Liam looked over to Narcia. Her eyes looked terrified. He didn't know her next words were going to be heavy. Her chest was rising and falling in quick succession, a clear sign of stress formed on her forehead. He could also tell she was starting to sweat by the droplets that formed near her temples.
"I know what I am about to say sounds crazy... I can't tell if you will even believe me, but with what you saw tonight, this isn't the craziest thing you will have heard." She said, taking another deep breath. Liam wasn't comfortable, hands were sweating, and his mouth was dry. He tried to gulp, the feeling leaving a bitter taste in the back of his throat.
"I won't get mad if that's what you fear. Like I said, I came for answers, and I want the whole truth."
"I'm not sure you know what that truly means, young man." Her father said before she sent a glare at him, making her father huff and release his arms to rest them on his hips.
"We're... not human." Narcia started, eyes growing wide as he slowly turned pale. Did she mean they were in some way related to that monster?
"W-What are you then? Because you look human to me." Liam said, making her chuckle a bit.
"We are wolf shifters... Half human, half wolf. We have a pack, and it is ruled by an Alpha that is helped by its Luna." Narcia said as she sat down and gently put her hand on Liam's shoulder. His eyes blinked a few times in shock. He had a feeling about the whole werewolf thing, but he had tried not to believe it.
"So like... What exactly is an Alpha... and what's a Luna?" He asked, trying to focus on one question at a time as they now swarmed his brain.
"I'm the alpha of the pack currently. My mate, Mary, is the Luna of this pack. We make sure the pack is safe, healthy, and fed properly. My daughter here will be the future alpha of this pack. It's normally given to the first son of the alpha, but I only have a daughter, so she will rule with her mate." Narcia's father said as Liam frowned and looked at Narcia.
"So... How do you make a mate? Is it like a marriage thing or..?"
"No... It's not that simple, unfortunately..." Narcia said, a sad chuckle leaving her lips.
"A mate is given to you at birth by the moon Goddess. Once you reach 18, the bond begins forming so both parties can find each other." Tammy said with a smile, seemingly excited. Liam nodded in understanding, which meant that somewhere out there, Narcia had a man just for her that would make her grow a family and rule this pack. He didn't understand why deep inside him, that thought made him very sad.
"We aren't the only shifters, however." Mary said with a light chuckle, trying to loosen the tension that had built in the room.
"What others are there? Is that cannibal thing one of them?" Liam asked with a grimace, hating the imagery that had reappeared in his mind.
"Unfortunately, yes. Like I mentioned earlier, these creatures used to be a proper animal shifter. They become this awful thing by either consuming another shifter or being born under already cannibalistic parents. As for your other question, we have a few other shifters that exist in this world. We wolves are the third strongest species if you do not count cannibals. Feline shifters are the second. They turn into all sorts of huge felines like tigers, panthers, and even lions. The strongest used to be Kitsunes. They had enormous magic energy and quick movement. Unfortunately, they went extinct a good decade ago." Her father explained before he continued on listing all different types of shifter. Liam was almost fascinated by this, despite how scared he felt inside.
"So dragons and phoenixes were real at one point?" Liam said in pure shock, making them all chuckle a bit.
"As all legends say, yes. But even I never saw either." Narcia said with a shrug, making Liam's face fall a bit. He figured it would be cool to see one, in theory, at least. But clearly, that would never happen if even they had never even seen one.
"So... Now that I know all of this... I need to know the real reason this creature is after me. Because I am not a shifter... I don't get why he is after me." Liam said before Narcia sighed and gently put her hand on Liam's, which made his hand tingle.
"Do you feel that..? The heat that course through you when we touch. Do you, like... Ever shiver when I am getting close by?" She said as Liam frowned and nodded, not sure where Narcia was going with this.
"The cannibal is after me, after my pack's future to be exact." She said as Liam stood up and took a step back. His brain did not like where this was going.
"And what does that have to do with me?" He asked abruptly, making Narcia close her eyes like what seemed to be an eternity before she stared at him.
"You're my mate, Liam."
-
A man walked into the dark room, groaning as he looked around for a light switch. Once he flicked it, the scene was one worthy of nightmares. Multiple corpses laid around. Some had been fully consumed to the bones while others still had flesh on them. The man was unbothered, walking past the bodies to grab a few papers and a pen before he left the room, shutting the light and door.
"Here's all the info we have regarding witches. I want you all to find out what coven the witch who fucking attacked me last night was." The man said angrily, a bunch of cannibals took the papers and quickly scattered off into the woods.
"I don't get why you do this, father. The witch was just doing her duty and attacked you to protect a human." Devan said as he leaned back against the wall arms crossed.
