Silence and tension you could cut with a knife filled the air.

Along with Wolfie's icy chill, of course.

Happy stood looking between us like a child watching his parents have an argument.

And Wolfie stood looking down at me like he was going to squash me under his massive shoe.

"Explain," he barked shortly, his voice leaving no room for argument.

Hm, explain. Explain which part? The part where I cut my skin open without blinking an eye? Or how the poison didn't affect me as much? Or the knowing looks the three of us shared? So many things to explain.

None of them pretty.

None of them I feel particularly inclined to share with him.

"Where did that dagger come from?" He gritted out slowly. "And how are you so familiar with it that you're immune to it's poison?"

Oh.

He wants that explanation. . .

Well. . . Um.

My throat started tightening, so I just looked away from him, not answering his question.

I watched his fists clench and unclench.

"Maria," he gritted out calmly.

Well not calmly, but the calm that comes before a storm. Yeah, that kind. When you piss someone off and their voice remains monotonous, but they're looking at you like they're going to eat you.

That's what it sounded like.

I'm still not looking at him because it makes my stomach churn, but I'm quite sure he's not smiling.

"Fine then, tell me why when you saw the knife your face went even f**king paler, and why the alpha and master looked like they wanted to s**t themselves even looking at it."

. . . Okay.

I suppose he has a right to know that part. His pack isn't too far off from here, so that could mean they're in danger as well.

". . . How old were you. . . during the Blood War?" I asked slowly.

I could feel my breathing become a little labored.

"I was turning thirteen towards the end."

I furrowed my brows at him. "You're about to turn twenty and you're still this naive?"

He let out a growl.

I put my hands up, "Just a question."

"Keep going," he growled. "What does that have to do with this?"

I hesitated, "Did your parents ever tell you about the ones that started the war? The enemy everyone was fighting?"

"All most of the children were told was that they were some very powerful and bad, bad people," Happy interjected.

I turned to him, "The worst."

I looked back to Wolfie, wanting to hear his experience as the alpha's kid.

"No, they told me about the same as everyone else." He looked to Happy. "I only remember one attack and they got me out of there as fast as they could," The shoulder with the nasty scar on it twitched a bit. Hm.

But really? His parents didn't want to teach him about this, the crap show of war, even though he was taking their place at some point? Weird. Thirteen is young. But some alphas are on the battlefield by then, and if not, most certainly in training — holy sh*t his brother, I'm an @sshole.

  How could I let something like that slip my mind? So much has happened in so little time, but you'd think I'd remember something so important to my mate's being.

"Well, the people, if you could even call them that, that started the war were monsters."

  I decided to move on like nothing happened, knowing the last thing he probably wants is for me to sneak attack him with bringing this up.

  It's exactly what he's unconsciously doing to me right now, and it's very uncomfortable.

"Their average fighter could hold their own against alphas and pure bloods. If you were outnumbered, no matter your rank, you were probably dead, or. . . Taken for further use."

"Taken for further use?" Happy raised a brow, alarmed.

Good, that's exactly what he should be. Alarmed.

"What the f**k does that mean?" He continued

"It means they would take you, kill your mate, and force you to breed with a vampire if you're a werewolf and a werewolf if you're a vampire. And by the time they're done with you, you're already dead because of the loss of your mate."

I felt like apologizing for my bluntness but the ball forming in my throat was too much to get words past.

". . . Hybrids," Wolfie whispered.

"Hybrids," I nodded. "That's what they were. Their king was the first. He was born of a Luna and a Master."

My eyes shot to Wolfie for a split second, but darted away as soon as they landed.

"He killed them —"

"He killed his parents?" Happy cut me off.

"Yeah, not your cup of tea, this guy."

  Hybrids are known to be more powerful than werewolves or vampires on their own. That's how he was able to do it. Kill an alpha and a pure blood.

  But everyone knows that.

  "Anyway, he killed them, took over their land, made all the high ranks breed with each other between species, then killed everyone else."

"D@mn," I heard Wolfie mumble.

"Yes, d@mn them all. So, then he had an army of very powerful Hybrids under his wing, which everyone started calling a coven — because why not — and of course, by this point, he had already gotten rid of all his original house and pack members. This enabled him to shape these hybrid people from birth into whatever he wanted. Into monsters."

I took a breather because, this is a mouthful and it's getting a little harder to breathe.

"Of course, this was before anyone even knew about them. They kept to themselves. Training, growing, right under everyone's noses for centuries. Then they started going for the smaller territories. The ones out in the middle of nowhere that no one would realize had been massacred. And no one did, until it was too late. The first sizable territory they struck was in Central America and it caught the pack and its alpha and Luna by so much surprise they wiped through them like nothing."

  "It took everyone forever to come together and declare war on them as one. So many packs had been taken over. So many had died. So many had been bred. It got to the point only the most powerful stayed standing.

  But that was for a reason. They were so successful because they were crazy powerful, but they were sloppy. It wouldn't work in the big leagues. And everyone left standing knew that.

  But as soon as everyone got used to their tactics, the monsters switched it up.

  They got smart. Went on the down-low for a while and came back tactical and cunning. It threw everyone for a loop."

  "They went from all brawn and no brains to crazy manipulative and smart with brawn. They were deadly as h3ll, and they knew it.

  They would play games, keep the territories on their toes, but never attack with full ferocity. They were waiting for something."

  I looked back up at them, coming out of the daze I just now realized I was in. "But you guys know what happened next. The territories didn't really feel like waiting on that, so they attacked them first. You know how that turned out."

  "We won," Wolfie mumbled.

  I nodded, "If not, we wouldn't be here."

  ". . .How do you know about all this?" Wolfie's brows drew together.

  "Yeah, whenever we asked it'd always seem the adults wanted the kids to have nothing to do with it," Happy tacked on.

  Well, I guess that's for a good reason.

  I shrugged, "I kept really involved."

  They both raised their brows.

  "And your immunity?" Wolfie interrogated.

  "What about it?" I played dumb.

  "Don't play dumb with me," he growled.

  "Who, me?"

  "I'm not joking, Maria."

Someone's cranky.

  "Well, I am, Wolfie, because if I don't I might go insane," I laughed.

  "Why?!"

  "Why what?"

  "Maria, I swear to —"

  "Who the h3ll are you to demand to know?! Huh, Wolfie?!"

  Silence.

Holy sh*t, I'm losing my mind. I can't even hold a conversation about it anymore.

  "What makes you think I'd want to tell you?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

  Just like how you don't want to tell me about your brother.

  But I can't say that.

  F**k, why are tears welling in my eyes?

  Maybe because my mate that doesn't love me and my past are not a good combination.

  ". . . I'm your mate —" he tried to justify.

  I gave a loud humorless laugh.

  "You say that like you act like it."

  ". . . Like you haven't admitted you wished it weren't true," I laughed sarcastically.

  I stormed out of the room with my head down, running up to my room so he couldn't catch me and make me putty in his hands with a single look.

~~~~~~~~
(A/N)

  (Unedited, btw)

  Two late updates in a row, woohoo!

  Sorry, my bad.

  Anyway, I know these kinds of chapters are usually kind of boring, but now at least you know part of the tea so. . . That's something:). I hope.

  Thanks for reading!

~ The Awkward Koala