Lords of the Were

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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

2932 Ross Clark Circle, #384

Dothan, AL 36301

Lords of the Were

Copyright © 2006 by Biance

Cover by Anne Cain

ISBN: 1-59998-160-2

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: October 2006

Lords of the Were

To my family for sticking by me as I chase my dream.

Also to the many new friends I’ve made along this journey. Much love to Jess, Sharon, Jeanette, Jennifer, Suzette, Serena, Megan, Rene, Stacy, and a multitude of others. You guys are the best!

Allie puffed as she tromped through the dark woods at Betina’s side.

It was All Hallows Eve, the night little American kids ran around in funny outfits gorging on candy, but to her mother’s people, it was a serious time. The turning of the year, the night when spirits roamed more freely than at any other point on the wheel of the year. The old ones called it Samhain, though many misconceptions about the old ways and beliefs had arisen over the years.

“Are you sure we’re safe up here?” Allie looked nervously around the dark woods. Born in the city, she’d only recently learned of her legacy.

The woods, which had been so pretty and colorful to her earlier in the day, suddenly seemed ominous and threatening.

Betina finally stopped, just shy of a large clearing. Before them stretched a nearly perfect ring of ancient stones overgrown with vines and plants, but still vaguely recognizable. A large flat-topped slab of rock stood in the center, seeming somehow otherworldly. A wispy shroud of fog rose around it, lighting the mossy surface with an ethereal glow.

“We are servants of the Lady. We’ll be safe here, honoring Her. It’s time you took your rightful place, Allesandra. It’s nearly too late already.” The older woman’s cryptic words sent a small shiver down Allie’s spine. She wasn’t used to speaking so openly about her somewhat unconventional beliefs. She had a decent career as an accountant, making a good living serving private clients out of her home office. All she really needed to do her work was her laptop and a phone, so her business was portable enough to allow her this time away from the city to learn more about her mother’s life and the friends she’d left behind.

Having learned only recently that her mother had been a priestess in some kind of secret society had been shocking enough. But then to learn Allie was expected to take her place as a priestess sometime during her thirty-second year had been downright scary, to say the least. Still, something in Allie responded to the idea, urging her to follow where her mother’s last requests led, no matter how bizarre they sounded to the city-girl accountant who tried to present a rather dull facade to the rest of the world. Underneath the surface lurked a woman who believed in the old ways and hid a wild nature, never letting loose, always keeping a low profile.

When Betina, her mother’s old friend, finally tracked Allie down and told her about her “sacred duty”, at first Allie had been skeptical. Then Betina had given her a slender book. It turned out to be a journal in her mother’s hand, written before she’d died so young. Allie knew her mother’s handwriting from the similar small book she’d had since she was a teen. It had been held in trust and secrecy by her mother’s attorney until Allie turned thirteen.

In it, her mother had described the old religion that had come to mean so much to Allie as she’d entered young adulthood. Never acknowledging her mother’s non-standard beliefs in the open, Allie had nonetheless found a way to resolve her own belief in the goddess her mother wrote about with the religion she’d been exposed to by her adoptive parents.

The tenets weren’t so horribly different. Peace and goodwill were sought along with protection from evil. Allie didn’t see anything contradictory with what her mother had believed. Her mother had gone out of her way to teach her child the origins and similarities between the old ways and the current popular religions. Allie had often wondered if her mother hadn’t somehow known she would die young and not have a chance to teach her child these things herself.

The book was a cherished link to her mother, filled with insight documenting her mother’s own journey to some kind of spiritual peace.

But on certain points it was rather vague. Those points were clarified by the new volume Betina gave her to study. Betina had delivered the book, then left Allie alone for a few days to read it and think it all through. The time was much needed.

By the time Betina returned, Allie knew she had to follow the unexpected path laid before her. She had to see where her mother’s hopes for her would lead. Allie agreed to go with Betina, packed up her laptop and notified her clients, then took off for what promised to be a great adventure.

Which led her to this creepy, overgrown circle of stones on All Hallows Eve.

Allie’s mother had left words of wisdom and a rough account of her life and beliefs. Beliefs, Allie realized only now, which explained many of the odd things in her own life and the strange power she sometimes felt within her, trying to get out.

In the months since they’d met, Betina had shown Allie how to tap into that power, and Allie believed more strongly than ever in the power of the old ways. She was coming to understand things about the world she’d always taken for granted, and things about herself she’d always felt, but never fully comprehended. Allie knew in her heart respecting her mother’s wishes was the right thing, and that was just one of the many reasons she’d trudged up this cold mountain with Betina on a spooky Halloween night.

It was also her birthday. Just at midnight, Allie would turn thirty-three, so in order fulfill her mother’s wishes, they had to do the ceremony tonight. Betina, as high priestess, would run the show. She had somehow convinced Allie to do this the old way, in the presence of the

wild creatures of the forest, though Allie would have preferred to be indoors, out of the chill night air.

Betina caught Allie’s hand and her wandering attention, stepping them into the circle of stones purposefully, side by side. It was only then Allie realized there were animals all around the clearing, looking in, or perhaps standing sentinel. She wasn’t sure where the idea came from, but she saw the sparkling eyes of what she thought must be wolves and other creatures flickering in the darkness.

“We’re not alone out here, Betty.”

