Chapter 148

ACHILLES.

An old man with sallow skin and red eyes. The details repeat in my head over and over like a mantra, forming a very clear image in my head. It's almost as though I'm really there, like I really did see who this man was.

Nana seems to be having the same kind of experience, only with more depth because she actually got to see the man with her own eyes. She's staring at the window, her eyebrows crinkled as confusion steals over her face. It's as though she still doesn't understand what happened, and why it all happened. To be honest, I can't blame her. Even I can't figure it all out.

So Tabitha had it all. She was a powerful Siren Wolf who had the support and admiration of her own family and everyone around her. She was loved and taken care of. But when she said a prophecy about herself, about her causing great shame, she decided to run away.

Only to come back with a man who I'm pretty sure was a Rogue.

The last remaining one, it seems. At least at that time.

"What happened next?" I ask, my own voice barely even audible. "What happened to her?"

It takes a while for Nana to speak, and even then she refuses to look into my eyes like she's getting secondhand shame from what she's about to say. “Her parents got furious. They told her to take the abomination out of the house, you know. If she wanted to come back, then he should be out. She kept insisting that he live with them so she could marry him, so people could get used to seeing him around.”

“And how was he?” I frown, trying to figure out why a sixteen-year-old educated young heir would defend an obvious Rogue that bad. “Did he actively play a part in it?”

“That was the thing, I don’t know,” Nana says, shaking her head and looking up to the ceiling like she’s asking the high heavens for an answer. “I did not know his name. Tabitha’s parents did not know his name. They don’t know him at all. And the strange thing was, it seemed that she didn’t know him either. She just seemed very much in love with him for no reason. She looked at him like he was a prize, but trust me, he was not even a sight to behold. He was old. Perhaps even older than the former Alpha himself.”

I try to think of a reason why a literal child would want to marry an old wrinkly man but for the life of me, I cannot figure it out. All I can think about is that maybe it’s a power bond. Perhaps it was a prophecy again because knowing the child that they have created. That part of the puzzle is now being completed.

Tristan is half Siren Wolf and half Rogue.

That was why Larkin said he was the last of them. He didn’t mean the last of his family, the last heir. No. He meant that Tristan is the last living true Rogue, the last of his race after they have been eradicated.

Maybe the purge didn’t reach his father somehow and he had to find a powerful woman to carry a child for him, to pass on his legacy. That would explain why he didn’t know her and she didn’t know him. They just stuck together because it was decreed by the universe that they would make his legacy and continue his bloodline.

And as a child at that time, Tabitha gave in.

It’s all so messed up. The events are nothing short of shocking, but I’m far too numb at this point to feel some sort of horror from this, much less shock.

The only good thing that would come out of this is that I know what we’re up against now. I know who we’re up against. The man whose parents have been shunned, together in a relationship for power and not for love.

And now, true to his father’s deeds, Tristan also hopes to repopulate the earth with his kind. Only he didn’t know it slowly and surely like his father did. Now he’s turning real people into mutants who would do his bidding.

“She went with him when her parents made her choose,” Nana continues, her voice now low and weak. I can tell talking about it makes her feel strange, but she goes on anyway. “Tabitha said, ‘I would rather live in squalor with him than deal with all of you.’ It was such a bold statement. You would think it was out of love, but I don’t think it ever was. After that, they told everyone that she was dead. They said that the heir is no more. I believed it. I quit, and I never heard from them again. I never looked back. The last thing I have heard is that there’s a new heir in the Moonlight Grove Pack, a distant cousin. That was Tristan.”

I raise an eyebrow. “So they told you that Tristan was a distant cousin taking the throne?”

She nods. “I didn’t know better at that time. Tabitha just vanished. But now it’s all clear.”

With that, the silence between us grows and grows. There are no longer words to be said to each other, so I get up and thank her. “I am grateful for your help. I would like you to participate in our plan, as you might know more things about this.”

Nana gives me a little smile, and with that, I take her to the office where Carlos, Ruth, and Henry are. They are standing over a table, bent over a series of maps and photos scattered on the surface.

The three of them bow to me when I get in, but I wave them off, helping Nana settle on a chair.

“What do you have so far?” I ask as I join them around the table.

“Well, Henry told me that Tristan has been using the old tunnels from the train tracks that were supposed to be built but got discontinued thirty years ago as a hideout and a hidden entry and exit point to their lair,” Carlos says, taking out a big sheet of paper from under the big stack on the table. “I found the old schematics here, and we can use this to enter their fortress without being detected. We could use some of the alternate paths in here.”

“And I remember the main ones that they use.” Henry points at the markings that Carlos already made. “If we tighten our plans, I know we can get in no problem. I can get at the front for you, lead you to the paths I know.”

Ruth looks at him. “But we…”

“It’s alright,” I say. I can sense that they seem to have agreed not to make him go and I understood it immediately. “I can gather enough forces and your help is already enough. There would be no need for you to headline the group.”

“Did you say forces, though?” Carlos asks. “You mean we’re not going to organize a small group to scout things?”

I shake my head. “Tristan’s plan is obvious now. He’s a half Rogue and he wants to populate the world with his own kind again. He’s starting by making those mutts out of normal people, hitting two birds with one stone. As he decimates our population, he increases his. It’s the perfect plan. We can’t settle this with small groups alone. He would easily outnumber us now.”

Ruth nods, biting her lip. “So the plan is to attack?”

“The plan is to invade,” I declare, pointing at the map of the whole land. “We gather people. As many as we can. We will come there with an antidote for those who have been transformed, and we will take control once more. We will put Tristan down once and for all.”