Alpha's and Eiffel towers [On Hold]

-||19|| werewolf 101

"Does the reality of it all lay close to what we think?" I asked and he chuckled, finally loosening up a little. "Depends on what 'you all' think," he answered and seated himself on the brim of the fountain. "Well, most would assume you rip humans to shreds at a full moon," He couldn't hold back his laughter for long after I'd finished that sentence. His smile chased away the remaining fear that had manifested in me; I couldn't fear him, a revelation I didn't resent.

"We don't spend our time dissecting humans, no. The less we're distinct, the better," he answered, a certain interest dancing within his eyes. "Most would think that silver's like poison to you," were words he couldn't keep a straight face hearing. "Wolfsbane?" I added and he grinned while contracting his eyebrows. "Where are you getting this from? A fiction novel?" He asked and I smiled weakily. "No, a tv show," I mumbled and he shook his head laughing. "You humans are far behind," he said while I sat down next to him. "Yeah, no wonder. I didn't know that fiction like this was, you know, non-fiction; does bigfoot exist too then?" Rambled but getting excited over my own question. "Oh course, he's my uncle, I only see him around the holidays, though," he responded ironically while he turned himself towards me, his left leg now resting on the stone too.

"You're really not afraid of me?" He suddenly asked calmly, making me fall into silence for a few seconds before answering. "What should I be afraid of?" I asked and he broke our eye contact. "Most humans would try to fall off the face of the earth if they knew werewolves existed," he mumbled and I bit on my lip. "But I'm not afraid," including whatever you're gonna tell me about it." He faced me again and smiled. "And also not of those spikey nail-things," I tried to add and he broke into laughter once again. "Those are claws, Jane. That's not that hard of a word," he followed up and I grinned. "We decended partially from wolfkind, so we inhabited certain characteristics from them." I leaned in, my curiousity peaking:" Can you like, actually become one? Like a wolf?". "Technically, yes," he said and looked rather uncomfortable. "What do you mean 'technically,?" I asked and he threw his hand in the back of his neck.

"Wel, you can, but when you do...," he took some time to find some sensible words," your clothing would dissapear the same way if you squeeze a bag of chips agressively..., you know...," and he made some explosive hand movements. He'd clearly anticipated my reaction, because he calmly awaited for me to finish my laughter. "So your clothes just..rip?" I asked, feeling the tears welling up in my eyes just by thinking of the visual. "Yeah, but don't worry, I'm not able to do that yet," he answered and I frowned. "Isn't that something that everyone of your kind can do?" I asked and he nodded. "Yes, we all have what we call a wolf's soul. Humans have them too, of course, which also reflects in your ambitions and apperance. Werewolves have two, a human's and a wolf one. That's what allows us to shift inbetween two appereances, but most can't acces their other side from the start. It's usually something that is taught, but it's tradition that alpha's learn it themselves," he explained and let his fingers glide through his hair. "You're actually not on Paris' floorspace anymore, but La Forte territory. Just like wolves do in the wild, we live together in our own grounds. We're one of the biggest wolf packs in Europe currently, just by owning land all over the world," he said and I nodded, thinking this information was coming close to rocketsience to me. "If you want to succeed in spreading out and gaining strenght you need a leader, and that's the-," I interrupted him,"-the alpha." He nodded, but the word didn't resonade with me well. Just like he'd said it a few sentences before, it called up fragments in my mind I'd like to never meet again. "Are you okay?" He asked almost immediately and I felt his hand on my back. I tried to break out of my mind-tornado and nodded, but he didn't believe me for a second. "Jane, you're starting to hyperventilate," he said and carefully got ahold of my shoulders.

After a few seconds my breathing pattern had racked up quite an unhuman speed. I swallowed and tried to control myself again, while positioning myself a little differently. "It's nothing," I finally responded, still maintaining deep breaths in and out. He looked weakly at me, but with a small hand gesture I told him to continue. "Well, currently no one's ever been able to drive me far enough to do the shifting thing," he explained," normally I would have to take over this pack by now, but since I'm still incapable of... you know... actually being a werewolf, it's been kind of postponed." I nodded in response. "It's also extremely painful by the way, like breaking every bone in your body... all at once," I frowned and gritted my teeth. That didn't sound pleasant at all. "But don't worry," he chimed in quickly after seeing my reaction," we're actually pretty resistant to pain, most of us though. Our senses are heightened in general, like sight and hearing, which we can do better than humans." I grinned," so you're able to be as obidient as a doggy's?" He shook - head and smiled,

"don't call me that."

"What?"

"A dog,"

"Okay, puppy,"

We started to laugh again, after which a pause of silence followed. I looked around us, everything looked perfect. All the plants surrounding us were cut to a sort of symmetry, no leaf out of line; and the woods in the distance stood there clean and not in the slightest overgrown. "But what was that word then?" I asked and he moved his eyes to me again. "Which word?" He calmly asked, a rapsy tone prominent in his voice that would definetly make more than only my skin shiver. "Accouples," I repeated in my best French I could come up with. He looked at me in silence, but with a deep, motivating sigh to himself he sat up straight once again.

"Every werewolf gets assigned a significant other; a soulmate at birth. The choice isn't ours, it's by someone we refer to as the moon goddess. She's a legend amongst us, being one of the first and most powerful werewolves to ever be in existence. So somewhere on earth there's someone walking around that is meant for you. You're supposed to share your life with this person, it's the most ideal partner you could ever find. It's like a game of hide and seek, yet you only get to play it once," he said and I felt something negative brewing up inside me. All of those feelings I'd felt weren't real, it wasn't possible. Just that realisation alone made me feel awful. I didn't know what affected it so badly, but the thought of losing him seemed like one of the worst pains in the world.

"If finding your soulmate is a game," I started, hearing my own voice come out more fragile than intended," why are you spending so much time with a human while a real werewolf is waiting for you to find them?" His eyes widened a little while staring into mine," I don't have to find her," he said in a neutral tone which definetly didn't make me feel better. "How come? You're just going to leave them waiting?" I asked and felt tears burning behind my eyes. "I would never do that, Jane," he responded and placed his hands on my shoulders, but for the first time I felt bad under his touch. "Where are they then?" I asked calmly, trying to keep my emotions at bay. He just smiled: "She's right in front of me." I looked behind me, but just like before, the place was empty, making me turn back to his highly amused face. "Me?" I asked confused," but I'm not supernatural or anything."

He nodded,

"Yet you are my soulmate."