Poisoned With Love

5.

Not all the books in the world were going to comprehend what was going on in that werewolf world, not the ones written by hunters at least. A few years later I learned that most packs lived peacefully in large areas like the one near Kirigan Manor, being a danger only to the forest animals. While hunters made it their mission to kill them, regardless of their history or whether or not they posed a threat, the packs knew no sense of vengeance. Very rarely, however, did they find themselves in the middle of a bloody conflict with hunters and werewolves alike.

Maeve's pack was always different. Ever since the death of her family, she had made it her life's purpose to travel the country and kill any hunter, known or would-be. Her pack followed her and for a time found itself on the lips of every hunter in and around Britain. Inevitably, they ended up on the list of my parents, who were no strangers to Maeve's family tree. Her nocturnal visit to my family home was thus not for a moment accidental, nor were the subsequent attempts to take the life of the escaped Iona. But the presence of the pack from the Kirigan manor had come as a shock even to my own family, who were certainly taken by surprise.

There had been very few cases of two packs hunting together, either hunters or animals in the nearby woods. But Maeve persuaded Adam to lead a bloody attack together against the Barrow family, who had already killed too many werewolves since coming to Scotland to pose a threat to the rest. The simple story of my family shook me and gradually made me realise that there were no positive characters in that world, only murderers out to avenge those who had killed them.

***

"Apparently, Sam hit someone with a car one night. Uh, her name was Laura. She was in a pool of blood and knew she wasn't gonna make it, so he bit her." Mason had begun his account of that evening with a visible relaxation in his eyes and gestures as he stirred his spoon in his ice cream. I couldn't have guessed how long it took him to forget that night anyway.

"And did it work?"

"It did. You were in Inverness at the time, but I think she must have stayed in the basement for a week before...."

His eyes darkened suddenly, and then he abandoned the ice cream and approached the opposite edge of the roof. If I didn't know better, I'd have said he was ready to jump. Instead, he dropped his hands in his pants pockets and turned, unsure of what had happened next.

"Maeve?" I huffed a bit confused.

I don't know if it was the story itself or the mere idea that Maeve could ever fall in love or find her match in a human that made me question my sanity at that point. What is certain is that Mason quickly understood my reaction and laughed in turn.

"Yeah, Maeve. Of all the idiots in the world, Sam found himself outright killing her lover."

"What does this have to do with..."

"Sam turned her, Katie. Laura became practically part of our pack after. It wasn't enough for Maeve to accept all of it, it seemed normal and right to kill Adam's human in return. This is why she attacked us in the middle of the night."

I froze as he gave a short nod, a sign that I had fully understood the message. That human had been me, and the whole attack had been on me. Sam had been Ailean's soul mate, the last person I'd seen on my run to the woods, holding his dead body in her arms.

"Oh, Mason..."

"She warned Adam a few days before, but he didn't want to give up on Sam either. He already had a whole plan to send you both to the States for a while. I guess it was too late."

I quickly felt the ground flee from under my feet as he didn't move for a second. I wondered during those two years why I had ended up running barefoot, in an ordinary shirt, through the forest, why I had left behind two packs that wanted each other dead. Not only did it all make sense now, but I finally understood those last moments with Adam and the ease with which he saved my life while his house was under attack. He knew.