Hint of Darkness and Light

Verena’s POV

“Tell us what happened to you, if your answer is believable you can stay here and if otherwise you’ll be with the rogues in the dungeons.”

“I was visiting a friend’s party that night. I d-don’t know what exactly happened all of a sudden we were attacked by men. Men in black. All of them had guns. We managed to get out of the house but I was shot so they left me.” I pulled off a nervous voice and staged panic expressions all over my face.

The frat leader was cool and calculated; from the way his gaze would touch me like a silver ladle against my skin. I presume he’s been weighing the words I’ve said. Something sparked on his eyes, the eyes I have imagined as black but it was blue. A very dark, dark, dark blue eyes. Darker than the calm ocean.

I coughed to relieve the real nervousness of lying. I’ll never be good at this, “After they left me I pushed myself to run out of the manor but someone caught me and stab me right out of the darkness. So I kicked him in his crotch, what else I could do.”

All eyes are glued on me, like a beneficial price from a circus booth house.

“So you run?” The doctor asked, tilting his head to the angle of mine.

“Yes.” I simply answered, still staging the fidgety fingers.

Rox seems to notice my hands that she nods.

“End of the story? After you really called us assholes?” Luke said, emphasizing the asshole part.

“Who would know? I thought you were the criminals.” I defensively said.

Instead of staring at Luke my eyes wander to the frat leader. And from the looks of it he looks so mighty and strong like a lion gazing at his prey.

I open my lips just so my really , really dumb words can slip up, “Your staring is really uncomfortable.”

“My apologies, she’s clear, let her rest then show her around Rox. I want no harm brought to the pack so watch her closely so that she won’t think of dumb actions or she will regret it ’til the day she will perish.” His choice of words wanted me to experience chills in mid day so my body did. His voice is like drinking a margarita with ice, sweet and bitter but cold. Cold enough to have goosebumps.

The frat leader leaves the room as well as Luke and Damien. I’m left with the doctor and Rox.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“How long have I been out?” I asked brushing my hair using my fingers.

“Just two days. By the way, I’m Rox.” She said while handing her hand. I accepted it and we shook hands.

“I have injected you with two courses of herbs that’s why you’re already healing.” He turned his back then handed a pill that seemed like medicine and a glass of water.

I crunched the pill between my teeth that led me to taste the bitter awful taste of it, I quickly jug it down with water hoping to cleanse my taste buds.

“Why does this taste so bad?” I asked like an innocent child who had never tasted a medicine before.

“All of them do.” Rox smiled at me. My heart warmed, I thought she’s a very, very mean girl.

A knock sounded, and a redhead no older than seventeen, wearing a tank top and jeans, entered the room. She kept her eyes lowered as she set a bowl of soup and bread on a side table near my bed.

“That’s Lori, my young cousin.” Rox pointed at her. The girl smiled and waved her hand.

“Hi,” She politely said.

“Hello, I’m Verena everyone calls me Venie.”

“Oh that’s cute.” Rox replied. While the doctor and Lori got out of the room.

Rox scrunched her nose, “The doctor is my dad, name is Drake, he’s a shy man.” She laughed.

“Thank him for me.”

“Sure, you can surely tell that the man by my side earlier was my brother or should I say my annoying twin brother Luke. And the other one is Damien. He’s no brainer and doesn’t wanna talk that much but he’s the right hand of the soon to be alpha.”

“What about the scary man?”

“He’s Damon, and the soon to be alpha. He’s smart and unpredictable, ruthless as well he can tear limbs from five wolves in minutes.” I bit my lip, that was kinda hot.

“What’s an alpha? Like organization leader?” I asked curiously while munching on my bread. She blinked exactly four times before a bright red hue covered her whole face then she burst out laughing like she would die from it.

“Girl don’t you read romantic fantasy books?” She huffed, rolling her eyes.

“No, not my thing.”

“Boring.”

“We are werewolves.”

