The light burned my eyes as they opened, but I could see Aster lounging in an oversized chair in front of me. Her lips were moving, and her knee bounced as she focused on something out of view from my position on the couch.

  “Not yet. I still have to work some things out before I do.”

  Aster’s words pierced my ears, cutting deeper into my pounding skull. I shut my eyes and winced.

  “It’s probably for the best not to. She can be… conniving."

  That voice.

  His voice.

  That man… I shot up straight.

  “Savi! Thank the moon you’re back—" Aster was reaching for me as I stared at him.

  The man in the wheelchair.

  His legs.

  His hairy legs filled my vision, and I panicked again.

  “What is he? What are those? Aster!” I pointed at them, demanding answers as I pushed further into the sofa.

  "Savi, calm down, please, and I will explain everything," the man said to me.

  Lawrence.

  Lawrence was his name.

  But this was no man; not with these weird things in front of me. Everything rushed into my brain at once, and it pounded louder.

  Aster's face slid into view, pulling my gaze from his legs. I blinked and searched her for answers. The softness in them comforted me. "Please listen," she said, taking my hands. Then, she sat beside me, holding my chin to keep my eyes on her.

  “We will explain it all for you, but you must promise you will remain calm. You passed out… from the shock of seeing his true form a while ago, and I don't want to repeat that again. So please, listen. Okay?” Aster let go of my face, and I couldn't help but turn my eyes to Lawrence.

  I only managed a slight nod. After swallowing hard and blinking, I turned to her and sighed. "Explain." I wanted to hear them out before deciding.

  “Okay. I told you there were things that were about to change your world. Well, he is one of those. In our world, more than magic exists. More than Lawrence.” She squeezed my hand gently as she paused, studying my face before continuing. “Savi, Lawrence is a werewolf.”

  "I’m sorry? He’s a what?” The words didn’t quite register; my brain refused to make sense of them. It was right in front of me but could not bring myself to understand her. I stared at her, blinking uncontrollably, as I waited for the information to process.

  “A werewolf, little one. Lycanthropy. Derived from the Greek words lukos and anthropos; wolf and man.” Lawrence raised his pipe to his lips and took another draw, not making eye contact with me. He exhaled the white wisps of smoke as he continued on, this time shifting his eyes to mine. “The ability to shift from man to wolf. Werewolf.”

  His casualness took me aback.

  'How could he nonchalantly explain something so unreal?'

  “Of course he’s a werewolf. Why wouldn’t he be a werewolf?” I glared at Aster, throwing my hands in the air in disbelief. “That makes total sense. Now you’re going to tell me that vampires, dragons, and unicorns are real.”

  “Don’t be silly, girl; dragons haven’t been seen in centuries. That is to say, if they were ever seen to begin with; there’s conflicting information on that—and unicorns only live in Europe," Lawrence scoffed.

  I glared at him. "Europe, of course! And vampires too. Why not? You didn't rule them out, so they must be real. Can't have werewolves without vampires. This has been fun, but I need to go back to reality now. Thank you." I stood up to leave, but before I could, Lawrence’s voice boomed through the study.

  “Sit down, Savi!”

  I immediately sat down; the power in his voice halted all of me—my body, my thoughts—everything.

  “Good. Now if you’ve had enough of your sarcasm, then let us get back to business, shall we?”

  Aster cleared her throat. “Everything is very real. Lawrence is a werewolf and yes, vampires are real. You'll be meeting one soon enough if you so choose but they are real whether you choose to believe or not. There is much to our world for you to discover. It’s why I brought you here tonight.” She relaxed at my newfound timidness, the threat of me leaving or attacking no longer lingering between us.

  “But if he’s a werewolf, then why is it only his—"

  “Bottom half?” Lawrence interrupted. "Yes, why indeed? You see I became injured by the very threat you will now face. It’s precisely why I urged Aster to explain things and scolded her for having you enter this world without knowing the danger beforehand."