Allie’s nerves were stretched taut. She wasn’t much used to animals, having lived in an apartment most of her life, and the idea of wild animals that could pounce on her at any time freaked her out a little.

Betina laughed and the sound rang through the small clearing like the tinkling of bells. For an older woman, Betina had a very fey look about her. She was quite a bit shorter than Allie’s five foot five, with tousled curls that were only just starting to show streaks of white, and a face that simply beamed. She was ethereally pretty and just standing next to her made Allie feel like a big, giant lump. Allie always felt rather average, but Betina’s otherworldly beauty only emphasized the vast differences between the two women.

Allie’s baby fine hair was a dark golden color, and her eyes were as green as moss, large and deep set, though she often wished they’d been blue like her mother’s. Her figure was on the voluptuous side with wide hips, large breasts and a curvy waist, and she fell far short of the reed-thin model standard everyone seemed to think was perfection.

“We are never alone, Allesandra. Fear not Her creatures. The were come to witness, guard and protect. They serve the Lady as we do.” Allie didn’t always understand everything Betina talked about, but she’d learned through their meditation practice to trust the older woman.

Betina knew things that could not be explained by science, things Allie had only just begun to experience and do herself.

As she spoke, Betina unbuttoned the robe she’d worn on the trek through the woods. She’d told Allie they’d have to do this ceremony in the nude—or “skyclad” as she called it. Allie hadn’t been thrilled with the idea, but seeing as it was only the two of them and a few animals as witnesses, she wasn’t going to argue. Allie followed Betina’s lead and was soon standing naked under the stars, near the stone altar, next to the smaller woman.

For a woman who had to be at least her mother’s age, Betina was still amazingly beautiful, with a great body. Allie was glad no one else could see them. Well, no one except the animals all around—but they were just animals. Surely they wouldn’t gossip about her big hips.

Betina had prepared her in advance for the ceremony and the steps they would perform both separately and together. Allie knew her role and set about consecrating the circle as Betina had taught her. Immediately after she closed the circle, she felt the cold bite of the autumn air lessen and a now-familiar stillness enter her being which would aid her in the next steps she must take.

The power bubbled up from inside, stronger than ever before. An awareness of the magic outside the circle came to her through newly expanded senses. It was the magic of the forest creatures, she realized, sparing a moment to look around the circle and see with new eyes the soft glow of their auras. Golden rainbows of light shimmered here and there as she registered the odd collection of creatures observing the two naked women inside the sacred circle.

There were wolves and big mountain cats, coyotes, bears and even a few huge raptors in the trees, among others. Truly an odd assortment to be socializing so close together in harmony, yet they looked comfortable in each other’s presence, watching the women in the circle.

Betina started to chant, calling Allie back to task as she took her place near the altar and sang with the older woman. Betina’s voice tinkled merrily through the clearing, and Allie’s flowed. It was her one pride, her voice. Allie sang every chance she got and had even done some professional chorus work with one of the larger opera companies when she’d lived in New York City. Her voice surged and blended, chiming clear through the circle, building the power of which she was only just becoming fully aware.

She’d never felt so much power before. The very earth pulsed in the stone of the altar, in the loamy grass beneath her feet and in the heartbeats of the animals who stood as the only witnesses all around.

“It is time.” Betina’s voice startled her as the song faded into silence.

“We are nearly at the turning of the year and the moment of your birth, Allesandra. We must act quickly now.”

Allie knew what she had to do. Taking a deep breath for courage, she stepped up to the surprisingly clean slab of stone and lay down on the natural altar. Betina moved away, out of her sight for a short moment.

When she returned, she began a new song in an ancient tongue, opening her satchel and scattering herbs into the air in four directions. She anointed Allie’s forehead with a special oil mixture they’d prepared together, just days before.

Allie felt as if she were sinking into the stone as Betina’s song ended and she spoke words about the ancient forest and the Lady they served.

Allie felt the power of the earth flowing up through the stone and into her being. It was a sensation she’d never even imagined, but it felt somehow familiar and welcoming.

“I stand for the fey and the human, and for the Lady,” Betina intoned, rubbing a star symbol with the oil onto Allie’s head. “I beseech the Lady to take this mind and fill it. Welcome Her servant and imbue her with knowledge and wisdom.”

Betina fell back and suddenly there were two other presences beside Allie, one on either side. She tried to jerk in surprise, but it was like she was glued to the stone slab. She couldn’t speak either. She was in fact, completely paralyzed and helpless. Allie didn’t like the feeling at all and feared what might come next. Her wide eyes searched out the newcomers and found two striking men, identical in looks and as naked as she, standing on either side of her. Betina handed one the pot of oil.

“We stand for the were of sky and land. We serve the Lady and protect Her priestesses.” The man’s deep voice washed over her senses as he dipped his large fingers into the oil and passed the pot over her body to his companion, his twin. “We beseech the Lady to take this heart,” his fingers moved over her breast, the warm oil dripping as he traced the sacred symbol over her heart, “and fill it. Welcome Her servant and imbue her with compassion and love.”

“We beseech the Lady to take this vessel,” the other man spoke, his voice equally firm and oddly alluring as he trailed his warm, oiled fingers just below her belly button, “and fill it. Welcome Her servant and imbue her with fertility and strength.”