My eyes widened a bit, but I didn’t utter a word since I didn’t want it to seem as if I was mocking her.

"It was a great shame. My mother kept it secret from the clan to protect me. If anyone found out, chances are I wouldn’t have been Victor’s personal servant."

It kind of made sense. After all, her clan put her through as a child. It made sense she would have nightmares, and since she was a child, peeing herself would be a normal reaction.

Isabella held her head down in shame; she couldn’t even look me in the eyes as to how devastated she was.

"You know, I peed myself as a child too."

I didn’t really; I wasn’t a scaredy-cat like Allison, but what else was I supposed to say?

"You did?"

"All the time."

"Huh?"

She looked up at me and wiped away the tears that were starting to accumulate in the corner of her eyes. And suddenly she let out a small giggle.

"I can’t really imagine you doing that. Since you’re so... you."

"I don’t know what that means, but I’ll take it as a compliment. Okay, it’s time for the next question," I said. "And this will be the last one. Why are you so angry at me?"

"I’m..."

For the first time, she hesitated to lie. I could’ve easily compelled the truth out of her, but I wanted her to choose to tell me the truth.

"It’s because of what happened after you defeated Danzo," she finally answered, and this time she wasn’t lying.

"What happened?"

She took a deep breath before answering.

"They say werewolves who have been turned get the choice to choose who their fated mate is. After the battle, I chose you..."

So that’s it. She didn’t have to explain any further; I understood it perfectly. She chose me to be her fated mate while I was already fated to Sylvie, plus there was Kumo and Selthia. She was worried that there wouldn’t be any place for her or that I would reject her.

Sigh.

All of this could’ve been resolved with us just having a conversation, but since she was a stubborn, overly emotional hybrid, we had to solve things the harder way.

She stood with her arms still folded, avoiding eye contact. I approached her and, just by simply adjusting her chin, I forced her to look at me.

"You forget that I chose you the moment I decided to turn you into a werewolf."

Her expression softened when she saw how serious I was.

"Do you really—"

"As for the kissing stuff, I’ll leave that up to you."

I’ve accomplished what I wanted to do, which was speak to her. The only thing left to do was sit and watch her grow. Isabella wasn’t the only one in my pack who was flawed. Each of them has their own flaw, and if we are to evolve into a formidable pack, I’ll have to help each and everyone of them overcome their flaw.

"I’ve recently heard that there is a settlement of vampires nearby. I’m going to check it out," I explained.

She was still deep in thought about our earlier conversation, but hearing me mention vampires snapped her out of it.

"Is it the Veymont clan?" she asked hastily.

"I’m not sure, but from what I heard, I don’t think so. Would you like to come with me?"

"I umm..."

"Or would you rather continue stalking me from the shadows?"

Her face morphed into a frown.

"Hmph! Fine, since you insist, I’ll come with you."

That was all the motivation it took for her to say yes: a little teasing.

...

"If these vampires don’t belong to the Veymont clan, is there a specific reason we’re going after them?" Isabella asked as we walked side by side. "I assume there is a reason since you never do anything without one."

"It’s not only the vampires I’ll be paying a visit to; there are three more settlements in the area too."

"But why? You don’t plan on taking them all out tonight, do you?" she asked, looking a bit worried.

"I agree I have changed since we first met, but some things stay the same. I’m not one to engage in useless conflicts unless I’m backed into a corner. I don’t plan to start a conflict with the other settlements. I only wish to assess their strength myself."

I couldn’t just go off of what Nyra told me; I needed to see their power myself. Before long, we arrived at where the vampire settlement was—if you could even call it that. It was a lodge located beside a lake. It looked as if it was used as a vacation hide. There were 12 humans and 6 vampires.

The humans looked completely lifeless. There were 8 girls and 5 boys, all around college age. The place was littered with beer cans and all different kinds of trash, so that told me they must’ve been partying when the vampires attacked.

Not only that, but a strong stench of death was emanating from the lake. The vampires must’ve dumped the rest of the corpses there, contaminating the water in this day and age. I felt a little annoyed by that.

The surviving humans were being compelled by the vampires. They were all severely malnourished to the point where they almost looked like skeletons. Vampires tend to get aroused whenever they drink blood, but considering there was an even split of male and female vampires, I don’t think anything unspeakable happened to the humans.

In fact, two of the vampires were in the act right now, as from where we were hiding we could see everything. Isabella was blushing up a storm beside me. I have never seen her make that face before.

"You make that face now, but sometimes I see you touching yourself when—"

Isabella’s eyes began to glow as a mix of orange and blood red when I began to speak.

"Never mind..."

I spoke too much, because now she was back to the same foul mood as before.

"At least do something," she huffed.

"Hurt them if you must, but don’t kill them," I ordered.

"The humans?"

"No, the vampires. I need them alive."