My father told me a story. "There are many creatures who live as humans, Serina. People call us demons, and some call us gods, but most of them think of us as humans. We learned to conceal our presence to preserve peace. Humans think that we are not real, and those few who are aware of our existence don't know how many of us are out there. If we reveal ourselves, they will be in shock of a lifetime, and once they come out of it, the war will begin like no other." "There is a council of creatures that has a goal to maintain order and balance, but the truth is that everyone is only looking after their interests. Remember that. Someone is always watching. Trust no one." That was shortly after I met Lazarus, a lone werewolf with the power of an Alpha. He looked human up to the point when he moved toward me at inhuman speed and started sniffing me. That was unpleasant, but I wanted to know more about them. "How many werewolves are out there? Where are they?" My father gave me a queer look. "I'm not a seer, Serina, but a powerful Alpha would know." And then I heard the most fantastic tale I didn't know I was a part of. "Not so long ago, there was a powerful Alpha who was acknowledged as the Supreme Alpha. He was the Alpha of the Bluemoon pack, and he had under his command all werewolves that lived in Europe and Eastern Asia." I noticed my father speaking in the past tense. "What happened to him?" "He found his mate, and that was the beginning of his doom." I was confused. When werewolves find their soulmates, they become stronger, and it comes with unconditional love and acceptance. "Finding a mate should be a good thing, right?" "Normally, yes. But Damiano Testa was a powerful leader of beasts, and his mate was a weak human girl. Many creatures saw Isabella as Damiano's weakness. Factions were formed as some were unwilling to accept a human as their Luna. To make things worse, it took Damiano and Isabella years to conceive a child. A boy was born, and they named him Mate,o which means 'A gift from God'. Unfortunately, when he came of age for his wolf to awaken, it didn't happen, and rumors started spreading that the boy doesn't have a wolf and that he is human, just like his mother." Based on the timelines my father told me, I calculated that Mateo should be approximately my age as I listened d more of that tragic story. "Mateo grew up as a human, and Damiano kept others at bay with a story that the boy's powers are dormant and will awaken in his teens. When Mateo entered his teens without his wolf, the other faction got bolder, and… they killed Isabella. After that, the werewolf war started, and... it was a mess. I believe that Damiano protected his son, probably sent him away, but the pain of losing a mate was too much. He went feral and started killing his own. The Bluemoon pack fell apart, leaving the ones who were still loyal to the Alpha as rogues." I listened intently, and then my father added another mind-blowing piece of information. "When Mateo was about six years old, Damiano brought him to me to do various tests. The boy was lacking the traits of an Alpha, but he had his father's DNA and healing abilities. Also, I identified a second presence inside him. I suspected that someone fed him a poison that affects beasts, but all tests came back clean, which means that either it happened a long time ago and it got flushed out of his system, or I was wrong. Without proof, I decided to keep that for myself, because telling a Supreme Alpha that someone poisoned his cub is a recipe for slaughter. The boy was too young for most of the tests, so I told Damiano to bring Mateo to me again after the boy turns fourteen. However, Isabella was killed, and the boy went missing…" On my first day of high school, about seven years before I heard the story of Damiano Testa, werewolves, and the demise of the Bluemoon pack, a boy entered the classroom, took a seat next to me, and became much more than my desk mate. I called him Duke because Drago didn't suit him. He didn't mind. His boyish grin and endlessly blue eyes were my motivation to get up in the morning. At that time, I didn't know about Duke's past. The only thing I knew was that he was my everything, and he still is.