Learning the Ways of the Night from the Wolf - Chapter 52

“Your mother must now receive our power.^[1] I’ve been patient until now… but there are no longer any choices left.”

When Cain peered down at the underground chamber where his mother was confined, his father said those words. Every time his father emerged from that cellar, a thick, indescribable scent of pheromones clung to him.

“Cain. My son. Come to Mommy.”

Then came the day when Cain accidentally dropped a ball woven from straw down into the cellar. When he went below to retrieve it, a thin hand reached out from beyond the iron bars.

“Mother…”

It was his mother. Her appearance, after so long apart, had changed beyond recognition. Gaunt arms. Hair hanging limp and lifeless. The lustrous, long hair that had always been so beautiful was now a ruined mess, fallen out in clumps and scattered across the floor.

“I want to go outside and pick some berries. Cain. Let’s go out together. Mommy will pick cornelian cherries^[2] for you.”

“……”

At his mother’s desperate plea, Cain hesitated briefly, then carefully opened the door.

The guilt and fear of defying his father, those were enormous, overwhelming things. But in that moment, the light in his mother’s eyes as she looked at him was greater still. Like a shoot sprouting from frozen ground, life sparkled in those eyes once more.

The fact that his mother was looking at him again, the way she used to so long ago, made him overjoyed. Happy.

“Cain. Want to bet who can pick more cornelian cherries, you or Mommy?”

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, his mother took his hand. The warmth he’d forgotten, the warmth he’d missed, flowed into his palm.

He was happy. His mother was looking at him and smiling back at him, stroking his hair.

He prayed silently for this moment to last forever and ever.

“Mother?”

But that evening, when Cain returned with cornelian cherries gathered to his chest, his mother didn’t appear at their meeting place. No matter how long he waited, she never came.

The frantic dash back to the cave, wondering if she’d gone home first. The way his father snarled at him for the first time, baring razor-sharp fangs. The uproar from the other wolves, demanding to know why the entire pack had to search for one human woman.

All of it blurred together in a chaotic rush.

“Mother…”

And once again, Cain remembered his mother’s scent best of all. Once again, he was the first to find her.

Only this time, what Cain found was not his mother turning back to look at him.

What he found was a corpse lying cold at the base of a cliff, blood pouring from its shattered head.

“……”

The eyes that had sparkled with life mere moments ago, every last trace of warmth had vanished from them.

Cain thought.

Why had his mother tried to leave the pack? Tried to leave her family, to leave him?

If she was going to die this pathetically, why had she wanted the outside world so desperately? If she had obeyed his father, followed the pack’s rules, she could have lived safely for the rest of her life, so why had she let go of his hand?

“…I told you I would stay by your side.”

Standing below the cliff, gazing down at the blood spreading across the snow, Cain murmured. That vivid scarlet looked just like the color of his own eyes.

“…Haah.”

With that red as the final image, Cain woke from the dream. Perhaps because those useless memories had swept through him in a single flash, he felt absolutely wretched, as terrible as it was possible to feel.

He roughly pushed his hair back and reached out to the side. He wanted to confirm the warmth beside him, the warmth that had become so deeply familiar. If he could hold Tina, press his skin against hers, this foul feeling might settle, even just a little.

“……”

But all that met his outstretched hand was cold air.

The blanket, thrown aside in disarray as though someone had fled. The unfamiliar silence filling the space. A scent, growing faint.

Tina was gone.

“…Damn it.”

His heart began to beat faster.

To Cain, Tina was a fascinating creature. A strange, novel fascination that had appeared in a life that had only ever known survival or death. Being with Tina felt exactly like returning to those long-ago days, the days when he’d picked cornelian cherries.

The way she smiled at him. The way she sometimes talked about herself. The way she clung to him, weeping. The way she wanted him so badly that she reached out with her small hands. Every tiny movement, all of it, was endlessly captivating. That was why he wanted to see more. He wanted to keep her at his side and watch her, on and on, and eventually possess every last part of her.

And so he had to make Tina stay by his side, and only his side. Even if he had to sever her legs, no one, nothing, not even she herself would be permitted to take Tina from him. He would devour her lips so she could never speak to the world, every breath and every glance bound to him alone. He would cover her eyes so she could see nothing without his mercy. He would bury himself so deep inside that slender body that she would be remade into one who craved only him, for all eternity.

Until her dying breath, those eyes would hold nothing but his reflection. Until every last breath she drew flowed toward him and him alone.

So that the thought of leaving his side would never so much as cross her mind.

Translation Notes

^[1] ↩

This refers to the forced supernatural bonding within the werewolf pack. Cain’s mother, a human woman, was compelled to undergo a transformation against her will.

^[2] ↩

Cornelian cherries 산수유 (sansuyu) refers to the fruit of Cornus officinalis, a species of dogwood native to Korea. These small, tart red berries ripen in autumn and are commonly found in Korean mountain regions. In this chapter, they function as a symbol of fleeting warmth and happiness.