The wolf and the red moon

Prologue

The moon

Me and my mysteries, how many poets have ventured to unravel them? Humans know me by many names, Ayla, Jaci, Jericho, Luna, Artemis, Selene or Moon, I have many faces, many faces, today I will show you the face of Selene, in ancient Greek I am the personification of the moon. Daughter of the Titan Hyperion and the Titanide Thea, and sister of Helios, personification of the sun, and of Aeos, personification of the dawn.

I am the goddess of impossible loves, of lovers, of everything that is forbidden, hidden, or of doubtful origin.

Because I lived a love that still makes me bleed, but like all good Greek tragedies it didn't have a happy ending.

But I am not here to talk about myself.

I will tell the story of a curse that began when the world was not yet a world, and from it was born a love that not even the barrier of time and space could contain.

What I am going to tell you, dear reader, will not be another love story of lovers who took advantage of my light for furtive encounters, but of a people who live on this earth since the time when gods and men shared the same plane. The Lycanthropes better known as shifter wolves or werewolves. The beasts originated because of a king so tyrannical and so cruel that not even a wolf would be able to be so savage.

King Lycaon, the first king of Arcadia, was a monster who brought death and destruction wherever he went with his army. He took pleasure in causing pain and suffering, women were raped, their children torn from their arms and impaled on stakes to show respect. The savage acts of the king gave him a progeny of more than 50 children, who seemed to inherit the father's talent for sadism.

talent for sadism.

The people cried out to the gods for clemency, Zeus then went to investigate such an act, and dressed up as a beggar. The god then met Callisto, the king's youngest daughter, and fell in love with her. Upon discovering that his daughter was carrying a child of Zeus, the king went to the height of his arrogance and committed the great sin of trying to punish a god and serve him human flesh on a silver platter. The god then turned Lycaon and all his descendants into wild wolves.

Callisto and his son were spared the curse of Zeus. But not from the curse of Hera, Zeus' wife who turned her into a bear as soon as her son was born.

Zeus, sorry for being the cause of Callisto's cruel fate, granted her a wish. She then asked for clemency from her father and brothers, the God then turned them into half man and half wolf. On the condition that they never kill an innocent.

Lycaon and her descendants settled in the high landscapes of Thessaly in Greece, a place of difficult access, giant mountains, their cliffs with trees on the slopes, the ideal place to keep their secrets, they lived from the forest, they learned to love nature and everything that lived around it. Always well away from ordinary people.

Houses were built, families were formed before, many children of Lycaon were unmarried and so inbred marriages were made, with time it was seen that boys were born in greater numbers.

Wolves were not immortal but lived longer than humans, the lycanthrope community proliferated, and some young men ventured out into the world, arriving in places never before imagined.

Thessaly bordered several other villages but access was extremely difficult, the place took shape and hierarchy, the main and pureblood family adopted the name Lycan. The biggest concern of the elders was the simple fact that for more than 10 years no children had been born in the village, the scarcity of women was a problem that should be solved as soon as possible.

As discreet as the villagers were, one could not simply go to other villages and get a bride.

It had to be someone who accepted the condition and kept the secret. During the blood moon they would run around in the middle of the forest, giving vent to their bestial creatures as they mated and ate deer meat and howled at the moon.

The rumors that two and a half meter tall wolves that stood on two legs lived in the forest were horrifying, often bringing chaos, if there is one thing that drives human beings to commit madness it is fear. The fear of being torn in half, or having their loved ones devoured.

The villages of humans formed a council and invited the lycan village to try to solve the issue of the giant wolves, Theo Lycan the alpha of the pack as a Council member, used human fear to solve their problem, he implied that perhaps the goddess Selene needed to be aggravated why not offer 3 virgins a year one on each blood moon, in sacrifice to the moon to calm the beasts.

Théo Lycan sighed in relief, he would marry his 3 sons first then the rest of the single men in his pack

And so it was done.

Every blood moon, a virgin was offered to the mythical creature being left on the highest part of the mountain.

Hades the eldest son of Theo Lycan, the next alpha of the Pack was born on a full moon night, the universe was in celebration of his day, he was presented to me as usual and I took him as my godson, giving him my blessing.

He became the great alpha and warrior of the pack, the fastest, the strongest and the most envied.

His best friend, Helio, followed him everywhere; they were raised by the same wet nurse. They both used to go out hunting while the others slept.

When he saw the first rays of the crescent moon, he ran like never before. When he reached a clearing, he glimpsed the image of a beautiful woman with voluminous hair and a large body, dancing to the moon.

Her movements were sweet and smooth, her hips drawing the infinity symbol in the air. The alpha was mesmerized by her movements.

Hades didn't know what magic the young woman was using, but he felt bewitched. It seemed as if millions of fire ants were walking through his body, he felt the heat of the flames of hell itself, this woman was his companion.

Persephone's eyes were closed, but the presence of Hades was announced under her skin.

When Persephone opens her eyes, she sees a majestic black wolf sitting there watching her, the most beautiful wolf she has ever seen.

I danced for the Goddess Selene. - Persephone spoke as she dressed to Hades' dismay - She is the goddess of lovers, witches and madmen - The woman gave a big smile - Goddess of wolves by the looks of it

The wolf looked at her intently as if the woman were the supernatural, not him.

You are the most beautiful wolf I have ever seen, you don't seem from this world, you seem to have been sent by the gods.

She approaches and tries to touch the wolf, which recoils and leaves.

Persephone, daughter of the moon and stars, guardian of my secrets, molded in magic and the occult arts, from a long line of what you call today sorceresses.

Her mother died in childbirth, leaving an extremely passionate father with the memory of his mother, and she was raised by her grandmother, an old mourner who lived in a small house so simple and so far from the village that many considered a danger to their safety. Since she was 15 Persephone went out on the first night of every moon to gather herbs, the blood moon happened three times a year and that was when the herbs gained the most strength, that was when the moon was the most beautiful, the largest and the most fascinating, it seemed as if it was so close as to be touched with the tips of her fingers, Persephone climbed higher and higher up the mountain, When she reached a clearing where she had a complete view of the blood moon, she sat down on the low grass to admire it, then she heard a noise among the bushes and hid behind a tree, that's when she saw him, the man had the physique of Adonijah himself, brown hair and eyes as blue as the sea.

He admired the moon as intensely as she did, the moonlight reflected off his body showing every fuzz that the sunlight hid.

The beautiful man, like a good dream, turned into a black wolf

.

Even knowing the legends, Persephone couldn't believe her eyes.

So she ran, she ran like never before, and when she got home, overwhelmed by the running, she told her grandmother everything she had seen.

The old lady who had taught her the arts of herbs and the hidden side of the moon. She told of Zeus' curse on King Lycaon, and how his descendants paid for their mistakes.

The sight of the man did not leave his mind, nor the loss of his grandmother days later.

Her had traveled the world to try to cure her loneliness, for the first time in her life she found herself alone fulfilling everything her grandmother had taught her, Persephone cured old people and children with her herbs, but women in the village secretly called her a witch.

Out of loneliness, curiosity or a crush, the desire to see her wolf again grew stronger and stronger. On the first night of the crescent moon, Persephone went to the same place she had seen him.

She danced for me, yes, for the goddess Selene, and desperately asked me to see him again.

I have a soft heart, besides loving a couple falling in love.