Seven: Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?

SORAYA

I’m seated on a couch with Rosalia by my side, and her son and nephew are seated on another chair across from us. Miguel looks as happy as if he were born that way, but Jose, on the other hand- honestly, I don’t care anymore. I never cared to know if people liked me or not.

“I know you are confused.” Rosalia starts. “We’re just as confused as you are; shifters are supposed to be extinct.”

“But why, why do these hunters hate shifters so much? And also, why don’t they hunt werewolves?”

“That’s because they believe werewolves were cursed by shifters.” I look at her, confused, not understanding what the fuck she’s saying, but I believe she’s going to explain anyway because she can see the confusion on my face.

“Before the existence of werewolves, the stereotypical werewolves you see in pop culture, there were shifters, people who could shift into any kind of animal. But the most common ones were wolf shifters; they walked in packs, they protected the land from evil, they were powerful beings and were very connected to nature. Even humans used to respect them once until something got in the way of that respect.”

“What? What was that?”

“Love.”

Love?

“You see, a shifter is not allowed to have any kind of sexual or romantic intercourse with a human, but you see the one thing about love is it’s too powerful to be tamed. Shifters only mate with other shifters, but there was a shifter who claimed that he mated with a human; of course, no one believed him, and no one accepted it because it was forbidden. But because he was young and in love, he pursued the human girl, and they were both in love with each other. It was beautiful, and they thought love would conquer all, but unfortunately it led to their downfall.”

Huh, of course it did; this is why love is a waste of time.

“The shifter found a theory that he could turn his human lover into a shifter as well, with just one bite. Of course it was just a theory; a human being turning into a shifter with a bite from a shifter was unheard of. But he wanted to try to change his mate into a shifter so they could be together without having to hide, to show people that it is possible to mate with a human and turn them into one of them. Of course, the human girl agreed, and they were both taking a huge risk, but they were willing to take that chance. So the shifter bit the girl, and it worked; she turned into a werewolf, and when they saw the changes in her, they went to tell everyone in their village what happened. Everyone was shocked, but they accepted the union regardless; they never knew it was possible, but with love, everything was possible.” She stops with a smile on her face as if she was there and she’s reminiscing.

“But what happened?” I ask because this love story obviously ends in tragedy.

“Well, you guess. What do you think happened next that shows that turning her into a werewolf was a bad idea?” she asks me like I’m supposed to know this, but then I look at both Jose and Miguel, and then I realise what happened next.

It doesn’t take a genius to know this.

I look at Rosalia. “The full moon.”

“Correct, she was cursed by the moon because what she was against was nature. Every full moon, the wolf transforms into a beast, and that is what she did. She turned into a beast; she killed a lot of people that night, including her own mother, and when she woke up the next day and realised what she did, it all made sense why she couldn’t transform into a wolf; she was never meant to be a shifter. It was a side effect.

Her father was so angry that someone did this to his daughter, so he tried to figure out a way to cure her, but there’s no cure; she’s cursed to transform into a monster every full moon. The shifter council sought to kill her so there wouldn’t be more of her kind, and they did, but it was too late; the shifters had created more werewolves, and they were scattered everywhere. They became too hard to track down because they were in a pack now; they even mated and gave birth to more werewolves- werewolves who don’t shift, but they become aggressive every full moon. The shifters had to interfere because it was getting too much; they had to kill the werewolves. And then the gods came along.”

“Gods, there are gods now. Wonderful.”

“Si Mi Amor.” Rosalia says with a smile on her face. “They reasoned with the shifters, told them it wasn’t their fault, and they gave the werewolves an ultimatum: it’s either they joined the shifters to protect humans from evil and live their lives or continue with their destruction and then be destroyed. The werewolves agreed to join the shifters to protect humans from the creatures of darkness, vampires, demons, fairies.”

“Fairies? Firstly, they exist, and secondly, they’re evil?”

“Fairies are nothing like Tinkerbell, Princess,” Jose interjects, and I face him with a hard look on my face. “They’re evil; they’re tricky creatures who kill, not tiny, cute creatures who steal teeth and then leave a coin in exchange.” He talks to me like I’m stupid.

I really don’t like this man.

“Anyway, years had gone by, and the werewolves had kept their promise. They don’t cause destruction; they’ve become heroes. They chain themselves when the full moon comes to avoid hurting people and when the gods saw this, they decided to appoint an alpha. In every generation, in every country and state, a werewolf is appointed to be an alpha. The gods give a werewolf the ability to see who the next alpha will be, which is called a moonseer, which is what I am. I was able to see that my son was going to be the next alpha.” She smiles at Jose, and he smiles back, but the smile is small.

“Wait, so there’s supposed to be one alpha in every state?”

“Yes, until you. Jose was chosen to be an alpha, but since you’re a shifter, you were born to be an alpha. There are two alphas in New York,” she says excitedly.

It makes sense now. Now I know why he hates me. He expected to be the only alpha, and then I came along.

Well, he doesn’t have to worry about anything. He can be the alpha leading the pack to fight Tinkerbell and friends. I am a fashion designer, not an alpha. He can have it.

“So let me guess. The man whose daughter was turned into a werewolf grew a hatred for shifters, and he began haunting them.”I say.

“Yes, he started the movement of killing shifters. He started small and then it expanded to the whole world. They became even more brutal, even using artefacts created by witches.”

Of course, witches also exist.

“They became more powerful. They would haunt shifters and kill them; the killings would be brutal. Shifters saw how chaotic it all was, and they agreed not to procreate because why bring more offspring into the world when the world isn’t safe for them? That’s how the whole shifter race became extinct. Well, we thought they were, at least in America, but it turns out that isn’t the case.”

Wow, I feel like crying right now because those shifters went through hell. Even the people who had nothing to do with the creation of werewolves were killed. It’s not fair.

“But I don’t understand, why did my parents hide this from me?” and then it hits me. I was seventeen when we got the news that my mother was killed by a robber, and then that shifter hunter attacked me.

Was my mom killed by a shifter hunter?

“They probably wanted to protect you. They didn’t want you to shift because somehow the hunters have figured out a way to sense a shifter. Now that you have shifted, that means they sense you.”

I look at Rosalia in fear. “But don’t worry.” She holds her hands. “We will not let that happen. You need to continue the shifter line; we will protect you from these people, we promise,” she says.

“They’re not going to hurt you,” Miguel says, and I smile at him and Rosalia.

“Thank you,” I say, but who was there for my mother when she needed protecting? “My mother was probably killed by a shifter hunter, wasn’t she?” I ask, and Rosalia looks at her son and nephew.

“It’s a possibility,” she says, and I feel a lump in my throat, and my eyes hurt. I try my best to not do it, to not cry, but unfortunately the tears escape my eyes.

“Oh sweetheart, sweetie.” Rosalia hugs me. “It’s going to be fine; we’re not going to let anything happen to you.”

And I’m not going to be relying on them either; I’m not going to allow a bunch of annoying shifter hunters to harm my family or me. And I wanted nothing to do with this world, but now I have a thirst for vengeance, and that’s to find the person who killed my mother.