“You can’t catch lycanthropy from drinking or eating after a werewolf. It’s very difficult to catch actually. Tegan was born a werewolf although her sister-in-law Nina was a human who was changed.”

“This is insanity! An abomination. They’re not even human, Benjamin. She’s done something to you to mess with your head.”

“Bonita, this isn’t helping,” his father murmured. “Ben is in love with this woman.

He’s a strong man, it didn’t look like she’d bewitched him to me.”

“I know this is a surprise. She asked me to tell you first so don’t be angry at her for that. She’s not an abomination, Mom. She’s a good woman, strong. She fights for her family just like we do. Why don’t you just give her a chance? She’s not human, no. She’s something else, but no less good.”

“You are not marrying this…this thing! I forbid it, Benjamin. God says to honor your parents and your parents are telling you humans are not meant to mix with animals.

It’s unholy.”

“Mom, knock this off. You’re out of control. Take a nap, take a pill, drink some wine or something. You’re talking like a freaking Nazi. You didn’t raise us to think this way.”

Jillian’s voice was gentle but firm and Ben was so glad his sister was there to help. “You raised us to believe all people were equal until they proved themselves otherwise. This woman has made Ben happy. He loves her. What does that prove?”

“She’s not people. She’s—she’s a mistake of nature.”

The vileness of his mother’s accusations made Ben sick to his stomach. He loved his parents, respected them. They’d been a foundation of his life and he’d never hesitated to turn to them. This woman pacing around the kitchen was a stranger to him.

“Mom, come on, this is crazy talk. I know you’re upset and I know it’s scary because you don’t know a lot about werewolf culture. I can teach you. I’ve been working with them for nearly two years. They have families, live in houses, run businesses, they barbecue on the Fourth of July and go to movies and eat pizza. Tegan’s first husband was an army ranger, killed in action in Afghanistan four years ago. They serve their country and make your lattes too. Nina runs a big nursery, in fact a lot of the landscaping plants on my property came from her place. They’re just normal people who, through a different DNA sequence, can shapeshift into a wolf.

“You can’t catch it from being in the same room or even if her blood got on you or in you. Lycanthropy is transmitted through a bite when the werewolf is in wolf form. It’s a mixture of the saliva and the blood in an attack. It’s very rare. She doesn’t deserve all this hate from you for what she is. You know better than this. You and Dad raised us better.

Please, Mom, for me, give Tegan a chance.”

“How can you expect me to do this? This is blasphemy.”

Where the hell was this coming from? His mother went to church, yes, but she had never used her faith like this, not to be harmful or hateful.

“Bonita, don’t. Please, don’t do this. You’re going to drive him away. Is that what you want? To be one of those parents who doesn’t speak to one of their children? When they have kids, don’t you want to be part of their lives?” He looked to Ben. “You can, right?”

“Yes. It’s complicated and I don’t know if they’d be like half wolf or not at all or what.” Something he’d have to ask her about after they dealt with this whole Pellini mess. “Anyway, kids are a ways off. I want to be married a while before we have kids.”

“Ben, she doesn’t even have a soul. If you mix with her, she’ll take yours. You’ll be damned!” His mother shook him by the shoulders and in his shock, Ben heard his father’s chair scrape back as he stood.

“Bonita! Are you ill? You’re not yourself right now. Calm down.” His father pulled her into his embrace and tried to calm her but she broke away.

She rushed to the drawer next to the fridge and rustled around, pulling out several brightly colored sheets of paper and slammed them on the table in front of Ben.

“They came by two weeks ago and I talked to them. Nice boys. Benjamin, you don’t know what these things get up to. They’re creatures of the devil.”

Ben looked at the papers and nausea boiled through his gut. Hate literature about werewolves. It couldn’t have been a coincidence either.

“Mom, have these men been back here? Have you seen them before?”

“I see them around here and there. They probably live nearby. They said they knew Father Joe so they probably go to St. Michael’s. Read it, Ben, it’s all there. All that scientific stuff. They control the media. It’s all lies. I can’t believe it and you bringing her here. Lucky thing I had this stuff.”

“Mom! I can’t believe you. This is the same kind of crap they say about Jews and black people. This is…I guess human supremacy. I’ve seen this stuff around about the werewolves but you’re the last person I’d have thought would buy into this. Mommy, this is crazy talk. Think about it.” Jillian rubbed a hand up and down their mother’s arm.

Ben scrubbed his hands over his face. “Did you let them in? Did they give you names? Do you have contact information?”

Bonita sat down. “Why?”

“Mom, a very bad man has been trying to harm Tegan’s family. He tried to kill Tegan’s brother Lex and his wife. He did kill Nina’s younger brother Gabriel. I don’t think this is a coincidence.”