Run!”

She looked past me, her streaming eyes fixed on my mother. “What’s happened to Lorre?”

Kara sobbed, looking small and delicate in her long, mauve coat and flowing blond hair.

“Your father murdered Lorre,” my mother told her.

I wheeled round, and glaring at my mother, I roared, “Stop! Just stop it now! You can’t go on lying like this! Tell Kara the truth.”

My mother looked at me, then back over at Kara, who had now stepped from beneath the trees and into the clearing. “Okay,” she said. “This might be hard for you to understand, but Jack killed Lorre. I caught him here, digging up the grave. Just take a look at his hands.”

Unable to comprehend what I had heard, and raising my mud-covered hands, I looked at them, then back at my mother. “You’re a liar!” I barked at her. “You killed Lorre, just like you killed that baby. Just like you stole Lorre and Kara away from their human mothers.”

“What’s he talking about?” Kara sobbed, her bottom lip trembling and tears rolling down her ashen face. “Tell me it’s not true. I love you, Mum.”

“She’s not your mother!” I roared at Kara, just wanting to impress on her the danger she was now in. “Run, Kara! Run!”

“Don’t believe him, Kara,” my mother said, her voice soft – controlled. “He’s gone mad.

The curse has taken hold of him.”

Kara glanced between me and my mother as she stood in the falling snow. Her pretty face looked scared and confused. Then I felt a burning sensation cut across my back. Howling in pain, I spun around to see my mother swiping at me with her claws. Her fingers were long, hooked, and each of them was capped with an ivory-looking blade. Her long, dark hair flowed out behind her and her eyes seemed to spin brightly in her face.

She leapt through the air at me, forcing me back towards the trees.

I cried out in agony as my back slammed into one of the giant tree trunks. I hit it with such force that a shower of broken splinters and bark sprayed up into the air. Dazed and in pain, I dropped to the floor. My whole body began to burn inside. It felt like my blood was boiling in my veins. I looked at the shallow grave, at Kara who now stood sobbing, then at my mother. She looked just like she had at the Lycanthrope safe house the day she had attacked that woman, enraged and terrifying. I hated her. I hated her more than I thought possible. As these feelings rushed over me, I began to shake uncontrollably and I cried out in pain. My stomach felt as if I had swallowed a thousand blades and they were now slicing through my intestines. With my arms and legs jerking and twitching, and my fingers feeling like they had been stamped on, I felt as if I was dying.

The pain was all-consuming, and my brain felt as if it were on fire inside my skull.

Lying on my side in the snow at the foot of the tree, I opened my eyes. The world looked as if it was on fire. The trees, the snow, the grave, Kara and my mother looked orange, gold, red, and yellow. The world seemed to shimmer with seething heat. Then, I saw my mother head towards Kara, her arms open as if to comfort her, but I could see the hatred in her eyes. I knew that she was going to kill Kara, just like she had Lorre.

“No!” I roared, and my voice came out sounding deep and booming.

My mother looked back at me, and she had that all-knowing smile on her fucking face.

She turned to look back at Kara, who was unaware of the true danger she was in. She loved my mother – they were so close – so why would she fear her? Kara had been deceived just like Father Paul had, like I had. I saw my mother reach out for Kara and the world seemed to have slowed somehow. The shadows seemed to stretch long and black from between the trees, the snow stopped falling and floated in the air, the maggots writhing around in Lorre’s face paused.

Then, like a volcano erupting inside me, my whole body became consumed with fear and hate. Before I knew what was happening, I was bounding on all fours towards my mother. I was on her in an instant, throwing her clear of Kara with two giant paws.

“No!” I howled, spinning around in the snow, catching sight of a long, black tail swishing behind me. Every one of my senses prickled with heat, as did the fur that now completely covered my body. “Run!” I barked at Kara. She staggered backwards, her eyes wide with fear as she stared at the wolf which now stood before her.

Then I was thrown backwards. I span through the air to see my mother rushing towards me. She still looked somewhat human, other than her giant claws, her mouth full of jagged teeth, and the crazy yellow stare in her eyes. Blood sprayed up from my back as she tore a huge lump of flesh and fur from me. The pain was like an explosion of intense heat. I rolled over and made a yelping sound. My mother came at me again. I sprang to all fours, and snarling, I bared my teeth at her.

