Peering into Patric’s eyes through the dimly lit room, Yasmine knew he would never lie to her. She could trust whatever he said. He was a fiend. A monster. A killer. But she also knew now that he was not going to harm her in any way.

  “Are you in love with me?” she asked him.

  “I do love you,” he admitted.

  “So, this is some kind of reincarnation thing? We were lovers in another life, and you’ve been trying to find me?” she asked.

  He laughed, “You have a very romantic outlook my dear. But I’m afraid our bond isn’t as complicated as all that.”

  Suddenly she knew. He had laughed again. The familiar cadence of that laugh and the flicker in his eyes as she stared into them. Now she recognized him. How could she have missed it before? He even looked the same, only older. Yet inside that man’s face dwelled the boy she once knew. The realization shocked her. How had she never seen it before?

  “Your name is not Patric,” she smiled, lifting her soft hand to his cheek. “You made that name up. You’re my Ollie.”

  Patric grabbed her in his arms and held her tight against his powerful, inhuman chest. “Yes, my dearest Yasmina. It is me. It’s Oliver. Oliver Sinclair. Oh, my baby sister, how I’ve missed you.”

  Yasmine began to cry. She could not comprehend what was happening. It was too much. Too surreal. How could this be? The killer her family had been searching for, the man who had sat across from her at the dinner table that night at Blanchard House. The man who had attacked the house with his wolves, set to destroy everyone she loved. He was her brother.

  “No,” she said, pushing away from his embrace. “You can’t be Ollie! Ollie died. He died with our parents in that crash.”

  “No, Yasmina,” he replied. “I did not die with our parents that night. It may be difficult for you to wrap your head around, but your brother is alive. He is powerful, and he is standing in front of you now.”

  It was too much to process. How could it be? This monstrous nomad was her brother? Her long dead brother Oliver. Her sweet, loving big brother. How could he now be this thing she’d seen attack her family? She looked into his eyes again, studied the features of his face. He looked the way Ollie might look all these years later, but she could not be sure. She had only been six years old when the crash came that killed her parents and brother.

  It all came flooding back to her—memories from a lifetime ago. She had been at home with the neighbor—Mrs. Jenkins, kind Mrs. Jenkins. Mrs. Jenkins had fed Yasmine hotdogs for dinner. Her parents were driving back from the summer camp where Ollie had been the last two weeks. She remembered how excited she was because she had not seen her brother in all that time, and they were all driving to Alabama the next day to meet her grandfather’s new wife. She hadn’t seen her grandfather in over a year.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Yasmine remembered how she must have sat in Mrs. Jenkins’ window for hours waiting for her parents to pull up with Ollie. But they never came to get her. She’d stayed the night with Mrs. Jenkins, both of them very confused as to why her parents never showed up. The next day her grandfather appeared at Mrs. Jenkins’ door. Yasmine had not understood. Grandfather sat her down in Mrs. Jenkins’ living room and told her how her parents and her brother had been in an accident. While driving home from camp Yasmine’s father swerved to miss a dog on the road, and lost control of the car. Her family was sent tumbling over a hill, plummeting into the Ohio River. They had all been drowned. Her mother, her father…

  “They never found you,” she remembered. “Everyone figured your body was swept out the back window. They didn’t find you.”

  “Because I didn’t die,” Patric replied. “I didn’t even hit the water. I was thrown on the hill.”

  “But—” Yasmine stuttered, wiping tears from her face. “You can’t be him?”

  “I am, Yasmina. And I have finally come to find you.”

  “But—”

  “I’ve had a lot to overcome,” he continued. “It took me some time to be ready. Time to learn to control the beast within me, so that I wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “How?” she asked. “How did this happen? How did you become this thing?”

  Patric began to pace the floor as he recounted the night to fill in the gaps which made no sense to Yasmine. “It wasn’t a dog. The animal our father swerved to miss was a man--a wolf. I know the witnesses said it was a dog, but it wasn’t.” Patric grew silent, reflective, lost in his thoughts momentarily. “His name was Teague. He was a good man. He had been fleeing from a kill. Oh, how killing tortured him. Every kill was like a private hell for him.” Patric walked to one of the loft windows and looked out into the night.

  “He did this to you?” Yasmine asked softly.

  “The wolf saved me. He dragged me by his teeth to safety. He was quick and clever and acted fast. Teague lived in the mountains of West Virginia. He nursed me and cared for me. He had every intention of returning me to whatever family I had left. You see, he felt very guilty for my orphanhood. But something happened he had not counted on. He had to wait for the next month’s moon to know for sure. When he had been dragging me to safety, his teeth punctured my flesh. I inherited his curse. From that moment on he knew I could go nowhere. I remained with him in the mountains.”

  “He raised you?”

  “He was my father in every way. He taught me the ways of the beast. I was weak at first. Only the moon could transform me. But every kill made me stronger. Hungrier. More powerful. And I tried to forget you.”

  “But you didn’t?”

  “No, I couldn’t. I eventually left Teague two years ago to find you. I only knew our grandfather’s name. I didn’t know the ways of this world. The Internet. How to drive a car. I had to learn much before I could find you. Grandfather was dead by then and his wife did not carry his name. It took time. But I’ve found you at last my sister. And to find you among witches! You already knew things that exist in the world others never dream about. When I discovered you had been raised by witches, I knew you would be able to accept me. You’d join me.”

  “Join you?” Yasmine repeated.

  He pulled her back into his arms. “You and I will go far away from here. I will turn you, teach you. I will teach you all the things Teague taught me. You will grow powerful in time. You will become the wolf the way I have. It isn’t killing, Yasmina. It’s nature. It’s survival. It’s instinct. In time you will grow to understand. You must come with me now, and we will start over the way it always should have been for us…together.”