I stopped once I saw her though, shocked at what I saw. It WAS Nan, no question about it. But she seemed to have gotten quite a bit younger, and now looked like a woman in her early thirties. Her white hair was dark brown, and she appeared much more slender.
“Hello again, dear,” she said with a smile. “I'm sure you have questions.” She wasn't wrong; I had so many questions, in fact, that they piled up in my mind, all competing to get out of my mouth at the same time.
So rather than asking anything coherent, I simply looked at her and said, “Nan? Come on, what the hell?”
Nan took a long sip of tea, and seemed to be holding back a bit of amusement. “I'm not quite sure how to answer that, child. Calm yourself and try again.”
For some reason, my inner wolf was excited by seeing Nan, which wasn't making things any easier. I did as she asked, however, and steadied my mind. “So..you're young now?”
“Much better, child,” she said, taking another sip of tea. “To monitor so many dimensions simultaneously, I had to split my essence over and over again, which weakened me immensely. Though I am immortal, it put an incredible strain on me. But now that I am sure that THIS is the prime dimension I should focus my attention on, I was able to call those parts of myself back.”
“That reminds me,” I said, “I think the ring is a little broken.”
“Impossible,” she replied.
“No,” I insisted, “When I tried to undo a wish, it wouldn't let me. I couldn't even complete the wish.”
Nan laughed softly. “Oh, you mean when you tried to wish not to be a werewolf? That wasn't the ring, child. That was YOU. In your heart of hearts, you wanted to be a werewolf, even if you didn't consciously realize it.”
I paused, wanting to argue. “But..”
“Are you saying that you don't? You and I both know that's a lie. You feel more complete than you ever have before, don't you?” Nan stared intently at me with a knowing smirk on her face. “It feels right, doesn't it?”
She was absolutely right. There was no way, even with what had happened, that I would give this up. “It does,” I conceded. “But..that leads to other questions.”
“As does most knowledge,” Nan replied with a playful smile. “Particularly the forbidden kind.”
“You gave me the ring specifically. It wasn't random, was it?”
“No, it wasn't random,” she told me.
“You said before that you monitored other dimensions, and me, specifically. The last time we talked, you referenced several times about me being a werewolf, or women around me being werewolves. Do you have a specific interest in those outcomes?”
Nan paused for a few seconds, and smiled with great satisfaction. “Yes.”
“Why?” I asked her. I could feel my heart rate increasing. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew the answer to this. Somehow, I could tell that the wolf aspect knew the answer, and knew her. I was almost scared to hear the reply to the question I'd just asked, though I couldn't explain why that was.
“To make sure that you were who I knew you to be. And to watch as you reawakened,” she said softly.
“And...who am I, then?” The question fell out of my mouth. It almost sounded like nonsense. I knew who I was, right? I was James Davidson. Just an 18 year old kid with a kink, nothing more. Right?
“You understand reincarnation, yes?” It was less a question, more a statement. I nodded.
“Then you will not be surprised when I tell you that you've lived many lives before, over the millennia.”
“I suppose not,” I replied. “I mean, I'm sitting here with a magic ring, talking to a spirit in a world where werewolves exist. Reincarnation is probably the most believable thing out of all of that.”
She smirked at that. “To your mother Julia, she would say that you are James, if you asked her the question 'who am I'? But I have known you longer than she has. I have known you across eons. To me, you are the abandoned child I found with his sister amongst the seven hills of what would one day be known as Rome.”
My wolf aspect seemed thrilled by this revelation, just..abnormally happy, but I was confused. “Wait..” I said, racking my brain. This sounded familiar. I knew I'd heard this somewhere before. I struggled to remember; my ears were ringing with the force of my concentration. The wolf's eagerness and excitement was growing. A name was on my lips. The wolf wanted me to say it. I looked at Nan, who was staring intently at me. This made no sense. It couldn't be. * I * couldn't be. “Romulus?”
Nan beamed at me with an openly proud grin on her face. “Yes, child.”
“Woah..” I said. I felt lightheaded. The knowledge was overwhelming, even as I tried to reject it. “So that means...”
