Leaving my room I stood in the Covenant hall for a long moment, trying to decide what I was supposed to do. With everything that had gone on, everything I’d done, I had to talk to someone though I couldn’t figure out who.

  Barbie knew I was a werewolf, it could have gotten me killed, it could have gotten her killed. It was like setting a building on fire and only afterwards trying to figure out how you were going to deal with it without getting in trouble. There was no excuse for it, even if I’d fucking asked there’d be no reason The Lady would have approved it for someone I knew a week.

  I needed to talk to someone, someone who dealt with this before — though no one was that stupid — or at least someone who wouldn’t rat me out.

  The name that came to mind had almost certainly never dealt with this, but he at the very least wouldn’t tell anyone.

  Walking through the house I peaked through several rooms, not finding someone until I heard some cursing from the garage. Bracing myself for social interaction, I stepped forward and pushed through the door.

  “Hey, does anyone know-” I stopped myself, seeing the sight going on in the garage. Andrew was on his knees wearing a renfaire looking outfit, scrubbing up a large amount of blood, Tara was pulling arrows out of a mannequin with a pink streak now in her hair and blood on her medieval looking dress, and Lord stood nearby with the white sections of his hair dyed pink and a bright blue dress on him. None of them noticed me at first, and it was only once they did I asked, “do I want to know?”

  Tara and Andrew answered “no” in sync, and Lord flicked his head back as he answered, life doesn’t stop because you’re not here.

  I nodded, blinking a few times before asking, “can I talk to Lord? I need some advice.”

  “Yeah, sure, go ahead,” Andrew muttered, and Lord padded over as he led me out of the garage and back towards my room.

  I watched after the cat, and he hopped down my stairs and ran to jump on my bed as I asked, “are you okay?”

  Going to be pink for a while, but I can work with it, the cat comforted me, looking down at himself before he asked, can we make it quick though? We were going to try the photo shoot again after we got the blood handled.

  “What the fuck are you- no, nevermind, I don’t want to know,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes in annoyance, “I need to ask you for some advice, because I really fucked up and I don’t know what to do.”

  Must be really bad if you’re going to me for help, Lord agreed, nodding sagely as he looked up to me and asked, who got you pregnant? Is it the guy I smell here? Andrew? Basil? Tara perhaps? Spare no detail in-

  “I’m not pregnant,” I said, almost immediately seeing him gear up to ask something else, to which I interrupted him, “I didn't get someone pregnant either.”

  Well I know you don’t have the parts for that, I was going to ask what happened then.

  “I told a girl I was a werewolf,” I explained, seeing the cat tilt his head in confusion, “a half-one, a fucking human, I told her I was a werewolf and I didn’t have permission for it.”

  Oh yeah, that sounds bad, Lord agreed, pausing for a long time before asking, Canada or Mexico? I know you have a kid in Canada, but consider: bikini weather year round.

  “We’re not at that point yet,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes for a long moment before adding on, “and honestly I have thought about it, if we get to that point it’s this: go to LA, people will expect us to ask him probably, but I think he’d know contacts to help hide us. You and me go to another country work for some other supernatural, wait for the heat to die down.”

  We’ll discuss the flaws with that later.

  “Anyway, that point is…” I stopped, realizing I wasn’t even fucking sure what the point was. There was so much that could be said, and all I could was, “I love this girl, I know it’s stupid, but I’ve never felt this safe around someone. I told her I’m a werewolf, I offered to let her move in with me, and…fucking Hell, I don’t know what I’m doing, but it feels right.”

  Oh, girl, you fell fucking HARD, Lord announced, purring at the thought as he spun around on the bed, I’m happy for you, but holy shit you are not taking it slow at all. My advice is maybe go on a couple more dates first, but I think you’re kinda grinding on past that.

  “Yeah, I kinda realized that,” I muttered, crossing my arms in annoyance, “I’ve known this girl for a fucking week, what am I supposed to do? There’s no fucking way The Lady is going to approve of that. I’m going to be killed, she’s going to get killed, we’re-”

  Mary, hear me out, Lord interrupted, slapping at the air to gesture me closer to him. Walking over and crouching to the ground, I took a place in front of him as he declared, what if you two eloped? The Lady can’t say no to you telling a wife can she?

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  I stared him down for a long time with what I assumed communicated blanket disappointment, and he stared back proud of his idea. When I realized he wasn’t catching onto my lack of faith in his plan, I asked, “has Sigyn been reading you her romance novels? Because you can’t just act like a pervert about this if you want to help.”

  First of all, I prefer the term himedanshi. Second of all, Tara’s been listening to those audiobooks of hers. The girl LOVES pirates and knights, don’t know why she gives her niece shit about the werewolf and vampire books, the cat complained, slowly rolling onto his back as he let out an annoyed sigh, the girls kinda just exist to get kidnapped and fall in love…the guys are kinda hot, I get it, I just want more character. I’m-

  “Lacking any plans that didn’t come to you from an erotica?” I interrupted, seeing the cat try to be offended at that, “I mean it, you really don’t have any ideas not involving erotica?”

