Snakekin have for the most part sided with the Abyssal Hordes. They are by nature prone to deception and violence. More often than not they live among monstrous serpents and humanoid serpents. The few that remain in civilized lands often fill the ranks of criminal organizations. Some argument has been made that they are forced into this lot in life by nobles who would rather keep them as household slaves, but they are ultimately far better at being thieves, scouts and assassins than anything else.

Lykou

My meditative rest ends just a few minutes after dawn as I hear people walk in the doorway. I open my eyes to see Analais still clothed, Alana is however practically naked. Analais was the smallest of the werecreatures, his transformation not causing a large enough change to destroy his clothes as the rest of the pack. Alana grabs a tunic laying next to the front door and does not seem to care that I can see her as she puts it on.

“No one chose to give you the gift?” Alana asks and I shake my head.

“How did you do in the youth’s little competition?” Analais asks.

“In the middle somewhere” I answer.

There is a smile from the two of them though it is more in surprise than them actually being proud of my accomplishment. Then again, they are basically just people who have been told that I’m to stay in their house. Friendly but I am not truly family and they are just being nice.

“So, does this happen every full moon?” I ask.

“It does and we have a lot of work to do in repairs” Alana answers.

“Repairs?”

“Dozens of eight-foot-tall wolf beasts just had a giant party, stuff is going to get broken and a lot of the meat has been left in the middle of the village for the young to cook and eat.”

“So now we have a feast and clean up?” I ask.

“Basically” Analais answers me.

“What am I expected to do?”

“Gather wood for the cooking fires” Alana answers.

I nod, “do I start now?”

“Please do.”

With that I nod and leave the hut. The rest of the village looks trashed and many broken clay ceramics and wooden things are laying around the village. I don’t mind helping and it is after all a physical activity that doesn’t take much concentration, meaning I can get some practice in moving mana as I do it.

Alana

I wait a few moments after the strange boy leaves my hut before turning to my mate.

“What did the wolves think of him?” I ask. I won’t know anything about what happened under the moon until my wolf Shadow Paw decides to share the memories and that may be a few days since she knows I am curious.

“Pretty much what could be expected. Ragnor’s wolf did not like him and most of the others did not care” my mate answers.

“Most? Some of the wolves to a liking to him?” I ask and my mate nods.

“More an interest. Kythia’s wolf showed a lot of interest.”

“Really? There must be more to him then simply being a seemingly gifted child. She doesn’t seem to like any of the males of the pack.”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Lykou is to young to be a prospective hunter in the two moons before this year’s ceremony.”

“You did see him stare at my breasts when I walked in” I tease my mate.

My mate however ignores it but I guess I’m too big with pups right now to have that kind of fun anyways. Instead he switches to another subject with a question, “did you know he is more interested in magic than martial skill?”

“It’s pretty obvious but I don’t know if the rest of the pack knows. He spends the whole night meditating rather than sleeping after all. I’m curious as to how he isn’t exhausted but haven’t brought it up. I think some of the pack discouraged his choice of pursuing magic so he is trying to hide it.”

“Naliya said his archery was similar to elves, maybe he knows their meditation technique” my mate suggests and I nod. That would explain that but then why was he left were we would take him in. Certainly the elves could have taught him. . .

“Still there is much to do today and I should get started. But first. . .” my mate's voice trails off after he pulls me into a hug and licks the back of my right ear.

“. . . if we wouldn’t risk hurting our pup I’d take you so many times right now” he whispers in my ear and I shiver wanting nothing more than for him to do just than and for a moment cursing I am so close to giving birth.

“It’s not nice to rile me up like this” I whisper back in protest even as I enjoy every moment of it.

“I’ll make it up to you later” my mate whispers once more before separating and disappearing from the hut to do his jobs for the pack. I stand and place my hands on my swollen belly in a smile, glad that he is my mate.

Lykou

The morning is uneventful, I am apparently the only child that is not sleeping in and the adults of the village just watched me slowly bring fallen branches to the pile of dead animals near Kylana’s hut. The wolf forms of the adults did a lot of hunting last night. Game is probably going to be scarce for a bit.

“Lykou, follow me” I hear as I add more wood to the now large pile I have built up beside the fire pit.

I look over to see that Kylana is calling me to follow her. She did say she was going to teach me magic and I am almost certain the only reason why Ragnor did not attack me last night was her.

“Coming” I respond with a smile and run over. I am eager to start the promised lessons and follow her back into the central hut.

Inside it is as it was before barring some of the hides have been clawed apart. At the table Kylana sat at before is the young woman with silver hair I saw at Naliya's lesson.

“Kythia meet your fellow student, Lykou” Kylana says to the teenager who I assume is her daughter.

The name seems vaguely familiar and there is something about the color of her hair and eyes that seems like the woman I saw in that strange memory. Are they related?

