It met her

She whispered

'Her voice sounds so much like Elizabeth's.' He thought as she spoke.
"Once he realized I was rejecting that side of myself he grew aggressive. I should've gotten away then. My parents were kind; they would've sheltered me, moved to a whole different side of the world if they had to." She croaked but still no tears would fall. "But I was 16; young and stupid. So I let him push me around, govern me, play with me as though I were just a pawn on a chess board and let his 'I love you's' wipe away all the awful things he'd done to me. My fate was sealed once my father gave him permission to marry me. He killed them almost immediately after I moved out, he never admitted to it but he never denied it either. He had my life completely under his control; he'd dictate when I eat, when I slept, when I shifted, everything. My entire life was on a schedule he'd created. I don't know if he was always like that or if my easy compliance to his demands made him only wish to demand more. It was unending; the more of me I gave was the more he took and the more hungered to control me. Hunger... that was the very thing that made a Wendigo the monster it is after all." She smiled, it was a sickly one. He saw a single tear that managed to seep through her barricade. "But then I had Elizabeth and life became so much better because he turned his full attention to her. At first I thought it was a miracle. His words were less hurtful, his gaze softened. He went a whole month without hitting me." She said that last sentence as though it were the most astonishing thing in the world. "He adored her so much. He brought her out to play ball almost daily and there were those rare moments he'd indulge her with a tea party. She couldn't shift yet but he said he was sure she would eventually so she fed on raw meat with us. I thought maybe it was his paternal senses kicking in. That becoming a father softened him and we'd gotten the chance to be a normal family but that was too much to ask." It wasn't quite a sigh that exited her lips but a sorrowful whisper. "One night, I caught a conversation he was having with her when he was supposed to be tucking her into bed. 'Who's your God?' He said casually and she responded as if rehearsing lines for a school play. 'You are, my lord, the divine and ultimate. Never wrong in your words and never fault in your cause.'" Monika scoffed, looking dumbfounded. "Here she was, my six year old darling repeating such words of blasphemy. I hadn't gotten away with it either. He smelt my presence and knew I was ease dropping; the beatings and aggression came back the next day. I think he was trying for more children as well because the rape was near constant. It wasn't until I found a book whilst cleaning the room that I finally understood what it was he was trying to do. A 'cult.'" There was a weird curve in her tongue when she said that, as if trying to repeat words in a language she didn't understand. "I had never even heard of such a thing until then. A mere man trying to parade as though he were a God. He was trying to corrupt my Elizabeth with this evil, his evil. I snapped. I couldn't let my darling become a slave to him, not like I was. I felt fury within me so great that I thought the devil himself was feeding me his flames and somehow I told myself it was a sign that what I was going to do was right. He was out hunting at the time I went after him. I shifted mid run, it felt so empowering. That was the first time it felt natural. Like I and the creature living inside me were at peace with each other, both mothers protecting their offspring. We hunted him down and tore him to shreds; his surprise was what made it so easy. When we got home..." She paused then corrected herself. "When I got home, I told Elizabeth the same thing I told everyone else. He simply went mad and ran off into the forest. That kind of backfired because now I am known to the people around town as the woman who turned her husband Looney but hey." She slumped looking almost jovial. How many emotions could one human present at once? A jovial stance, a cold stare, desperate words, smooth smile and all with tears stinging her eyes. "I could live with that. But apparently having your limbs dismantled at every joint, torso cracked open, organs strewn about and head decapitated isn't enough to kill a Wendigo. Even now my knowledge of what I am is limited. Murders began to frequent and always of someone traveling deep into the woods. After the seventh body was found they finally decided it only made sense that it was done by the crazy man living in the forest. My husband became a scary story told to warn kids about lurking in the forest at night. I also helped in fanning the flame to that little rumor. They caught him, burned him and that's the end of that story. Sylvia and Sonnet were gifted to me by Eustace, my second husband. I did love him, y'know. We fought a lot but it was almost kind of fun since it never got physical. No marriage without its problems. His problem was with Elizabeth and my problem was his problem with Elizabeth. She only became the way she was after I told her her father had died. Eustace thought she was 'catching his crazy' and he'd said it so many times that I began to think so too... but nothing." Her eyes hardened as she glared at him. "Nothing was going to make me let go of her." She softened; the lines of her mouth drew down in a rapid motion as she folded her arms and leaned back against the cold stone wall. "Nothing but a fifty foot wyvern." He was 64 feet and 4 inches but no point in correcting her. "What are your intentions with my daughter?" She asked.
