"What's there to know?" asked Brooke. "Isn't it just non-stop fucking and hunting?"
"Not quite," Diana laughed.
"For starters, there's a strict hierarchy," Luna elaborated. "The alpha and the alpha's mate are on the top. Think of it like a tribal chieftain, or maybe the captain of a ship. Our dad Caleb's the current alpha, and I'm the frontrunner to succeed him."
"For now," Lauren chuckled smugly.
"Whatever," Luna said with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, the second in command is the beta. To continue the ship analogy, the beta's the first mate. Large packs can have more than one beta. Ours has two. Then there are specialists. These are the officers of the 'ship'. They're the most knowledgeable in their respective fields, and they are second only to the alpha and beta in that field. Different packs have different sorts of specialists, but there's almost always a shaman, a Master or Mistress of the Hunt, and a Lord or Lady of War."
"You'll like Shaman Fenris," Diana chimed in. "That old guy's a real chill dude."
"Below the specialists are the deltas," Luna continued. "These are like the seasoned sailors of a ship, the guys who know their stuff and have proven that they can be trusted with a little extra authority and seniority. Next down are the gammas. These are the fresh meat of the 'ship' who haven't gotten their metaphorical sea legs yet. Last of all is the omega, the 'cabin boy' of the pack. The omega exists to be on the bottom. It's the omega's duty to shoulder the ultimate lowliness to help hold the social order of the pack together. This takes different forms in different packs. Some packs use the omega as a scapegoat, piling on the scorn, humiliation, and abuse for maximum catharsis. Other packs are respectful of the omega and just limit the 'abuse' to giving the omega all sorts of menial tasks that the rest of the pack can't be bothered with."
"Like fetching drinks?" Brooke asked.
"Good example," Luna nodded. "Now, this hierarchy isn't rigid. We're more like a tribe than a feudal monarchy. That means meritocracy. Pack members can challenge each other to status fights to move up the ranks or knock their rivals down a peg or two. And the alpha can naturally decree promotions and demotions. If you want the alpha's favor, be good at your tasks and always act in the best interests of the pack. The pack is everything. Any questions?"
Kristin raised her hand. "You said something about shamans. DO werewolves have their own religion? DO I have to leave my church?"
"Werewolves do actually have their own religion," Diana responded, "but we don't do forced conversions. It's a tolerant and pluralistic faith."
"What do you guys believe?" asked Erika. "I grew up agnostic, but I'd kinda like to find a spiritual path that works for me. Maybe it would help with my..." Erika hung her head, ashamed. "...my rage issues."
"Well, we believe that everything began with two primordial spirits," Diana continued, "the spirits of Cosmic Light and Cosmic Dark. These are Father Day and Mother Night. All creatures intelligent enough to have a religion worship one or the other. They have many names. Father Day has been called God, Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Lord, the Heavenly Father, Adonai, HaShem, Elohim, El-Shaddai, Brahman, Ishvara, Vishnu, Maitreya, Amitabha, Vairocana, Avalokiteśvara, Kṣitigarbha, Amoghasiddhi, Manjushri, Ahura Mazda, Ra, Ptah, Thoth, Horus, Zeus, Jupiter, Apollo, Odin, Tengri, Olorun, Gitchi Manitou, the Most High, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Lord of Hosts, and the Ancient of Days. Mother Night has been called Gaia, Eris, Rhea, Demeter, Ceres, Terra, Pachamama, Nut, Nyx, Houtu, Bhumi, Hecate, Ninhursag, Kali, Sekhmet, the Morrígan, Nemain, Danu, Bellona, Jiutian Xuannü, Ishtar, Astarte, Anat, Inanna, Jörđ, Hel, Santa Muerte, Izanami, Chaos, the Goddess, the Earth Mother, and the Great Mother."
"That's a lot of fucking names!" Abigail chimed in.
"Well, you won't have to remember them all," Diana laughed. "The point is that all religions in the world can be traced back to Father Day and Mother Night. Father Day is the cosmic force of light, order, discipline, illumination, science, masculinity, and civilization. Mother Night is the cosmic force of darkness, freedom, passion, intuition, mystery, femininity, and nature. They are comrades and siblings, but also occasional rivals."
"Think yin and yang," Luna added. "Mother Night's the yin and Father Day's the yang."
"I think I like Mother Night," Belle smiled. "I think I sort of already worship her through Wicca."
