Pfft.
Kristen scoffed.
“They can’t kill us,” he said, rolling his eyes.
His voice dropped into a dangerous, gravelly register.
“Even attempting to ambush us would cause a war.
They’re in hiding from the hunters just like we are.
A full-scale war would expose them too.”
He said it firmly, trying to remind his parents that it was impossible for the largest pack on this side of the world to just die out because of some night-walkers.
“They don’t need to attempt anything, Kristen.
They already have us backed into a corner,” his mother replied, her voice tightly controlled.
At this, his sister straightened in her seat, looking at their mother with her eyebrows raised.
“They’ve been using the cover of night to mess with our resources,” Rachel explained.
“They’ve managed to intercept our supply routes from the city.”
Living in the forest with bloodsucking monsters meant they got the long end of the stick, surely.
Vampires only drank blood and walked around at night — that was a weakness, not a strength.
So if they kept intercepting supplies, the pack could just plan an ambush in the morning and take everything back from right under their greedy noses.
Kristen said as much to his mom.
His mom looked at him like he was being unbelievably foolish.
He really wished she would mind the way she looked at him.
It was his body they were giving away, after all.
“Kristen.
Sometimes you prove that you’re really just a pup,” she sighed.
I’m twenty-two, but okay, he thought sassily.
“You’ve let your hatred cloud your judgment.
The time you should have spent learning about the enemy, you spent avoiding them instead.
Do you really think they’ve been hiding all this time because they’re scared of us?”
I mean, yeah, Kristen thought, fairly confident.
“They can’t survive without feeding daily, right?”
“That was during the times of the Oracles, Kristen,” his mother answered.
“The wolves back then didn’t know the extent of their power because they were more focused on strengthening our own community.
So, each side stayed out of the other’s way.
Vampires are strong, Kristen.
Stronger than me.”
Kristen sat there in disbelief.
Stronger than a Pack Alpha?!
They were basically blessed by the goddess herself — how was that even possible?
“They can’t be stronger than me,” Kristen said, his chest puffing out with confidence.
“They might not be,” His mother agreed grimly.
“But you might be the only one who survives a full-scale war.
We aren’t the only species who evolved, Kristen.”
Well — fine.
Kristen had always known, somewhere in the back of his mind, that werewolves couldn’t possibly have been the only species to change over the centuries.
He just…
hadn’t really thought about it until now.
“The difference is, while we evolved out of our more powerful traits, they evolved into much more lethal beings,” his mother continued, her arms crossed tight against her chest like she was holding herself together by sheer force.
“They can go a week or two without blood now, but that bloodlust acts like a buffer — building up power the whole time they wait.
And when they finally give in, they don’t stop.
They’ll kill and massacre everything in sight until that high is gone.”
Whoa, Kristen thought, a tiny, reluctant surge of jealousy hitting him.
“And—” his dad finally spoke up, patting his son’s hands once before pushing to his feet and crossing the room to stand beside Kristen’s mother, close enough that their shoulders nearly touched.
“They can walk in the daylight.”
What?!
Kristen thought, reeling.
That had been the one advantage they’d ever had — staying out in the open during the day, untouchable, while the monsters hid in their dark corners waiting for sundown.
Now even that level of safety wasn’t a guarantee anymore?
They were going to die.
Kristen thought, panic creeping cold up the back of his neck and settling somewhere behind his ribs.
“Calm down, Kristen.
Only a few elites have gotten that trait so far,” his dad said soothingly, in the same tone he used to use when Kristen was small and afraid of thunderstorms.
“Julian Vance — the son of the Vance Clan head — is one of them.”
Okay.
So it was either this marriage, or everyone died.
Got it.
It wasn’t even about the supplies anymore.
The vampires might now be stronger than sixty percent of their own warriors, and that was sixty percent too many.
Sure, the pack had weapons.
But vampires had always been fast; add in these new traits, and they were practically invisible.
“Fuck!” Kristen shouted, dragging both hands through his hair and pulling, hard enough that it actually hurt.
“They initially refused our offer of a marriage alliance,” his mother continued quietly, not quite meeting his eyes anymore, “and asked for Scarlet to be their blood slave instead.”
At that, Scarlet went utterly still beside him.
Kristen’s head snapped up.
A blood slave?
They’d drain her dry within the hour.
Werewolf blood was supposed to be incompatible with vampires — it left them weak, breathless, half-poisoned by it under normal circumstances.
But it seemed that over time, it had evolved into a twisted kind of drug and werewolves had become a kind of delicacy because of it.
Some vampires apparently preferred it to human blood, which was a fact Kristen desperately wished he’d never learned.
Kristen shivered, terror crawling slow up his spine.
“But,” his mother continued, her eyes softening, “we told them it would be far more profitable to have you.
Because you are the future Pack Alpha, and you are stronger than all of us.”
“I-I’ll do it,” Kristen said, clearing his throat.
He hated the way his voice cracked right in the middle of the sentence, but he was terrified, and this was his family — he figured he was allowed a little weakness here, if nowhere else in the world.
He felt arms wrap around him again.
“I’m sorry, little bro,” Scarlet whispered — he knew she must be feeling an overwhelming mix of guilt and relief all at once.
“It’s okay,” he whispered back, even though it wasn’t, not really, not even close.
At that exact moment, a sharp knock rattled the office door.
It didn’t wait for an answer before swinging open, the way only someone either very stupid or very confident would dare to do in the Pack Alpha’s own office.
His mother’s mouth opened to growl at whoever had the nerve, her eyes flashing with that same reddish tint Kristen had only ever seen rise when her temper truly slipped its leash.
The growl died in her throat before it ever made it out.
Kristen felt Scarlet turn to look too, and felt her go just as frozen as their mother had gone.
Everyone in the room had stopped completely, caught mid-motion like some strange, silent tableau no one had agreed to pose for.
Curious despite himself, Kristen finally turned his head toward the door.
Red eyes locked onto his immediately.
A slow, arrogant smirk curled up on the stranger’s lips, revealing glinting, dangerously sharp fangs underneath, like whoever this was found the entire frozen room absolutely delightful.
“Helloooooo~” the stranger drawled, lifting a hand to give a lazy little wave like he’d just dropped by for tea instead of barging into an Alpha’s private office uninvited.
It was…
“Who the fuck are you?” Kristen snapped.
Thoughts?
love?
hatred?
mix of both?(◕દ◕)