The kitchen bell took me out of my sleep and signalled that breakfast was ready. I was sitting at the table like I had been whacked. My metamorphosis had demanded a lot from me physically. I couldn't stop thinking about last night. I looked over to Tim, looked at him closely to see if he had any signs of being a werewolf. But he only stuffed himself with a large slice of bread with fruit spread and drank warm milk with it. My father saw that my plate was still empty.
"But, child, don't you want to eat anything? You're always a brave woman when it comes to eating, aren't you?"
I was still full of the wild boar, but of course, I couldn‘t say that.
"Oh, you know, I should lose some weight. After all, I'm your daughter and I have to make a good match to get married.“
"Whatever you say.“
That's bullshit. Of course I didn't have to lose any weight and getting married was out of the question. But my little lie was enough, everyone continued to eat happily. My mother always took her tea after breakfast in the ladies‘ room. Today, for once, I joined her. Mother had always had an open ear for me and I urgently needed advice. The ladies' room was located in the basement, in the rear part of the castle. It was furnished according to mother's taste, playful, with comfortable armchairs, a large canapé, at whose feet a warm lambskin lay, and wine red velvet curtains on the windows. A fireplace provided the necessary warmth and a massive bookshelf provided good reading material. Since I had never accompanied my mother to her tea before, she had become particularly attentive and immediately turned her attention to me.
"My child, I‘m glad that you‘re here with me. But my gut tells me something's bothering you. Are you heartbroken?"
"No, Mother", I smiled slightly, "that's not it.“
How and if I should even tell her, that worried me. But why keep behind the bush when that's exactly why I was here? I loosened my tongue.
"You know I went to bed early last night. I couldn't sleep for ages, and then it happened.“
"What happened?"
„I, I … have turned into a werewolf.“
She was speechless. As strange as it seemed to me, it was for her.
"Please don't be angry about it, Mother.“
"Why should I be angry? I knew this day would come.“
"Come again?"
I couldn't believe my ears. Had she known all this time what was inside me? She took my hand and put it in her lap. That's what she used to do when she wanted to calm me down.
"Listen. You were born that way because I wanted you to be. I wanted to have a special child carrying the blood of all three tribes. Therefore, when I was with you in other circumstances, I always carried an enchanted moonstone with me, which caused you to be endowed with the powers of a werewolf. Your father, he knows nothing about it and he must never experience it either, you hear, nobody must experience it.“
"Why not?"
"Because he knew nothing of my plan, he could misunderstand it. And it's none of everyone else's business, not even of the witches. I don't know how they‘d react to it, when they’re always worried about the balance of nature. You have to promise me you won't tell anyone, you hear?"
"All right, but what about the transformation as such? How should I behave in the future?"
"If you can avoid it, don't change at all. Otherwise, do it when no one‘s nearby and hunt only far away from here, never in the fishing grounds of the vampires or the werewolves themselves.“
Whew! That was hard stuff. How was I supposed to do that? My mother wouldn't let up until I swore I wouldn't tell anyone. Deep down, though, I knew I couldn't. I had to trust others with it. I couldn't carry that burden around alone with me. Of course, I listened to mother's imploring not to tell father. I loved my father with all my heart, but I didn't know if he could handle it. And I didn't trust the witches enough except for Emily, but I didn't want her involved. So all that remained were Tim, Frederick and Sebastian. Although it was raining cats and dogs, the three of them were about to ride out with the horses. It came handy, I would join them, but I would determine where it went. I vehemently stood in the front door of the stable and didn‘t let them pass, they were supposed to listen to me. My brother and cousins were four years older than me. Even though I was still his little sister, Tim didn't like it when I cut in between. I closed the stable door. Frederick jumped off his horse and stood against me.
"What are you doing? Can't you leave us alone? We were going to ride down to town, to the prostitutes.“
"This will have to wait. I got something to show you.“
Tim shook his head. "And what‘s so important that you stand in our way and forbid us to ride out?"
"I haven‘t forbidden you to ride out. I'll come with you, but we'll change the route. We have to get far away from here. The walls here are as thin as paper and I don't want anyone else to know.“
"Know what?", Sebastian asked.
"Be patient, you'll see.“
Now I had aroused their curiosity, they couldn't help but follow me. The horses weren‘t afraid to take us wherever I wanted, even in this heavy rain. We trotted on them comfortably through the forest; I was in no hurry. I noticed how much the three had changed. I had grown up with them, shared all their childhood memories with them. Until three years ago, they had been rather boyish. Now they had become young, handsome men. My brother and the others had gotten a muscular, taut body. Their features had become more prominent. Frederick and his brother Sebastian wore their hair a little longer; it was black and curly, like their mother's hair. Tim, on the other hand, looked very much like our father, but what these three young men had in common were their ivy green eyes. Frederick and Sebastian now wore a beard, my brother used to shave it off. From a closer source I knew that they were very popular with the ladies because of their attractiveness and they themselves didn‘t seem to be averse to them either. They had all already had sexual contact with another female being, they often enough rubbed it in my nose. Mainly they did it with the prostitutes from the