KKK bullshit, however, they didn’t talk like KKK members. They sounded like Jäger to me. Very stereotypical German accents and not only that their gear was too specialized to be used by the dumbasses who inhabit the KKK’s membership.”

“Are you sure, Ronni? This is important. Did they speak German at all?”

“Yes. And not the Neonazi bullshit either. They would say things like ‘Dämon, Stirb ruhig!’ and other such nonsense.”

“Fuck, Jakobus, komm hierher, bitte! Wir haben ein Problem. Look, kids go and look for the others see if there’s any adults left. I have a feeling I know which unit we’re dealing with here.”

“Was, meine Lieblingsfrau? O Scheißer. Diese Gruppe? Ich kann ihre Arbeit sehen. Um die Erwachsenen zu töten, denn die Kinder. Sie sollten gefangen worden sein; sie sollten im Gefängnis sein. Anscheinend sind sie entkommen. Das ist böse. Sehr böse.”

“Denkst du dass ich das nicht kenne? Diese Gruppe meint den Rudeln Tragödie. Also, Gehen wir! Wir müssen sie aufhören.” She then looked at me, “I’m sorry, Gabi. I must leave. And so must you.”

We ran and found the campsite of our packmates. All of the tents were smashed and several of the vehicles on fire. We let out a low howl of requiem. Several pups peeked their heads out of nearby bushes. At once they all shouted my name.

“Sí, mis amiguitos. ¿Dónde están sus padres? ¿Está alguien alto acá?”

“Yes, Gabriel. However, I wouldn’t say that ‘old’ is the right word, here.” Javier approached me, “The parents ran in different directions hoping to scatter the Jäger that are here. My father left me in charge whilst he attracts the attention of the majority of these asswipes.”

“Ah Javi, gut, um dich zu sehen. Vai are zese children here visout protection?” Ariana came up behind me and asked Javier.

“My father and the other parents scattered hoping to weaken and overtake the Jäger in the forest.”

“Zat is a bold move. Ve’ll stay hier und try und protect ze children. You und Gabi go und find your fazer. Hoffentlich is he still alive.”

“Hopefully he is.” Javi replied as he changed. I changed alongside him and we ran into the forest. “Gabi, don’t you rabbit out on me. Understand? This is my father we’re talking about.”

“Of course, my alpha. Of course.” I replied, knowing full well that his father was most likely dead. From the look of my house these Hunters were extremely advanced in tactics and understood their prey well. If they took Javi’s father on. It would most likely end up with several men on the Hunters’ side dead but also the death of Javi’s father. I didn’t say that specifically but I was thinking it.

***

We followed Javier’s scent trail for what seemed like an eternity before we saw it. In a clearing by the lake near my house we saw the body of a large lycan surrounded by at least twenty men in white hoods and robes. I could smell the scent of the aconite again in the air and I finally remembered why. Back before the Treaty of 2056 there was a Lodge of Hunters that hunted in such a horrific way that the entire Lodge was disbanded and many of the members were arrested and tried for bogus crimes for which the Order had them take the fall. That was twenty five years ago and nine years before the treaty was signed. The way in which they hunted was particularly cruel. They laced all of their equipment—crossbow bolts, knife blades, pistol and rifle bullets—with aconite extract and would purposely shoot Lykos in the legs or arms or the flanks in order to inflict pain on them instead of a quick and painless death. The aconite would poison the Lyko and cause him a slow and pain-filled death. It was this method that we were seeing now. They were known for purposely leaving the children to watch their parents die as well.

Javier walked up to his father who was barely alive and transformed. He mumbled an apology before snapping his father’s neck. He let out the selfsame howl I’d been only half an hour before. I joined him. I also heard the howls of every member of our pack. The howl of requiem done properly. The entire forest filled with the notes of despair and sorrow. It was a sad day indeed. El rey está muerto, viva el rey. Went through my head so many times for that fifteen minutes. However, I noticed less and less of the pack’s howls were resounding through the forest.

