Sylvie stared at me with sparkling blue eyes, and in the next second, she crouched down on her hind legs like a wild animal preparing to pounce on prey.

"Why are you following me?" I asked, but just then...

SWOOSH!

Her claws ripped through the air at a terrifying speed, aimed directly at my throat. I sidestepped her attack and watched it whiz past my face. In that fraction of a second, we locked eyes. Her eyes were slitted and blue just like a wolf’s; when I stared into them, all I saw was a wild animal.

She reacted quickly when she realized her attack had missed, and with a staggering display of agility, she kicked herself off the ground and swung her other claws, aimed at my face this time.

I stepped back so the attack was just out of reach, but then again, she acted instantly, and in midair, she spun herself for a kick aimed at my midsection.

It was impossible to dodge, so I was forced to block the kick with my arm.

The attack felt as if someone had swung a giant hammer at me, and it caused me to slide several paces back away from her.

Just from that brief display, I got an idea of just how powerful she was. It seemed she was analyzing me too, because she wasn’t charging at me this time. Instead, she watched me keenly. I decided to take this time to ask my previous question once again.

"Why are you following me, and why did you attack me just now?"

"Sylvie don’t want to make babies with you!"

"Huh?"

"You are Sylvie’s mate, correct?"

"... I am," I answered hesitantly.

"Sylvie has no use for a mate, only papa!"

"Fine, then let’s go our separate ways. No one is forcing us to become mates. Let’s just leave and pretend we never saw each other."

She shook her head vehemently.

"Sylvie must kill. You appear in Sylvie’s mind so much, Sylvie can’t think and you make Sylvie’s heart race so much she feels dizzy a lot. You make Sylvie sick. Sylvie must kill!"

"Then so be it."

I had originally planned to stay away from her, but things had changed. At least this way, if I killed her, I would be honoring the promise I made to Nyra, plus there would be one less nuisance left for me to deal with.

I thought it was unlikely that I even had a fated mate, and now that she was right here in front of me, I couldn’t help but think that she was the exact opposite of me. The irony made me want to throw my head back and laugh.

Sylvie crouched down on her hind legs again, but this time, ice began to form on her hands, taking the shape of pointed claws.

This girl seemed like a bit of an anomaly.

Just like me.

She lunged at me at such a speed that it seemed as if she had teleported. Her claws found their way to my throat in a deadly arc, but at the last second, I evaded the attack by kicking her away from me.

Just one scratch was all it would take for me to end up like Nyra. Her claws were coated in deadly venom, and I wasn’t sure if my healing ability was enough to handle it, and honestly, I didn’t want to find out.

She had far surpassed Liora in speed and agility and Derrick in strength. She was truly in a league of her own. I nimbly evaded her attacks and created an opening for me to attack. Her urge to kill me was raw and unfiltered; I could feel it behind every attack.

All I needed to do was purposefully create an opening which she thought she could exploit, and the moment she did, I countered her. When she slashed at my throat, I ducked low and severed her tendons.

That single act caused her balance to falter, and before she could react, I planted my knee into her stomach. I felt her ribs give way as I broke through them with a sickening crunch. The ribs punctured her lungs, suffocating her as she slowly began to drown in her own blood.

[BOND with fated mate..... -15%]

Hmm... She’s more sturdy than I thought. I mean to crush her chest with that single attack but... somehow she’s still breathing.

She collapsed to the ground, wheezing heavily as blood gushed out of her mouth, but she didn’t utter a word. Through the inexplicable pain, she stared at me with sharp eyes. She tried desperately to get up, but the more she moved, the worse her injuries got. Her body trembled, threatening to give out.

"Papa~"

She looked as if she wanted to cry but she was holding back quite a bit. She gritted her blood stained teeth as she tried to will herself off the ground.

Watching her squirm on the ground, I felt nothing. Not an ounce of empathy. A single string tied us together when she became my fated mate, and now I was about to sever that string.

I steeled myself and readied my claws to rip through her chest, but just then, a maddening headache took me over. It felt as if my head was being split apart from the inside out, forcing me down on one knee. The agony was unbearable but without any warning, it stopped.

...

I opened my eyes, expecting to see Sylvie’s face, but she was gone, and I was somewhere else. Somehow, I was now standing in a forest in the middle of the day. None of my skills were working, not even my werewolf transformation. It felt as if it was me, but it wasn’t.

Almost like I was a ghost or a phantom.

I glanced around but saw nothing but trees, but suddenly, I heard the sound of loud laughter. It sounded like children. I followed the sound and soon I came upon a group of kids surrounding a tree.

No.

They all surrounded a girl lying next to a tree. The girl couldn’t have been more than ten, but there was something eerily familiar about her. Particularly the fluffy black ears and tail she had.

"Sylvie?"

I knew this was her; I could sense it. But what caught me by surprise wasn’t just her presence but the state she was in. She was crying on the ground, covered in blood and bruises as the other kids threw rocks at her and kicked her.

"You’re freaky! We will never let you play with us; you’re too much of a weirdo," a boy that looked the same age as her said.

"Just look at her; she’s so ugly and useless," another girl said with a mocking smile on her face. "Can you believe it? She thought that by giving us a dead mice we would be friends with her. Is she a cat?"

"Yeah, she is so weird. Why can’t she be normal? She is the daughter of the alpha."

While the other kids beat and made mocked her, Sylvie did nothing but cry and mutter incoherently.

"Sylv... sor.... Sylv... sor..."

"Ugh! She can’t even talk properly," a girl shouted in frustration before lifting up her foot and stomping on Sylvie’s tail.

Sylvie howled in pain, but her cries seemed only to fuel their desire to hurt her more. Through all of this, I felt as if I knew her. I understood her feelings perfectly. I knew what she wanted from the kids.

She wanted a connection.

Someone who understood her.

Why was her emotions so clear to me now? I could feel her wants and desires. Even now she didn’t hate the kid who were beating her. A twisted part of her thought they were playing. That the kids were her friends. The only reason she was crying was because of the pain she was in.

But the strongest emotion I felt emanating from the depts of her souls, was hate. Not hate for the kids who were hurting her but instead hate for herself.

Why does she hate herself?

And why am I so angry about it?

My body trembled uncontrollably in rage. my fist clenched so tightly that it dug into my flesh. I felt myself wanting to save her but I could do nothing but watch.

By no fault of her own, she was different, and she was suffering for it. The more i thought about her situation, the more I felt an unexplainable anger begin to rise in my chest, but just then, something happened.

Her father, Danzo, appeared. The moment they saw the alpha, all the kids ran off. I felt a bit relieved when I saw this. At least she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. I saw firsthand how much he loved his daughter earlier.

Surely he would comfort her. The only person Sylvie seems to care about is her father. Maybe it was because he was there for her when she needed him most. He was the only person she had ever felt a connection with.

I watched the scene unfold as Sylvie’s father approached her. Sylvie glanced up, and when she saw him, a crooked smile rose on her bruised face as tears filled her eyes.

"Papa~"

Danzo touched his daughter’s face lovingly and smiled. Feeling her father’s embrace, Sylvie’s tears seemed to flow even more. In my heart, I felt a bit relieved, but all of that was shattered in the next instance as I saw Sylvie being strangled by her own father.

"Why are you so useless?"