I push the question aside as Kylana motions me to sit. I know she is using me as a ploy to get her daughter to study more seriously but I want and need to get as much out of this as I can. I look away from the frowning teen towards her mother who will be teaching me what I want to know.

“As you both know by now, magic is caused by manip. . .” she begins before her daughter interrupts.

“I already know, mana. Can’t you just skip to combat magic. It isn’t like I need any of this when I’m alpha anyways” Kythia says, much to her mother’s displeasure.

“Kythia, there is more to being alpha than being strong. To lead you need to be wise and knowledgeable.”

“Dad says only strength matters, and if you’re strong you make the rules.”

I lean slightly away from the two women as Kylana apparently has a straw breaks the camel's back moment and she gets mad at her daughter for having this argument in front of me.

“So you think only strength matters and whoever is strongest is right?”

The teen nods and I don’t see this ending well for her.

Kylana continues, “and you think Ragnor is stronger than me so you don’t need to study?”

Another nod from the teenager, “why do you think Ragnor only has me as a mate? Weaker males than him have more.”

There is no answer from the young girl who does not yet see where this is going.

“Because I'm stronger than him and don’t want to share.”

“But he had to beat you to take you as a mate” the teenager counters and I find myself confused. How does that have anything to do with this and why would that even be the case?

Kylana is stronger than Ragnor, everyone I’ve talked to agrees on that so how is it that he has to be stronger to be mated to Kylana?

“If the male has to be stronger how does Analais have a mate as a runt let alone Alana who is the second strongest female of the pack?”

I’m not sure I should be here for all this but I also can’t just excuse myself.

Kythia just sits not sure how to respond even if this logic does not seem to convince her. Kylana pulls a book off the shelf and passes it to me. I take it unsure why she just did that until she grabs Kythia’s arm and pull her out of the hut.

I look at the book Kylana put in my hands, the single word on the cover is in a strange tongue and I can’t remember the name of the language but the meaning is Basics of the Arcane. I open the book and begin to read the first page. A description of the basics for casting; somatic and material components, foci and the shaping of mana. Not enough to actually cast anything yet but it definitely a lot of terms that will probably be used later.

Kylana

I drag my daughter out to the section of the woods I know my mate Ragnor will be slacking off in. I probably shouldn’t have made such a big scene in front of my new student but I’m done with Kythia’s attitude. She has the strongest wolf blood the pack has had in centuries but it’ll mean nothing if she goes down the path she is on. The same path that made my mate someone I can barely stand anymore.

I enter the clearing I always find my mate in and push my daughter to the side, towards a stump. She sits there knowing that I am upset with her. Even if she thinks Ragnor is stronger than me, she does know that I am far stronger than her.

“What is it?” Ragnor asks sleepily.

“It’s been twenty years since we truly spared and I think our daughter needs to see something” I answer, making clear just how upset with the two of them I currently am.

He lazily stands up, “alright but you know the ru. . .”

I interrupt his sentence with a quick blast of force through a mana wave, one of the few weavings I have the ability to do. “The original rules, no killing” I state.

He frowns and almost protests for a moment before his memories of before I was his mate flash across his eyes but he dismisses them because of his false pride after years of only facing others in the manner that is most favorable to himself.

I don’t have a weapon but as Ragnor does he draws the blade with a smirk, thinking that it’ll even matter.

The harmonious words of mana based magic flow from my tongue as I dodge the first attack of my mate. My hands glow red as I strike him in the chest finishing all the pieces of Ghoul Touch.

I sidestep and my overextending mated falls to the ground paralyzed as I specifically used more than enough mana to overwhelm what natural resistance he has. I pry the blade from his hands with little resistance and place it at his throat.

“Your first death” I say before stepping back and tossing the blade to the ground as I dismiss my spell.

“Again” I taunt. Kythia needs to see without a doubt my words are right and my mates needs some humbling anyways.

Ragnor growls, enraged that I’m winning and embarrassing him in front of our daughter. How should I disable my mate this time?

I smirk as an idea comes to mind, that’ll do. Once more I quickly chant as I dodge the rage driven attacks of my mate. A blade conjured of moonlight, hardened into a quasi physical object, takes shape and I make a cut on my mate’s arm. It may not be an effective weapon to hurt werewolf but it’ll leave cuts and a Phantom Blade would cost too much mana, besides a Moonblade won't leave lasting wounds on a werewolf.

I take advantage of the longer reach of my blade to place another cut on my mate’s side as I start the words for the spell Haste.

My speed increases and Ragnor struggles to keep up as I begin cutting to disable but not dismember. Both of his hamstrings get severed and he collapses to the ground.

“Death two” I say as my magical blade rests on the back of his neck, both of us breathing heavily.

My left-hand glows a light blue as I whisper a prayer to the Black Wolf. Making the minor repairs to my mate's body that will allow his lycantropic regeneration to rapidly heal him so I can continue our spar.