  Aster shot him a look I couldn’t quite place, and he halted his words. “What he’s trying to say is that being what we are comes with a certain risk, and I need to explain that risk to you now.” I watched as her face dropped all its peace and turned sorrowful.

  She wrung her hands together a few times before continuing. “A group of individuals, a powerful group, hunt people like us. People like Lawrence and the others.” A long, loose sigh escaped her. “They call themselves The Templar and it's a silent war that has been waged behind the curtain for centuries.”

  “I’ve heard of them, like in the movie Cooper was watching a few weeks ago. What was it? Something about a declaration," I cut in.

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  “Forget what you’ve seen in movies, Savi. Forget everything you’ve seen about all of this.” She gestured towards Lawrence’s legs. “There are similarities, yes, but holding too tightly to what you think you might know could get you hurt or worse. So please, let me teach you, and I'll guide you through it.”

  I shook my head as I realized she was serious. This was as serious as he had tried to explain earlier. The danger was real, and now I faced it, so I waited in silence to hear more.

  Aster understood my silent nod and continued. “The Templar are set on destroying all things magical; witches, werewolves, vampires, everything. It doesn’t matter to them. They believe it is their religious duty to eradicate the world of anything that wasn’t created by their God, and they live solely for that purpose. They're dangerous, which is why our coven’s number one rule is to not practice openly. Your magic must stay hidden from outsiders at all times.”

  I nodded my compliance, but it left me with so many questions. I knew there would be more I would learn over time, but for now, I'd focus on what was in front of me or go completely insane. There was a werewolf right in front of me.

  “So why, how did this happen to you? Was it the Templar?” I glanced at his legs and braced for his response. I still couldn’t completely wrap my head around this, but at least the pounding headache had eased a bit.

  “The Templar? Yes. I was the alpha of my pack and we were on a hunt for a rogue wolf who had broken our traditions and left. Little did we know that Templar had been hunting him as well. They caught wind of a possible werewolf sighting and had been following him for several weeks. We finally caught up with him one night at a cabin deep in the woods five days north of here, way out of our known area.”

  Lawrence wheeled himself over to the bar, his empty glass in tow. “We didn’t know anything about the town or about the pack that might lay claim to it, so we had to be cautious. It was during one of the wettest weeks, and all scents of anything fresh had washed away, so we were essentially blind.”

  He opened up a bottle from a high shelf and refilled his drink. "Well, we found our guy in the cabin and tensions were high, voices rose so we didn’t notice them coming. They'd surrounded the cabin and ambushed us all inside. Most of us were lucky enough to shift fast enough to outrun them but some weren’t.” He took a long sip before turning back towards us. Plopping the empty glass on the bar, he rolled to his side table.

  “You weren’t one of the lucky ones?” I asked, not knowing exactly how to word my question. It was the best I could string together to form the words. I couldn’t imagine what they went through.

  "No, unfortunately, I was one of the lucky ones, just not the luckiest. As pack master, I wanted to make sure everyone got out, so I was the last to shift. I had been running on my own in the woods following some of the others' tracks. Mid-shift, some of their bullets found me, but I kept going. That’s what saved my life but ultimately what led to this here chair.” He slapped the wheel of his chair and then used it to adjust himself in the seat.

  “When I finally made it well away and had found a secure place to hide out with a few of the others, I tried to shift back. The bullets moved through the shift and one pierced my spinal cord. It halted the change so I couldn’t finish. I spent weeks, through the full moon, without being able to change back to one or the other.”

  Lawrence looked toward Aster. “That’s when this one’s grandmother came up and did all she could to help. She stopped the spread of the infection that had taken over and healed me up the best she could. I will forever be grateful for her healing powers as well as her herbs, and I owe her my life. I wouldn’t be what you see here today if it hadn’t been for her.”