"Exactly," Diana nodded. "There are two other major spirits as well. These are Lady Sun and Lady Moon, the brides of Father Day and Mother Night respectively."
"Do they also have a ton of names?" asked Crystal.
"Plenty," Diana nodded. "Lady Sun is known to different people as the Virgin Mary, Amaterasu, Hera, Juno, Athena, Minerva, Aurora, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Frigg, Brigid, Eos, Hestia, Vesta, Marici, Benzaiten, Anahita, Shamash, Utu, Saulė, Áine, Hemera. As for Lady Moon, she's been called Artemis, Diana, Luna, Selene, Hathor, Parvati, Radha, Kisshōten, Aphrodite, Venus, Freyja, Bast, Persephone, Sif, Isis, Asherah, Ostara, Chang'e, and Mielikki."
"I recognize some of these names from religion and mythology," Belle remarked. "Are so many gods and goddesses all just four beings?"
"Yes and no," Luna answered, remembering what Shaman Fenris had said when she'd asked him the same question. "One person can have many aspects and manifestations, each with its own personality. It's like the Christian Trinity or the Avatars of Vishnu."
"Anyway," Diana continued, "Lady Moon is really important to werebeast religion, perhaps more important than Mother Night Herself. Mother Night is almighty but distant. Vampires (being really pretentious occultist types) worship Mother Night directly, but werebeasts prefer Her more approachable bride, Lady Moon. It was Lady Moon who transformed our ancient ancestors into the first werebeasts. And taught us the ways of nature and the pack. Both Lady Sun and Lady Moon are served by countless lesser spirits. The spirits of Lady Sun are called angels, and the spirits of Lady Moon are called, well, spirits. Certain kinds that live on our side of the Veil are called faeries. Spirits outside of the control of either of the Ladies are called demons. The shaman talks with all spirits of the pack's territory, but Lady Moon comes first. If we follow Lady Moon's teachings, we go to a wild, untamed paradise called the Summerland after death to rest in bliss until reincarnation. If we walk the path of evil..." Diana glared at Lauren. "...then we go to Hell to be tortured by demons like all the other assholes of the world."
"And what are Lady Moon's moral teachings?" Lexie asked. "I don't wanna mess up."
"It's simple," Luna smiled. "First of all, put the pack first. Always. Even if you must lay down your life for the pack, you must do your duty to the pack's wellbeing. Nearly as important, we must live in harmony with nature. We never take more than we need from it, and we don't build cities. Even the urban werecats and wererats inhabit the cities of the humans rather than building their own. Most other werebeast breeds consider even doing that to be heresy. Also, silver is unspeakably sacred to Lady Moon, a symbol of Her holy light. We mortal werebeasts are forbidden to touch so divine a substance. If we do, our flesh shall be burned by its holy power."
"Hence the silver bullet thing," Kristin remarked.
"Exactly," Luna nodded. "There's also a bunch of particular rituals like the Sacred Hunt on the night of the full moon, but you're better off hearing about those from Shaman Fenris."
"My brain feels overwhelmed!" Abigail moaned. "This feels like my Comparative Religion 101 class!"
"You don't have to memorize it," Luna smiled reassuringly. "The shaman will guide you through any relevant parts. Now I should discuss the pack's place in the supernatural ecosystem of Stokerville. Our main supernatural neighbors are Clan von Karnstein, a vampire clan ruled by Matriarch Carmilla."
"Are the vampires evil?" Lexie asked nervously.
"Are they a threat to the pack's power?" Lauren chimed in.
"No on both counts," Diana answered. "Clan von Karnstein is a perfectly ethical vampire clan. Some vampire clans (like Clan Clan Tepes, Clan de Rais, Clan Báthory, and what's left of Clan von Wisborg, for example) are the bloodthirsty psychopaths of Hollywood stereotype, and clans like Clan Ruthven or Clan Rasputin are kinda morally ambiguous, but Matriarch Carmilla wants to live in harmony with humans and werebeasts. Her vamps only take enough blood to survive, and they only transform the willing. Problem is, Mom refuses to see this. She was born in was slaughtered by evil vampires and she has a grudge against the whole fucking species."
