🪐

Rayne sat on the ledge of the lair, keeping an eye on Deucalion when he starts to speak
"I remember reading about the Beast of Gévaudan." He says
"So do I. I remember when Allison brought a book into school and one of the quotes was 'and his name was Argent.' I was absolutely terrified, well, semi terrified, I didn't know I was a werewolf but at I know hunters and werewolves were enemies since the beginning." She says.

"Oh, you've heard the human's side of the story. Oh no no no. The real one is much more bone chilling." He says
"Well I'm bored. Theo's went to do whatever so. Go on." She sighs.

"It was the Margeride Mountains in south central France 1764..."

🪐

In a Tavern the tavern keeper, Bernard, takes a large poster that reads, 'Recerché: La Bête,' and tries to pin it to the nearby wall. While searching for the pin, a crossbow bolt flies across the room and pins the poster to the wall. He turns to where the bolt came from to see Marie-Jeanne, sitting at the bar with her crossbow and giving him an amused look.

"Merci, Marie-Jeanne." He says and returns to behind the bar, where he refills Marie-Jeanne's drink while she re-reads the letter she received from Sebastien.
"Don't give up hope." He says and Marie-Jeanne smiles weakly at him and nods as he walks over to the nearby table when the tavern door opens.

"Leah! Behind the bar." Bernard shouts and a woman with dark blonde hair walks behind the bar and takes her cloak off
"Another letter?" Marie-Jeanne looks up to see her dear friend Leah, she had moved from Britain before the war.

"He sent this one for you too." Marie-Jeanne says and she hands her friend the letter, her brother and her friend had became quite close and very fond of each other before he went off to war.

"Merci." Leah says and Marie-Jeanne nods as absentmindedly listens to the conversation of the others at the table as the barmaid refills her drink
"Why ask for a volunteer? We all know who the best hunter is in Gévaudan-- Marie-Jeanne Valet. My sister." Sebastien Valet announces his presence as Marie-Jeanne smiles as she stands to her feet and turns to face him with tears of joy in her eyes. She wastes no time rushing over to hug him.

"Marcel! You are home!" She smiles and pulls him into a hug then she pulls her brother to the bar while giving him another hug
"Leah, mon cheri." Sebastien says as Leah runs to him with open arms
"I was just reading your letter." She smiles as he kisses her cheek.

"I'm not going to argue with your brother, Marie-Jeanne. What do you say?" A man asks and then everyone in the tavern starts to chant her name
"Well? Will you heed their call?" Sebastien asks
"I hunt animals, not rumors!" Marie-Jeanne says and The tavern bursts into laughter once again, which is only stopped by Henri, another French man who has come in with the dead body of a young boy in his arms and a devastated expression on his face.

The tavern goes quiet, and gasps of shock are heard as they gather around him, clearing off a table so they can lay the boy down-- all except for Marie-Jeanne, whose face has gone pale as she stares at the scene in horror. Bernard slowly walks toward the table.

"Emile? Emile?" He asks and kneels on the floor and wraps his arms around the body of his bloodied son, and Marie-Jeanne looks as though she's about to cry as well as the man breaks down in sobs as Leah leaves Sebastien's arms and puts her hand on Bernard's shoulder.

"Mon dieu! My son. Emile!" He sobs
"I found him in the woods. He whispered his last words to me." Henri says
"What were they?" Leah asks
"La Bête." Everyone is stunned by this revelation, and after a moment, Marie-Jeanne gets a determined yet mournful expression on her face.

"Monsieur Tolbert? I do not know what creature did this... But the hunting party leaves at dawn."

🪐

Leah wakes up to the sound of movement and a kiss on her head when she slowly blinks awake to see Sebastien and Marie-Jeanne leave for the hunt, she then decided to make her way to the woods where she sees her friend Henri.

"You're not really going on the hunt, are you."
"I am just about to go help." He says
"What would you like me to do?" She asks.

"Wait for my return, then we shall discuss." He says and Leah nods.

🪐

"Oh, so were they fucking on the side?" Rayne asks
"No! What is wrong with you?!" He asks
"A lotta things." She shrugs.