'A clutch of 15 to 20.' he thought to himself but said nothing, there was more she wasn't telling him. "Why did you kill Eustace?" He asked her.
"I didn't mean to..." She said, sounding like a defensive child. "I was angry... He said something unforgivable about Elizabeth, that plus the stress of living amongst your kind. Knowing damn well one of you may attack my children at any moment if you found all this out. Not to mention having my daughter kidnapped." She gestured accusingly at his, the chain rattling with the movement. "Call what Eustace said the straw that broke the donkey's back. I just couldn't let go of it the way I use to."
"What did he say?"
"That he hoped you'd kill her. I held out for a while but the moment we were alone and I knew I could get away with it, something within me snapped and when I came to he was already being digested." She twirled her thumbs; she looked conflicted but not guilty.
He could understand the maternal need to protect their young so he wouldn't fault her for that. The difference between then and all the times before was that losing her daughter had actually become a possibility since he had taken her. "And what of the book?"
She physically gulped. "Elizabeth has it, I think..."
"You think?"
"I think." She repeated. "I had forgotten about it until I first saw her with it not too long after her father burned. I grabbed it from her, ready to burn the damned thing but when I looked into it...just out of curiosity, the pages were blank. Completely and utterly empty. She was crying for it and I figured maybe I was mistaken. So I let her have it. She's been using it as a diary I believe."
"Before you said your secret was a spell, do either of you know how to control your magic." Any creature that wasn't human was capable of emitting magic, even if it was only enough to flip a coin. Wendigos weren't the most powerful magical creature but they had enough to be dangerous. Luckily most of them are too feral and one minded to use it.
"No but I believe my husband did. I think he might've used it on me or Elizabeth but he never spoke about it much. Aside from when he made Elizabeth and I go through some weird ritual. Like I said, I never knew much about Wendigos or magic. I thought all those symbols and words he repeated were just... weird religious practices. He wanted to make sure none of us; especially her- she was such a chatty child- could reveal what we were. I didn't think he was using real magic, I thought of it more as when children cross their pinkies to make a promise. He was reading from the book at the time." She said as if she had just realized it.
'A chatty child.' He found that hard to imagine. Most of his questions were answered but something didn't sit right with him. He'd need to look at that book, a book detailing cults and rituals. That's a dangerous thing for a human to hold onto, and Elizabeth has had it since childhood.
"Why did you attempt to shift earlier?"
"Thanks to you I lost one daughter and your boys were keeping Sylvia and Sonnet away from me... I don't know myself, Asmodi. When my first husband burned he took everything from me but my physical body. My children are all I have to keep me going, the idea of losing them is bad but watching them being taken was maddening."
The silence between them stretched for a long time whilst he organized their timeline within his head. He turned to leave now that he'd gotten enough information. He was pretty sure he already knew what was happening. He needed to see that book. He looked at Monika and spoke.
"You can't kill a Wendigo, Monika."
She gaped at him. "I saw him burn, there is no way the ashes could reform." She looked petrified.
"I can't say much for you and your daughters since you're a special case but Wendigos are spirits, they can take a physical form but they aren't limited to it. Your husband burned but his spirit should be in the forest trying to tempt another unfortunate human into consuming flesh."
He could see her putting the pieces together as well. He could pinpoint the exact moment she had the same thought as he did.
"The book." She whispered.