I stopped my requiem and nudged Javier, “Javi, ¡Cállete! Obtiene nuestros lugares desde nuestros sonidos.” I whispered. He looked over at me and growled but as he did he regained his human form.

“Gabi, if yo—” He stopped as we both heard rustling in the bushes. We both turned around. We saw white hoods briefly between the gaps of the trees in the forest. Javier growled fiercely, “You fuckers killed my father! You will die! I will kill you!”

Ominous laughter escaped the forest, “Denkst du wirklich, dass du gewinnen kannst? Also, komm, kleines Alpha! Komm und Kampf mich!”

“You motherfucking bitch! Why? Why now? Why of all times did it have to be the week before Christmas?”

“Javi, escúchame. Están tratando de hostigarte. Retiene tu mente. Piensa. No vayas. Quieren que vengas. Quieren que luches, entonces que pueden matarte. ¿Quieres morir?”

“Gabriel tenemos que mantener sus atenciones. Protegemos los lobeznos. ¿Comprendes?” He looked back at me and smiled a wolfish smile and he ran into the forest.

I ran in after him.

***

Ariana and Jakobus looked at each other and nodded. They’d heard the requiem and understood what that meant for the Hunters that were apparently still hunting Lykos. She absolutely despised the Santa Monica Lodge. She’d had to apologize to the families of so many lykos over the years for how that lodge had treated their kind. They were extremists to such an extent that the Order had disbanded that lodge in particular. All the pups that they were guarding were sniffling and crying. She felt bad for them. In a single night an entire lycan pack had lost all of their adult members from what the satellite map of the area showed her. The heat signatures of all the adult lycans had slowly faded and she could still identify two lycans in the middle of the forest. Me and Javi. However she didn’t look pleased. Instead she looked worried. The two lycans were surrounded by the remaining fifteen members of the Santa Monica Lodge.

“Was passiert dann?” Jakobus asked his wife.

„Also, Es scheint schreklich für die Lykaner. Ich sehe nur Javier und Gabriel, und sie werden von der Sankt-Monika-Loge umgeben. Also die Reste davon. Jaime hat viele davon getötet, als er gestorben ist.” Ariana replied dimly. She looked to the children of the pack numbly. She’d seen too many orphaned lycan pups over the years to count. It did give her a twinge of guilt but she’d seen so much horror throughout her life that the guilt was so muted it was almost nonexistent.

“Mrs. Ariana, why are you guys killing us? I thought you were here to protect us?” One of the little lycan pups asked her whilst pulling on her pant leg.

“Oh honey, these guys aren’t us. They’re just bad people. We are here to protect you. And we’ll do just that.” It always struck her as interesting that her accent disappeared when she talked to small children. She didn’t understand why or so she told me several times during our friendship.

“Why did Javier call them ‘Jäger,’ then? Aren’t you the ‘Jäger’?”

“Dear pup, I wish I could say that they weren’t Jäger but unfortunately they were at one point way before you were even a sparkle in your father’s eye. They are now just a group of extremely speciesist people who’ve escaped the prison to which we sent them.”

“What’s speciesist?”

“It means they don’t like other people that aren’t humans.”

“Oh. Ok. Are you gonna make them pay for killing our parents?”

Ariana looked down at the child bewildered by the question. This small child had just asked for vengeance. Ariana looked down at her with surprise and confusion still showing on her face, “Junges Mädchen, Listen here. Vengeance is not something which you should pursue. It will only cause more bad things to occur and I don’t think you want that.”

“B…b…but they killed Mommy and Daddy! They have to die! An eye for an eye, that’s what I read about in school. It’s old justice.”

“I believe, Child that your alpha is taking care of that as we speak.” Ariana finally relented.

“Ok. Good.” The young female walked away tail wagging and shrinking as she walked back to the group.

Ariana looked down at the display in her hands. The heat signatures of the Ex-Hunters were disappearing two at a time as the heat signatures of me and Javi advanced. She exhaled a slow breath and looked at Jakobus again, “Jak, sie töten sie. Wir sollen hier bleiben, während sie sie töten. Ich kenne seit vielen Jahren Javier Patrón del Lobo. Er ist heftig und klug. Eine gefährliche Kombination.”