  She glanced at his legs and smiled as he continued. “So yes, I am forever stuck this way because of their hatred and self-righteous delusions. We lost almost half the pack, and without me as their leader, it dissolved. After the attack, nobody wanted to step up and take over since there was no real way to challenge the position. So now I am one of the last remaining wolves in this area. Which is why knowing of the Templar is so important. They have ways to hunt we don’t fully understand yet. It’s vital you stay alert and don’t draw any attention to yourself. Understood?”

  My heart hurt. It ached for this man I barely knew and all the loved ones of his pack that he had lost. I saw now why he was so adamant about me knowing who the Templar were and what kind of threat they posed. I fought back the growing lump in my throat. “Yes. I understand. I’m so sorry for everything you had to go through. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like.”

  “It’s been years, and trust me, I’m in a much better place now than I was at the beginning. We built this place out afterwards to not only keep the Templar well and clear but to also keep my rage well within. It’s been a long road, but what was done was done.” He stared off into the floor, seemingly lost in thought.

  “I appreciate you sharing it with me. Now it all makes sense. I’ll be extra cautious. I promise.”

  He peered at me and smiled, the softness returning to his eyes. “Thank you. That’s all I ask.”

  Aster had been sitting next to me this whole time, completely still. I glanced at her and saw a trail of tears that had recently fallen. Lawrence must have noticed them the same time I did.

  “Oh Aster, it’s nothing to worry about now. I didn’t mean to upset you; I just wanted Savi to be aware of what was out there. The danger. I wasn’t meaning to yell at you.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that. I never knew the full story even myself. I knew she had come and healed you, but I wasn’t aware of everything. I was little when it happened, and I remember she had been gone for weeks. But I was never told about the rest of your pack. I'm so sorry.”

  “Lessons were learned. Now you know it's not about my anger at you; it’s my anger at them and my dedication to keeping you all safe. I mean it when I say you and any of your friends are truly welcome here anytime you need it. Understood?”

  She nodded to him as she wiped her face clear. “Understood. Thank you. I'll explain everything else to Savi and make sure she’s prepared. I promise.”

  A silence fell over the room as they both stared at each other, a knowing look on both of their faces. Something said but unsaid exchanged between them that I couldn’t understand. I couldn’t even try to understand, not with everything racing through my mind now. I had so many more questions for Aster and Lawrence that I wanted to ask. So many that it brought back the thumping headache that had almost gone. After a few more silent moments, Aster patted me on the knee and then stood.

  "Well, we'd better get this one back before she starts asking more questions about unicorns.”

  Lawrence cleared his throat and smiled, letting a chuckle escape. "Yeah, that’s probably for the best. We wouldn’t want her to find out more about ghosts and ghouls either.” He shot me a sly wink.

  Aster laughed at that and walked toward the entrance to the room, pulling me behind by the wrist. "Oh, Lawrence, you bad dog.”

  I eyed them both as I didn’t know what to make of the game they were both clearly playing. He wheeled behind us. “Woof.”

  That was all he needed to say to send both of them laughing in unison as we made our way down the hall to the foyer. Aster grabbed for the open door handle but stopped shy. She turned back to Lawrence, leaned down, and hugged him. He squeezed her shoulder with his chin and his eyes met mine. “You have a wonderful teacher here and I have no doubt you’ll figure out whatever those little problems you’re facing are. No doubt.”

  "Goodnight. Remember, tell me when you run out of these supplies, and I’ll get some more over right away, okay?"

  “I will, and bring this one back with you. She’s absolutely delightful.”

  His eyes flared on the last word, and I couldn’t help but feel like there was more being said underneath. I smiled back at him. “I would love to come back again. Thank you for having me and helping me understand.”

  He gave me a slight nod and a big smile as we headed out the door to Aster’s car. The crisp night air bit at my lungs as I took a deep breath in. I peeked over the hood of Aster’s car as I opened my door and found her smiling at me. “What?”

  She giggled and opened her own door. “Nothing. I warned you he was unique and you didn’t want to listen, did you? Next time, listen.”

  I scoffed at her as we began our descent down the long driveway, back to reality. A reality now that felt more real than it had ever been before.