"Well, there is one way that Clan von Karnstein's causing issues for our pack," Luna cut in, awkwardly clearing her throat. "You see, When a vampire patriarch or matriarch settles in an area, the elder vampire radiates magic that causes more and more babies born in the territory to grow up with the same sexual orientation as that elder vampire. Sex is a big part of vampire culture, you see. That's why my sisters and I are all lesbians. Most Stokerville girls are. That's why we're out recruiting new girls into the pack. Most of the girls are lesbians and the boys need mates."
"It's a good short-term solution," Lauren smirked, "but if we do nothing else, we'll all end up with dykes for daughters. If we don't want this problem to repeat itself, I say we wipe out the von Karnsteins and break the spell."
"Mom might agree," Diana frowned, "but Dad doesn't like that plan. You see, vampires are more powerful than even werebeasts. Even if we wiped them out, they'd take a lot of werewolves with them. It isn't worth it."
"Agreed!" Belle nodded fervently. "War and violence help nobody. Do we have any other neighbors."
"There's a budding werehyena pack led by my sister Selena," Luna said, trying to keep lustful thoughts of Selena's wherehyena cock out of her head. Mentioning this was a risk, but she needed allies to help her cover for Selena. "Selena was born a wolfborn human, which is a child of werewolves who failed to inherit Lady Moon's gift of a beast form. Shi went to visit the town witch and bought a few magical tools and used them to become a werehyena. They're an... interesting breed. They're all female, only not exactly female. To put it bluntly, they're herms. Girls with penises. That's basically Selena's life now. Shi's forming hir own pack." Luna's face turned deadly serious. "And I don't want you talking about the werehyenas with your new packmates. Ever! Werewolves are territorial at the best of times, and Mom is extremely intense and... not very fond of Selena. I owe Selena one, and I need you to help me protect her pack from detection by Mom and the others. Got it?"
Everyone nodded. Lauren grinned wickedly to herself, filing this information away for use as a potential trump card against Luna.
"There's also a werefox skulk to be concerned about right now," Luna went on. "Werefoxes are shameless troublemakers and delinquents who wander from place to place, stealing, pranking, and seducing to their brazen hearts' content. Unfortunately, one of their skulks is camped on the edge of town right now. Dad and Mom want them to get a move on."
"I can help with that," Erika grinned, anticipating a good fight.
"There's also another skulk in the making," Diana said, "but it's different. A human girl named Renata Hamilton has turned herself into a werevixen, and she's taming her instincts with an Inhibitor Potion. She intends to make all of her future skulkmates take it so they can live in harmony with Stokerville's other residents."
"Did I hear you mention a witch earlier?" asked Belle.
"Yeah," Diana nodded. "Morgana Faye. She runs a shop specializing in spells and magical artifacts. All the local magicals buy from her. She's also got two apprentices; one of them's her daughter Vivi."
"And there's a wereotter romp close-ish to here," Luna chimed in. "Good thing they're not quite close enough for Mom to care. Oh, and try to avoid a nightclub called Inferno! Dad says its run by succubi harvesting life force. It's against the owner's rules to take enough to kill, but some employees are loose canons."
"Thanks for the heads up," Brooke flinched. "The first thing I usually do in a new place is head straight for the nightclubs."
"Also, be careful around a girl called Tori Vordenburg or her girlfriend Erzulie Lachouette," Diana warned. "They're 'monster' hunters. Tori's aunt lives in Stokerville, and she's in town right now. Tori won't kill magicals who 'mind their manners', which means no killing, forcibly transforming, or otherwise harassing humans, but she's pretty paranoid. Erzulie's a witch, and the pair has an angel friend called Yomiel over in the next town, so expect them to bring the magical firepower if you piss them off."
Luna looked pointedly at Lauren. "Remember that. Tori has plenty of silver bullets to let loose if you do anything shitty to the humans once you're a werewolf."
Lauren sighed dramatically. "Fine, I guess."
"So," Kristin said, raising her hand. "How do we become werewolves? Is... is biting involved?"
Lexie shrieked at the implication, burying her head in Kara's hair.
Diana laughed. "No, nothing like that. Hollywood made that shit up for drama. Mom's gonna have you rub a magic salve into your armpits and crotches to change you." She mimed rubbing her own exposed crotch and pits for effect. "We'll phone you when she's ready. It'll either be later tonight or on the next full moon."
"That actually sounds kinda hot," Kara smiled.
"Glad you think so," Luna smiled as she shifted into human form and hastily dressed herself. "Well, we'd better touch base. See you girls later!"
"Nice meeting you!" Diana added as she shifted into human form and threw her own clothes on.