Word Count: 2063

~Alvera

I'm somewhere in the realm between sleep and waking when I hear a door slamming distantly.

Hands are on me, shaking me, pulling back awake. "Alvera, wake up."

Groaning, I brush the hands away. I'm so tired, and it's blissfully dark in the room. However, I force my eyes open, focusing on Venn who leans over me.

"What's going on?" I ask warily as he helps me sit up against the headboard.

Fatigue makes my limbs feel leaden. Leaning over, I touch my phone screen so I can check the time. It's only been half an hour or so since Venn decided to stand outside so I could get to sleep without him near.

It turned out that was a good decision...I'm not sure what would have happened if he had laid beside me.
 
Now he looks urgent, sitting beside me on the bed. "Something has come to my attention that I must tell you now."

"What time is it?" I stifle my yawn.

Considering he's clearly panicked about this, I should probably concentrate. Venn doesn't seem so easily rattled, but clearly something transpired during his time outside.

"It's only been half an hour since I left you." He rubs his jaw. "I was speaking to Belle outside and I realised something."

I sit up a little straighter, wondering how my sister has stumbled into this conversation. "What?"

"Well, in order for this to make sense to you, I need to explain what I've been doing for a while now, and why I'm doing it," he says tensely, uncertainty wavering in his eyes.

Tiny bumps flush over my skin as wariness grips me. My mate looks grave, as if he is about to tell me his darkest secret in an old motel room in the middle of nowhere.

"Go on..." I wrap my arms around myself, rubbing the chill off my skin.

"I haven't told you because although there are promising signs, there has been no one completely successful case of this working," he admits.

A grimace has formed between his brows. He's tossing up how best to say this, which is only making me more anxious. I get the feeling whatever this is, it's not good.

"Venn, tell me what's going on," I snap, unable to wait a moment longer.

"I have been turning humans into werewolves," he says through a long sigh, scanning my face for my reaction.

For some reason, I'm so taken aback that this is the secret he has been harbouring that it takes a moment for it to sink into my mind.

I frown, exasperated. "What? Why?"

I didn't realise turning humans to werewolves was a possibility. If any proper authority knew about this...I'm not sure what would happen to Venn and his pack, but it wouldn't be good.

"There is a prophecy that you are involved in," he explains carefully. "The Moon Goddess has been sending me visions since the last heir died, foretelling of my success as Alpha King. However, such success and power does not come without sacrifice."

"You're scaring me," I breathe, hiking my knees up to my chest before hugging them for support.

He runs his fingers through his hair, the muscles in his arm tense. Worry swims in his silvery irises, so many years of holding this burden apparent like deep scars.

"The Moon Goddess intended to bond you and I together before taking you away from me. She wants me to be strong, to overcome such pain so I can be a better Alpha."

My stomach turns at his solemn tone. "Take me away from you? How?"

His long pause gives me enough time to decipher his meaning before he even has to say it.

"By killing you," he grits out. "I don't know how she intends to do it, but it will be premature."

My mouth dries, panic gliding up my throat, nearly choking me. I look upward, seeing only a cracked ceiling where I imagine the Moon Goddess, looking down at me, contemplating my death.

Some spiritual werewolf figure wants me dead. How can I possibly go against a divine wish? The hopeless crush of existential dread nearly overcomes, but is halted only for a moment as Venn smooths a comforting hand down my arm.

"No...this can't be true."

"But it's okay, because I devised a plan to avoid this fate," he adds quickly, hoping sparking in his voice that does little to chase away the nausea gathered in my stomach. "I've been proving to her that I'm capable of being a strong Alpha King without having to lose you."

I shake my head, not following. "How so?"
 
"By turning the humans into werewolves. I'm hoping if I can do enough, it will appease her."

He says it with so much certainty that it should be comforting. But from what I've heard from the Moon Goddess, she cannot so easily be appeased. She doesn't abide by our moral standards or expectations...she is another entity of another world entirely.

"Why would that appease her?"

"The Moon Goddess does not take favour to humans, as she cannot control them," he continues. "As werewolves, she has control over them, she can enforce her rules. From what I've gathered, she has never taken kindly to human existence."

I shudder. That does not surprise me as she is inclined to kill a human so flippantly to build her ideal Alpha King.

"Is this plan of yours working?" I ask softly.
 
"It seems to be. There have been losses, but there has also been success." He lifts one should, suggesting the losses have so far been greater. "In the beginning, I was using criminals but now I mostly use volunteers."

I sink deep into the pillows. I have so many more questions about how he is doing this, and how I haven't know about any of it, but I'm too preoccupied with the thought that the Moon Goddess could orchestrate my death at any moment.

Maybe she will ever instruct Venn to be the one to do it...

