Wolf #2: The Beast Within [COMPLETED]

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

So you can sense auras?

Mallory nods. Yeah. And no, I won't tell you what color yours is.

So is it like...whatever your mood is what color your aura is? Or is it your type of personality? Rachel licks her paws.

Mallory cocks her head to the side. A little of both. It's one of the things that Healers learn while they train at The Order. Auras aren't easy to read even if you can see them. We need more than just the color of someone's aura to interpret it—we need background and context.

So it's not a good idea for you to read the aura of a Wolf from another pack then? She grunts in response my questions. This is the first time I have gotten a real sense of a Healers' capabilities. It's not necessarily something you can learn—a lot of the more powerful Pack Healers are born with abilities very similar to Lycans. What else can you do?

I'm not some chihuahua with a catalogue of tricks. She snips. It's mostly auras and being able to sense spirits, similar to you. I have the odd and occasional vision, but it's generally from another priestess. Mostly, I heal the spiritual body of a Wolf, just as Doc would heal the physical body of a Wolf.

So Lycanthrope really are the only ones with a direct connection to The Moon. Rachel marvels at me like I'm some kind of rarity. What do they say to you?

Not much of late...though I still get visions from spirits and...other things.

Where do the Lycanthrope even come from, Mallory? Rachel's question confuses me.

Didn't they come from the same place as Werewolves?

Mallory shakes her head. No one knows where the Lycanthrope emerged from. It was only around the twelfth century that there was record of the Lycanthrope living in Werewolf packs. But some suspect that they were around much longer—as far back at 750BC, around the times of the Great Packs.

She pads over to Rachel and begins to lick her head and ears. I grind my back teeth against the bone of a rabbit Mallory had caught earlier.

When I was in The Order, I heard whispers of a pack made entirely of Lycanthrope. A Fifth Great Pack called Iapetus.

That's just a folktale. There were only four Great Packs. Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa. Rachel looks at me with a toothy grin. The Lycans are just an evolution of the Werewolves. There's not much of a difference between us and you, Amelia.

Mallory says nothing to dispute it and so I let that part of the conversation end there.

Where did Werewolves come from?

Rachel answers this one with enthusiasm. You've heard of the Cambrian Explosion, right? When life on Earth was born?

Yes. I have.

She chews on her hind leg as she speaks. Well there was a lesser known explosion of life before that. Near here actually. Called the Avalon Explosion. The humans don't think anything survived—that the Earth was too volatile for life to be sustained. Which is partially true, but only because we let them draw that conclusion.

I stare at her but she doesn't say anything—to be dramatic, I assume. Okay...so I take it Werewolves came from this first explosion of life?

No. Kind of. You see, this is when The Moon reached the Earth. She planted magic in it which later would affect life. It would create creatures that the humans believe to be nothing more than fairytales.