𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘃𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗻𝘁

La Bête De Gevaudan

✿

I place my food next to my sister and sit down across from Allison who is reading a book. 

"The what of who?" Lydia is half-heartedly listening to what Allison is saying, clearly the least bit interested. 

"The Beast of Gevaudan. Listen -" she props the book up on the table and starts reading a section of it out loud. "A quadruped wolf-like monster, prowling the Auvergne and south Dordogne areas of France during the year 1764 to 1767. La Bête killed over a hundred people, becoming so infamous that the king Louis XV sent one of his best hunters to try and kill it." 

I gulp and hold in a gasp over the words 'wolf-like monster' and stay silent. 

Lydia sighs, "boring." 

Allison ignores my odd silence and Lydia's unenthusiastic attitude. "Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan."

"Still boring." 

"Cryptozoologists believe it may have been a subspecies of hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychid..." 

"Slipping-into-a-coma bored." Lydia continues, now resting her head on her hand. 

"...while others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shape shift into a man eating monster." 

I throw my hand over my mouth and Allison looks over at me. "You okay, Mae? You look like you're about to puke." 

I remove my hand from my mouth and clear my throat, shaking my head. "No, I'm fine."

"Does any of this have anything to do with your family?" Lydia asks. 

Allison nods, "This." She points at a paragraph in the book. "It is believed that La Bête was finally trapped and killed by a renowned hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature. His name was Argent." 

"Your ancestors killed a big wolf. So what?" I roll my eyes at Lydia's comment and start eating my food. 

"Not just a big wolf. Take a look at this picture. What does it look like to you?" She flips the book our way and shows a picture of a large man-wolf. Its resemblance to the Alpha is almost identical other than the size. 

I go to gasp, and inhale a large fry I was in the middle of chewing. I start coughing and spitting it all over the table, slapping my hand against my chest trying to breath. This snaps Lydia's attention away from the picture as Allison drops the book. 

"Are you choking?" 

"What does it look like Lyds? She's turning blue!" 

My eyes are practically bugging out of my head and I try to gasp for air, motioning with my hands for one of them to give me the heimlich. 

"Do you know how to do the heimlich?" Allison a yelling and pacing around the table, looking to my sister for answers. 

"Duh!"

"Okay, then do it?" 

She puts her hands around my stomach and starts counting down. "One, two.... I can't do it! I'm freaking out, I've never had to stop someone from choking before!" 

They continue arguing, and the words start to fade together, as does the room. I feel arms grab around my stomach once again, and the person starts doing the heimlich. I choke out the fry and start coughing, placing my hand over my throat. I turn around to see Stiles looking at me, a mixture of disappointment and relief on his face. "That is the second time I have had to give you heimlich, Maeve. What the hell? Start chewing your food!" He says playfully.