Beasty | First Draft Sample

16

"Absence can do two things to love:

Make it stronger or allow you to pretend it never existed at all"-The Book of Secrets.

"Livy, I don't exactly understand how..."

Snapping my eyes away from a freshly bathed Letty as I secured her diaper, I looked up at Isabelle and cocked an eyebrow up.

"How what?"

Isabelle took a second, as if thinking how to place her question before she finally spoke, "How the royals are different from normal wolves."

A soft sad smile shadowed my lips and I quickly got back to getting little Lolette dressed.

The answer to the question was one I knew, but the memories that flowed with it left a slow longing in my chest as I remembered my precious hidden alcove in the library, my stacks of books still probably settled on a side of it.

It had been two days since Romanov and the boys had left, and while Grayson had come once, much to my surprise, none of the other two boys had showed up since they had gone.

"So, do you know anything about it?"

I blinked, my trail of thoughts dropping into oblivion in a second as I snapped my head towards Isabelle.

"The royals were the first beasts to appear, somewhere around a thousand eight hundred years ago, the specific origin is not specified, but theories move between genetic mutation to evolution. Early beasts have folklores too, but modern historians are ruling those out. That's fine by me, mostly because I find it personally quite distur—"

I stopped, my eyes widening as I immediately began shaking my head, seeing the sparkling curiosity in Isabelle's eyes.

"Oh no. I'm not going tell you any of those. Thank you, but no." I quickly warned her, shaking my finger in front of her face.

"Oh Livy plea—oh okay! But do continue!" Isabelle heaved out a dramatic sigh, giving up as she leaned forward on the bed, where she sat, and rested her chin above her hand.

The corners of my lips crinkled as I tried to hide out a smile, I nodded and slowly turned back to picking a happy Letty up from her changing table, quickly settling her in my arms.

"It's simple Issy, the royals are like... the original of their species. The normal werewolves came about from humans the first royals bit and changed. Initially they were all called Lycanthropes. But soon the term Werewolf came about and that's how both are differentiated now. The cycle in that manner, therefore, continued. Royals mated, with weres or royals or humans, and royals were born. Weres mated with humans or weres and weres were born."

Shifting towards my bed I settled in just beside Isabelle when an accomplished looking Abigail marched in, a feeding bottle full of milk, in her hand.

"But when royals or weres mate with humans, won't the babies be weaker? Because then don't the babies become half-bloods?" Isabelle frowned as she looked from Abigail to me.

"Well that's where we don't follow the key aspects of genetics. When Lycans or Weres mate with humans, it's fifty-fifty. Either the baby is human, or one of us. But mostly, it's one of us,"

Isabelle gasped, I turned just in time to see her excited grin. "Abigail...you?"

Handing the feeding bottle to me Abigail shot a grin at Isabelle as she joined us on the bed.