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

only people here last night. That means you aren’t one?’ She hadn’t realised how important it was to her that Byron was human. How could she love a monster?
    That thought floored her. When had she started thinking of Byron in terms of love? She barely knew him. They had shared a few intense kisses, certainly, but that wasn’t enough for love. Was it?
    ‘No, Jamey and I are fully human. And the residents are human, nine tenths of the time.’
    ‘Nine tenths? Nine tenths? They are werewolves! I cannot believe I am accepting something so bizarre , so easily. But what else could they be? All the clues led to that end. Next you will be telling me that vampires live in the manor on the next moor!’
    ‘Phil, please. I know this is all too much to take in, but there is no need to be flippant. Lycanthropia exists. We do not understand it properly yet, but we get closer every day. It is a contagion anyone can catch, like the plague. These people are not monsters.’
    ‘They turn into beasts on the full moon. That is monstrous!’
    Unable to keep still any longer, she threw herself off the bed , and began pacing the room. ‘Why would my father be a part of something like this? Why would he choose to be here, and not with the family who loved him? It makes no sense!’
    'I will tell you the story of this place , so that you can understand fully. Will you sit down?’ Byron gestured to the overstuffed chair by the empty fireplace. Phil couldn’t have kept still, in this moment, if her life depended on it. She simply paused in her frantic pacing to stare at him and wait.
    'Your father was badly injured on the battle field of Balaclava. As he lay as one of the dead that night, too injured to move, he saw horrifying beasts moving amongst the fallen. He thought they were hyenas or wolves, but they were far too large for that.
    'When one creature reached him , and attacked, he was able to raise his pistol and shoot. It scared the creatures away. But he was injured by the beast.'
    'Hearing the gunshot , someone came to find him. He was taken to the makeshift hospital, and eventually shipped home. But before he reached these shores, he realized just what had happened to him. At the full of the moon, he changed. He became something else... something more horrendous than you can imagine in your worst nightmare.
    'H e was not the only one. There are secrets that no man who witnessed the horror of that bloody warzone would ever share. More men were killed by those creatures than on the battlefield. But men at arms take care of their own, and your father was protected from himself, and the worst of his bestial urges, until he returned home.' Byron paused, and looked out the window at the grey, watery world outside. He sighed heavily before going on.
    'He allowed himself to remain listed as one of the dead. He knew he could not inflict what he was on his loved ones. And then he set about creating a place for himself, and the others like him, where they could live out their tortured lives without inflicting pain and death on others.'
    'How...how could such a thing happen and none of us know?' Phil interrupted vehemently, desperate to find fault with the outlandish tale.
    'The beasts exist only for three nights a month, over the period of the full moon. The rest of the time they are themselves – normal human-beings. But let me finish...
    'One of the other officers in his regimented was also turned into a beast. The Captain convinced this man's wealthy relatives to support the establishment of an asylum, as far away from civilization as could be found. With a loan from the family, and continued payments to house their son, your father was able to create Breckenhill Keep. It was uninhabitable when he first bought this place. But, over the years he restored it, so that those who joined him here could experience some semblance of comfort.
    'In the early days , it was difficult to keep the inmates under lock and key while he was one of them.