  He hesitated for a long time, and then finally started, okay so don’t throw me out of your room just yet, but you and The Lady have a kismesis thing going on as mother called it. what if you slept with her and-

  I was in the process of throwing him out of my room when Sigyn came marching down the hall. Her clothes had not been changed in almost a week now, her hair disheveled, her general air increasingly distressed, and smelling of it, she gripped my shirt and dragged me down the stairs into my room. The wolf growled, and Lord warned me, not dealing with it as he ran off until I was pushed against a stone wall.

  The half-ones face hovered inches from mine, and tears in her eyes she asked, “you went on a fucking date?!”

  “I also lost a fucking eye, if you didn’t notice,” I growled, resisting the urge to switch the positions and bite her fucking throat.

  “I lost a fucking girlfriend!” she snapped, trying to shove me back farther against the wall and only stumbling back a few feet. Shaking her head, the tears began pouring down her face as she asked me, “what the fuck is wrong with you? My girlfriends fucking missing, and you’re going out with Barbie and fighting family?”

  “Look it doesn’t matter anyway, I got taken off the fucking job for a couple weeks,” I muttered, frowning as I hesitantly walked over to her. I raised a hand, ready to try and comfort her before I thought better of it. She’d hate me, she’d have good reason to, and with a shake of my head I told her, “look, I wish I could help you, but Samuel’s on the job now. Maybe he can help you find…”

  I trailed off, trying to come up with a name, a face, anything, and all I could bring up was a few scattered thoughts. Sigyn’s girlfriend, a Garfield costume, something to do with…the library? What the fuck had happened at the library? She’d died, or gone missing wasn’t it, had she done so at the library?

  Sigyn’s face turned angry a moment, and then horrified as she slowly looked up and said, “I can’t remember her name. Mary, I can’t remember her name, what was her name? What was her fucking name Mary, I can’t remember!”

  I hugged her, not thinking as I did so, pulling her close to me as the woman sobbed and clung weakly to me. My hand patting her back in an awkward gesture, I tried to think of what to do even as she quietly cried into my frame. Trying to not think too hard about it, wondering how I’d do a fucking investigation I didn’t remember, I kept holding onto her.

  She was going to forget, and even if I stopped this thing now what the fuck would that do? Would it bring back her memories? Make her continue forgetting? Leave her in this fucked up state somewhere in the middle, unsure of what was going on? Fuck, would it have even still been a good thing for me to leave her like this instead of just letting her forget?

  What the fuck would I do if this thing got Barbie, Percy, my dad, anyone I fucking cared about? Would I end up like Sigyn was now, desperate to remember people I fucking cared about and just drive myself insane until everything fell apart?

  No one fucking deserved that, and with a shake of my head I told her, “I’ll go talk to Samuel for you in a minute.”

  “You said you fucking couldn’t,” she sobbed, shaking her head as she weakly pushed at me.

  “The Lady told me not to work, but maybe he could do with someone that has my abilities,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead in deep thought. Not sure what else to do, I told her, “let’s just….take a deep breath, it’s going to be okay, Sigyn.”

  “I want to die.”

  “I know,” I muttered, helping her to her feet and leading her to my bed where I laid her down. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I rested a hand on her shoulder and said, “I’m going to do everything I can to get your girlfriend back.”

  “And what if she’s dead.”

  “I’ll kill whatever did this,” I answered, seeing the woman flinch at my response, “it won’t hurt anything else, Sigyn, I promise.”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  She was right, I couldn’t fucking promise anything, but all the same I told her, “I do.”

  This thing had killed hundreds, more than I could have ever fucking dreamt of doing in the Purists. It was worse than me, I didn’t care what its reason was, it needed to be stopped then and there. For all I knew it was going to get me killed, everyone was going to wonder whose stuff was in the basement, and a part of me…a part of me couldn’t care.

  I’d killed plenty of innocents, I’d caused so much fucking suffering in my life, maybe this was my chance to balance the scales a bit. The Wolf Gods told werewolves to protect their flock, maybe this was my way to help.

  Maybe.

  I went to rise to my feet, a couple steps from the bed when Sigyn lunged out and gripped my hand in a vice grip. The wolf was ready to growl, and I looked down at her in pity as she looked up and asked, “did Samuel… was he telling the truth?”

  “About the Purists?” I asked, remembering his conversation earlier.

  “About them, about your dad shooting your eye out, all of it,” she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief, “I…how could they fucking do that to someone?”

  Shaking my head I was ready to not answer her, before deciding it might have helped at least a little. She deserved to know some truth, and with a sigh I admitted, “The Purists are a cult, they treat it like a cult. No one wants to eat human flesh, no one wants to make mortals live in terror, no one wants to do half of what we did, not unless they got a lot wrong with them already.” probably did have a lot wrong with me, but that was besides the point, “We…the Purists made it seem like it made so much more sense, and by the time they’re done you think it has to be right. You’re starved two weeks, memorize everything you’re told and given little bits of water as your reward. When you’re done they give you a nice steak, the best you’ve ever tasted after all that, and only tell you what they made it out of after. By the time that’s done…you almost want it all to make sense.”

  Sigyn nodded, remaining silent a long time before asking, “and your dad?”

  “Childhood best friend shot my eye out, my dad only gave it his best shot.”

  Silence, oppressive twisted silence, and Sigyn released my head as she begged me, “please save her,” and curled up on the bed.