“It has always been in your nature to be a werewolf, because you are, on some ancestral level, father to them all,” she told me.
“And you're the one who I suckled from?”
“I am,” she said quietly. “I was a nature spirit in the guise of a wolf..my name is barely remembered any more, although those who do remember me know me as Lupa or Luperca. Though you may call me what you called me as an infant. A single syllable before you could truly speak – Nan.” She laughed fondly for a moment, a genuine, wistful smile on her face. “Truthfully, at that time, everything was 'nan' to you. Fish, trees, the sky, all of it was 'nan'. It just happened to stick, after you HAD gained speech, in my case.”
This knowledge was overwhelming me completely. I wanted to fight against it just as much as I wanted it all to be true. “Don't fight it, child,” Nan said, her voice edged with a tone of concern but also command. “Accept your crown. You know the truth of it all. This is why you didn't need the moon. This is why you are larger than all the others. This is why they submit to you. Not the ring, not some magic pouring forth from it, but because YOU ARE MY CHILD, AND YOU ARE A DEMIGOD.”
“But..” I said, as my mind tried to reject the growing reality that this was somehow, impossibly all true. “I wasn't, until I made the wish..”
Nan unbuttoned her shirt. Her breasts swelled larger, and a few fine brown strands of fur blossomed from them. “Come, child,” she said, her voice nurturing and honeylike. “Suckle from me once more, and remember the truth of it all.”
I couldn't stop myself as I stared at her breasts, swollen with milk. Her nipples were thick teats. While she retained mostly human features, her eyes were the yellow eyes of a wolf. I couldn't resist her. I got up from the chair and sat on her lap as she placed a nipple in my mouth and I began to drink from her.
Images of the past flooded my mind. I saw myself running naked. I saw my first change. I saw the three of us – myself, Nan and a girl, hunting, changing, killing. Turning others.
“Your essence..it was split and sealed,” Nan said as I nursed, “and you were made to forget...”
More images flashed, more rapidly, more powerfully pushing into my mind. The girl and I, older now..mated. I loved her. Loved her truly. She completed my world. We rutted, children were born. Our pack grew. The town grew. Rome. Named for me. Named for the one who gave strength to the founding citizens.
“You always try to awaken..but the seal is powerful,” Nan continued. “You needed help, each incarnation that didn't awaken only strengthened the seal, making it more likely you wouldn't awaken in your next life.”
More images, no longer Rome. This time, Germany. Still the same though. Rutting, hunting, killing, turning. Again, the girl. She looked different, but it was her, and the feelings were the same. Now France. Now England. Now Scotland. All the same. The same cycle. Rut, hunt, change, kill, turn. Always the girl.
“And so I spent centuries crafting this ring, imbuing it with the divine power of the old magics. It was not random; this ring was made for you, my child. MY child. My beloved.”
Her voice crashed through my mind as I continued to greedily drink. More images, the same images, different places. Now Iceland, Sweden, Greenland, America. I was there. Rutting, hunting, turning, changing. Always with the girl.
“I hate those who sealed you,” she said, “Men with pride above their station, men serving the so-called one god, the tripartite god of Abraham. Enslaver of women, jailer of men. Eater of man's potential.”
I suckled harder, squeezing her breast to force more milk into me. I could feel her outrage, and it filled me with anger. I could feel the power of her divinity permeating me.
“And now, it is the hour of the wolf once more,” Nan told me as she stroked my hair. “Your wish has shattered the hold on this particular dimension. When you behold the full moon, your howl will open the final lock, sealing it as a true prime, declaring your dominion. And then the next steps in reclaiming our kingdom shall proceed.”
I pulled away, finally sated. My body was humming with her energy. It all made sense. My kink was that other side of me, trying to communicate the truth. My power and dominance was my birthright.
And now, in two days time, would be the beginning of my destiny.
I realized that I could no longer feel the wolf as a separate entity. For a moment, I was distressed, until I realized that the wolf was fully a part of me now. We had bonded. We were one. I was complete.