• 1 The Last Act of a Father’s Love
    (Hades; age, born around the fall of the Greek Empire but considers himself a Rowman , in other words, old for a Werewolf and is close to dying of old age)

    I watch her play in the meadow next to Acheron river, that I watched play in as a child, for the first time in years. My little girl, Maria, is now 13, and starting to blossom into a fine woman, at last in my eyes. My little Maria has as wild a spirit as her mother, doesn’t like people telling her she can’t do something because she is a lady, and has the ability to see future of fashion, and see women being able to she wear pants and dresses that only go to the knees and weird hair styles in which the hair is cut uneven, or as she calls it ‘laired’.

    I had a special dress made just for her for whenever she comes to the meadow, that only goes a little past her knees. But when we walk through London together she has to wear the kind of close that our Queen Victoria would approve of, and she hates it.

    She also now has a job selling flowers at a flower shop in London.

    But the reason I brought her to meadow today is so I could answer any question she wished to ask me today, for my time on this Earth is coming to an end, and I will soon be face to face with God himself in his heavenly glory.

    “Maria, why don’t you come over here and sit and talk to me aweil,” I called out to her.

    “Coming Papa!” I love how she still calls me Papa. She ran over to me and sat in the wild flowers next to me. “What is it you want to talk about Papa?”

    I could not tell her I was dying, it would break her heart, so I told her, “Today you get to ask me anything you want and I’ll answer truthfully.”

    I saw her eye gleam when I said this. “Really Papa?! I know exactly what I want to ask!”

    “And what would you like to ask?”

    “What do you think is the greatest gift God has ever given you?” There was excitement in her voice, and joy in her eyes, I could tell that she has wanted to ask me this of a long time.

    I did even have think of the answer it was so simple,”Your mother, you and your brother are the greatest gifts that God has ever given me, Maria.”

    “Henry is one, even though he was adopted!” she kidded.

    “Of course, even if you were adopted you would still be one of the best things that God has ever given me so, try be nice your older brother, Maria.”

    “Do I have to? It is jolly fun to pick on him about his little crush on Lacy.” She smiled that brilliant smile she had inherited from her mother.

    I couldn’t help but laugh. Henry has had a crush on Lacy for a long time now, and lately Maria has been trying to get him to ask her out, and hope they Mate, because it is the female who chooses who she will be with, and once she has chosen she will not change her mind, and the Mating ritual is always sealed though intercourse, then marriage.

    “Hope he gets Mated with her too, my Sweet Little Cub.”

    “I’m not a cub anymore Papa!” She was not happy that I called her a cub.

    “Maria, no matter how old you get you will always be my Sweet Little Cub, the same goes for Henry, he will always be my Lost and Found Little Cub.” Ever since we found Henry wondering the streets of London, Beth and I have called him our Lost and Found Little Cub, and some day either Maria or Henry will take control of the pack.

    “Papa, do you think I should become what they call a refined lady? Everyone says if I don’t I will never be Mated,” there was sadness in her voice.

    “That is not true, Maria, just look at your mother, she was far from refined, and I Mated with her and have been happily married to her for sixteen years now.”

    “Only sixteen, Papa?”

    “Your mother was only seventeen when I married her, and I’m over two-thousand years old.”

    “Really, Papa?! You have lived that long?1”

    “I have even met Jesus himself. He was a great man, and he truly was a man of God.”

    Her smile got bigger, and she started laughing cheerfully. I wish I could live to see the day she is Mated, but I know that was not going to happen, the least i could do was give her the last act of a father’s love, and let her know how much I love her.
    ********
    (a year later/ Maria; age 14)

    The pyre fire was finally ready for Papa’s body. We were having it in the meadow that we would always go to, just me and him.

    He didn’t even look old enough to die of old age, he looked young, but they say never judge a Werewolf’s age by looks because looks are deceiving.

    I don’t want to say goodbye to him, I do not want Papa to leave me, why did he not tell me he was dying.

    “Papa, why did you have to leave me?”

    “He didn’t just leave you, Little Sister, he left me also, and left Mother broken hearted,” said Henry with tears in his eyes.

    “Maria, Henry, come help me start the fire!” called Mama.

    Henry and I went up to Papa’s body and said our final farewells to him, start the fire and remembered the last time I was in this meadow a year ago and the last act of my Papa’s love for me, and started to cry. “I love Papa,” was the last thing I ever said to him.