Man to Wolf

My name is Jeremy Brunski. I was born in Massachusetts in the year 1869. My adoptive father Liam was a farmer. My adoptive mother Nicole was a teacher. I had two adoptive brothers, Wilson and Jason. I lived my whole life in the state. I have always been a bit different from the people around me. I loved books. I loved poetry. I was a dreamer. Those things were frowned upon in post-Civil War America. My family had a tough existence. Farming in Massachusetts has never been easy. In those days, there was a lot of intolerance. You can guess about some things but not others. I will tell you how it was. A man who had sexual relations with another man could be shot and killed for it. A black person who wondered into a white neighborhood at night could be hung without trial or jury. Those were the laws. It was a dangerous time and I found it quite primitive.

When I was nineteen, my life changed. I met a man named Delvin Charles. I was a factory worker in the city. I had recently been kicked out of the farm by my irate father. I had certain habits that neither my family nor the church would approve of. Certain passions that were frowned upon. A man placed himself at risk if he were to be discovered. By now, I trust that you have some inkling of what I speak. I have always found both men and women attractive and interesting. I always will. It's simply the way I am. That's not what this is about, though. At least not entirely. I met Delvin Charles. He was a tall, handsome man. He had blond hair and pale blue eyes. A strongly built young man. He was wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. He was an educated gentleman. He was also something else.

I will tell you how I came to meet Delvin. I lived in the city and worked for a man named Andrew Treyson. He was a factory owner. A rich one at that. Delvin Charles was engaged to his daughter, Allison. Delvin took a liking to me. I couldn't understand why he liked me. I wasn't exactly a striking fellow. I stood six feet four inches tall, big and bulky, with some meat on my bones. I had black hair and dark brown eyes. My skin was a pale pink that burned too easily. I was rather average-looking. I was stronger than most people, though. As a child, I had to defend myself against bullies. They didn't like young guys who liked poetry. I was a rough and tough farmer who hated farming and loved art, music and poetry. My father chased me away from home because I had fallen in love with a friend of mine. Larry Brownstone was his name. He was a young man from a nearby farm. Our fathers were rivals but somehow, we became friends and later lovers. Larry was a very nice guy and a gentle soul. I loved him. My parents didn't approve and I was chased out of my house by my angry father wielding a burning branch. I had no place to go. I went to Larry's place but I got a nasty surprise.

Larry Brownstone had decided to end our affair. He was about to marry some lady named Catherine who had grown attractive in his eyes. I knew Catherine. She was a shy, quiet young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Their wedding was two months away. Larry casually asked me not to bother talking to him anymore. He didn't want anything to do with me. I was hurt beyond belief. I loved this man. I protected and valued him. Yet he was willing to cast me aside simply because society could never accept us and he didn't want anything to do with me. He was a devoted christian and hated himself for being what he is. He hated me for being what I was. I couldn't stand it anymore. I had lost him. He was the first man I had ever loved and indeed, the first person I had a sexual relation with. Fleeing my family and my former lover, I came to the city with no more than the clothes on my back. I had no money. I was all alone. No one cared about me. I had nothing to do. I had to find myself a decent job and do something with my life. They were hiring at a local factory. I needed a place to stay and also a job. I had been homeless for a long time. I began working for Andrew Treyson, founder of Treyson Steel. I became what you would call a manager. I got a job and a tiny apartment in a tenement in Boston.

I was learning to deal with a harsh, cruel world. The other factory workers were mean spirtis and I loathed them. I missed my tranquil farm life. I missed my family. I missed Larry. Sadly, they were all gone. All of them had rejected me. All hated me. I didn't give a damn about them anymore. I stopped caring. I didn't stop hurting, though. I met Delvin Charles when he came to visit the factory with his fiancee and future father-in-law. Delvin was devilishly handsome man who routinely turned the heads of both men and women. He had an undeniable charm and a certain sexual power that seemed to ooze out of every pore in his body. He was gorgeous. He had his girlfriend made a nice couple. Allison Treyson was a tall, slender young woman with short red hair and pale green eyes. She was beautiful. Classy. Also, smart as a whip. She always seemed on top of the world. There was much that the world didn't know about Delvin Charles. Delvin Charles was also a werewolf. He had a certain power. He could change himself from man to wolf at will. He was born that way. As a werewolf, he had incredible ferocity and strength. Werewolves look like natural wolves but they are stronger and faster. Also, they are much larger. Delvin Charles had been around for centuries. Werewolves live longer than humans. They can live for thousands of years. The fact is, they are not immortal. Delvin Charles was an outcast. He came from England. His family had great wealth and power. All of them were werewolves, of course. The general public has no idea that they exist. That's what I would later discover.

Delvin took an interest in me. He was making a lot of money by building houses and selling them to rich people. He was among the elite in society. He had it all. He was respected. He had a beautiful lady on his arm everywhere he went. He was at the top. Yet it seemed that Delvin Charles had a lot more in common with me than the world would ever know. Upon coming to the city, I had been basically leading a celibate existence. There were a lot of pretty ladies in the city. I found myself attracted to some of them but the shadow of Larry was never far from my thoughts and negated any thought I might have of a possible relationship with anyone, man or woman. I couldn't admit it but I still missed Larry and felt a lot of pain still. I had been gone from home for six months and yet, I still hadn't moved on. I didn't like this but there wasn't much that I could do about it. Delvin Charles was the one who would take my mind off these things. I was drawn to him. Not for the reason you might think. At least, not just for that. The sight of Delvin awakened in me something strange and primal. I felt almost bestial. One night, he came to me and revealed himself.

