5.3

"Look at his eyes, Maryam! He will never be able to live normally. If it gets out of hand, it can be detrimental to everyone. At worst, he'll end up killing his brothers, you, the boys and me...Kat knows better than anyone."

Rey shook her head. He wanted to speak, to defend himself against those accusations, but no one would listen. He took a deep breath and stepped back as he looked down at his hands. Gritting his teeth, he knew he would never be able to kill one of the pack, not as he was accused. Lifting his gaze, he opened his mouth only to close it again and bite his tongue until he made himself bleed. "To die without having lived would be a real shame," he said to himself.

Maryam, using a serious tone, seemed to speak her mind:

"My sister I'll take care of." Changing her tone of voice to a softer one, the vampire continued. "Neither the pain of your past, nor the words of others should make this decision. Let him grow up, and when he commits a fault that should be punishable by death..." She sighed and bowed her head. "You will be able to sentence him without feeling so guilty, my beloved. Also, who's to say that someone else won't be the one to end his life?"

Rey looked sideways, still with his head turned, he wanted to see his mother's face, but not his father. The words she used to convince the wolf not to do what he was thinking of doing ran down his back like a breath of cold air. "Maybe she's not saying what she's thinking?" he said to himself Rey whose legs were almost shaking.

Maryam, naked and still bleeding, rested her forehead against the lycanthrope's back. She waited in silence, she knew the room was empty. Silvia was still outside preventing the others from entering, the two old women had left. It was her, her husband and the children. No one else. Maybe that's why, little by little, the corners of her mouth widened and her fangs showed. There, where she could not be seen, she was giving a wide, whimsical smile, one that, according to Rey, people who are no good give when they get what they want.

Almost petrified by the revelation, the little boy realized the unconditional love his mother had for his father. That she was not defending him because he was her son, but because he was one more tool to bind and give purpose in the relationship to the lycanthrope who so cherished freedom and longed to return to the world he had left.

Wulfgang turned to embrace the vampire, who immediately wiped the smile she wore from her face and showed a stricken face. In the embrace, the gigantic body let out as much air as it could from inside its lungs.

Rey noticed that the immense subject was staring at the ceiling. But gazing with other eyes, deep red eyes that seemed to look into his fears once again, those that in the future would perhaps become reality.

"Oh, yes!" Wulfgang said in a low voice. "This mind of mine carries many conflicts, but I don't think it's so weak. At least not enough to end up driving me mad. But..."

Lighting his eyes, with the haunted look of one who looked up and down, full of defiant intent. A pause in his words, a change in his expression....

"I don't want to make the same mistakes my father in life made".

Sadness eventually showed on the wolf's face, even if nothing was resolved by his presence.

"I consider that my father didn't have the courage to kill me and for that reason he locked me up. I am being no different if I let him live. Maybe it won't be under a cellar, behind bars, but he will be locked up under my control until he can escape" he said in a broken voice, a voice of someone crying, the husband who buried his face in his beloved's lap just so she wouldn't see him cry.

Rey took a few steps into the room. Barely leaning his back against the wall, he dropped into a sitting position on the floor with one hand over his open mouth. The idea that he was truly alone tore him up inside. He wanted to scream, to cry, to roar because he understood that the answer was to escape, love was not an option. He had no daddy and no mommy. "Who would treat his son with love if deep down inside he knew he shouldn't get attached because he might have to kill him?" wondered Rey. "No one," he answered himself. But he refused to stop believing in one possibility: that no matter how slim the chance, if he loved them and gave his all, maybe he would receive love like the "guardians of Paradise" did on the shore of the shining lake. "Maybe I can make them change. At least my mother, who needs me. But, if she wants to kill me, how could I love her? Why would she love me if I am different from my brothers?" questions Rey felt the need to answer. "Because I can make her happy. If I made her feel happy by not being killed by my father, I have a chance."

But Maryam kept talking:

"Love, listen to my voice...you must not drown yourself. But on problems that are not yet clear. We are both in this situation, together. Let me be the pillar that supports you at all times so that you do not collapse."

Rey put his hands to his ears, closed his eyes and let the darkness of the corner he was in engulf him.

"That means that, if the time comes and you can't, I will take responsibility and kill him," said the vampire as she stroked her hands up and down her beloved's hair.