"Now, carry on." She crosses her legs.

🪐

Marie-Jeanne walks into Henri's cottage as she sees Leah standing there
"Leah?" She asks
"Oh, good you're back from the hunt." She smiles then it fades once she sees Marie-Jeanne's wound
"Let me look at that." She says and pulls her to a seat.

"What are you doing here?" Marie-Jeanne asks
"When I first came here I needed a place for shelter. Henri was kind enough to offer me it." Leah smiles.

Marie-Jeanne sits there as she looks around at the bowls and jars of materials on Henri's table while Leah holds a cloth to her wounds and she curiously lifts up a jar of familiar-looking black powder

"What is this?" She asks
"Mountain ash." He responds, she notices a bowl of red berries on the table and picks it up
"And that?" She asks.

"Mistletoe. Please, put that down." Henri says as he grabs some cloth and water to clean up the wound on Marie-Jeanne's leg from the Beast
"Why do you have all of this?" She asks
"To protect myself. I have spent...Half a lifetime gathering the implements and skills to survive a werewolf." He says.

"I can teach you... If you want to know." Henri says
"He knows a lot stuff about surviving a werewolf." Leah encourages
"I do not care about surviving one. I want to know how to kill one." Marie-Jeanne says.

🪐

Leah hands Marie-Jeanne several bottles of wine with a knowing look
"To honor the dead. I expect everyone to drink." Marie-Jeanne says and everyone nod in agreement and shrug in reluctance as the bottles are passed around and the wine poured into glasses.

Once everyone has a glass, Sebastien holds his own up in the air,
"To the dead." He says
"To the dead!" Everyone responds and drinks their wine, as Marie-Jeanne stares around the room for anything unusual as she lifts her glass to her lips. Then everyone is soon startled by the sound of glass breaking and turn to find Marcel has smashed his glass in his hands, and Sebastien looks at him with concern.

"Marcel..." Sebastien says and Marie-Jeanne rushes over him and takes his injured hand in her own
"I have got him. Come, Marcel. Out to the well." She says and they walk out to the tavern as Leah turns her head to Sebastien as he begins to cough and gasp. He backs up into the wall and starts tugging at his collar as his eyes start to glow bright beta blue and his fangs start to emerge, though the rest of the people are too distracted by their own conversation to notice.

Leah looks at him in shock as she lower herself under the bar while covering her mouth
"You have killed children." She hears Marie-Jeanne say
"I kill whatever dares to cross my path." He says
"Why?" She asks.

"It's what I am. What I've become. You've heard the old story of what happens when you drink rainwater from a wolf's print." Sebastien says
"You become the Demon-Wolf." He says.

🪐

"Wait is that true?" Rayne asks him
"I am telling you the most important part and your first thought is if drinking water from a wolf's print turns you into a werewolf is true?" He asks
"I mean it would save a lot of issues." She shrugs and he looks at her.

"Fine. Carry on."

🪐

"Go. Go ahead. Tell them its me. Then watch me tear them apart in a matter of moments-- every last soul in this place." Sebastien threatens
"You're a monster." Marie-Jeanne whispers
"Beast, Marie-Jeanne-- The Beast." He says and stands to his feet and walks over to Marie-Jeanne before kissing her on the side of the head just to antagonize her even more, and she freezes in fury and terror, torn between her desire for vengeance and her desire to keep the rest of the people safe.

"You won't catch me... And you won't kill me." He says
"We're family, Marie-Jeanne. We're family."

🪐

"Sow, how did they kill it?"
"They created a weapon. A pike." Deucalion says
"Then?" She asks.

"Marie-Jeanne spent 3 years hunting her own brother. Then she found him."

🪐

Marie-Jeanne, running for her life, turns back to see Sebastien, in human form, stalking her slowly several yards behind her, an arrow still lodged in his shoulder from what must have been their earlier confrontation. Marie-Jeanne suddenly trips and lands in the snow, and Sebastien starts to walk faster as he yanks the arrow out of his shoulder and casts it aside. Marie-Jeanne scrambles frantically until she finally makes it back on her feet and continues to run.

