The Secret of Wolves.

The first thing you have to learn about the secret of werewolves, is that it's not really a "secret".  There are a lot more people who know about werewolves than you would think.  Generally, they stay quiet about it, because werewolves are "impossible". There's "no such thing as a werewolf", and those who say otherwise are clearly liars or delusional.

But they are out there.  Even certain facets of various world governments are aware of them, including the U.S. - some even have seats in Congress.  But, of course, none of them would be so stupid as to admit it.  Can't spook the ignorant public, after all.  Not in this day and age, anyway... They'd panic like stampeding cattle.

In fact, about one in every thousand people you'll ever see is a lycanthrope of some kind.  The majority are werewolves, but there are also werefoxes, wererats, werebears, werecats, and supposedly even werespiders and weresharks.

Or so they tell me; I've never met one.

Once, in days long past, lycanthropes were treated as omens from the gods of nature, given roles as holy-men - shamans, priests, druids.  Some were even themselves worshipped as avatars of animal deities.  But, innately, humans are suspicious and wary of anything different from them, which inevitably leads to problems.

Eventually, the reverence and worship faded into fear and hatred, and werewolves and other lycanthropes were forced to flee from the public eye, and go "underground" simply as a means of survival.

Those who refused to back down and tried to face humanity's wrath alone... were inevitably killed. Young, old, male or female, it mattered not.  Those not of human bloodline who dared to stand up... were swiftly brought crashing down.

But, when humans stopped seeing werewolves, humans eventually stopped believing in them, relegating them to the dusty forgotten lore of myths... but then again, without belief, humans also eventually ceased to hunt them down as well.

The lycanthropes liked that.  It meant they could rejoin society, living with humans side-by-side... so long as humanity still didn't believe werewolves were "real".  For lycanthropes, humanity's own denial of them was what ensured they could thrive.

And that why the "secret" must be so closely protected.  It doesn't matter how many people actually know they exist, so long as the general common sense insists they don't exist.

If humans could prove they still existed, then there's no doubt the fear and eventual hatred would soon start back up again, and they would have to go back into hiding.

That's why the old laws of lycanthropy say that anyone - lycanthrope or human - who threatens to reveal the werewolf secret... has to die.  It is a harsh, unforgiving law, but one that must be kept for the continued survival of all lycanthropes.

In order to keep the secret, lycanthropes of all kinds work together at hiding-in-plain-sight.  They adopt little phrases, subtle mannerisms and codewords, so that any lycanthropes new to an area know who is who and can know who to trust.

It's not an easy life out there, believe me, I know.