Page 77 of The Lone Wolf Café
“So… you’re a werewolf?”
Rowena flinched, and I couldn’t tell if it was from my question or if the poultice was stinging her sensitive wounds. She took a deep breath – in through her nose, out through her mouth – and I knew she was preparing to tell a verylongstory.
“Half-werewolf,” she clarified. “As you already know, my mother, Hazel, was a witch. She ran the café for most of her adult life, until she passed and I took over. But my father, Duncan, the man you met earlier–”
I scoffed.Metwas an understatement.
“–he and my mother had a secret relationship many years ago, which resulted in my birth. Of course, there was no way for them to remain together permanently, so my mother cut off contact with my father, determined to raise me as a witch away from the local werewolf pack.”
“So growing up… you were only raised by her?”
“Yes. But she struggled to keep my true nature a secret. I started shifting as soon as I could walk, and I remembered how upset and frustrated my mother would be when I did it. Once I got older, I learned to hide my werewolf half from her, sneaking off in the woods for midnight runs when she was sleeping. But she eventually found out about those too, and from when I was about ten until she passed away when I was nineteen, I never shifted except during the full moon.”
“Wow. I can’t imagine how painful that was for you.”
Rowena shrugged, though I could see the melancholy in her eyes. “I learned to live with it. I’m sure you understand how it feels, having your inner wolf clawing away at you, desperate to get out. To be honest, my mother and I weren’t on good terms formost of my teenage years. We finally made amends when she got cancer, especially in the months before she passed. But once–”
Rowena winced, and a sharp hissing sound screeched out through her clenched teeth.
“I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I know it stings. To be honest, you’re handling this a hell of a lot better than I would.”
“I mean… I’ve had to do it my whole life. Hide things. Hide pain. Hide frustration. Hide my identity. Anyway, once my mother passed, my father started showing up at my cottage. He would knock for hours, saying he just wanted to talk. At first, I ignored him, but after a while I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“So you’ve been meeting with him in secret all this time?”
“Yes. We sometimes go for runs in the woods, which really helps me let out my werewolf energy. But most of the time, we just talk. I learned I have a whole other family with the Mount Desert Island pack. Cousins, aunts, uncles… even two half-siblings and a stepmother. But I can’t meet them. I’m not welcome there since I’m half-witch.”
“But earlier tonight… why did he grab you? You were screaming!”
Rowena cringed at the thought of the incident that led us to where we were now – me bandaging her wounds while she poured out her life story.
“He’s been more…persistentin trying to get me to leave lately. He found out the whole village knows I’m a werewolf, and that I’m treated as an outcast because of it. He’s adamant he can get his pack to accept me, and that I’m safer with him than in Wisteria Grove. It’s led to a lot of arguments, and, well… you saw how it escalated tonight.”
“Wait…” I froze, my wet herb-covered finger still pressed against Rowena’s skin. “The whole village knows you’re a werewolf?”
“They didn’t always know,” Rowena sighed. “I grew up hiding my werewolf half, and everyone thought I was just an ordinary witch. But after Aster’s death, tensions were at an all-time high, and Wisteria Grove figured out the truth about what I was. They didn’t make me leave… but I’m not exactly a respected member of this village anymore.”
“Gods, that’s awful.”
It all made sense. Everything was falling into place. The witches of Wisteria Grove weren’t ignoring Rowena because they hated her – they were afraid. One of the most beloved members of their community was viciously killed by a werewolf, and then they found out a werewolf had been living among them for years. It must have been a shock to the entire village.
But Rowena didn’t ask to be born a werewolf. The whole situation was just as cruel for her as it was for the rest of the village. She was ostracized, outcast, tossed aside because of something she couldn’t control.
My heart ached for her.
It ached for everyone in Wisteria Grove.
“Speaking of Aster…”
Rowena tensed as soon as I said the witch’s name. But I needed to know the truth of what happened.
“...you were close to her, weren’t you? She gave you that necklace.” I pointed to the black beads around Rowena’s neck.
She reached up with her uninjured arm, twisting the black tourmaline beads in her fingers. “Aster was my mother’s best friend. She and Rune were the only ones that knew about my mother’s secret love, and that I was a half-werewolf. Aster gave me this necklace when I was a child. It’s enchanted to hide my scent from other werewolves, so my father wouldn’t be able to find me.”
My eyes widened. That was why I couldn’t smell Rowena’s scent when I first arrived in Wisteria Grove. It was why I’d thought she was an ordinary witch.
“Since Aster and my mother were best friends, the same applied to Juniper and I. We did everything together. Neither of us had siblings, so we bonded like sisters. I loved and trusted her more than anyone else.”
