The Life of Tiger Bensen

Chapter 9, The Ties That Bind

As soon as the sun had risen, Tanner called everyone out of their tents and told them what had happened that night. No one was surprised. If Lily was with the witches, then of course that girl would have been with them as well.

“This actually doesn't make sense.” Said Anna. “It's illegal for witches to let another supernatural being into their circle. It's unholy. There is no way Lily joined witches unless she's studying witchcraft by herself. Marques wouldn't dare mess with them either. They were the ones who attacked us that night at our base camp.”

“Right, unless...they've worked something out. The witches don't want the reincarnations alive. They'd do anything to stop it from happening again.” Said Tanner.

“So they have an alliance?” Asked Kelsey.

“For now, probably. We can't be too sure.” Tanner replied. It just doesn't seem right to Tiger.

“How could they be following us? Wouldn't they have made their move already?” Tiger asked, trying not to sound worried. He couldn't help but think of Maria all alone without him back home.

“They could be observing you. Making sure you're not like the others.” Said Anna.

“Others?” Asked Tiger quickly.

“What others?” Asked Kelsey. Anna looked to Tanner and back to Kelsey and Tiger.

“There were a few reincarnated ones, that I knew of, who were exactly like the original werewolves.” Anna slightly looked at Tanner and sighed. “Let me start at the beginning. No one has ever seen Ambrosia, the original female werewolf. Every painting of her is different. All that anyone knows is that she was the most beautiful being there was. Nikos, the reason for no one knowing if she really was beautiful, wanted to protect her. So, one day, Nikos grabbed Ambrosia from her home and hid her within the mountains of Greece. He killed everyone within his path so know one would be able to say they've seen them. The only people he spared was her family.” Anna took a deep breath. “They say every picture of her was taken by Nikos. But before he could grab them all, her mother hid one away under the floor boards. Ever since then, the picture has been passed down throughout the family.”

“You still didn't explain about the others.” Said Kelsey.

“I'm getting there.” Anna replied. “Anyway, Nikos met with witches to ensure that Ambrosia would be hidden away and protected. The only price he had to pay was his love for her. He would die before he gave up loving her so, they tried something else. Lycanthropy. But the witches had another plan. They were going to use them as their pets. So every full moon, the witches would use them to capture innocents for their rituals. When Nikos and Ambrosia realized what was going on, they attacked the witches. But the witch that turned them into werewolves, promised she'd turn them back into mortals and she'd find away so that Nikos could never be with Ambrosia again. With fear running through their veins, Nikos and Ambrosia agreed to have children, to keep the werewolf line running so one day, they'd find each other again.”

“And so that's where I come in, right?” Asked Tiger. Anna nodded.

“Love is a powerful thing. It could be safe but dangerous at the same time. I understand fully that you want to protect her. The people I knew who were reincarnated wanted to protect each other too- but when it came down to it, it all ends in death. The female realizes they've gone too far, the male threatens her if she wants to leave and pulls the if-I-can't-have-her-no-one-can syndrome and kills her...then eventually, because he loved her so much,...he'd kill himself.”

“But Tiger and Maria are different...right? I mean, why wouldn't the witches not want this to happen again? He'd be dead right?” Said Kelsey.

“When I said the if-I-can't-have-her-no-one-can syndrome, I meant it. He went crazy and killed everyone that looked at her, everyone that talked to her, everyone that he thought would think about her.”