CHAPTER 72: THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

Selthia’s lips curled up into a cunning smile. The shy, innocent girl I was used to seeing these past few days was gone, replaced by a cunning vixen who was now threatening my life.

"I’m sorry, mister Liam, but I must kill you now. The past few days have been fun, but all good things must come to an end."

Immediately, as she spoke, a swirling ball of water began to form from her extended hand. It was aimed directly at me as the orb of water continued to increase in size with every passing second, but I didn’t react. My lack of reaction caused her to raise an eyebrow.

"You don’t seem surprised."

"That’s because I’m not," I answered. "I knew what you were from the beginning."

The corner of her mouth twitched as if she thought I was bluffing.

"Oh really, what am I then?"

I paused for a second before answering.

"...You’re a siren."

Her smile instantly faded.

"How did you—"

"Your acting was perfect. What gave you away was your poorly disguised bloodlust. You should work on controlling it in the future."

She snapped.

"How can I control my bloodlust if you have me here starving!"

"I fed you at least 30 hearts a day."

"It wasn’t enough!" she shouted. "Those weak creatures can do nothing for me."

Typical sirens, their appetite was insatiable. From the moment I found the scale in the river, I had a list of supernatural creatures it could be. Sirens were on the bottom of the list, but still I knew it was a possibility. When my mother and I came across that river with all the mothmen corpses with their hearts ripped out, that made me even more suspicious that it was the work of a siren.

Sirens and mermaids were similar in appearance, but their personalities were vastly different. For one, mermaids were peaceful creatures who didn’t even consume meat. Sirens, on the other hand, were the opposite. They were carnivores with a bottomless stomach.

They grow stronger the more powerful prey they eat, and they also have a beautiful singing voice which they use to hypnotize their prey. As far as I knew, mermaids didn’t possess such an ability. When she sang to me, it was her trying to hypnotize me, but it was negated.

"The only thing I don’t know is what a siren would be doing so far inland? Your kind normally hates humans and being so close to land."

"Hmm?" Her smile returned slightly. "It shouldn’t be so hard to figure out since you already know so much about my species."

I thought about it, and there was only one thing that could drive a creature like that to land.

"More prey?"

She smiled at me and looked a little impressed.

"A predator will always migrate to where the prey is," she said. "I know you’ve felt it too. Whatever these monsters that showed up, their hearts are addictive. The moment I tasted it, I couldn’t fight the urge to consume more. I followed them until I somehow ended up here and eventually ended up too weak to go back home."

I bet she wasn’t the only one. There will be other supernatural creatures that are drawn to these monsters.

Suddenly, Selthia’s eyes sharpened, and I could feel the immense energy coursing from the attack she had prepared to end my life.

"Enough talking," she said, licking her cherry-pink lips as a pink blush appeared on her face. "I wonder what your heart tastes like. I can’t stop thinking about it from the moment I met you. Even your blood smells appetizing." She had a wild look in her eyes as she stared at me like a hungry beast.

At this moment, I couldn’t help but feel happy. I was happy that I had found someone like her. She was exactly what I needed.

"I want you to join my pack," I said in a flat voice, not particularly caring about the fact that she was trying to kill me right now.

She looked at me as if I was crazy.

"Huh?"

"If all you want is to consume the hearts of monsters, then I can give that to you."

Her eyes widened a little.

"You can?" she asked, looking a little flabbergasted. "No, you can’t, you’re just lying to save yourself."

"You’ve seen it for yourself, Selthia. Remember all the stories I told you, about the monsters I fought to get here. Remember how I described in great detail how good it felt to eat their hearts. Join my pack and I can give you that experience."

"I don’t believe you!" she said, sounding a little emotional. "Someone like you wouldn’t understand. Do you even know what it’s like to be hungry to the point where it drives you mad? Where all you can think about is food? Do you know the feeling of your own body turning against you and withering just from not consuming flesh?"

I slowly began to approach her. I wasn’t afraid that she might hurt me because I knew that a part of her wanted this.

"Stay back! I will kill you!" she shouted, but I didn’t listen and continued to approach her.

When I got close enough to her, I rested my hand on her head. My eyes glowed a deep shade of orange as I stared into her eyes. I made sure she could feel my killing intent. She looked up at me as if she was in a trance and muttered something.

"You’re not human," she muttered.

During my entire time here, I didn’t once mention the fact that I was a werewolf. Neither did I once use my claws to kill the bloodmoths.

"I understand exactly how you feel, Selthia. But as your alpha, I’ll never let you feel that way ever again. I’ll make sure you never feel hunger again. Even if I have to feed you my own heart."

She stared up at me in disbelief.

"You would really do that... for me?"

"Join me and I’ll do anything for you."

From the moment we met she must’ve thought that I was dancing in the palm of her hand but actually that was far from the truth. The truth was that she was dancing in mine. Everything I’ve done for the passed few days was all to lead up to this moment.

All the stories I told her, all the time she sat in my lap as she combed her hair. All of it was to soften that cold heart of hers. That’s the reason why I was so confident she wouldn’t kill me. I told her exactly what she wanted to hear. I knew that her appetite was her weakness and I exploited it. I knew exactly what to say to make her heart leap.

Suddenly, the water attack she was preparing to launch fell to the ground, and a spiral of blue energy began spiraling around the water she was in. In the next second, my eyes widened in shock as I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.