Chapter 37 – Violet’s parents – part 1

After a quick dinner at the Hospital’s cafeteria, Aniya left her mother in the Hospital with Davis and called her favourite taxi driver. He opened the door for her and asked, with a worried face, “Is everything alright, Miss?”

“No, but there is not much I can do right now. What I could, I already did. I need to go get my friend Lisa at her house. Do you remember the address?”

“Of course, Miss. We will be there in no time.”

He then went to his seat and looked at Aniya through the rearview mirror. He noticed her red eyes were red from so much crying and tried to comfort her. “Miss, if there is something I can do for you, please let me know. It is the least I can do to repay all the help you gave to my daughter. She was so happy when she came home after your meeting that it took forever for her to calm down and explain everything. I… have no words to express my gratitude.”

As he was driving, Aniya attempted to at least smile at him and asked, “Your daughter inherited her beast from your side of the family or your wife?”

“It was from my wife, Miss. She is also a Werewolf. Do you think…”

“Yes, I can also help your wife on the next full moon. Tell her to come with your daughter to meet me. I know the danger, the fear, and all the stress of being a mindless Werewolf can cause a person and their family.”

“Thank you very much, Miss! You have no idea what your kindness means to me and my family!”

Aniya bit her lower lip and felt a single tear coming down from her left eye. She quickly wiped it off and spoke while looking through the window, trying to hide her feelings. “It’s always nice to see a united family, even with Werewolves in the mix. It’s a pity that some fathers are not as understanding as you.”

“Oh, I am sure your father is also very understanding, considering that you-“

Aniya interrupted him with a trembling voice. “My father was a Hunter. He spent last night and the entire morning beating my mother to force her to tell him why I was a Werewolf. I had to kill him to save her when I got home, and I took my mother to the Hospital. As you can see, not every father is as understanding as you, Mister Sellas. Your daughter is very lucky to have you on her side.”

“I… I am so sorry, Miss. I had no idea… Is there anything I can do for you? I mean, you are such a kind young woman, I can’t possibly imagine why any father would ever… I don’t even know what to say!”

“I found out recently that he was not my real father. My father was a Werewolf, and he was with my mother a few times when her marriage was not going well. But for all purposes, Dan Rossi was my father… and I miss him already…”

Aniya cried nonstop, and the taxi driver drove to a side street to park. He went to the back seat and hugged her, and he caressed her head as he said, “There, there, my child, everything will be alright with time, you will see. You did what you had to do. Hunters are strange. My wife told me that many years ago, a group came for her grandmother, a sweet old lady in her sixties, and they took her with them. Her husband tried to stop them, and they beat him so badly that after being in the Hospital for one week, he died from his injuries. My wife’s grandmother was never found, and the police quit looking for her. No one believed a group called Hunters could make a person disappear so easily. And they don’t have problems beating old people to death .”

Aniya spoke between her sobbing, “I know… they think… we are all evil… and we deserve to die… Stupid dumbasses… They have no idea… We never asked to be born… a Werewolf...”

“I know, my child, I know. But you are doing a good thing by helping others. You just need to be strong and hold yourself together. You can’t be like this. Imagine if a Hunter was nearby, and he listened?”

He then reached for the front of the taxi and opened the glove compartment. From there, he took a box of paper tissues and gave it to Aniya. “Here, clean your face and your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and let’s go see your friend. She will be sad if she sees you like that.”

“I may need to borrow this box… We are going to the house of one of our friends who died yesterday. I think I will cry a lot there.”

“Holly molly… You are in no condition to go there! So much sadness is not good for your health! You lost your father, how can you go… I don’t think it’s a good idea!”

“Maybe not, but I still have to go. The Hunters think my father died because a Werewolf attacked him and my mother, and I got home in time to fight him and I saved my mother. I can’t blow my cover story, and I also need to check if my friend’s parents are also Hunters. I have too many questions that need answers, like why she tried to kill me yesterday, and who gave the order. I have to be sure no one knows what I am. At least, not until I am ready for them. I want an enormous pack of Werewolves to be near me. A pack so big that no Hunter will dare to mess with one of us. Strength lies in numbers, you know?”

Mister Sellas slowly nodded and spoke, “You won’t have only Werewolves near you. You will also have their parents and spouses to help you if you need it, I am sure. For every person you help, you will gain at least two friends. More, if they have kids or parents that know what they are. If you ever need any help to deal with a Hunter, you just need to call me or my daughter, and I am sure my wife will join as well.”

“Thank you, Mister Sellas. That means a lot. I am feeling better now, so I think we can go pick up my friend. I need to be a strong Luna for my pack, and I can’t let the death of my psychopath father put me down like this because I have to think about them. There are far too many people that I must help, people that have been suffering for years.”

