Chapter 25

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I hesitated a moment and thought about who I was more willing to

I laughed again.

"I think I would know if I wasn't a human."

"Well... see that's where it gets tricky. You, by common principles, have the humanity a normal human would have. You are able to feel pain, and I'm sure you have had a pretty human life, but your blood is not that of a human.

Half of your blood has the genes of a werewolf while the other half is of a werewolf-slayer."

"So... you're trying to tell me I'm like, half werewolf and half werewolf slayer? And if that were true then why don't I have the sudden urge to kill you."

"Because you're balanced. Don't you see it? As you grow older, both sides of you will try to overtake the other. Your emotions will grow stronger, but so will your strength. You know those feelings you've been having? I'm sure you feel a certain, gravitational pull towards both Oliver and I. Well it's a thing that both wolves and slayers can do. We can sense when someone of our kind is near.

That was like your body telling you that Oliver is a slayer, and that I'm a wolf. You don't have the urge to kill me because of your wolf side and you don't have the urge to harm Oliver because a part of you recognizes him as one of your own.

Now with that being said... if someone were to hand you a piece of silver then, well you would definitely know how to use it."

I stared at him, gaping. I was in so much disbelief that it hurt but... why would that actually make sense?

"You still haven't answered how that puts me in danger, Kaleb."

"Well, like I said, you were created to be a balance. Centuries ago... it was rumored that one day there would be a key. Ancient prophecies declared that a key would be brought into the world to, 'release the abominations from the sufferings they cause.' "

"Okay- and last time I checked I don't speak ancient prophecy so I'm gonna need a translation."

"It implies that you would be the key to releasing the werewolves from their curse from nature. In other words, you could turn us all human. And if we all turn human then there would be no need for the slayers to exist anymore. Peace and civility would be returned to the world."

"Mhm, yeah, this sounds just peachy except how do you expect me to do that?"

"Well that's the thing... no one really knows for certain. All we know is that there is a type of ritual that goes along with the prophecy. If completed, then the curse should be released. But there are so many unknown variables to it. No one knew that this supposed 'key' would be a human girl. Well- practically human- but still.

I was sent to your town to observe you. Learn all I could and report back to my pack. But that's when we noticed Oilver doing the same, with his little slayer group.

At first we thought that they were just looking to kill you so that we couldn't perform the ritual, but if they wanted you dead you would have been dead ages ago.

No. Instead, Oliver made contact with you. He tried to make you fall in love with him. To trust him."

"But- why? That wouldn't make sense, what motive would his motive for that be?" I asked, starting to play around with this ridiculous idea.

"Yeah... that's exactly what we thought. So we started to uncover as much about the ancient prophecy as we could. That's when we discovered a slight... mistranslation."

"Mistranslation? What did you mistranslate!?" I noticed myself starting to become slightly more invested in Kaleb's stories.

"Well you know how there always must be a balance... so of course there couldn't just be a ritual to help the wolves. There's an alternative ritual as well. If the slayers were able to capture you then... well they could perform a ritual that would kill all the werewolves on earth.

That would make their job much, much, easier. They could take over immediately and release all hell on earth"

"But if Oliver wanted to suppsodely capture me for this ritual, he could have a million times. Why didn't he?"

"For the ritual to work, we think you would have to be a willing participant. My guess is that Oliver was trying to make his way into your life, get you to trust him, and then sell you some bullshit to get you to go through with it."

"And how do I know you're not doing the same exact thing to me right now?"

"Because... Rachel, more-or-less of you is still human. If you were to be used in this ritual, well you would die. There is no way a human could survive that."

"But I'm not fully a human, according to you."

"No, but you are not fully a wolf or slayer either. The risk is high, and the chance of survival is low. Don't you see, Rachel, I'm not doing the same thing as Oliver because I don't want the ritual to happen. You would die."

"Why does that matter to you though? You and 'your people' could be freed. The human world could be safe."

"Because. I've been watching you from afar for months... I have grown accustomed to you, Rachel Jones. And I wouldn't enjoy watching your death. You want to live, don't you?"

"Well yeah of course, but if it was my life to save all of humanity I would do it." Gosh, what am I even saying? You can't seriously be entertaining this idea... he's probably clinically insane!

"We couldn't even be certain it would work. But that's why you're in danger. Because even if no one is certain, the slayers couldn't care any less. They would trade a million lives if it got them one step closer to reaching their goal.

They'll trade your life in an instant for themselves. And we can't have that happen. We can't let them win."

My pulse was racing and I still had a million questions but I think I forgot how to speak. So I asked the one thing that I had been asking since I had arrived.

"So how has everything that has happened to me this year... been connected?"

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