Chapter 279: The history

Inside her bedroom, Viola sat with Gilbert as he attended to the cuts on her arms and neck after she changed her wet clothes. The rain continued to fall heavily outside with such force it seemed like it would break the glass walls. Her eyes drifted occasionally around the room warily and, unable to help herself, she asked the doctor,

"Is it true that in the past werewolves killed any sea creatures and anything associated with them?"

Doctor Gilbert bandaged the cut on her arm and turned his eyes to look at her before he hummed, "Yes. The sea creatures, mermaids and all the others, caused chaos in our world once." He said. "Though I don’t blame them much for the chaos they caused, as it was we werewolves who used them for selfish gain and extraordinary strength. We wanted abilities we weren’t created with and so we attack the sea creatures."

"What kind of abilities?" Viola asked, making sure her tone carried only curiosity and nothing that might indicate she was beginning to suspect something about her own background.

At this point, she would rather believe her parents had somehow used a sea creature to gain abilities that were now being passed down to her than believe she herself might be part sea creature, beings that were natural enemies of werewolves.

Gilbert put the first aid kit back in the box as he replied, "Well, a lot. We werewolves were gifted with the natural ability to heal, not age like humans and to shift form, but unlike the vampires who once existed alongside us, we can’t compel, we can’t manipulate memories or control other powers, but with the parts of mermaids, that became possible. Their hearts in particular could change any werewolf’s life entirely, could give one a supreme Alpha’s strength and something more than anything they could imagine.

"Their tears that turned to pearls are the most expensive treasure in existence, their fins can be used to create weapons capable of killing a werewolf and a vampire instantly. There are many advantages to mermaids, sirens and sea witches that werewolves would kill to get their hands on. That caused the huge rift, to the point where sea creatures could no longer be sighted without a werewolf attacking and wanting something from them." Gilbert said and continued with a sigh.

"Though saying it that way makes the werewolves sound like the villains, I also want you to understand that long before werewolves began hunting and using sea creatures, our kind was being hunted by them first.

"They would turn werewolves into glass-like stone and use them as decorations and accessories in their world. Sea creatures are fond of collecting unusual things, so a werewolf trapped in its wolf form and preserved like stone was considered something rare and valuable to them.

"That was why they kept coming to the surface during the Moon Festival to silently attack us back then. Until we also figured out their values."

Gilbert had always wanted to teach this history to more werewolves but not many were curious enough to sit and listen, and so he told the Luna what he knew gladly and without suspecting there was a deeper reason behind her asking.

"Mermaids and many sea creatures are invaluable to us werewolves now, we don’t kill them for killing’s sake or turn them to stone, we use them to build ourselves and gain more of what we don’t have."

Viola digested his words carefully. It was history she had known a little about before but had never taken seriously, but now that things connected to water were beginning to latch onto her, fear sat quietly in her chest. She didn’t want to be anything but a werewolf. She had lived her entire life among them and she wouldn’t want to be singled out now.

Though she doubted she was a sea creature entirely, given that she couldn’t even swim and had nearly died in the water, she didn’t know what she was and that uncertainty was its own kind of terror.

"I hope I didn’t waste your time with my curiosity, Doctor Gilbert?" Viola said offhandedly and the doctor was quick to wave his hand dismissively.

"Not at all. I like it when werewolves get curious about history and why sea creatures hold such value to us. By the way, try to keep the bandages away from water and get a good night’s sleep, Luna. It looks like it will rain all through the night. Good night." He got up from the edge of the bed and carried the first aid box with him as he left.

Viola was almost tempted to follow him and spend the night in Zoe’s room so she wouldn’t have to be alone near the glass walls, but she didn’t move. Maybe it was time she stopped running from it and tried to face it instead.

She hadn’t found her sister. She didn’t know what she was. And she didn’t want to become the next target for any werewolf who found out, because it was beginning to make a horrible kind of sense why those children in the orphanage had been killed when they showed a reaction to fish.

Viola shuddered at the thought and ran her fingers through her hair.

Wary of the rain, which, while not unusual during summer, was far heavier than it should have been for this time of year and showed no signs of stopping, she pushed herself off the bed and began unpacking her things.

Perhaps keeping herself busy would serve as a distraction, something to stop her mind from dwelling too much on the unsettling fact that nearly every corner of the penthouse was made of glass.

She searched for one of Sebastian’s shirts she had taken and pulled off the nightdress Zoe had helped her into earlier.

She slipped Sebastian’s shirt over her head and exhaled slowly when the warm scent of coffee and woodsmoke wrapped around her, sending little sparks into her chest and belly. It was almost like he was here, and she hugged her arms around herself through the fabric and took deep, slow inhales of him.

She reached out to put her things away in the closet when something thudded to the floor and she looked down to find the album she had taken from the gallery.

"Oh, I almost forgot about you." She muttered to herself, bending down to pick it up.

Viola went back to the bed as a loud crack of thunder rumbled through the ground and rattled the glass walls behind the curtains drawn around them.

She glanced toward the glass wall and sighed in dismay.

She settled against the headboard and pulled the sheet over her legs, making herself as comfortable as she could manage. She was still unsettled from earlier and every sound of thunder that followed felt like a reminder of what the glass had already done once tonight.

Viola placed the album on her lap and opened it, hoping to discover more about the relationship between Sebastian and his twin and curious to see the couple who had given birth to her mate.

The first picture that greeted her was of Sebastian and a she-wolf she recognized as Natalie, he had his arm around her waist and they were both grinning at the camera. They looked so genuinely happy together that it stung somewhere she hadn’t expected.

She quickly turned to the next page. Another picture of Natalie and Sebastian, and Viola pursed her lips. Was this even something she should be looking through? She hadn’t come this far emotionally to spend the night watching how happy he had once looked with someone else.

Viola was about to close the album altogether and stop looking through it before jealousy got the better of her, but she paused when her eyes landed on something that caught her attention.

She stared at the Sebastian in the picture, the one smiling tenderly down at Natalie. Something felt off about him but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

Trying to figure out what was missing, she pursed her lips and continued turning the pages. After moving through a few happy moments of Sebastian and his late wife, she finally found one of him and his twin when they were little, alongside their parents.

Her eyes narrowed. "Holy moon, they look so identical." She traced her fingers over the picture, studying the two boys and trying to single Sebastian out.

She found him quickly enough, his young face held no smile, only a scowl that was entirely recognizable. But when her eyes moved to Alex, that same strange feeling returned, that sense that something was off she still couldn’t name. She turned the pages back to Sebastian and Natalie and then back to the boys again, her eyes settling on Alex.

She flipped back to the picture of the older Sebastian with his late Luna, and suddenly it clicked what had been bothering her.

The snake tattoo on his neck was missing.

And so was the hairstyle. It was different from what he wore now.

Viola frowned as she recalled Sebastian telling her he had gotten the snake tattoo at sixteen after losing Alex.

So why was there no tattoo on his neck in this picture?

She quickly went back through the other photographs and realized he had been wearing high-collared shirts in most of them, concealing his neck entirely.

Something about this did not feel right to her, but she could not quite figure out what it was.

"You’re still awake?"

Viola jolted at Zoe’s sudden voice from the doorway. She looked up with a guilty expression. "Yes, I’m going through the album."