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know she is quite the opposite."
Elbowing Beowulf in the ribs, Roxie felt well compensated
for his last remark when he grunted when she made contact
with it. "Now that we have thoroughly discussed each others'
sex lives, I don't think we need to say anything more about
it." Turning to Carl she asked, "Just how old are you?"
"I'm six hundred." He gave her a crooked smile when he
saw her eyes widen in surprise.
"I see. So you're a baby compared to Beowulf's thousand
plus years."
"Actually, the baby of the pack would be Wade. He's only
three hundred years old."
"Okaaay." Roxie turned back to Candice. "So you don't
mind dating a man who has over five hundred years on you?"
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Candice winked at Carl before she answered Roxie's
question. "Not at all. If anything it turns me on knowing he's
that old. He's had a lot of years of practice making love to a
woman. Now I get to benefit from all that experience. Don't
you agree, Rox? All the years Beowulf has been alive, he
must know how to turn a woman into a pile of mush with just
a touch. He's positively ancient compared to Carl."
"Let's keep our minds out of the gutter if you don't mind.
Considering he's the Beowulf from Beowulf and Grendel, I
guess you could say he is a tad on the ancient side."
"You can say the same about Gren, considering he's the
other half of the tale," Carl added.
Roxie's gaze flitted between the two men. They each gave
her a questioning look, as if to say she should have known
that bit of information. Pulling out a chair, Roxie sat down at
the kitchen table. "I need to sit down. This is starting to go
way beyond my normal realm of understanding. Are you
telling me Gren is actually Grendel?"
The others joined her at the table. Beowulf sat down next
to her. "I thought you would have figured that out by now,
Roxie. You seemed to know the tale very well."
She gave him a pointed stare. "Yes, I do, but just because
Gren's name is similar sounding to Grendel doesn't mean I
would in any way think it was him. If you go by the story, he
died near the end of the tale. And he was described as a
monster, a creature that lived in a cave."
"Like any old tale of that age, there is more myth than
truth in it. At the time, Gren was considered more beast than
man. To be perfectly frank he still is. He's a killer pure and
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simple. He lives for the hunt. He preyed on those weaker than
himself, taking pleasure in the fear he caused."
"As pack leader, don't you have some sort of control over
him?"
Beowulf shook his head. "No. Gren is not a member of my
pack. He's part of a rival pack. His pack's numbers have
declined dramatically over the years so there is no leader. It's
now just Gren and the few men he has been able to keep at
his side."
"It explains why he hates you so much. But you would
think some of the animosity he feels for you would wear off a
bit over the years."
"I can't ever see that happening. He feels he has every
right to hate me. One part of the tale is true I did kill his
mother."
"What happened? If you go by the tale again, it says
Grendel bled to death after having his arm cut off and that his
mother attacked, wanting revenge for her son. The last time I
saw Gren he had two arms, unless being a werewolf gives you
the ability to grow back limbs."
"No, we can't do that. Gren's mother was literally insane.
She's partly responsible for Gren being the way he is. As for
her attacking me, she was retaliating after I beat Gren to a
pulp. I didn't set out to kill her. She forced my hand when she
decided she couldn't defeat me and went after innocent
villagers. I couldn't let her kill them in cold blood."
"Does Gren know what she did?"
"He wasn't there to witness the attack so he thinks I lied to
him. He thinks I murdered his mother."
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"Lovely. Okay, I now understand why he hates you, but I
don't get why he would deliberately set out to antagonize
Royce like he did the other night. He did everything in his
power to piss Royce off."
Carl and Beowulf exchanged a look that said Royce was
something else entirely. Beowulf sat back in his chair and
nodded to the other man. Carl took a moment to get his
thoughts in order before he began to speak. "Royce, his story
is a little more complicated than Gren's. At one time Royce
was a member of our pack until he decided to go lone wolf."
Knowing Roxie and Candice wouldn't know what a grave
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