"Nowhere left to run, sister." He says Marie-Jeanne is starting to get winded, and Sebastien lifts his arms up at his sides as the dark shadows are summoned from the earth and envelope him until he becomes the Beast, with his blazing blue eyes and wickedly sharp fangs. The Beast gallops behind Marie-Jeanne, and she breaks into a sprint as he chases her before finally sliding onto a snow bank, grabbing the pike with the fleur-de-lis tip that she hid there earlier, and holds it up, screaming at the top of her lungs as the Beast lunges for her and impales himself on the pike.

Marie-Jeanne resists bursting into tears as the Beast slowly transforms back into Sebastien, who seems unimpressed by his sister's actions, though the pain of the wound does bring him to his knees, so Marie-Jeanne can look at him at eye-level. He groans in pain for a moment before he starts to laugh mockingly at her.

"You think this minor injury will stop me? I'm the famous and feared Beast of Gévaudan! And, when I'm done killing, everyone will know. I will have done such horrors that all of history will remember my name." He says as she looks at him in disgust.
"No one will remember."

"Damnatio memoriae? You would have them take my name? Our name?"
[Sebastien looks as though he may hurt her, but suddenly, he begins to cough and choke as blacken blood begins to pour from his mouth, both shocking and confusing him.

"What? What is this?"
"No ordinary steel-- wolfsbane and mountain ash, forged with our blood under the light of a full moon."
"History might remember you, Sebastien... But only as a beast." She says.

🪐

"How is this the werewolf tale? The fact that a woman killed the beast?" Rayne asks
"Because in the background when she killed him, there was something. Something following her."

🪐

Marie-Jeanne's head lifted as she heard a twig snap, she stands and turns to see a wolf walking towards her. It looks up at her before glowing it's red eyes and then transforming to a woman.

Leah.

"But her name wasn't Leah. It was Acalia Adalwolf. The first ever alpha."

Acalia smiles at her friend as Marie-Jeanne smiles back as they both nodded to each other.

"Je t'offre la paix, vieil ami." Acalia says
"J'accepte ta paix, vieil ami." Marie-Jeanne says. Acalia smiles once more before turning back into a wolf and walks back off into the forest.

"What did they say?" Rayne asks
"An acceptance of peace. Of hunters and werewolves." Deucalion says
"But what happened? Why all of this now?" Rayne asks and he looks at her.

🪐

Gerard, Chris and Lydia all stand around a table
"But I'm not an Argent. And I'm not Allison." Lydia says when Rayne walks into the room
"It was you!" She shouts and Gerard and tries to lunge at him when Chris stops her.

"It was your fault!" She shouts
"Rayne, what happened?" Chris asks
"He did this. He did it all." She says.

"What?" Chris asks
"He heard about the Maid of Gévaudan and he thought is disgusting to think that werewolves and hunters could live in harmony. In peace." Rayne says
"What are you talking about?" Chris asks.

"'J'accepte ta paix, vieil ami.' That is what Marie-Jeanne Argent said to her friend Acalia Adalwolf when she turned into a werwolf." She says
"She killed a werewolf. She should have killed Acalia." Gerard says
"So it's true." Chris turns to him.

"Obviously. He killed his first werewolf and then manipulated everyone to thinking it was the right thing to do." Rayne says.

"Creating fear in an enemy is more easy than you think by making a monster out of it." Gerard says.

"But wait. How was Acalia allowed to to past the mountain ash?" Lydia asks
"Because Acalia and Henri had an agreement. He would create a break in the barrier and trap her in it then let her out by doing the same and she would tell him everything about the supernatural." She says and stepped closer to Gerard.

"Rayne." Chris stops her and she scoffs
"Why are you defending him! He ruined my life! He manipulated Kate, Allison and now you!" She shouts.

"And let me tell you something," she turns to Gerard, "I will hunt you down and when you least expect it I will make you regret everything you have ever done, because you know what, you're right. I am my father's daughter and I will tear you to fucking pieces." Rayne threatens.

Her eyes then turn red and she looks at Chris and Lydia with a scoff and walk out the room.