"I am doing this for your future. This man is the key to getting the Porskin family to tell us where the last Kitsunes are. I refuse to believe they are gone. You need a mate that will nuture a strong child for you. Only kitsunes can birth us, and you know that." The man said, making Devan sigh and roll his eyes.
"I'm not interested in having a child anyway, I could never put him through this horrible life." Devan said as he looked down sadly, teary-eyed as he looked at his phone.
"Listen, son, I know that you are old fashion and want to just find your mate, but that can't happen... You know they would die trying to birth anything. Plus, we can'tsense our mates anyways."
"I don't think they could even if we tried..." Devan said in a sarcastic tone before his father came close and gripped his throat tightly.
"You are going to put a child inside a Kitsune. We already talked about this. Stop this nonsense of yours." He said before flinching and pulling his hand off the now tearing skin on his son's neck.
"I hate you." Devan said before running out, tears running down his face as he rushed through the forest, slowing down to eat some more of the flesh he had in pocket bag. He hated his life, his existence. He downed the flesh with a gulp, his skin fixing itself in an instant before he froze to the sound of a growl. He recognized that smell all too well.
"I'm surprised to see you again, Matheo. I hope Liam is doing well..." Devan said as a large wolf appeared before him, teeth showing aggression towards him. Devan sighed and lifted his arms up in defeat.
"Do it... Just kill me, I'm done fighting my father's battle... I'm done living this hell, I never got a chance to begin with anyways since I was born this way." He said before the wolf stopped growling, something along the lines of sympathy showed in Matheo's eyes.
"What..? You pity me now..? Come on, Matheo, I thought you hated me. I bet your alpha will love having my head. Just please be quick about it. I'm sick of suffering." He said as more tears ched from his eyes, knees hitting the ground as he kneeled before Matheo. Surrendering his life.
"I won't kill you." Matheo said now turned into his human form. Walking closer to Devan with an undescribable expression. Devan's heart was racing as the wolf got closer than he ever had before. He felt a shiver as Matheo kneeled next to him with a sigh.
"I know how to cure a birthed cannibal. As long as you never ate a single shifter."
"I never have... I feed off raw animal skin. How... How do you know that?" Devan asked full of hope before Matheo gently took his hand and smiled.
"I just like to read. I also... I know you could have killed us or even Liam when you attacked us, but you didn't. You were only defending yourself. I don't think you're like your father who attacked Liam." Matheo said, the wolf clearly red from the contact they were having.
"Something in me is telling me something... But I can't connect with it... I... I could never feel my inner animal."
"That's because when you become a cannibal, you kill your animal. But yours is dormant... We can wake him, it'll revive your shifting shape and can even find your mate." Matheo said with a smile, reassuring Devan who softly hugged Matheo, surprising the wolf in the process.
"Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me."
"Just count yourself lucky that I am in a good mood. Come on, I think you have some apologies to do to some people." Matheo said as he pulled away and started to walk in the direction of the pack's territory.
-
Narcia waited as Liam took in the information, his eyes looking at her in both fear and disbelief. She couldn't blame him though, it was a shock to her too when she saw him in that classroom the first day of university.
"No. There's no way."
"What?"
"I can't be your mate... That's crazy! I'm human!" Liam said as he stood up in shock, backing away from all of them.
"Liam, you don't have to be a shifter to be a mate." Tammy said with her arms crossed, not liking the turn this was having.
"But... That means"
"It means that I love you... That we are meant to be and that only you can calm me, make me peaceful and happy. But if you don't want that, you can also reject me. We will never mate, and things will end there for you. You can just continue your human life peacefully away from all of this. From me." Narcia said with pain in her voice despite her serious expression. Something in Liam's eyes seemed to show pain as well.
"I... I don't know what I want." Liam said as he sat down abruptly on the couch, hands holding his head as he tried to understand everything.
"You need to know, however, that rejecting Narcia will destroy her. She will suffer pain like nothing else in this world. Some people never even recover from it. It can break a shifter to be rejected by their mate." Tammy said to try and persuade Liam not to be too hasty. It seemed to work. Liam's eyes grew worried as he glanced over to Narcia, who seemed to be staring at her feet.
"So, in other words. Narcia could be destroyed with just a few words from me... But I can also be the best thing that happens to her as well?" Liam asked, all three standing nodded as Liam sighed. All of this was too much for him to just take into account in one night. He needed to think about this and process everything he had learned tonight.
"I want to go lay down. Please show me the room I will stay in." Liam said coldly, standing up to follow Narcia's dad. Narcia stayed there as Tammy and her mother sat by her. Tears started to surface in her eyes.
"What if he rejects me?" She cried out, covering her face as her mother rubbed her back, both women feeling sorry for Narcia. Tears kept flowing out of her eyes as she was held, pain like she had never felt before seemed to have a tight grasp around her heart.
Would things ever fix themselves?