Chapter Two

Alexandru's Point of View

I growl, my fangs, my claws, reminding me of what I am, who I am, a person I'm proud of. I breath in, calming down, and I watch my fangs and claw go back in. I grunt, I can feel it, something is coming, something bad is coming, and we have to be ready. I get up from my bed, it creaks beneath me, I need to get a stronger one. I walk to the bathroom, and I stare at my house's makeup. I feel a sense of pride, I built this house, with my hands. I stare at the mirror, Alina insisted I put it here, at least for her sake, I stare at my face, I'm a Lycanthrope, a Lycan, which is basically like a Werewolf, but better, stronger and faster, I'm one of the ones left, my father is a Werewolf, so is my mother, it was unexpected to be the only Lycan in my family's bloodline in the last hundred years.

I am the Beta of The Blue Moon Pack, I grew up in New Orleans, so did my Father, and so will my child. New Orleans is my home, the Pack is my family, and I'm sensing threats, I don't know what it is, or who, but I can feel it, something foreign, intruding on my Pack.

I grew up in a family of five. I had two siblings, Alina and Luc, but Luc, my younger brother died, days after he was born, naturally, I took his name in his honour. My parents live in Uptown New Orleans, and I, at Midtown, I'd have preferred the French Quarters, for his historics and aesthetics, but as the Beta, I am supposed to stay in the classy part of the town, It is my house that is different from everyone's, I like to think of it as unique.

I turn my gaze back to the mirrror, and I begin to shave my beards off.

_

The Blue Moon Pack, and New Orleans as a whole used to be something of an outcast part of Louisiana, we kept ourselves apart from the entire world, but Caleb, our then Alpha wanted a change of event, said we had to evolve with time, so we opened ourselves to the world fourty years ago. As a Lycan, I age really slowly than werewolves, but I am thirty five, and should be mated already, another thing that makes me different from the pack.

I bring down the hammer on the nail, repeatedly, until It is done. I growl, suprising even myself, only then do I realize I am in heat, I haven't felt this degree of lust, of heat in almost ten years. I really do not have time for this.

"Alex, are you okay?"

I hear and my claws are out before I can stop it, in a flash of light I turn back, knowing fully well it is Camille, from the look on her face, my eyes are glowing.

I blink it away, "Hi, Camille" She is grinning, she is always grinning.

"You look like shit Alex." She says, enunciating the shit.

I drop the hammer, cleaning away my sweat. "I feel like it"

Cammile is one of the women who raised me, always checking up on me.

"My wedding anniversary is on Saturday, you could make me a book holder, like the beautiful one you made for me last year." She smiles, and I nod.

I've known Camille and Peter all my life, and seeing them married for thirty five years, it's something I envy. Petro is one of the elder in the Pack.

"I have to take the kids." I say, locking my door as I leave.

Camille looks so much like her, well the other way round since she's her mother, but I've spent the last decade trying to forget Aurora, and every time I see her mother, I'm reminded of her, It doesn't hurt that she left, what hurt is the way she left, she triggered my abandonment issues, leaving me in a ditch. I feel into a dark place when she left, I was heart broken, coupled with the realization I had the day she left. God, I hate her.

I remembered it like it was yesterday. I was so hyped, desperate to tell her what I found out, hoping she felt it too, but all I saw was an empty room, and sad parents, she took off, with warning, without care, she just left. After she left, I was in my wolf form for a month, I hoped I wouldn't feel the ache, but I did.

-

"Cutting, shaping, and installing building materials are the main tasks carried out by carpenters when constructing structures such as buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters used to work with raw wood and perform harder tasks like framing, but today a variety of other materials are also utilized, and the more refined trades of cabinetmaking and furniture construction are occasionally included in the definition of carpentry. Carpenters make up 98.5% of the workforce in the United States, making them the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the nation in 1999." I say, teaching.

New Orleans might have opened itself to the world but we are careful, we are a self sufficient Pack, we have an hospital, filled with top class doctors, we have a school, where I help out. When Aurora left, the pack was there for me, I was lost and they found me.

"Depending on whether a carpenter works in rough carpentry or finish carpentry, their specific job duties change. Additionally, there are other areas in which carpenters might specialize, such as using certain woodworking techniques or producing a particular range of wood goods." I add, staring at the faces of the eager students.

"On Saturday, we'll finally practicalize all our theoretical knowledge." I nod, ending the class.

"Uncle Alex" Desire, one of my students, stops me on my way out.

"Saturday is Grandma Cammle party, so maybe Monday." She grins, and I nod my head smiling.

"Mom packed this for you" Fabien, Elena's son hands me a cooler, I take it from him.

"Heads up, it's really spicy." He whispers and I laugh, ruffling his hair.

"Tell us a story, pleaseeee." They chorus, like they always do everytime I want to leave.

I roll my eyes, sitting down, setting the cooler back down "You know the drill, get plates and spoon, we split the meal, you keep quite, and I tell you a take of our heritage."

The little children erupt in joy, and I laugh because it is contagious "But we have to be fast, I have a meeting."

They do as I say, I share the meal, and they begin to eat, quietly, as I tell them a story.

"The werewolf is a legendary creature that has been the topic of numerous legends and numerous nightmares throughout history. According to certain myths, werewolves are people who can transform into ferocious, strong wolves. Others are a mutant hybrid of human and wolf. Nonetheless, they are all ferocious beasts with an insatiable appetite for human and animal blood. We are werewolves, and some of us, Witches, like Grandma Camille. The exact beginnings of the werewolf mythology are unknown. According to some academics, the werewolf first appeared in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest piece of Western literature, when Gilgamesh rejected a potential suitor because she had transformed her former partner into a wolf."

I smile at the intrigue on their faces, and I continue "Legend has it that when Zeus was offered a banquet prepared from the remains of a sacrificial kid, Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, enraged the god. Zeus, who was furious, punished Lycaon by turning him and his sons into wolves. Early Norse folklore also introduced werewolves. A father and son found wolf pelts that could transform people into wolves for ten days, according to the Saga of the Volsungs. The father and son team put on the pelts, changed into wolves, and then went on a murderous rampage in the woods. When the father struck his son and fatally wounded him, their rampage came to a stop. Only because a friendly crow offered the father a leaf with healing properties did the son live."

"There are various myths and legends surrounding us, our heritage and ancestors but we do not dwell too much on the past, because we are the future."