Carnal

Chapter Ten - Conspiracy Theory

Ella's P.O.V.

What have I done?

I watched the flames dance in the hearth of the fireplace. They climbed the brick walls, only to be pulled back down into the coals that glowed beneath the logs.

That's how I felt, like I'd been floating on the highs of my daydreams and suddenly yanked back down into reality.

I couldn't believe I had been naïve enough to believe that Cain had liked me. It was a hasty assumption that I made based on one action he'd later admitted that he regretted making.

I couldn't believe that Zak was right. I shouldn't have followed those men in the car that night and I never should have left my home and family to chase ghosts.

It'd gotten me nothing but a concussion and false hopes.

There was only one reason that I still sat in Cain's dark bedroom on the couch staring into the fire. That was to assure myself that I wasn't lousy enough to bail on something just because my emotional investment in it had backfired.

Taking interest in Cain was a stupid move. I was there to find my grandfather. I wasn't there to get a boyfriend or fall in love.

I needed to focus on finding him and when I did find him, I was going to leave and not look back.

My grandfather's books sat next to me on the couch, where they had been for several days.

The green one on Lycanthropy proved to be an amusing read. However, it wasn't something I would have ever thought my grandfather would have taken interest in.

It wasn't the fantasy novel I had expected it to be. It was an anthropological perspective on the social and biological aspects of creatures otherwise known as Lycanthropes.

What surprised me the most was how convincing it was, like the person who wrote it actually believed in what they were writing.

There were diagrams sketched out of the prehistoric creatures they'd evolved from and even timelines dating back to the late-Cenozoic era.

Supposedly, Lycanthropic evolution from early Canis species began a few million years after humans began to evolve from primates. Eventually, as the race Homo sapiens formed, the descendants of the first wolves were killed for their fur.

To survive, the Lycanthropes became nocturnal animals to better hide themselves from the world that wanted to kill them.

This was when the book began to lose its credibility.

According to the author, the Lycanthropes learned to disguise themselves as humans.

Over time, their skin had developed the ability to shed its fur almost immediately when exposed to sunlight. However, when the moon rose and the sun set, their fur would grow back to protect them from the cold nights.

But, their furry advantage wasn't the only evolutionary privilege they earned. Gifted with the ability to morph into their prehistoric figures when in fear, Lycanthropes turned the food chain upside down and began to hunt the very things that had once hunted them.

This, I assumed, was where the fairytales drew their inspiration.

To help eliminate the risk of extinction, Lycanthropes lived in packs like their sister species, Canis lupus, otherwise known as the wolf. Also like the wolf, Lycanthropes remained very community-oriented when reproducing.

Ultimately, this led to an underground society that grew rapidly, unchecked.

Hundreds of thousands of years later, Lycanthropes still roamed the earth, disguised as humans and could morph from man to monster at will.