“Wait, you were human? I know you said it earlier, but I thought you meant like part human, not an actual human.” Seline smiles as her eyes sparkle.
“Hundred percent human, I was walking through my garden when a man climbed the stone fence, gave me quite the fright. He was severely injured. I couldn’t understand how he was alive. My maid helped get him inside. The guards wanted to kill him. He was naked when I found him, and he was also a savage. We had him locked in the cells after he tried to attack me when he woke up. We thought he was a madman.”
“The guards refused to feed him, saying he suffered from madness, but I couldn’t let him die from starvation. So instead I went down every day, and I would read to him. After a while, he started eating, and he healed a little more. He used to watch me through the bars when one day he spoke and said his name was Bain. After the second week, he would sit by the bars waiting for me, and eventually, I built up the courage to step into his cell. He wanted to look at the pictures of the book I was reading, which became routine. A month later, I was reading to him when I fell asleep. You could imagine my shock when I heard his bones snapping, and he turned into an 8-foot wolf standing on two legs. I thought the monster ate him,” she chuckles.
“Only when I screamed, he clamped his hand around my mouth and curled himself around me instead of attacking me. All night, I sat frozen, petrified he was going to eat me too while he purred. I was convinced I would become his next meal, but he shifted back when the night was over, and I found Bain naked and curled around me.” I sit down, fascinated with the story, yet also shocked to learn she used to be a human.
“I kept his secret, but eventually, he was caught, he was fine around me, but I made the mistake of letting him stay in my room on a full moon, a guard came to check on me because I was sick, and he killed the guard, he was possessive and felt threatened when the man touched my forehead.”
“They killed him not long after I learned I was pregnant,” she says sadly.
“My daughter was beautiful. She was placid, but when she came of age, she showed traits, but she never shifted. I was Queen, but nothing I did could prevent her death. Once they found out who her father was, they killed Koraline. She was 13, and they burned her at the stake. When I found out they caught her, I raced to get to her. I rode a horse into the city in the middle of the night and found her tied to a stake, and they were going to set it alight.” She stops like she is lost in time, remembering her heartache. I reach over and squeeze her fingers gently, and she wipes her eyes, shaking her head.
“Everyone refused to help. No one would let me explain she wasn’t a monster like the Lycans. She was good and raised right. She screamed for me when she spotted me trying to get to her. I wanted to hug her, she was my world. She was the last piece of her father and the man I loved, and she was my daughter. So I broke free, and I climbed up there with her. I tried to remove her shackles, but I couldn’t, so instead, I hugged her and held her tight.”
“I brought her into the world and I was going with her if she was leaving it,” Seline says.
“I told her of her father to comfort her, trying to distract her, and I burned with her. Then howls rang through the night. What I didn’t know was that the Lycans knew of my daughter. Koraline would sneak out constantly, which was how she was caught. She hated being kept in the castle like a prisoner. She liked to roam the forests. Even though she couldn’t shift into a wolf, she smelt like one. She was stronger than a human, and she befriended them.”
“The Lycans came tearing apart the city. They tried to save us, but I refused to let go of her. They wouldn’t let me die with my baby, but I wanted to. I was furious. They couldn’t get her shackles off, and I watched her burn. I was near death when Celeste came. Luckily, it was a full moon. She was shocked that a human woman would die for one of her beasts, and I begged her to kill me.”
“She said she saw that I was able to tame my daughter, able to tame Bain, and told me she couldn’t save my daughter because she was mostly human unless she did a spell making her have an immortal soul like her Lycans,” Seline sits down beside me.
“She said she could take me to Bain. I yelled at her, said no, and told her to kill me. I was already dying, my skin as dark as charcoal in places, and I was barely alive. She said I was the missing link she was looking for, which I didn’t understand at first. She said I was their humanity, that love changed Bain and stopped Koraline from becoming a monster,” Seline says. Then she stands up and walks over to the fountain, looking at it before looking at me.
“I was unfortunately mortal and dying. Celeste used her magic and her Goddess-given divine power. Instead of making me a Lycan, she tried something else, she moved over to where my daughter lay dying, she told me she could bring her back, but if I wanted to see her again, I could only do so in her realm and that she would make me a Goddess, but only if I fixed her Lycan’s. I, of course, agreed, not realizing what she meant. She couldn’t bring my daughter back to her human form. But I agreed, so she brought me here and gave me a piece of her soul as I did you,” Seline tells me, pointing at me.
“Only she didn’t just give me a piece, she gave me her life, and in exchange, she brought my daughter back, but she wasn’t the same, she didn’t remember me, she didn’t know who I was to her. She brought her back as the white wolf, a symbol of my love for her.”