“Very well, Miss. Let’s go then.”
…

As soon as Lisa entered the taxi, she asked, “Are you alright, Aniya? Davis told me what happened. Maybe we shouldn’t go see Violet’s parents.”

“No, I am not alright, but I have to go. I don’t know if they are Hunters or not, and I am not sure who ordered Violet to kill me. I need answers more than anything.”

Lisa hugged Aniya and remained silent during the entire ride, worried about what she would say to Violet’s parents, and if she could keep a facade in front of everyone there.
When the taxi stopped in front of their destination, Lisa exited first and waited for Aniya to pay for the ride.
Lisa made a puzzled face when she saw the driver hugging Aniya and caressing her head while saying that she was a strong young lady.
She thanked him and joined Lisa. Together, they rang the bell and nervously waited. After almost one minute, Violet’s mother, Louise Green, opened the door for them.

Her eyes were all red from crying, and when she saw the worried look on Lisa’s and the redness in Aniya’s eyes, she hugged them both immediately. “I am glad you came. Please, enter, everyone is inside.”

They followed Louise, and in the living room, there were some of Violet’s parents, like cousins, uncles, and aunts, some people Aniya and Lisa had never met, and one person in particular that made Aniya frown. Blake Garvin, from the Hunter’s High Council.
While greeting the family, Aniya noticed Blake kept on glancing at her.

She approached his group as she was greeting the people, and when he extended his hand to greet her, Aniya tilted her head with a frown. “Surprised to see me alive, aren’t you? Your little plan failed, and I bet you are feeling rather dumb right now.”

Blake retrieved his hand and turned bright red in anger. Aniya kept on staring at him and spoke in a low voice. “Don’t mess with me, dumbass. I am not in a good mood right now. You are lucky because there are too many people here that don’t know what you did and what your job is, or you would be dead by now, but we will talk on another occasion. You can count on that.”

Aniya turned away, and Louise Green went to her because she saw the way Blake Garvin was looking at her while clenching his fists. “Aniya… What happened? What did you say to Mister Blake to make him look so angry?”

“I was just checking something, and it seems like my hunch was right. Do you know how Violet died?”

“Yes… She was hit by a drunken driver who got away. The police are still searching for him.”

Aniya glanced around and asked in a whisper, “Do you also know what Violet was and for whom she was working in secret?”

“I… am not sure what you are talking about.”

“Werewolves, Hunters, Violet being in a Squad, helping Hunters, sniffing out other Werewolves like her and causing their deaths, that sort of thing.”

“I see… You know… How?”

Aniya tried to sound casual and continued to whisper. “I joined the Hunters. I was with her yesterday.”

“You… saw what happened? They are not telling me anything…”

“When everyone goes away, we can talk better. I also want to ask you a few things.”

Violet Green slowly nodded, her eyes suddenly filled with tears. She gently squeezed Aniya’s right shoulder and went to meet her husband. Aniya remained in the corner with Lisa, who was completely pale and trembling nonstop. She held Aniya’s hand and asked, “What are you going to tell her?”

“That a Werewolf attacked her when we were distracted by her coward attempt to kill me. I also want to find out how much her parents know because I think it’s too fishy that they were raising her knowing she was a Werewolf, and tonight there are many people here that I suspect to be Hunters.”

“Yeah, I also got that feeling, especially with the way some of them were looking at me. Do you think we are safe here?”

“I am not sure. Maybe it’s better if we are prepared for anything.”

Lisa nodded, and she focused her attention. She could hear all the conversations in that room, even whispers, and she tried to find any hint of danger from the surrounding people.
After almost one hour, a few people left, either as a couple or in small groups. Soon, the only ones in that room were Lisa and Aniya, Blake Garvin and two men near him, and Violet’s parents. Blake and his men kept on staring at Aniya and Lisa, and the two angry women stared back at them.

Louise Green noticed the heavy mood while standing next to her husband, Frank Green. After some seconds of silence, she asked, “Is there something happening between you two that I should know?”

Aniya answered while looking at Blake Garvin. “I would say yes, but first, do you mind explaining to me how you and your husband ended up with Violet? And that had anything to do with Mister Blake over there?”

“Well… We… work in the Hunter’s Headquarters. We are minor staff there. Mister Blake came to visit us when Violet was very young. He explained what she was and what we needed to do to be safe every month for three nights. She has been working for the Hunters for two years now, but we never knew what she was doing. Now that she is dead, we don’t know what happened to our sweet daughter. He is not telling… We had to come up with a story for our family...”

“Shall I tell them, or will you, Mister Blake? It’s better if your guys don’t make a sudden movement. I am not in a good mood right now. I might get angry and kill them and you. We already had too many dead Hunters yesterday, remember? And if it wasn’t for me, Lisa, and a certain dark Werewolf that suddenly appeared, every Hunter there yesterday would be dead.”