赤裸裸的滑稽故事

“Human?” Axel repeated, sure he must have heard her wrong.

How could she have possibly been born human?

“Yes,” Alice replied.

“That's not possible,” Axel said. “I mean, I know it is possible, but no… every human that has been turned has either been driven mad or died in the process of their first shift.”

“That's true,” she said. “But, there are exceptions, it seems. From what I understand, two particular factors make me different from the other humans that have had the wolf introduced. The first is that I was a child at the time of my first shift, and my body was more able to adapt to the change.”

Axel's eyes widened, and he stood. He clenched his jaw angrily and paced alongside the bed.

She was only eight years old when they met at the Blood Moon.

He took a deep breath, pushing it out as he looked at her with pain and anger.

Axel struggled to say the words. Finally, he licked his lips and closed his eyes.

“Goddess… Alice… you were a child….”

Alice nodded.

“It was about a year before I met you.”

“Goddess…” Axel sighed.

He didn't understand. He couldn't understand. The process of introducing a wolf to a human was violent and deadly. There was a reason that all of the packs had agreed that it was a barbaric and horrifying practice. Every single pack, great and lesser, treated the act as a crime.

Axel looked at Alice. She still sat with her knees to her chest, resting her chin atop them. She was looking at the floor. He remembered her as the small girl who smiled for him and smelled velvety and sweet.

He walked toward her, getting down on his knees before her. Alice raised her eyes to him. Axel reached out his hands to her ankles. He gently pulled, and she moved her legs down from the chair to the floor.

Axel moved between her legs and laid his head on her lap, wrapping his arms loosely at her waist.

“I'm listening,” he whispered. “Tell me anything you want to tell me.”

Alice closed her eyes and leaned forward, resting her head on his while gently running her fingers through his long hair.

“Do you remember when I told you how I kept hold of my core personality while Holden controlled me?”

Axel thought back to their days in the ruins of Eclipsed. She told him that he was a life preserver for her and kept her going forward. But there was also something else, a story, a dark story that just hearing a few words of it had filled him with dread.

He swallowed and chewed his lip.

“A story,” he whispered.

Alice nodded against him.

“An origin story.”

Axel closed his eyes and held her tighter as she spoke.

“There once was a little girl. She came home from school to find that she was alone. So she cried out for her mother. But the little girl never saw her mother again, only the dress she wore, wet with the same red liquid that covered their kitchen floor.

“The man was there too. He took the little girl away from the kitchen and even further away. To a place she had never seen before, a place where people wore costumes all the time. Where the voice, face, and words they used were always hiding the monster that lived inside of them.”

Alice paused. She nuzzled into his hair, taking in his scent. The story was old, and she knew it well. But it still hurt.

“The little girl was scared, but the man told her she needed to be strong and brave. So, he taught her to be brave, to be strong. He taught her how to hide from the monsters by living in their shadows, listening to their secrets, finding the things that hurt them, and then using them as weapons to kill the monsters.

“She learned many things. She told him all the things she had learned. And then she forgot them. And the man told the girl she needed to be a monster.”

A tear fell from her eye.

“That was when she died. The little human girl, dead and gone, in her place a shiny and new monster following the orders of her master.”

Alice saw the flashes of the kitchen floor, the dark crimson liquid. The dress her mother had worn that day had been long, a bright blue with sunflower pattern. But the torn pieces of the fabric scattered across the tan-colored linoleum flooring were saturated in that deep red color.

“That man…” Axel said, trying to keep his voice even. “That was Holden?”

Alice nodded.

“How could he?” Axel growled. “How could he steal an innocent child!”

Axel squeezed her tighter. Alice kissed his hair and shushed him gently.

“I told you there were two factors that made it possible for me to become a werewolf,” Alice whispered. “The first was my age.”

Axel furrowed his brows.

“The second,” she said, “was my genetics.”

Axel pulled away from her slowly, forcing Alice to sit up and look at him. He kept his hands on her waist, unwilling to give up their physical connection.

“What do you mean?” Axel asked.

“My mother was human,” she said. “My father… is Holden.”

Axel stared at her in disbelief. Then, finally, he let out a gentle scoff.

“I guess that makes some sense… in a twisted way.”

Alice laughed.

“Is it funny?” he asked.

Alice smiled.

“As long as it makes you smile,” Axel replied, reaching up and cupping her cheek. She leaned into his hand.

After a moment, her smile fell, and her eyes lowered away from him.

“What's wrong?” Axel asked.

“Winter prefers to have a hereditary line of succession,” Alice said.

He narrowed his eyes, trying to see where she was going with this, and then it struck him.

“It is a preference, not a requirement. And even if it were–”

“I cannot be your Luna,” Alice stated.

Axel growled.

“You know it's true,” Alice said, looking into his eyes.

“You ARE my Luna,” he growled.

“Axel, the Goddess will not bless me as Luna. I won't ever be able to be the Luna of Winter. And if we had children… my blood would weaken them.”

“Stop!” Axel growled.

Alice sighed.

“You know I'm right,” she whispered.

“Stop trying to leave me!” Axel shouted.