The Night Children

Chapter 55

Say - Ruel 

I only stared at him, his words ringing hollow so I was left to stand silently. Miss Anderson was right. The Alpha was my father.

"Isaac didn't just hate you when he first realised who you were at school," Aaron continued, his voice risen into a taunt. "He loathed you." He turned to take a few strides around me, his steps causal and confident. Like this conversation was nothing but a friendly catch up.

"The daughter of the man who nearly killed him. The daughter of the man who ruined his life." His eyes flashed as he paused to turn in his spot, his eyes narrow but blazing in elation. "The daughter of the man who had turned him."

I felt my mouth fall open in shock, my skin erupting into goosebumps. "My father turned Isaac?"
Aaron nodded, "The Alpha fled from Brookefield once he was turned after performing the Paidí ceremony. He discovered his immunity, but picked off children that he believed would suit his pack, Isaac being one of them."
"And then he came back to Brookefield?" I asked, ignoring the fact I had no idea what a Paidí ceremony was.

"He came back to start the army he had always dreamt of." His eyes seemed to sparkle, a gleam filled with the promise of death and destruction. I blinked against it. "Tunids riddle this world, their weaknesses starting to taint us. We had to destroy them but to our advantage. So we began to turn them one by one in order to strengthen our pack and ultimately destroy human kind."

I regarded this for a few silent moments, attempting to understand the level of challenge but hope in his eyes. I knew he believed this plan to the fullest, and would do anything it took to turn their dream into a reality.

"How can you slaughter the very thing you once were?" I asked quietly but Aaron reacted like he had been struck.

"My life as a tunid meant nothing to me. I was a nothing, a nobody struggling alone in a word I deemed unworthy." He hissed, his voice like venom against my ears. "The Alpha found me balancing on a bridge in the middle of a night, my wrists slitted and my will to live gone." He rose his eyes to pin point mine and I felt like I was staring at a different person. A boy who had no one to rely on, who had no one who loved him or cared for him. A boy who sought the comforts of the shadows and drowned in his own thoughts. "He promised me a better life. He promised me I could lead an army the size of the worlds entire population. He showed me his capabilities and asked me to join him as his Beta." He didn't blink against my gaze as he watched me, his irises boring into mine. "I let him perform the Paidí ceremony before he gave me the disease."

"Aaron I-"
"No," He cut in, and for the first time I saw vulnerability beneath his gaze. He seemed to sense it too because he tore his eyes away from me to stare at his surroundings angrily. "You know nothing of what it was like for me. Do not comfort me with your tunid empathy."

"My father is not the man you should follow," I began but anger had begun to seep back into his words.

"Your father was the only man who gave me a reason to live. We shared the same dream, and now the only thing getting in the way is Isaac and you." He lashed in frustration. "The Huntress herself nearly killed you, leaving the Alpha to entirely focus on determining her identity to slaughter her before she slaughtered you first."

"If the Alpha was so set on keeping me alive, why did his wolves nearly kill me?" I retorted back but Aaron only rose his lips into a semi smile in response.

"The disease infects our mentality and physicality. Our bodies change in ways that isn't natural. Our humanity is split in half and wrestles with the thoughts of a wolves. During our first few moons we are almost manic, tearing anything or killing anything that moves." His eyes darkened drastically before his frown slipped. "Including ourselves."