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her briefly. “Okay, but your bond didn’t fully take, so what happened during the mating?”
    Uncomfortable with what would be said, that familiar burn heated Sadie’s cheeks. “While we were, you know . . . barney-mugging, something dark in those eyes reflected back at me. . . . Everything we were doing . . . just felt wrong, like a lie. I knew he didn’t love me, that I . . . loved the idea of him, of having someone, but that there should be real, true love in any mating. So I pushed back in my mind. I couldn’t buck him off, but I, I don’t know, I remember thinking Eridon needed to stop . . . because I didn’t want him . . . then searing pain from being bitten filled me . . .”
    What did I do?
    Domek, using his thumbs, wiped something wet from her face. Tears. She couldn’t go back to that room Eridon locked her in, those last almost three weeks . . . not yet.
    Domek could tell she had gone too far back into her nightmare. As a dominant he knew when to push someone past their perceived limits. They must stop for now. She told him enough to get started. His questions about after the mating could wait until later. He prayed her answers would have clues that might help him figure out what Eridon was planning.
    “I think that’s enough for now, Sadie,” he said, wiping more tears from her cheeks. “You need to rest. You will need your strength for tomorrow night.”
    He moved forward, turned enough to help her lay back down and pulled up the warm down cover. She rolled onto her side, curling into a fetal position around his hip. Sadie appeared stuck in her last memory. The fact that such horrors haunted her pained him. He hoped the light back rub soothed the demons away. Domek sat there in calming silence, until Sadie’s eyes eased closed. Once her breathing changed he eased up as not to disturb her.
    He went straight to the enclave library. Not with much, but enough to get some preliminary research done. Figuring he should start where Sadie had, at the beginning. Rummaging through history books, it took a couple minutes to find what he wanted, a story of the first werewolf matings. Domek sat down at the long table across from him and began reading.
    The first werewolves were created by Gaia many cycles ago when she walked upon earth in her mother aspect. She brought her creations to life as wolves who would serve as the realm’s guardians. While walking her lands she would talk to the wolves, lonely, hungry for companionship. However, as wolves, they could not share their words. She saw desire to speak in their eyes, so she changed their form. They mirrored her mother goddess aspect. Now they all talked and walked the lands together on two feet.
    After many cycles, three of Gaia’s companions appeared sad. When she asked, they told their creator how they missed running on all fours. Their hearts longed to guard earth’s lands again with the power of their senses aided by the speed of their bodies, but they still wanted to share words with their mother goddess. Gaia contemplated the problem for some time, and found no other solution. She told her companions that she could grant them a capability to move between forms, however as the universe must have balance; their gift would come with a price. Shifting between forms would not be easy. Upon agreeing, she turned them into werewolves. After running, hunting, and playing across the earth the wolves shifted back. However, some of their human appearances had changed. One now held the aspect of a young maiden, one kept the aspect of a mother, and one became the aspect of a crone. Gaia’s other companions did not miss their wolf enough to suffer the change. So they stayed in the goddess’s form, content, walking on two feet with their creator for the rest of their days.
    Then time came when Gaia had to leave her beloved earth in the care of her companions. She needed to return home and continue weaving the tapestry of life. They all cried out in fear of being