Carolina Wolf
A novella in the Tickle My Fantasy anthology
February 3, 2009 from Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-60504-374-6

All it takes is a spark of Grrrrrl power to set the swamp on fire!

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Librarian Debra Henry is boring. And she’s okay with that. Really. It’s not as if the teensy amount of witchcraft that flows in her veins is worth getting excited about. Yet someone—or something—thinks it’s worth crawling out of the swamps to attack her. Those “somethings” are werewolves.

When one of them is hurt saving her, the least she can do is take him home and patch him up. Healing him stirs more than her senses. Maddox Moreau awakens the magic that sleeps in her blood. And suddenly, life’s not quite so boring.

A wildlife manager at Congaree National Park by day, Maddox likes being the BWIS—Big Wolf In the Swamp. By night, he lets his wild side out to play lone wolf. At least until he meets the one woman who can share his soul. Perhaps it’s best, though, if he holds off on sharing his preference for raw meat.

Rescuing her seals his fate—but only if he can protect her from a rogue of his kind. A werewolf with a nasty stalker streak…

Want to read more?

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The inspiration for the werewolf mythology I used came from a couple of medieval Breton lays, or poems meant to be sung by minstrels.

Marie de France, a 12th century poet, wrote a number of lays for the court of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She wrote one called the Lay of Bisclavret (link goes to Project Gutenberg) about a knight of King Arthur’s court who became a werewolf during the full moon. When he told his wife the secret, she stole his clothes from their hiding place and left him in his wolf form. After a long time wandering the forest, Bisclavret encounters Arthur and becomes tame. When the unfaithful wife joins Arthur’s court, Bisclavret attacks her. In fact, he bites off her nose! Arthur investigates the attack, discovers the woman’s treachery, and Bisclavret’s clothes are returned to him and he becomes human again.

Another similar story called the Lay of Melion tells the tale of another knight who can change shapes at will with the help of two magical rings. As in Bisclavret, his wife steals away with the rings and leaves him as a wolf, fleeing to Ireland where he follows her. Melion is a little more brutal than Bisclavret because he gathers a pack and spends the next year slaughtering anything he can get his fangs into. However, he still falls in with Arthur and the rest of the story follows the same lines.

When I read these two stories, I just couldn’t let them go without incorporating them into CAROLINA WOLF.

The Congaree National Park is located just outside Columbia, SC. We lived in Columbia for a couple of years and it is a lovely small city. I enjoyed every moment of my time there — even the heat. *gg* I mention a restaurant in CAROLINA WOLF called Solstice. It’s a real restaurant in Columbia (in the Sparkleberry area, if you’re familiar with the city.) Great food, fantastic wine list and terrific atmosphere. We were practically regulars!

Although the locals call it a swamp, technically, Congaree National Park is “the largest remnant of old-growth floodplain forest remaining on the continent,” according to the National Park Service website. Its dark, mysterious beauty is completely unique and a fertile ground for the imagination.