An Eye For An Eye

Cinquante

“So what happens now?” he asked and I furrowed my brow. I was waiting for the kettle to boil since he didn’t have a coffee machine.
“What do you mean?”
“With your book, what happens now?”
“Well, I have to type all of it up and I’m editing as I do that,” I explained as I poured the hot water into the mug. I hadn’t slept very well because of the heat and coffee was desperately needed. “And then I’ll probably do some more edits until I’m as happy as I can be with it. Then I’ll find an agent and try to get it published, I guess.”

“How long will that take?” I glanced at him as I set the kettle down and shrugged.
“I don’t know, months at least? I’m not bad at editing but I’m used to editing articles and other people’s writing.” He seemed genuinely curious about it and I smiled as I grabbed a spoon from the draw to stir my coffee with.

I put the spoon in the dishwasher before sipping the far too hot coffee. What was great about being a werewolf was that it would burn me but I’d heal so I could keep trying the coffee until it was the right temperature without having a burnt mouth for the rest of the day.

“I’ve missed listening to you read.”
I chuckled. “It’s only been a few days since I finished writing.”
“I know,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me. “It doesn’t mean I don’t miss hearing you read to me. You’re good at it, I can hear the emotions of the characters in your voice as you read their lines.”
My cheeks heated up. “Thank you, I’m glad you like my reading.”

Now was probably a better time than any to ask him about reading some of the books in his study. I had been thinking about Briar’s book on witchcraft. And there was likely books on werewolves too, I wanted to know as much as possible about what I could do now.

“I was thinking, which is potentially scary, I know,” I said, laughing a little. Sometimes it was, especially if I was thinking about family.
“About?” he urged.
“Maybe I could read some of the books in your study to you,” I suggested. “I’ve kind of been curious and… well, if you wanted to hear me read then…”

He chuckled and his hand lifted to caress my cheek.
“You could have just asked, my love.”
“Well, I didn’t know what you’d say,” I said, stammering slightly.
“You can read any book in there and I would like it if you wanted to read some of them to me as well,” he said. I kissed him before twisting and reaching for my coffee. It still burnt my tongue as I drank some of it.

“What about reading now?” I asked. “If you don’t mind me bringing my coffee with me.”
“I’m not opposed to the idea.” He grinned and I smiled back.
“Okay then.”

The book I picked was on Alpha werewolves. I sat on the desk facing him as he sat in the chair and listened to me read the long, run-on sentences. It was an old book, the spine was a little damaged and the pages were yellow but it had the old book smell that was nice.

I furrowed my brow as I turned the page.
“It says something about twins here,” I muttered. “Hang on a second.” I read through it and then reread it just to make sure.
“Apparently Alpha werewolf twins can merge and make a bigger werewolf.” He tilted his head slightly. “Did you know that?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, I don’t remember it if I’ve read it before.”

I hummed and carried on reading. This was fascinating.
“Apparently all identical werewolf twins can do it but it’s dangerous if they’re not an Alpha.”
“Dangerous in what way?”
“Can be painful and um, getting stuck in a half-merged state amongst several other things,” I said, frowning at the idea of being permanently stuck as a shifted, merged werewolf. “It’s difficult and really rare.”

“Twins are rare, identical even more so and to have them be werewolves as well? The chances are low, especially if they’re not born as werewolf twins,” he said. His brow furrowed and he leaned forward slightly “Is there anything else?” His hand reached out and took mine.
“Yeah, there’s a kind of bad drawing but it says the merged form depends on the twins anyway. And that even if it’s not painful for Betas and Omegas, it doesn’t last long enough to be useful.”

“I now hope we meet werewolf twins,” he said. “I’d be curious how they’d both become Alphas too, the eldest would inherit if it hasn’t been chosen and if they killed for it…”
“They’d both have to kill the Alpha at the same time or something, right?” I asked. That was the main way I had heard of becoming an Alpha, to kill them and take their power. He nodded.

“Which would be near impossible, unless…” I looked down at the book, at the slightly faded and crude sketch of merged Alpha werewolf twins.
“Unless they merged for long enough to kill their Alpha,” I finished for him. He nodded. “That also seems near impossible.”
“Only nearly, it’s just very, very improbable,” he said slowly. I had the feeling he was thinking of something.

A werewolf killing an Alpha meant they would take the Alpha’s power and become the Alpha themself. It reminded me of something…

“Liza?”

Deuc.

It reminded me of when Deuc said he had absorbed his Betas’ power.

“Are you alright?”
“Yes,” I said quickly. “I was just… thinking. I was thinking.”
“Do I get to know what you were thinking about, my love?” he asked and I nodded.
“Yeah,” I said. “There’s nothing in this book about an Alpha stealing their Betas’ powers.”

I flicked through the few remaining pages left, two were blank and the last page just talked about how Betas and Omegas take longer to heal if their wound was inflicted by an Alpha. I had learnt that a week ago with Jack.

“There isn’t?” he asked.
“No, nothing at all. But it does say how a Beta can steal an Alphas power by killing them,” I said. Which both of us knew without the book’s help. “Maybe you found its equal and opposite reaction sort of thing.”
“Newton’s third law?” he asked with his eyebrows raised. “That’s for motion, not supernatural forces.” It was still a sort of force, in a weird way, and maybe it wasn’t how the law was meant to work but it seemed to apply to it.
“But if the Beta can steal their Alpha’s power, then logically by that law, there’s an opposite. And that’s if the Alpha kills their Beta, they absorb their power, like what you said happened. Their powers just transferred to you.”

“We’re applying science to this now?” he asked. It felt as though he wasn’t taking me seriously.
“It has to go somewhere, doesn’t it? It can’t just… disappear. It breaks the laws of physics then,” I argued. His expression remained relatively neutral. I sighed. “It’s not entirely insane. All of this has to follow some rules, right?”
“I wouldn’t know science, Liza,” he said quietly. “I understand True Alphas and wendigos and things like that.”

“And witches?” I added. There was still a sort of heaviness in my chest as I looked down at the book.
“Definitely not, they are entirely different, Briar is a little on the more eccentric side of things but magic is… something I don’t understand, I’ve only ever met Briar and their brother.”
“Brother?”
“They’re an alchemist, a rather stupid but lucky one apparently,” he said.

I laughed a little but there was sadness. He squeezed my hand and I looked away from the book and at him.
“I’m sorry, Liza. I don’t mean to be dismissive of your ideas. I just… physics isn’t something I understand all too well.” I hadn’t been great at normal science, I was surprised I had even remembered it. “I’m sorry.”

Focusing, I could hear his heartbeat. It was steady. And he didn’t smell anxious, like Charles almost always did. I was fairly sure he was being honest.
“I know,” I said quietly.
“I promise I won’t do it again,” he said as he stood up. I had to look up to him instead of down now. Yet again, I was fairly sure he was being honest.
“Okay.”