Alina

"Oh, and your brother, Alpha Andrew, is dead as well." The shifter said with a smile. "It was rather hard to kill him as he kept on slipping away from our grasp. If you are wondering, we strangled him to death with a silver chain."

The shifter moved his hands in the air, demonstrating strangling gestures in front of us.

I gasped. The sudden feeling of hatred towards the shifter in front of me increased rapidly. I was at the verge of snapping at him, biting his neck, until he laid dead in front of me.

How could someone possibly be so cruel?

"What happened next?" Neil asked. He noticed my sudden rise of turmoil and mind-linked me to stay calm.

I exhaled, trying to cool my nerves.

"What's wrong, sweet cheeks?" The shifter frowned looking at me. "Don't test me."

"What?"

"I know what you are thinking. Don't try me. Hurting me will only destroy your kind further. If you want that then you are free to take me down." He threatened. "So, do you want me to continue?"

"Yes, please," Ron said, throwing a quick glance at me.

The shifter, who looked like Luke, rolled his eyes. "I didn't ask you. I asked my sweet cheeks."

"Continue." I gulped, aware that the information he was going to give us, would wreck our minds even further.

"What was I saying again?" He looked confused. He rubbed his chin and said, "Ah, right, so that dumb bitch and your brother are dead. We killed them."

"You are yet to tell us why you killed them?" I asked. The anticipation of the mystery got the best of me.

"There is a lot more to that, sweet cheeks." He calmly stated. "So we needed to use your own kind against you, considering how attacking by our own selves would heighten the risks of us losing our lives. Numbers matter, you know."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Explain."

"I knew werewolves were dumb, but I never thought they would be this dumb." He snickered. "So we instigated the abandoned wolves to go and attack the packs. They are basically our pawns."

"Why did you do such a thing? How did you even convince them to go against us?"

"It was very easy, trust me on that. All we had to do was just kill some of them and then blame it on the Alphas. Again, werewolves have thick brains." The shifter laughed. "They never thought about it and wanted to avenge the death of their family members, two birds killed with one stone."

"What are you looking for?" Neil asked, getting straight to the point. "Where is Luke?"

"I am Alpha Luke." The shifter gave us an ominous smile. I had never seen someone smile so much in my entire life. "We have been sneaking into packs, shifting forms, to gather information. We had to kill some of the guards who saw us shift, so there is that. Also, I need my sweet cheeks to make a deal with me."

"Did you kill Drake and Hailey?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Technically no, it was the abandoned wolves who killed them, but we might have ordered them to do so."

"Why would you do something like that? Why would you destroy homes and kill wolves? We never harmed you or did anything wrong to you. You are sick for doing this to us." I shouted at him. Tears streamed down my face as I cursed him at the top of my lungs.

"You have done nothing wrong, correct. You can blame Romero, the son of your bloody Moon Goddess for that. He betrayed us, killed our members and most importantly cursed us." The shifter spat. A scowl soon replaced the smile he had on his face.

"We were the only ones who offered to help Romero during the war. He tossed us aside like a crumpled paper towel, killed and cursed us. He threw us away after he was done using us. Now our females can not even breed like humans. We just want to lift the curse."

"What the fuck!?" Neil gasped. "That's the only reason you have been attacking packs and killing Alphas?"

The shifter gave us a blank look. He stared at us for a few minutes, like we had grown two heads. 

"Yeah?" He said after a long pause.

"Seriously?" Neil narrowed his eyes at him.

"Let's put it like this. Luke is your best friend right? He is someone who would never betray you or use you for his own selfish gains. Am I correct?" He asked looking at Neil.

"Yes..."

"Werewolves and shifters used to live in harmony. When things went south, we offered our help to Romero. Some of us, hundreds let me tell you, died trying to protect Romero. Do you know how he turned the favour? He killed a thousand more of us. He wanted to expand the dominance of werewolves. He cursed us and due to that shifters can't breed and multiply. We didn't deserve that."

I shook my head. "Right you didn't deserve that but what you did to us and the Alphas you have killed, they didn't deserve that either."

He raised his eyebrow. "That's the point. We found what we were looking for. I don't see the point of wasting time trying to avenge when we can just lift the curse and multiply. But whatever happened, you werewolves deserved it for betraying us, breaking our trust."

"We had no idea. The book of myths always stated how the shifters were our enemies and that they would try to sabotage our peace and reignite a war." Ron said giving the shifter a quizzical look.

"Because that book is a fragment of your Romero. Once a betrayer, always a betrayer. Do you not understand the term 'killing us to extinct'? Yes, he tried to do that to us."

The look of satisfaction he had on his face bothered me. "What were you looking for?" I asked.

He gave me a lopsided smile and started. "I'll tell you everything from the start. Before that, I do have a proposition."

"What is it?" Neil and I asked in unison.

"Well..." The shifter started, ".. We found what we were looking for and we extracted it. We can still continue attacking packs but that would only be a waste of time."

"Stop talking in riddles." Neil glared at him.

"If you can ensure that you will never try to harm another shifter then I might as well return your darling to you."

"How can we trust your words?" Neil asked.

"Let me tell you something funny. One of us took my sweet cheek's form and pretended to be in danger. James tried to save her and followed her to our den. I am uncertain, not sure whether to call it love or just plain stupidity?"

"What do you want from him? You have to let him go!" I yelled.

"We just needed his blood, a lot of it. He is the white wolf's mate after all. His blood is the only thing that can lift the curse." The shifter sighed. "We had to sneak inside different territories to find you, sweet cheeks. All the trouble and all the lies we had to tell just to find your mate."

"Is — is he alive?" I asked, unable to comprehend any of his words.

"Yes, he is." The shifter nodded and looked at Neil. "Tiger, I must say you have used your brain to its potential. You think moving your pack members to an already destructed territory would enable you to keep them safe?"

Neil gasped. "What did you do?"

The shifter shook his head. "I am impressed. No one would possibly think about moving their pack members to an area that has already been assassinated."

I looked at Neil.

That was his full proof plan? He was so certain of it and didn't even tell me anything about it, yet still, the shifters knew.

"Where are Luke and James? What did you do to our pack members?" I asked.

"About the deal—" The shifter started.

"— Whatever the shifters did to us, we didn't deserve that. You didn't deserve that treatment from Romero either. We are willing to let things go and not harm you or your kind if you return all the members you have abducted. You will also have to make sure you cancel out whatever deal you had with the abandoned wolves and make them aware that we mean no harm." Neil said in an authoritative tone.

The shifter looked at us and smiled again. "I like that. If you don't harm us then we will for a certain cause you no harm either. You can trust my word on that. Unlike Romero and the werewolves, we don't betray our allies."

"Where are James and Luke?" I asked again.

"You will find your mate outside the Dark Moon packhouse. He has been there for almost two hours now. For Luke, well, for what ain't above is certainly down below. Where the coconuts rise and the shadows bestow."