Delvin changed from man to wolf right before my eyes. It was eerie, and also...beautiful. I had never seen anything like it. Delvin was a natural werewolf. He was born as one. He wasn't a human being who became a werewolf. He was a wolf-like creature masquerading as a human being. He was a very powerful being. Strong, fast, agile, intelligent, almost unnaturally long-lived. Delvin was an outcast from his pack. He would later tell me of werewolf society. Werewolves lived everywhere on the planet Earth. They were among humanity. They lived in small groups. They obeyed strict rules. They had a very rigid hierarchy. They had always been there, unnoticed by the humans. Delvin's pack originally numbered thirty individuals, or so he told me. He had been banned from his pack by the leader after he attempted a coup. He failed. He had to leave or be killed. He fled all the way to the new world. He had been dishonored and banned for life. Delvin was twenty six years old, quite young in werewolf years and also in human years. His kind could live for many centuries, sometimes even thousands of years. Werewolves virtually stopped aging when they reached their twenties. From then on, they aged very, very slowly. Delvin told me all about them. He also made an even more shocking revelation to me. According to him, I was one of them.

Werewolves were wolf-like creatures that assumed human form. They weren't human at all. Their human facade was a very clever disguise. Nature gave them the ability to shapeshift. They could make themselves look like any human they wanted. No human can become a werewolf. A werewolf's bite cannot transform a human being into one of the pack. Sometimes, werewolves had affairs with humans. Humans and werewolves are two different species. The werewolves were an older race. They were around long before the humans. A sentient predatory race that has walked the planet since time immemorial. When the humans came around and began to dominate the world, the werewolves evolved the ability to change form. They can transform themselves into any human they wanted. It's next to impossible to know what a werewolf truly looks like. The wolf side is real. The human side is a disguise. Okay. Back to the subject of affairs between humans and werewolves. Sometimes, werewolves in human form fall prey to temptation. Sex to werewolves is merely a biological and natural thing. They are capable of caring for each other but it's merely a physical thing for them. Sex to a werewolf is not that different from what sex is to a wolf. A mere biological function. To humans, sex is a whole lot of things. When in human form, werewolves have to deal with something they usually don't feel. Lust. Almost all werewolves exclusively mate with their own kind. Some have ventured outside the boundaries. Some had sexual relations with humans. These 'rebels' are called Abominations. Werewolves have a casual attitude about sex. It's a mere biological function. No strings attached. Get it from whoever is willing, whenever. They aren't possessive. Unlike true wolves, they don't often mate for life. They are a rather promiscuous lot that seek sexual partners of either gender ( among their own species) with equal measure.

Sometimes, relations between werewolves and humans are fruitful. They result in strange offspring. Half-Breeds. Creatures that look like humans but aren't human. Werewolves are wolf-like creatures in human form. The Half-Breeds have certain abilities. They are stronger than ordinary humans. They have very sharp senses. They are also a lot faster. The Half-breeds have the ability to regenerate. That makes them very hard to kill. Most Half-Breeds live their early lives without knowing what they are. When they reach the age of twenty, they under the Change. When the Change comes, the Half-Breeds become filled with rage and the desire to do violence. They are a danger to themselves and others. They go through the Moon Madness. Werewolves can go from wolf form to human form at will, anytime they want. Half-Breeds can only assume wolf form under the light of the moon. Werewolves are intelligent, sane and decent creatures for the most part. Most wouldn't kill for any reason other than self-defense. The Half-Breeds are very different from werewolves when they go through the Moon Madness. The Half-Breeds cannot control themselves and will attack anything they encounter : human, animal or werewolf. Once the night of the full moon is over, the Half-Breed reverts to human form. They retain no memory of what they did the previous night. Most Half-Breeds don't last long. Also, they don't live any longer than the average human being does. By contrast, the werewolves can live for several millennia. The life of a Half-Breed is a grim one. Many kill themselves or end up killed by humans. There are many werewolves who view the Half-Breeds as a threat to the greater good of the werewolf community. Many werewolves track down Half-Breeds and kill them. These are known as the Guardians.

The Guardians are the law enforcers of the werewolf community. They hunt down criminals. There are criminals in the community. The primary task of the Guardian is to hunt down and kill the Abominations, those werewolves that broke the law and had sexual relations with humans. The Guardians will kill on sight any Half-Breed they encounter. The Guardians can sense Half-Breeds even in the daytime, when the Half-Breeds don't look any different from regular people. Worldwide, there are over ten thousands werewolves. The numbers of the Half-Breeds are many times greater than that. The Guardians are doing their best to eliminate the whole lot of them. That's what Delvin Charles told me. I wondered what all that had to do with me and he looked at me strangely, and right then I just knew. I was one of the Half-Breeds. Delvin had come to America to hide. They were on his trail. We were both in danger. My life was about to get a whole lot more complicated.

To be continued.