What is "loup-garous"

Usage examples of "loup-garous".

I was twelve years old, and as I watched the Moon rise orange and bloated through the cypress and tupelo-gum, my mind drifted to the stories I'd heard at my nanny's knee, tales of ha'nts and spirits, of the cursed souls called loup-garous, and of the Alligator King, a hundred-foot behemoth that could rise unseen from his watery lair and reduce a pirogue to kindling with a single snap of his great jaws.