W-what nonsense was that? I felt my body stiffened as my face went pale.

I remember the night when they found me, as I know there are dogs so huge they resemble a wolf in the books in the library I’ve read.

Werewolves are literally beasts who attack humans long ago from a tale they’re spitting at school. Teacher Ava said that they somehow love to snack on humans long ago. She said that others won’t believe the tale because of the lack of evidence.

“This must be hard to digest but we are harmless, some werewolves are pretty dangerous.”

“And you guys aren’t?” The nervousness I’m staging a while ago woke me up.

This is so bad, Verena. They brought me to their homes so they could devour me oh my god.

“C’mon we’re not, it’s against the law of equilibrium. Long ago after the war of four gods they made a seal. Between the four elements. The vampires, humans, werewolves and the witches never kill each other and if one breaks the law he will face the wrath of the equilibrium.” Rox said while smiling at me.

With the worry out of mind I finally inhaled.

“Vampires exist? I thought the movies are myths about vampires.”

“No, they’re not myths. They took a lie low after the war centuries passed. And the witches are the real enemies of the world after creating the anklet of divination.”

“What’s the anklet of divination?” I said, slightly out of breath from fear. This gives me chills.

How I wish that this is just a dream. Witches, vampires and werewolves are more freaky than psychopath killers.

“The anklet of death. No one knows how it operates, how does it looks, and where it is now, for the mean time everyone is safe as long as the god of witches is locked up in god knows where it is.” From the looks of it, I’m not the only one who’s uneasy to hear it even Rox is uncomfortable yapping about the divination of whatever witchcrafty.

I remember the anklet on my right foot. I shake my head, how scary an anklet is.

“How about werewolves? How do you operate? How do you live without letting humans know?” I asked, feeling curious again but afraid of the facts.

I’m just gonna go with the flow with this one. I won’t believe Rox until I saw people changing into wolves. That must be so scary.

“We eat human food. Every werewolves needs to belong in a pack like our pack.”

“What is a pack?”

“Pack is formed when werewolves congregate or live in groups. The leader is the alpha, our alpha is Damon’s dad obviously. He is very kind and approachable. He helped tons of our kind and contributed a lot to my world.”

“And he’ll be replaced by an unfeeling brute?” I said matter of fact Damon is not only unfeeling brute but he is a total jerk.

“Don’t let the others hear you, they are in favor of Damon and there are tons of criteria before being known to be an alpha.” She replied with her brown almond eyes twinkling from unknown spasms of emotions despite her face being emotionless.

“I can smell you.”

“I can too Rox, and I already stink.”

She appeared amused from what I’ve said.

“Smell your emotions, I mean.” She groused.

“Wait what? That’s an absurd ability.” I laughed.

“We can shape shift into our wolf form, run kilometers without feeling exhaustion, devour human kind, smell emotions, connect with our kind and find our mate for the lifetime.” She replied, smirking from my amused face.

I swear learning those details only gave me reasons to run from this place.

“Mate?” Her smile turned into a sad line.

“Our other half. And sadly we lost our Luna, the Alpha’s destined mate.”

“Damon’s mom? How?”

“Rogues, those shits.” She clutched her fist.

“Damon said earlier that I’ll be in the dungeons with the rogues if I lie. What is a rogue?” Damon said that Rox should show me around and not have a friendly talk around what seems like a history of the world.

“The rebels, they abandoned their packs to terrorize and kill massively. Unluckily when our pack attacked the alpha and Damon was out of town and our guards didn’t smell the rogues roaming inside the pack.” Rox said brown fur erupts from her arms and her nails elongated.

From panic and shock I stood up and was ready to run. But she stops me and in a blink of an eye she is now calm and back to her real form.

“Sorry to scare you, it’s the emotions.”

“No it’s okay, after this I’m going home right?”

“I’m sorry but it’s against our law, if you’re saved by werewolves you need to repay for four months and after that your memories will be removed.”

My smile fell, what kind of trap is this?