"So I'm going to die," I whisper, my voice more strangled than I would like.

Venn inches closer, his strong hands soothing me. "No, I won't let that happen. Everything I am doing is in an effort to appease her, and I believe it is working."

"Why me? Why am I being dragged into this?" It seems as though I've been asking that question to myself a lot recently.

Venn only sighs through his nose, shaking his head hopelessly. "That I cannot tell you."

My family have never been affiliated with werewolves until now. We have always lived in a town where they weren't allowed, forcing me to grow up reading legends and fairytales, trying to truly imagine what they are like.

And now one of them is my mate.

"Well, what is it you realised with Belle?" I ask weakly, silently hoping this cannot get any worse.
 
"She is transition from human to werewolf. I am familiar with the signs, and it seems that is the case," he admits cautiously.

I turn my entire body to face him, my mouth opening in disbelief. My sister is being turned into a werewolf? She's looked malnourished and unwell since she went missing, but I would never assumed she was becoming less human.

"What? No...that can't be true."

"I'm sure my brother has something to do with it," Venn growls, his hand stilling on my back. "He must have figured out what I was doing and has been utilising my techniques."

I slap my head into my hands, groaning.

My stupid, hot headed sister...she has delved herself impossibly deep into trouble, and I'm not sure I can get her out. Not when Able has so much control, and she doesn't want to be saved.

"Why would she do that?" I lift my head, choking out a bitter laugh. "Hell, what am I kidding, it's Belle! She's never thought through a single thing in her life."

I'm not surprised she didn't tell me. She probably knew I would lose my mind over this. She doesn't know the first thing about what it means to be a werewolf, and now she's let her megalomaniac boyfriend convince her into it.

When the time kills, I'm going to kill him. Even if it leaves a scar on my conscience forever.

"She must believe that being a werewolf is what she wants," Venn muses with a shrug, his brows burrowing together.

"She's a fool. No wonder she looks so unwell." I wince at the thought. "It's probably why she went missing."

All that worry, all that time spent looking for her, and she was purposefully trying to turn herself into a werewolf.

I don't regret caring for her, but I should have known she would do something like this. She has always sabotaged what is good for her, and Able is taking advantage of that.

"Most likely. However, she doesn't look well," he says. "I'm concerned that the transition won't take, and she will die."

A deep, sorrowful feeling wars with the urge to give up on my sister. "I've spent my entire life protecting her and now it's for nothing."

"She made her choice. She must live with it," he states decidedly. "When we return, I will employ every method I can to ensure she can complete the transition safely."

I nod slowly, numbness swallowing the rising emotion. It's a relief, to feel nothing for a blissful moment. I cannot be the one to save Belle. Not this time.

"This is a lot to take in," I murmur, my entire body slumping over as I rest my head on Venn's shoulder.

He is warm and feels strong. I know he isn't going to give up on us, and just knowing he is here brings me great comfort. I wasn't sure I would feel that again after Eldon left, but Venn feels like a pillar of strength in a messy, confusing world.

"I'm sorry to have overwhelmed you," he breathes.

I look down his hand, inching mine closer to it. Eventually I brush my fingers against his, my stomach fluttering at the simple touch. He encases my hand with his own, holding it tightly.

"You must carry a great burden."

"I knew the moment I met you that you were going to be special to me," he admits, brushing his thumb in circles against the top of my hand. "I couldn't resist you, even then. The only burden I carry is my worry for you, for your fate. I never want to be the cause of any anguish."

I close my eyes, his words soothing something deep and troubled within me. He may worry about being the cause of what has happened to me, but he's also the only cure.

"You're not," I assure him quietly, wishing we were anywhere but this motel bed right now. "My life has been flipped upside down since returning home to find Belle, and yet I'm strangely happier than I've been before. I don't feel as though I'm living someone else's life."

I wasn't born for the city, or for the life I thought I had chosen myself. I've always felt like I was running from something — my sister, my parents, that town.

Even when I knew it was wrong...I always belonged there, I just didn't know why.

"If you are upset that I didn't tell you this sooner, I understand completely."

"Part of me is, and I will reconcile that," I exclaim decidedly, too tired and numb to focus on it in this moment. "Ultimately I understand why you did. I don't understand this world, but I'm beginning to. I'm not going to let these Alpha's we are meeting scare me."

"I would keep that in mind as we meet Kalix, the first Alpha on our stop," Venn says, his voice carrying a dark warning. "You're going to need all the confidence you can muster."

Somehow, knowing Venn will be with me, it doesn't seem so scary at all.

🩵••🩵

If you want to read ahead at any point, you can read this story 15 chapters ahead on INKITT and 10 chapters ahead on RADISH.

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The Night I Met The Alpha

~Midika 💜🐼