“How many of my followers are left?” you asked. “Such a long time must have hurt my numbers.”
The two she-wolves looked rather uncomfortable. “Twenty still regularly visit this temple. Fifteen females, including us. Five men.”
“And do you all still hunt and turn the humans?”
“My lord,” said the grey she-wolf, “we haven't been able to transform since your death. That was the other way we knew it was you- your aura freed us from our human shackles. The potency of your blood has returned!”
“And the other temples?” you asked.
“Around the same numbers, Lord,” said Rebecca. “I speak with the priests and priestesses roughly once a month. We'd been coordinating our search for you, and watching the skies and aether for portents of your return.”
“Two weeks until the full moon,in the world beyond this temple and the city beyond us,” you said with a bit of a low grumble. “We will visit them and reawaken their powers. But tonight we will reawaken the loyal beasts of this temple.”
Your mind was returning, slowly. Your memories were still distant, but who you were and what you could do was becoming more vivid. While your two chosen wives would be able to maintain the great form indefinitely, the rest of your followers would need a boost of your power to be able to change again, and would still revert when the sun rose.
You strode out the doors of the artifact room, followed by Alice and Rebecca and stared at the two guards. You could hear their heartbeats, elevated as they looked at the three of you. You could smell their desire to change.
“Thank you for your loyalty,” you said to them. “And now, here is your reward.” You concentrated for a moment, and your fur-covered, paw-like hands began to glow with a soft white energy that looked exactly like the full moon's light. You laid one on either man's shoulder and said, “Change.”
The spears fell from their hands as the men sank to their knees. Their tunics began to rip as their bodies swelled with muscle. They groaned in ecstasy as the transformation overwhelmed them, experiencing the sensations that they'd always wished for as loyal members of the cult. Soon, they rose to their feet once more with powerful howls echoing to the night sky.
“My lord,” they said in unison, their eyes burning with the reborn lupine energy inside of them. “We await your orders.”
“Continue to stand guard over my artifacts,” you told them. “I will send you each a bitch soon enough, with whom you may take your pleasure tonight, as a further reward for your loyalty to me and to this temple.” You could smell their arousal growing, and saw the thick red rockets start to emerge from their sheaths as they anticipated their first ruts. “Tomorrow, our work begins in earnest. Tonight, we celebrate.”