Elara's POV
My heart didn't just beat at the mention of that; it tried to jump out from my chest. The air in my own apartment felt like a heavy trap. Detective Marek relaxed comfortably in my chair as if he owned the apartment, my parents' photo looking fragile and small in his hand.
"What did you just say detective?" My voice was a thin, broken thing.
He dropped the photo frame on the table with a finality that echoed in the silent room. "You heard me right, Elara. It wasn't an accident as reported. The official report was all a cover-up. An important lie just so to prevent city-wide panic."
I shook my head, backing away until my shoulders heavily kissed the closed door. "No. That's not true. It can't be true detective Marek. The police said… the other driver…"
"Was paid a ransom to take the fall," Marek finished, his voice flat. "The damage to your parents' car was from claws. Not from any collision. Deep, brutal gouges in the metal. The coroner's report, the real one, listed the cause of death as massive blood loss from… lacerations. Not some blunt force trauma."
The floor felt unsteady under my feet. The world tilted. My parents, my bookish, kind and loving parents, torn apart by… by a thing like Lucian.
"Why are you giving me this information now, what am I to do with it?" I whispered amidst confusion and fear, tears causing my vision to blur.
"Because you have to understand what you're protecting!" He snapped, the calm facade cracking to reveal the fanatic beneath. He sharply stood up from the chair he was sitting on, his presence suddenly occupying the small space.
"I knew your mother, Elara. I knew her before it all happened. She was a researcher. Very brilliant. She was getting close to something, studying genetic anomalies in the city's population. She had an idea on them. She knew about them. The wolves. She called me the week before she got attacked and killed, terrified. She said she'd found the 'Source Alpha.'"
Every word from Detective Marek was a hammer blow to my face. My mother knew? Just like I was, she was hunting them?
"I've been keeping a monitoring eye on you since the day your parents died," Marek continued, his eyes directly into mine. "Waiting. I knew that you'd eventually find your way to him. I knew the curiosity was in your blood. You were the perfect bait."
The revelation was a physical sickness. Everything had been orchestrated My entire life, my drive to become a journalist, my grief, my pain, even my happiness they were all orchestrated, monitored by this man. I was nothing but just a pawn in his war.
"You used me," I breathed, the betrayal so complete it felt like my soul was crushing at every second.
"I'm trying to save you Elara!" he roared, finally losing his composure completely. "I'm trying to save this entire city. To protect them from the monsters that took the lives of your family! And you're in love with the thing that leads them!"
He stormed towards me, stopping few inches away. The scent of gun oil coming from him was suffocating my breath.
"Here is what we are to do for this while thing to end," he said, his voice dropping to a fierce deadly whisper. "You will take me to him. To his den. You will lead me to his pack, his heart. And you will do it by tomorrow night."
"And if I don't?" I challenged him, though my body was buried in fear.
"If you don't," he said, a cruel smile twisting his lips, "I will let them know everything. I will release everything to the city. I will the people know of your mother's real research. The true coroner's report. Photos of the crime scene. I will let the world know that the only daughter of the victims is now the lover of the beast that killed her parents. You will become infamous. Your parents' memory will be a joke, a public spectacle. Their only legacy will be the daughter who betrayed them for the monster that started it all and death."
He stepped backwards, letting the heavy weight of his words weigh me down.
"The choice is now yours, Elara. Lead me to the monster, or I will destroy every single bit of the good memory you have left. Every bit of them."
He brushed past me after his threats and zoomed off, leaving the door open. I slid down slowly to the floor, the cold wood pressing against my legs. The photo of my parents smiled up at me right from the table where Marek left it.
Everything was a lie. My past. My present.
Everything. The man I had come to love was connected to the thing that rendered me an orphan. My entire life has been manipulated by the man who was supposed to uphold justice.
I hugged my knees so tight to my chest, the sobs finally tearing out of me, running down like a stream on my cheeks. I was trapped between the man who held my present love and the memories of my parents. A choice that would break me no matter what I chose.
The sound of the balcony door sliding open was almost silent. I didn't have to look up. I felt him. The air changed and got charged with his presence, his scent of cedar and rain now became a painful reminder of everything I'd just lost.
"Elara?" Lucian's voice was soft, wary. "Who came to you? And what happened? I felt your distress from blocks away"
I raised my head, my vision blurred by my tears. Silhouetted by the city lights, he was standing right in front of me, so beautiful it hurts. The man. The monster.
My voice was raw, shattered glass in my throat, so quiet that I couldn't even hear it as I asked him the question that would decide our fate.
"Lucian… did you know… were my parents killed by a wolf?"