Guardian of Werewolf Keep (Werewolf Keep Trilogy) by Nhys Glover Page A

was of a nightmare that had no place in the brightness of day.
    ‘Yes M a’am. The lad with the claw marks. That’ll have done it. He’s turned now. Lucky for him the constable brought him here, straight off.’
    ‘The claw marks have turned him?’ she spoke very slowly, trying to get the dawning realisations crystal clear before she reacted.
    ‘Yep. It only takes a bite or a clawing. Sometimes no more’n a scratch. Something catchin’, the Prof says. It passes from them into the victim’s open wound.’ Jamey spoke as if he was talking about the weather. It made the subject of their conversation all the more surreal.
    ‘So he will turn at the next full moon?’
    ‘No doubt, Ma’am. Would have been better if he’d been a woman. There’s more room in the women’s wing. The Capt’n had plans to put in more cells. Our numbers keep growing. ‘Spect Byron will have to start on them pretty quick, if things keep going the way they are.’
    ‘I suppose so,’ she answered neutrally. ‘So this is the only Asylum for Werewolves in the country?’
    ‘Yep. In the world, we’re thinkin’.’
    ‘Werewolves…’ Her voice caught in her throat as her head began to grow light , and the world began to spin. The last thing she heard was Jamey’s anxious cry, as darkness took her away from the nightmare.
     
    The next thing she knew was the sound of thunder and a bright flash of light. The storm has come, then, just as Jasper predicted. Then her mind focused on what was around her. She was lying on a soft bed. Although she could not see much more than the ceiling above her, she thought it was the room where she had spent the night.
    It was the night when she had been kept awake by the howls of werewolves. She whimpered as the memories resurfaced. Werewolves! She was surrounded by werewolves!
    ‘Oh good, you’re awake. I was starting to worry.’ Byron’s face, all serious concern, came into her field of vision. Her heart leapt at his presence, even while her mind rejected him angrily. How could he have let her come here, into this danger?
    Her innate fairness immediately raised its head to counter that accusation. He had not let her. She had pushed her way in. And he had done everything in his power to keep her safe.
    So, what else could she be angry with him for? Not telling her immediately what she had come to? No, that didn’t work. She could just imagine her reaction if he had said ‘Go away, come back tomorrow when the werewolves are human again.’ That would have gained a reaction from her. But not a useful one.
    ‘Phil?’ he said, looking into her eyes with familiar intensity.
    ‘Yes. I am awake. I wish I wasn’t, but I am.’
    He placed a warm hand on her forehead , and then stroked it down the side of her face. The caress felt so natural, so familiar, that she closed her eyes and sighed.
    ‘I am so sorry you had to find out that way. Jamey didn’t know.’
    She opened her eyes, and looked into the brown depths of his eyes. ‘You should have told me. I had a right to know.’
    His face disappeared from her vision , and so she sat up. For a moment, she was a little shaky, and was in danger of falling backwards again. But her determination came to the fore, and she willed herself to be strong.
    Byron was now standing on the other side of the room , looking out at the wild storm that was beating against the window. It seemed to perfectly reflect her own inner turmoil that was pounding against her ribs.
    ‘I know. I am sorry. But every time I started to tell you, I was diverted. In truth, I wanted you to see this place as normal for as long as possible. To see me as normal…’
    ‘Normal. Nothing about my arrival at Breckenhill Keep has been normal. And these people… these monsters… even when I didn’t know what they were, I knew they were not normal. How could my father be involved in something like this? How could you?
    ‘ You aren’t one of them are you? You said that you and Jamey were the