Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

BREEDING AND LOVE
Only the alpha gets to breed in a wolf pack, and humans
generally do whatever they want whenever they can
find a willing partner, depending on their cultural practices.
Uratha are somewhere in between. Their taboos forbid
taking mates among their own kind — and for good reason
— but most human mates are acceptable. Werewolves don’t
have a reliable social safety net, though, so young Uratha
are sometimes advised not to breed until they can figure
out how to deal with offspring. If a werewolf can keep a job
so her kid can eat, or if she has another scam going where
humans in her territory help take care of her kid and mate,
she’s doing well. Those who can’t arrange for their kids to
eat had best hope that their packs have some money, or
their kids aren’t going to eat. Uratha consider it dishonorable
to have children they can’t sustain.
And yet, human storytellers thrive on tales of tragic
romance, and werewolf Cahalith do much the same. The
People tell the legend of their origin as a tale of tragic
romance. In one form or another, nearly every werewolf in
the world has howled out a lament for lost love.
A werewolf female impregnated by a human male
goes through a nine-month pregnancy just like a human
female. About one child in four that has a werewolf parent
is a werewolf himself. The remaining children have
roughly a 50% chance of inheriting a stronger measure
of the werewolf blood, and being known as wolf-blooded.
What’s more, matings between wolf-blooded can occasionally
produce Uratha themselves. That happens only about
two percent of the time, though. Second and later generation
wolf-blooded are prone to lose the wolf blood entirely
— but sometimes the blood remains strong. A werewolf
can sometimes smell the wolf blood in a human, and they
find the scent tantalizing, the sign of a good mate. But this
can also lead to tragedy — for the Pure can smell out a
Forsaken’s wolf-blooded mate or child just as easily.
Love between a werewolf and human often ends
in tragedy. The innate capacity for Rage is more than
any human possesses. On a hot summer Saturday night,
his personal space invaded by the press of a crowd, the
most furious and passionately angry human is a domesticated
beast of burden by comparison to an enraged
werewolf. Uratha are extraordinarily passionate creatures.
They love with every cell of their bodies, and
they hate just as strongly.
An angry human who has no intention of throwing
a punch might clench his fist. An angry werewolf who
has no intention of committing murder might nevertheless
take the Dalu or Urshul form. It’s reflexive, or at least
that’s what the Uratha tell themselves. The problem is
Ways of the Forsaken
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