Rey, denied as many times as he could. Still, it wasn't enough. "They spoke of humans, of the dangerous world that resides out there, but it isn't so." Breaking the fractions of his face, he continued his thoughts, "But look at this world. Because the potential of mine is so great and in my past incarnation I made it all chaotic, they are frightened by what may come to pass. Even though they are so powerful, they feel helpless and fearful, of course, if they have interests to preserve. The darkness could violently swallow them up, the ground could split in two, the wind could turn into a storm, but of all the things that could happen... they choose to fear me. It's not fair."

Maryam said to the wolf with a cheerful tone:

"Putting aside the future, let's better focus on the present. Before the rest of the pack comes in, why don't we give them the names I have decided on!" As if the previous discussion never happened.

"Impressive the ability to be able to change his attitude," thought the little guy no one could see. "If only I could do the same... If only it were as easy for me as it was for her...".

Wulfgang added:

"Names?" It didn't look like he had changed his attitude, but at least he seemed to have something to occupy his mind with.

"Keeping busy." Rey clicked his tongue, still cowering on his hands and feet. "Maybe that's the answer to putting emotions aside," the little guy said to himself.

Maryam, almost prancing as Ehimus did when she was happy, came over and with her hand pointed:

"The vampire will be named Jhades and I will let him carry the surname of my lineage. The lycanthrope will be named David....".

Rey noticed how the second creature that was being pointed out, as soon as she heard the name they were going to give her, reflected sadness in her face and burst into tears. Maryam corrected herself after that reaction, apparently unhappy on the part of the red-eyed baby.

"He doesn't seem to like it..."

"Well, crying does bring its conveniences. At least I know who mommy's favorite son is now," Rey said to himself in a depressed tone.

Wulfgang made up his mind to speak:

"He'd better be named Dante and I'll let him carry the family name of my lineage" And so, the child stopped crying.

For the two parents, there remained one last unnamed child, the one in the middle. The one that did not react and only breathed while looking at everyone with active eyes.

Rey, crestfallen, gave room for a sigh, he knew that his name had no last name and he was seeing first hand what his siblings had been given, but not him. He could very well feel envious, doubt and complain about being slighted. But he also knew that what made him different, in a way, made him unique.

Wulfgang continued:

"Maryam... Katherine will not be at all happy with us letting him live, let alone naming him."

"I am certain that, if we take care of him, he might well be different."

"Even so, he is still an 'unwanted'."

Maryam added, putting her happiness aside, almost bursting into tears:

"Even if he is different, we are the only ones who know about this because we were the ones responsible. I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... but I want to name him."

"Fake tears from a face that hadn't long been laughing," Rey thought without even having to lift his head to confirm.

"Maryam, my beloved..." said Wulfgang, "to me it is sad, but also real" As one who yields to entreaties. "We cannot give her our surnames, but I am not opposed to giving her a name."

The lycanthrope stood upright in front of the white-eyed baby.

"Little one, names mark the path to greatness and yours will be Rey. "Unwanted" must be your surname, whether you are good or whether you are bad... but I cannot dare to put such words on you because whenever society knows your roots, you will be shunned. Rey Of-Heaven is the name by which everyone will recognize you. I hope someday you will understand that. As a father, I can do no more for you."

The werewolf spoke like someone who was broken inside, someone who with every word he let out of his mouth was accompanied by a tear falling to the ground. The sound of the lycanthrope's tears made Rey pull his head out from between his legs. He didn't like the scene, it all sounded fictitious and meaningless to him. The lycanthrope kneeling on the ground reflected sadness on his face, as if he was going to die. On the other hand, the vampire was looking at the ceiling and laughing loudly, also as if she was going to die.

"Fang, even though I always laugh behind your back and wear this fake smile on my face. Far from being fine, I'm torn up inside... Owning your heart brought me to the point of even having to curse one of my descendants for the rest of his life and if you have to kill him, would I forgive you, or would I forgive myself?..... I disregard the answer. But, on the other hand, I am happy. Looking at life from another perspective, you would have gone the same way, you would have suffered the same at the hands of the one before me... of your first love. Just understand that the years don't change the heart, neither does the need to want to have control" she said as she watched her husband slowly collapse and she was by his side to help him.