I chose to remain silent. I couldn't accept, but at the same time, I couldn't believe everything Uncle Ray said. He could be deliberately stirring up rumors and creating a bad image of the other races, just so I'd be scared and tell the truth about the creature.
If he thought it would affect me, he was wrong.
"Ioris, tell me because if you remain silent, you are in danger." Uncle Ray continued. However, I was still reluctant to say much. That thing must have hurt me if what Uncle Ray said was true.
Or... if I went with my ego, it would be fine if he harmed me because, to me, being among my own race was even more dangerous.
None of them believed me. Especially Mom and Dad. That was the most painful part.
"Uncle, can you leave me alone? I don't want to discuss anything about other races or beings. To me, all this time, only werewolves existed in the world and nothing else. I don't even know what humans or witches are like. Or even..." My sentence stopped with the mention of the word "vampire."
What kind of creatures are vampires? Do they eat and live life like us?
Or...
"Vampires can suck blood, Ioris. Be it humans, witches, even wolves. They are indiscriminate. All who they think can quench their thirst and lust, they will go and destroy." Uncle Ray said as if he could read my mind and questioned what a vampire was like.
Based on that description, this was the scary part.
"Do they kill that way?" I asked while swallowing my saliva hard. In my opinion, this was the scariest story I had ever heard in history.
"Whoever they bite will become their colony."
"Wh-what does that mean?"
"The victim will turn into a predator, a bloodsucker, just like them."
No way! That thing couldn't be a vampire, could it? It couldn't be a predator. He loved me, it seemed. He helped and protected me when others didn't care for me. So should I believe Uncle Ray, who shared Isaiah's thoughts, that I was a troublemaker?
He had already proven to himself that the wife he had only been married to for a few days was already fucking with an omega. How disgusting!
However, how could he still doubt me?
"I have to go!" I hurried away without saying anything else, including informing Uncle Ray about the smoke man. I knew that even though Uncle Ray wasn't stalking me now, he would definitely find out a lot of information regarding what was happening to me.
It wasn't the part where I was bullied that he needed, but everything about the Smoke Man. And I would never tell Uncle Ray so much about him, or we wouldn't be able to meet.
He said he had waited so long, so I had to realize our dream of meeting. There must be no one to thwart it.
Not at all.
***
"Are you crying, Little Wolf?" asked a voice that made me gasp and lift my face, finding a silhouette that, though I tried to reach out, would never work.
That man always made me so curious that I wanted to see him again and again tomorrow. Even if necessary, forever. However, I didn't understand why he asked for too many conditions?
I wanted to see him, but he said it wasn't for now.
"Don't come if only to leave again. I'm tired of everyone cornering me. And they..." I didn't continue the sentence; instead, I looked at the silhouette slowly becoming an actual figure, but still, I couldn't touch him. He was just like a hologram, transparent, and only made me wonder more about his identity. "Who are you?"
I finally asked, and the man before me frowned in displeasure.
"Apparently, your uncle has already started indoctrinating you with the circulating bedtime stories?"
"What do you mean? Is what he said true?"
The man shrugged, looking at me for quite a while before stroking my cheek.
I gasped. How could he touch me while I, while trying to hold the hand on my face, felt the surface of my own skin?
"Do you believe what they say, Little Wolf?" He pressed me with a counter-question. It was as if he was ascertaining whether he could trust me.
"I don't know. I've received too much-complicated information recently, and I can't decide whether to believe him or you. Moreover, this is your only form that has come to see me so far."
The man's brows seemed to crease down with eyes that turned sad. Did I just hurt his feelings? Was he offended by my words?
"I'm sorry," I stammered, unable to look at his darkened face as if he was feeling what I was feeling right now.
I wanted to meet him.
"I really want us to meet and unite soon, Little Wolf. However, there is no hurry. I have many things to prepare for, and you must prepare yourself."
I was stunned. There was hope and happiness in every word he said, and I couldn't wait for that time. Whatever I had to prepare for that moment, I would do from now on.
"What do you want me to prepare?" I asked. He gave me a smile and poked the tip of my nose.
"Be a beautiful girl and a tough fighter," he said. "One more thing, don't let anyone else fill the corner of your heart that should be mine."
Hearing the man's words, my cheeks suddenly felt warm, and I touched them with both hands so that he wouldn't see if they were red.
Did he mean that our meeting would be for...
"Ioris, may I come in?"
Uncle Ray's voice interrupted the intimate conversation between me and the mysterious man, so he suddenly disappeared from my sight. Every time that happened, I felt like I had just become a psychotic who fantasized about seeing something invisible.
However, I was convinced that the man and all our plans were a reality.
Uncle Ray didn't wait for my answer and immediately opened the door, sat on the edge of my bed, and looked at me with an untranslatable wail.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me you're going to accuse me of something," I said as I scooted backward, avoiding Uncle Ray, who was moving towards me. "Uncle Ray, don't scare me!"
"Don't you realize something?" he asked in a rhetorical tone that I didn't understand.
"What? About what? I don't understand?"
"About destiny. Do you think someone can have two mates? Or... what do you think if a father is mated with his daughter?"
"Are you out of your mind? What makes you ask such taboo questions, Uncle Ray?" I asked, getting out of bed and moving away. "You must be drunk!"
"Ioris, answer me. What if I turn out to be your mate?"
"What? You must be joking, right?"
Yes, he was definitely testing me. Although Uncle Ray loved me, I believed he was only an uncle to his niece. Nothing more. Meanwhile, I... I admitted I loved him, even though I didn't understand my feelings towards him, but I sometimes felt like I wanted him.
Wanted him in a more mature sense.
"I don't know what you mean, Uncle. What happened to you?"
"What if it did, Ioris? Will you accept me if I'm your mate?"