Free Waken (The Woods of Everod Book 1) by Angela Fristoe Page A

skewed tale of who the Lycan really are. With a Lycan…once the two halves are melded – the human and the wolf - there is a consciousness of each other. Making the two separate while being one.”
    “What happened to the Wolf?” I asked, more interested in getting to the explanation of Tristan’s tattoo than the differences between two fictional creatures.
    “After he was changed, he infected many more, creating a pack for him to rule over. The infection was weakened by the lack of his blood, making it easy for him to be their leader.”
    “He was kind of like the alpha of the pack. In wolf packs the alpha is in charge,” Seth said, rubbing one of his feet through the hard packed dirt.
    “Like an alpha.” Samara nodded. “When he was in his human form he deceived a woman, mating with her and passing it to their children. The infection continued to spread throughout the village. Most people died from the infection and panic grew among humans in the area. With death surrounding him, he finally understood the horror of what he had done.
    “He grew old and weak. The status of alpha went to his eldest child though she refused to control the pack. With no leader, the pack was divided across the land. Many of them traveled to the north where they could hide. The Wolf’s mate, though, would not accept their doomed fate and searched for a cure. On her death bed she called for a young girl from the pack, Amelia, and promised that one of Amelia’s daughters would carry the mark of the Wolf and through her blood she would free the infected.”
    Samara sat back, letting Kyle’s arms enfold her once again. I sat frozen, aware of all the eyes focused on me. It was an interesting story, but that still didn’t explain why Tristan would permanently mark himself. Apparently Justin didn’t get it either.
    “So, why’d you get the tat?” he asked, breaking the silence.
    “He’s marked just as Amelia’s daughter will be marked. He’s the one who will find her,” Rachel said, watching me.
    Maybe she thought I’d be freaked by the idea of him being obsessed with some werewolf story, but Tim had a lot of weird friends. And I wasn’t exactly normal either. If Tristan could accept my anti-socialness, I could handle an interest in werewolves.
    “That was a beautiful story.” I smiled at Samara. “It sounded as if you’d told it hundreds of times.”
    “Probably,” she said, returning my smile.
    Conversation shifted to lighter topics and Rachel left with Bryce, dragging the heavy discomfort with her. It was well past one in the morning when the fire was doused and we climbed into the car. Tristan turned off the radio and the gentle rocking of the car lulled me to sleep. The ceasing of the motion woke me as Tristan put the car in park. I’d slept the entire drive home. I rubbed my eyes, trying to focus.
    “Well, sleeping beauty awakes. I never realized I was so boring.”
    “I’m so sorry, I was just tired.”
    “It’s okay, I was teasing,” he reassured me as we got out of the car and headed towards the door.
    “Thank you for driving me. I had fun.”
    “You sound surprised.”
    “I guess I am. I’m not really into having friends.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know. I’m just more into reading than people.” No way was I going to explain my parents to him. He probably had the whole nuclear family thing going on.
    “Well, in that case, I’m glad you had fun and I’ll forgive you for falling asleep during the tale of my heroic battles on the field.”
    “The field, huh?”
    “I did play football for a couple years.”
    “No wonder I fell asleep. Football works like magic at getting me to nod off.”
    “I’ll have to remember that. It could come in handy.” He threw me a wicked grin, wriggling his eyebrows.
    We stood at the door, silence surrounding us. I bit my lip nervously. Earlier, I thought he was about to kiss me. Would he try again? I felt myself leaning towards him. Then a pair of bright lights