CHAPTER TWO

My legs were barely steady, my hand shaking violently against the wall. 

I parted my lips and they shook.

Years ago, werewolves and demons had gone to war.

It was a power imbalance. They claimed to be more powerful than us, so they deserved to rule over us. 

Werewolves had claws, supernatural strength, and a strong sense of smell, but that was it. Demons, on the other hand?

They had a strong sense of smell, they were strong—even stronger. Their eyes glowed red in their true form. They could drain a werewolf’s strength just by touching them, making them powerless. 

The demon king and the alpha king at the time finally agreed to separate and form their own kingdoms. The demon king formed a bigger kingdom with powerful soldiers. He was known for ruling with an iron fist. 

But everyone knew one thing. 

Demons never came here, and werewolves never went there. 

Why was he here?

His fingers gripped both sides of my arms tighter. “You are trembling... stop,” he choked out. 

“You… you are a demon?” I stuttered. 

His jaw clenched and he bowed his head. “You were not supposed to find out. Nobody was supposed to find out.”

“Don’t hurt me,” tears streamed down my cheeks before I even knew it. 

He dragged me deeper into the classroom and placed me in a seat. He raked his fingers through his black hair and I watched his eyes return to normal. 

He brought out his phone and dialed a number. It rang twice before the person answered. “Hello, Timothee. Are you settled in your new school?”

“Aunt Raven,” he said and looked at me, “I mated to a werewolf. I swear this is not one of my little pranks. She has the demo mark of our family.”

The woman went silent.

“Hmmm,” she finally said. “It’s her. She’s the cure.”

My brow rose. Cure? 

What cure?

He scoffed. “How can the cure be a person?”

“I didn’t want to tell you because I know how much you hate hearing about yourself and a woman together, but the cure to your disease is your fated mate. The witch saw it.”

He looked at me, his face twisted. “What do I do with her?”

“Be around her as much as you can. The magic will work by itself. Don’t hurt her. Explain everything to her. If she’s saving your life, you should at least be respectful,” the woman said. 

“How can a wolf and a demon mate?” he asked in confusion.

“It’s a very interesting wolf you have there,” she said and hung up.  

Save his life?

That was the only thing I could think of. 

Me?

He placed his cellphone on the table and looked at me. “Look, little wolf, I don’t want to tell you this but I guess I have to if I want to survive. So here we go. I was born with a heart disease. No one knows what it’s called, but I’ll die at twenty-five if it doesn’t get treated.”

I blinked, watching him as he spoke. 

“An old witch said the only thing that can cure it is at this school. I was only supposed to be here for a day, find whatever it was, and get out. She said I would know what it was when I found it.”

He sighed. “Turns out it was you. Now, you have two options… keep my secret about my identity and go about your boring werewolf life while I go about mine. As long as we are in class together, that’s close enough to heal my heart.”

“What’s the other option?” I asked. 

“I use my demon powers to hurt you. Your skin would feel like it was being ripped off your body, as if a thousand nails were stabbing into your skin at the exact same time,” he threatened.

“I would pick the first option,” he added.  

I thought for a second. It really would be stupid to try to report him. He was a demon—stronger than five werewolves put together.  

I sighed. “I’ll keep your secret,” I said. 

He nodded. “I can’t believe I have to stay in this dump longer than I have to.” He turned to leave but suddenly halted at the door. He slowly turned to face me. 

“Weren’t you supposed to give me a tour of the school?”

******

Later that night, my eyes were fixed on the mark on my hand. 

It looked like a really cool tattoo of a skull and fire around it. 

I still couldn’t believe I had met an actual demon.

The next day, as I walked into school, I had only one goal: stay away from Timothee. 

“I can’t believe they are together,” three girls who walked past me said, their faces etched with sadness.

What were they talking about?

I continued to walk to my locker. “Nathaniel and Lydia? Such a powerful couple, but I am still jealous,” another girl giggled. 

Wait, they all knew about it?

They had already announced it?

My heart cracked. I had forgotten about them because of the whole Timothee situation. Nathaniel was dating Lydia. It felt horrible. How could he?

As I reached my locker, I listened to the girls beside me speak. 

“Did you hear about that new boy, Timothee?” she asked.  

“He is so hot,” her friend responded. The last word was exaggerated. He was okay, I guessed.  

“I think he looks almost as good as Nicholas,” the first girl said. 

My face twisted. If only they knew who Timothee truly was, they would fear him. 

I closed my locker door and began to walk off.

“What is this?” the girl’s surprised tone caught my attention. I looked back and saw her picking up a pink envelope from the ground.

My heart dropped. It had fallen out of my locker.

I had completely forgotten about that letter. I had written it to hand it to Nicholas, but I had gotten distracted by the incident in the classroom.

“Oh… it’s a love letter,” the girl said as she opened it.

“What love letter?” Lydia strolled towards us. 

My head snapped in her direction. 

“It’s a love letter. It fell out of her locker,” the girl said. 

Lydia grabbed it. My heart almost jumped out of my chest. She would definitely humiliate me if she saw the content. 

I quickly rushed to her. “That’s private,” I said as I tried to grab it from her, but she stepped back and pushed my hand away. 

Her face twisted in annoyance. “Did I say you could touch it?” she spat. 

Tears clouded my eyes as she opened the letter and began to read it out loud. “I have always loved you, Nathaniel Fangs.”

The whole place filled with murmurs. 

“You have a crush on my boyfriend?” Her brow rose as I caught sight of Nathaniel approaching us.

“It’s not because you are the son of the alpha king,” she continued to read, “or because of how handsome you are. It’s because of your kind heart.” They all burst into laughter. 

“I know we may not be fated mates because of our status being so far apart, but I would love to date you. Love, Mercy.”

“At least she is self-aware about her status,” a girl joked.

Just then, I saw Timothee begin to walk towards us. As he saw the tears in my eyes, he wore a curious expression. His hands were deep in his pockets. He stood just like all the other students. 

“Is everything alright?” Nathaniel asked. 

Lydia turned to face him. “Oh, hello.” She walked over to hug him. “Mercy here apparently has a huge crush on you and even wrote you a letter.” She waved it in his face.  

Nathaniel looked at me. I didn’t get the usual skip in my stomach or the butterflies. Instead, there was only fear and humiliation. I bowed my head.

“Oh,” he said. 

Oh? Was that all he had to say?

Was that what he would have said if I had told him yesterday?

“Go on, tell him,” Lydia said.  

“It has passed. I don’t like him anymore,” I choked out.

Timothee shook his head and started to walk towards me. “Pathetic,” he mumbled as he walked past me. 

“Forget about it,” Nathaniel said. 

I walked up to Lydia and tried to grab the letter from her, but she tossed it to the ground and pressed her palm against my chest so hard that I stumbled backwards and fell to the ground with a loud thud. 

They all laughed. 

I quickly stood. “What did I ever do to you?” I asked. 

“Let her go, Lydia,” Nathaniel said and grabbed her waist. It cracked my heart. 

“She’s so mean. Why are you dating her?” I asked amidst tears.  

Lydia’s eyes widened. She launched at me and landed a hard slap on my face. “How dare you!” she shouted. Soon, more slaps kept coming.

I bowed my head, taking every blow until it suddenly stopped.  

“Touch her one more time and see what I do to you,” Timothee’s voice was a loud growl.

I looked up. His hand gripped Lydia’s tightly. 

“Why is the new boy saving her?” students murmured.