Then everything hit me at once. It was like I’d been run over by a train. I saw my dad dying in my arms. I felt the grief while I hid in the shadows at the back of the church looking at Father Paul’s coffin, the anguish and disgust I had felt every time my mother had told me one of her stories. I saw and felt the fear in Kara’s eyes, and the bloated face of my murdered sister Lorre, and the hate that consumed me.

I leapt into the air towards my mother, and with my huge paws, I sent her flying back across the clearing. She landed on her back and howled, but I was on her.

“I hate you! I hate you! Hate you!” I roared over and over again. Then lunging forward, I ripped away her face with my jagged teeth. Her blood covered my snout. The smell and the taste of it drove me on. In a frenzied wave of hate and loathing for her, I ripped her throat open. She made a screeching-gargling sound, which excited me. Then I felt hands on me. I was being punched, then kicked.

“Don’t kill my mum!” someone was screaming. “Don’t kill my mum!”

I swung my colossal skull around.

Howling, I swiped at her with my paw. I didn’t want Kara to see this. Kara flew backwards and into the snow. I turned back towards my mother, and pinning her body to the ground with my paws, I buried my snout into her chest. I ripped and tore at her with my teeth, until the snow and the nearby trees were covered with strips of her flesh. When she looked like nothing more than those raw, bloody lumps of meat my father had left for her, I sauntered away, snarling, woofing, and licking her remains from my snout with my long pink tongue.

I felt a massive sense of relief – euphoria – orgasmic even. I bounded around in the snow, howling up at the moon which was now just beginning to rise. I felt alive. I didn’t feel like that scared little boy anymore – I felt powerful. I felt invincible. It was as I leapt and bounded around, enjoying the sensations of my first kill, that I saw Kara lying in the snow.

“Kara?” I woofed, bounding towards her.

As I drew near I could see that the snow surrounding her body was pink. I could smell the blood even before I reached her.

“Kara!” I howled and those feelings of agony washed over me again. I licked her upturned face with my long, fleshy tongue.

“Kara!”

She looked back at me, her eyes open but blank. I sniffed her, prodded her with my snout, but she didn’t stir. It was then I saw the opening in her coat and the gapping claw marks running the length of her chest and stomach.

“No!” I roared, realising with grief and horror at what I’d done. I had sliced her open with my claws when I had pushed her away. “No!” I howled again.

I sunk into the snow beside her, tears burning in my eyes. I held her head in my paws, and as I did, they started to change. I pulled her tight in my arms, my body turning back into the fourteen-year-old boy again. Holding Kara in my arms, I cradled her like a baby against me. “What have I done? What have I done to you?” I screamed in anger at myself. “My sister, my beautiful sister,” I sobbed into her hair and the scent of it reminded me of the times as children we had picked petals, bottled them, and made perfume.

“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed against her. “I never meant to hurt you.” As I lay her body down into the snow and looked upon her beautiful face, I truly knew how powerful a thing as hate was. No one could have hated me more than I hated myself for what I had done to my sister, Kara.

In the distance I could hear the sound of howling, as other wolves approached from deep within the forest, drawn near by the smell of fresh meat and my howling. Leaning forward, I kissed Kara gently on the cheek, then stood up. I looked back once at the shallow grave.

“Goodbye, Lorre,” I whispered.

Then looking at my mother’s scattered remains, I smiled with satisfaction. I was glad she was fucking dead. Turning, I raced away into the forest and headed home.

Nik was crying. It was dark now and he had been left alone for hours. He was only ten, and as I rushed into the living room, he looked up at me with his tear-stained face.

“Jack?” he said. “Where’s mummy and Kara?”

I ignored his question and instead said, “Nik, we’ve got to get out of here.”

“Where are we going?” he said, jumping up and wiping his tears away.

“We’re going on an adventure,” I told him. “Now get some of your toys together, because we don’t have long.”

I left Nik in the living room as I raced upstairs to our rooms. I threw as many clothes I could find into a large rucksack and placed it on my back. With my heart beating wildly in my chest, I went back downstairs. Nik was standing by the front door, clutching a handful of toy cars to his chest. I helped him put on his coat, then scooped him up into my arms. Throwing open the front door, I ran into the night with my brother. I never looked back. I couldn’t. I would have been reminded of the night we had fled with my mother.

Chapter Thirty

Kiera

“You didn’t look back, Jack, because you’d become your mother,” I mumbled.

“I had,” he said with a nod of his head, looking at me.

He had told me much of this part of his story with silent tears flowing down his cheeks.

Not once, though, had he stopped talking, it was like he was giving his confession to me.