“Ja dies passiert schnell.” Jakobus replied.

***

Javier and I walked back to where we’d left the kids and found them all safe and sound. Our skin was stained red with blood. We no longer looked human. Our faces had become gaunt with grief and slowly we walked up to Ariana and Jakobus. “Thank you so much for watching over the children, Ariana.”

“Kein Problem. I must tell you though that there resides two heat signatures inside your house.”

“The hell? I thought that we’d killed them all.”

“Geh! Schnell! Spar deine Schwester!”

I took off with such haste that I actually created a rooster tail of dust and dirt behind me.

***

I arrived at my house soon after I ran off. I walked into the house and found my sister. The heat signature that had been shown was not what or who I thought it was going to be. Mario del Lobo, my father was sitting beside my sister. I hadn’t seen my father in several years. He’d left San Tomas when I was still just a little ball of fur. “¿Ahora? ¿Decidiste ahora para regresar acá? Decidiste regresar ahora cuando saliste cuando yo era solo un lobezno. No entendí cuál un padre era. Tuve que encontrar mi figura paterna en otro lugar. ¿Realizas que eso me pasó? Y Veronica, ella era sola una bebé. Saliste y nunca regresaste hasta ahora. Mamá está muerto. Todos los adultos están muertos excepto tú.”

“¡Cállete! Tu hermana pasa por un montón. Ella perdió su mamá, su alfa, y los padres de sus amigos.” He looked at me sternly. His voice was filled with loss and sadness. My parents had never divorced they had just gone to separate ends of California. The reason wasn’t due to any intramarriage issues it was due to the fact that his mother in Baja had called upon him to aid them with the family business. He’d told her he’d be back for her before the next full moon Christmas. He wasn’t joking, apparently. He’d come back today of all days. “¿Y qué hizo su hermano? Él fue a matar personas sobre que no conoció nada. Pudiera morir, y él hizo de todas formas. ¿Cómo estúpido eres, mi’ijo?”

I looked down in shame. I knew what he was saying to be the truth. I should’ve stayed with my sister. She was fine, but she could have run into trouble just the same. She could’ve died and it would’ve been all my fault. I fell to my knees and just bawled. For ten minutes straight I let the emotions of the night fill my head. The sorrow I felt for losing so many, the anger I felt towards those men for killing so many of my pack, and the anger of seeing my father again. All of those emotions went through my head along with the guilt I felt for failing to properly protect my sister. All of these emotions filled my head until I felt a squeeze to my shoulder. I looked up and saw Ariana. “Dear pup, don’t cry. You have survived. As has your sister. Your father has come back from Baja. Your family is still here, you have a lot to be thankful for even with so much loss.”

My father got up from his position next to my sister and hugged Ariana. “Muchas Gracias para toda la ayuda, mi amiga.”

Ariana pulled away from the hug just enough to look the lyko directly in his eyes, “I’m so sorry about Mariela. She was a beautiful person.”

“That she was, Ari. She died doing something that my Dummkopf of a son can’t seem to manage: protecting my daughter.”

“Die Kinder sind die Zukunft. Isn’t that always what you Lykos try to tell us?”

“Ja, genau.” My father intoned in German.

“It’s so good that you came back, Mario.”

***

So yes that mistake my father has never let me forget. It’s this kind of violence that we as Lykos still can attract. I gave this example because honestly the source of so many issues within our pack came about because of this incident. However, the parents did the right thing, they kept the attention of the ex-Hunters long enough for me to grab Ariana and Jakobus. And I’m glad I did. I don’t think as many members of my pack would still be alive today without the help of those two Hunters. The importance of protecting the pups of a pack is something that Lykos learned early on by watching real wolf packs during an attack. Something every prey animal shows as well. They don’t care so much if they lose an adult but if a child dies then it endangers the future of the species. Please all of you Lycans heed my advice: Protect your children. Don’t allow them to fall prey to the hatred of stupid humans like those of the Santa Monica Hunter’s Lodge.