Werewolf Bride

Charlotte

I am the only daughter of a failing merchant, but also the stepdaughter and sister to the some of the most wretched women in the entire village.

But the most important detail to this story is that I am cursed, and so is the man I am soon to meet and soon to care for. 

But that is not something I was immediately aware of. Not until the night I turned eighteen years old, that is. Until then, my life was rather tedious, its only spark of interest being the memory I no longer wish to remember...

Marie, my stepmother, is a cold-hearted soul. A woman suspected of being a witch in her previous village, but now has found her home in my family. Yes, suspiciously the allegations against her were dismissed and she managed to win herself back into the hearts of the people. They all loved her so. Such a high standard can be held for a woman who does not show her true, evil colors until she is in the comfort of her own home. 

My two stepsisters, Laura and Harriet, are hard enough to deal with on a daily basis. Thankfully, I am not treated much lower than the two of them, but I am clearly not loved in comparison. They are not evil, only unsettling simpletons. They were not raised as I was and they suffered for it. 

Their mother did not read to them every night...of tales of brave knights and damsels in distress. Tales of heroism, and bravery - two things I always aimed to be. My mother always insisted to break the mold made for me as a woman. I had just as much right to become the knight in any of my favorite stories than any man. 

I never had the chance to thank her for that. 

At seven years old my mother died. I was unaware it was going to happen and unable to help her. I hadn't had the chance to become any sort of knight. I was not able to save her. 

During my early childhood, we were happy, the three of us. My mother and father were childhood sweethearts and very much in love. My father's business was booming and we had a comfortable home near the edge of the forest. 

My mother picked raspberries on one of the paths within the forest. We were all familiar with it and nothing bad had ever occurred to us there before...

But on this particular day, our lucked had turned sour. 

She and I walked hand in hand, basket full of fresh berries. We sang songs together, simply happy...until we somehow lost our way. 

"Sorry, Char, we'll have to find our way back another way." She whispered to me reassuringly. "But don't worry, your mother has the best sense of direction in the entire village - and if we don't find our way, your father will look for us. He has the second best sense of direction." She lightly joked. 

I trusted her, as I always did despite it being impossible to have gotten lost on a path we all knew so well. I gradually became afraid when the sun went down and the moon sprung up into the night sky. It was a full moon and enough to light our way but nothing looked familiar. My mother's hand tightened around me as we listened to the leaves blow around our feet. "Should we stop, mother? Wait for father?" I asked her. 

"Ah, no dear. Look! There's the bush there! We must have found our way back somehow, muffin." She pointed to the familiar bush. 

I clapped my hands and skipped over to it, leaving her behind. "I want to grab some more, mother." I announced, grasping more from the bush. I was ignorant to the silence that followed when I did not hear her reply. When I turned back, I saw that no one was there. 

She was simply gone, never to be seen again. No sound of attack, no retreating footsteps, no footprints - only claw prints and the scent of blood reeked throughout the woods.