~Special thanks to  @Loveme105 and  @Pinokio5d for their votes

"Those were dark times, there was no clear difference between right and wrong, there were no laws, and the ones who tried to make some ended being worse than the others. The gods, then, decided to create someone who would have an inner moral compass. This creature could understand the difference between good and evil and would act accordingly. He had to teach and help others understand the right way and punish those who hurt and wronged the people.

"This creature, says the legend, lived for hundreds of years, walking around the earth. For those who didn't know him, he seemed normal and human. But in reality, his senses and his abilities were very enhanced. He had powers no other creature possessed and instincts that always showed the right way. But he felt lonely, and there was no one with whom to share his feelings.

"One day, deep in the woods, he heard a girl singing. Her voice enchanted him, and he leaned closer to listen to her. She was beautiful, like a fairy, with hair golden like the sun. When their eyes met, the world stopped spinning, and everything else lost its meaning: she was his mate.

"Talia, hesitant at first at the sight of the gorgeous stranger, tried to run, but something stopped her. She had already fallen in love with the hunter. They lived the most beautiful months of their lives together inside the woods, and one day Talia told him that she was with a child. He kissed her deeply and promised that he would always protect and respect her and their child. But their happiness wasn't meant to last long. Talia was a witch, and her people weren't happy with that union. A witch could only make a family with one of her kind, and the hunter was a foreigner, someone fearful and dangerous, according to them.

"Her people tracked them down and hunted them for months while the couple kept running and hiding. They stopped only for a moment, for her to give birth to a beautiful boy. Talia was too weak to go on, and her people were already nearing them. She kissed her son on the forehead and bid farewell to her mate.

'Take care of our son,' she said and put an invisible barrier between them using her powers so that the hunter had no other choice but to leave his lover.

"Talia was sentenced to death for her unspeakable crime. She was burned, and they say that you can still hear her screams every time you light a fire. The hunter raised his son alone, and on his deathbed made his son promise that he would never make a family with someone who wasn't a human, for the other creatures were envious and afraid of them.

"What he didn't know at that time was that at the time of Talia's death, her mother cursed the hunter and his bloodline to never find peace and happiness, to always run and never rest, to always destroy the ones they loved the most. Even if they tried to fix their lives, destiny would remind them that there was no real escape.

"And so it happened. Hunter after hunter, no one found their true happiness, they all had sons, and they were always condemned. Over time, the hunters became scarce, and decades could pass without one being born. The last hunter before me was my great-grandfather, and they say he was one of the most brutal ones. He killed his mate to ensure that his enemies wouldn't hurt him with her and made a child with a human of no meaning to him.

"However, fate hadn't said her last word, and my grandfather chose to disobey the family tradition and chose to live with his mate, a werewolf. Therefore, my father was half-werewolf, and a part of me is also one. And if that wasn't enough, my mother was a witch. My father didn't know that when he met her, but he was already in love with her when he learned and couldn't leave her.

"As a result, I am something that should have never been born, for I am a werewolf, a witch, and a hunter. I am a tribrid. Maybe my existence itself was the one that broke the curse, and a female hunter was born."

"But you said that the last hunter was your great-grandfather. What about your father and your grandfather?"

"They were both humans, the gene of the hunter was in them, but it was never activated. I don't know how it gets activated. My father said that only the worthiest gets to become a hunter or when there is a great evil to come, and nature needs a hunter to protect its species. In either case, the result was my creation. The truth about me only a few know and accept and those people became my family. Those who learned it and tried to hunt me due to their fear met their well-deserved end."

"You used past tense when you talked about your father. . . ."

"Yes, my father is dead. He died when I was 14 years old, and my mother died a few years ago."

"I am so sorry to hear that." He reached for her hand with an apologetic face.

"It's not your fault. The curse says it all: "to never find happiness."

She squeezed his hand with a shadow of a smile.

"So, you used magic on my necklace?"

She smiled and bit her lip, "Yes, witches can enhance objects and give them new qualities. I gave your necklace the ability to protect you from the sun."

He looked at her with admiring eyes and touched his necklace. He would always wear it, not only for his protection but, also, because she had given a new meaning to it.

"Does Sara know?"

"No, sometimes not knowing the truth brings bliss. I couldn't bear, to tell the truth only for Sara to get scared and run away from me. I know her for a couple of years only, and yet she became an important part of my life. I don't want to lose her. You'll understand me better now that you are a vampire. You can't go around telling the truth about you. Most people will think you are crazy, but some of them will believe, and fear is a powerful enemy. We all say we want to know the truth, but we aren't always ready for it."

They stayed silent for a few minutes, letting their thoughts drift. A few drops of sunlight fell through the window. Grey clouds were covering the sky, and the small rays tried to escape. 

He looked at her. Her eyes were glimmering like small stars, and her silky skin radiated like a diamond. Laurel knew his family secret, one that no else knew. She was the first person to enter his heart, but only at this moment, he felt the closest to her. 

"Well, now you have me by your side, too," he broke the silence, "and I want to help you find that vampire."

"Thank you," she said and escaped from her thoughts, "but you must stay here for a few more days. You need time to adjust, and being that soon among humans isn't easy. I have to go now. Sara keeps texting me worried messages, but I'll come back tonight. Do what we said and don't leave the house. You have the watch if you need me."

"Alright, don't worry about me, go."

Laurel didn't need more reassurance. She immediately left the house and headed back to campus.

She was walking along the park, only five minutes away from her dorm, when she felt it again. Or specifically, she felt him. She wasn't wrong. There he was, looking at her, smiling, ready to talk to her. Lyra stirred and started to purr like a pleased cat. 

"Don't get your hopes up," Laurel warned her.

She had no other choice, she kept walking towards him, determined to ignore him, but as she went closer, she found it more and more challenging to resist. 3 meters, 2, 1... "I passed by him," she thought, but then she felt a hand touching hers. Thousands of nerves were triggered where he touched her, his fingers leaving their touch on her arm.

"How can I help you?" she said, trying to sound indifferent.

She finally looked straight into his eyes, afraid that she might not be able to lay her eyes anywhere else again, and he looked perplexed. She smelled him. He was a werewolf, and his aura was so strong that he must have been an alpha.

"I saw you the other day," he tried to say.

"And?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to introduce myself."

"Nice of you," she said, smiling with a fake smile and taking her hand away from his. Immediately she felt as if something was missing, but she had made a decision, and she had to be brave and stick with it.

"My name is James Campbell."

"Well, James, I'm late. I'm sure you have more important things to do than introducing yourself to strangers. Have a nice day," she told him and left before he could argue but not fast enough for her not to hear him asking her name. She pretended she hadn't heard him and kept walking.

"Don't look back, please, don't you dare look back," she said to herself.

She got into the building, and only then she realized that she had stopped breathing.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Why must it be so difficult?" she asked herself loudly as she rested her back on the closed door.

"What is so difficult?" a voice asked, and Laurel cursed herself for speaking aloud.

"Good job, Laurel, one more lie. A normal day for you, after all," said her wolf blocking her thoughts.