My Destined Werewolf Mate

The slow, mild rustling sound of the waves was reverberating the entire beach creating an undefined numbness all around. Steadily barefoot over the cold sand, Eva came walking to the exact same place where she had left Zeus a while ago. Her mind was a bit relieved from all the dark thoughts clouding her intensely and that's when she decided to return back to him. 

As she approached closer, standing a few feet apart, she noticed that Zeus was squatting down on the sand, folding his knees upwards supported by his arms tight. His soft, shimmering black hair bangs were whirling over his radiant white skin on his forehead. He had a blank gaze in his dark eyes while looking towards the endless sea. However, he seemed quite pained from inside regarding something compared to the dull expression he was holding onto. Taking a small sigh out, Eva slowly walked closer towards him and quietly sat right next to him. 

Suddenly perceiving her arrival, he flinched a bit quickly shifting his eager gaze towards her. She had a small smile etched on her lips and after squatting down she whispered timidly, "did you actually think I...am gonna leave you again?" 

Frowning his jowls, he slowly lowered his eyes down shaking his head horizontally in declination.

"I am glad you didn't... Thank you...for always waiting for me." A spark of tears shimmered in her dark eyes as she conveyed her words, tenderly gawking at him. 

Keeping his grimace frowned for a few seconds, he sat still as a pillar. From his gesture, he seemed to be absorbed in some dubious thoughts and she could sense it precisely. 

"Zeus--"

"You must have...several queries in your mind Eva...isn't it?" Interrupting her halfway, he chose to speak first. 

She couldn't deny his interpretation and slowly averted her eyes down. Indeed, her mind was crowded with several queries but she couldn't bring herself to ask him all. She was worried that her interrogations could further elevate his concerns regarding her. 

"The first question you must be wondering, was our relation always bitter with the humans? The answer is...no." Holding a serious appearance on his pale eloquence, he shifted his gaze back to the rustling blue waves drifting towards their toes on the sand. 

"No?" She seemed quite startled as she reciprocated out quite aloud. "Weren't you all had the eternal enmity with humans?"

"We had a deep bond of friendship...cherished with trust and affection." 

"Friendship?" She rolled her eyes in awe repeating after him loudly.

A small sad smirk appeared on the edges of his lips as he whispered along, "there was a time when...humans and we Romanos used to cohabitate in the same Mountain Village. We didn't have any boundaries between us. We used to trust them with our whole hearts and hoped that they would feel the same. But...sadly...we were fooled by them, or in other words...they betrayed us brutally." 

"But...why?" Her enlarged eyes seemed filled with glum as she queried him abruptly, gulping down her saliva.

"Because...those foolish humans chose greed over our sacred friendship." He narrowed his dark gaze seeming very intense from his voice. 

"Wh...What?"

"At that time...we used to assemble our spiritual gemstones together before trading them with the other packs. We were basically sustained on hunting wild animals but exchanging those gems was an ancient mode of enhancing our physical strength to survive every resistance. However, in the human realm...those gems had a huge cost beyond our imagination. On the full moon nights of every month, the adults of the family would accumulate over the top of the mountains to perform the exchanging. Small wolf children were used to be left alone at home on those nights...

But... on one such night...those humans...did something horrendous..." His dark voice was growing heavier as if the hidden agony stabbed in his heart was finally paving its way out through his words.

She was growing quite anxious with every passing moment and slowly moved an inch closer to him. Groping one of his arms to provide him the virtuous comfort he deserved, she inquired softly, "what did they do?"

"They set our village on fire." He grumbled out densely.

"What?"

"Those wicked humans wanted to get rid of those small children who were guarding their houses at that night. So...the easiest way they adapted was to burn them all and disappear with the gems stocked at our houses. Those gems couldn't be burnt and will be easy for them to obtain, they were aware of this dark truth..." His eyes were fuming in wrath and his voice crooked a little while interpreting her. 

"Th-This is...despicable! Ho-How could they do it!" Quivered in angst, she mumbled. 

"Uncountable innocent small children were burnt alive...screaming and squealing for help! However, their merciless plan of theft backfired on them! The fire spread rapidly amidst the village covering almost every house in the area the wolves resided also spreading towards those human habitations. Painful, desperate cries of young children filled up the entire mountains and finally, the adults realized what horrendous crime was being committed in the village. 

My grandfather at that time was the alpha of our pack and the first one to rush into the village witnessing the bloody red fumes engulfing those small children. We were panicked and frantic to watch our children getting scorched to death! When everyone else was deadpanned in shock, without...caring about his own life, he...jumped into the fire to save the ones who were still alive. Among them...my father too was an innocent small child victim. He had lost his senses after his back shoulders were parched by that anomalous fire blaze.

Risking his everything, my grandfather saved my dad and several other moderately burnt children of the pack. He...shielded them with his broad body and facing those deadly flames by himself. Those flares left critically burnt scars on the entire upper half of the body that were absolutely incurable. Ultimately...after saving those poor lives...my...grandfather himself suffered a painful death..." He took a heavy sigh out, rolling his dark eyes in despair and gawking at the sea with an emptiness in his eyes.

Involuntarily, tears streamed down her eyes as she tightly clasped his arm apprehending the story she never dreamed to be true. Twitching her jowls, she slowly quivered, "I...I am so...sorry..." 

"On that night, along with that fire, we lost our biggest strength along with the lives of those small children... My granny lost her beloved mate... My dad lost his father and his guardian at such a young age and our pack lost the greatest leader we ever had. When...he was breathing his last on my granny's arm... his final painful words were, 'never trust those humans...' 

We all understood who stabbed us brutally in the back and that's how our enmity began. The price of our pure friendship we had to pay with the life of the beloved leader we ever had." Slowly he shifted his eyes at her while rustling in a polite voice. 

"I...I never knew...you...you had such a painful story behind your hatred, Zeus. Why did you never tell me about it?" Wrapping her small fingers within his cold palm firmly, she murmured frowning her brows. 

"I had heard it all from...Uncle Steve..." A sad smirk escaped his lips as he retaliated to her query. "He too was a survivor from that grave accident on that night." Holding her hand intently, he asserted.

Immediately, Eva scrunched her brows looking a bit intense from her cast. It seemed as if a certain thought had hit her mind and eagerly, she questioned him back, "my dad had a huge burnt scar mark on his left elbow... So it means...he too was saved by your grandfather?"

"Both of our fathers survived that heinous execution attempt at the cost of his own life, Eva." He tossed out a deep sigh of dismal, averting his deep gaze away from her. 

Keeping her anticipated silence with a pounding heart, she slowly tapped his arm trying to comfort his bereaved soul a bit. "Oh...Oh gosh...I...I don't know what to say anymore or how to console your irreplaceable loss...but...I can now evidently understand the hatred your pack bears against humans... And, that's rational." 

"That invincible agony of betrayal made us bitter...the way we have become now. With his death...it caused a huge scar when we became feeble and unable to put our trust in anyone anymore. And that's when...the Lupos arose as our biggest rivals." His grimace was faded into a void of darkness as his deep voice grew much heavier. 

"Lupos?" Gulping anxiously, she reciprocated after him. 

"Everyone we trusted...ended up betraying us. The pack...whom we considered as our faithful partners who traded those gems with us, attacked us with their force as soon as grandpa died because we were at our weakest point at that moment. We lost several wolves who died fighting for us and somehow, we were forced to leave that village to save ourselves...

But soon after...those bastards not only murdered my granny right before my eyes but also...framed Czar's innocent mother for treason that resulted into...her execution." He mumbled.

"Tr-Treason? Czar's mother was...framed for treason!?" She shrieked out loud, gasping in awe.