PART I -07

"Are you sure about this?" demanded Alpha Luca while fondling the tip of the TV remote he was holding. His pleading tone was aimed at persuading Romeo to reconsider his decision.

Alpha Luca, Lord Valentine, and Romeo were in Luca's mansion seated in his living room.

Romeo had already made up his mind but Lord Valentine was hesitant yet he wouldn't want to let his friends down. They were like brothers after all and backing out at that moment would seem like cowering in the face of danger.

"You know you've got history with them right?" Alpha Luca pointed out after switching on the TV and Lord Valentine nodded in agreement.

Romeo was silent and his bloodshot eyes were fixed on the TV even though he was looking at nothing in particular. Lord Valentine's indecision was justified. He would confidently wander across different realms but a shape-shifting realm is a place he wouldn't want to toy with especially after his last gruesome encounter.

A century ago, Lord Valentine embarked on a deadly quest to the shape-shifting realm. It was his first visit. The visit was triggered by revenge after he got into a fight with a group of men from the realm and when Romeo and Luca warned him to let the issue wane, the hot-headed Valentine wouldn't oblige for he always found confidence in his powers but if only he knew that the shape-shifting realm was the trickiest of all the supernaturals.

When Lord Valentine got to the shape-shifting realm, he identified the men he was seeking and after about an hour of bloody tussle, the men turned out to be something else. He later realized that he had been wrestling the leader of the shape-shifting realm for the men he was sought for took the form of their leader and he launched an attack on their leader thinking he was one of them.

With the support of his people, the leader of the shape-shifting realm overpowered Valentine. He was then tortured and hanged with his face down and the blood in his body was being drained slowly. He had begun to turn white and just when a dagger made from an oak tree was about to be inserted into his chest to plunge his heart, Romeo and Luca intervened and his anticipated years of agony or worse still death was averted. The three men all escaped after a bloody battle. Luca will always recount the battle as a fun-filled one.

"I'm not even sure if I can do this but I have no choice," Valentine stated with his face cupped in his hands. Even though he was undecided, he would rather embark on another journey to the shape-shifting realm than be considered a weakling.

"Are you a scared hybrid?" asked Alpha Luca with his eyes fixed on him. Valentine. He then smirked and chuckled after crossing his legs.

"You want your heart ripped out of your chest?" retorted Lord Valentine with a stern look.

Lord Valentine's countenance changes whenever his abilities are demeaned and he wouldn't waste a single moment taking one's head off to prove his point.

"I'll go alone." volunteered Romeo after noticing the banter between Valentine and Luca.

Luca swung his head from left to right in disagreement. "It's too risky," he replied, hitting the back of the remote which was faulty.

"Romeo, you can't go alone." objected Valentine. "I agree with Luca. It's very risky," he added, nodding repeatedly as flashes of his deadly experience at the shape-shifting realm ran through his mind.

"We just found you." maintained Luca. He smashed the remote against the wall and it broke into pieces. It wasn't working. "Those guys that abducted you might be out there." he outlined and immediately sprung to his feet.

"I'll be coming with you." offered Alpha Luca.

"Seems like wolfie is ready for a fun chase," commented Valentine while resting his back against the couch.

"I'll be going with him and just the both of us will leave," suggested Alpha Luca. "Valentine you stay here and be a good little boy," he instructed like a parent will tell his child.

Valentine fumed and grabbed the flower vase on the table beside him. He threw it aiming for Luca's face but he wasn't lucky. Luca caught the vase and placed it in the spot he earlier sat.

"This vase cost a fortune." Alpha Luca warned.

"I'll come with you guys." Lord Valentine implored.

The two mems rejected his offer. They were concerned about his mental health, that is if mental health might be a thing of implications for him. His previous experience was deadly and they wouldn't want him to recollect that. Unlike him, they had no enemies in the shape-shifting realm and they felt his presence might generate more chaos.

"Let's go." Alpha Luca told Romeo after grabbing his jacket from the arm of the couch. Both men left the mansion and set out for the shape-shifting realm.

Shortly after they left, Hera walked into Luca's apartment and met Valentine sprawled on the couch. On the stool beside him was a bottle of vodka with a glass beside it. Half of the alcohol was already consumed by him.

He looked as if he was dozing off when Hera walked in. "Real men don't sleep." she taunted slapping his back. "Are you sure you are a hybrid?" she added.

He jumped out of the couch and pinned her to the wall in a flash. "Real women don't awaken hybrids from their slumber," he replied, denying her the liberty to move. He was in control of both her hands.

She smiled and nodded and just when his grip on her was loosening, she freed herself and tried pinning him to the wall exactly the way he handled her but she couldn't. He was too strong for her. He immediately returned her to her former position.

"You don't listen. Do you?" he warned with a stern look opening her arms wide. "Trying to play games with me?" he asked her.

"This should have turned me on but you are such a bore," said Hera while licking her lips. He was still pinning her to the wall.

"How about this?" he inquired after bridging the little space between them with his body. Her bosoms were stroking his chest.

He stared directly into her eyes and she reciprocated. He then heard the footsteps of someone approaching the living room and he quickly returned to the couch leaving her breathing heavily but regularly.

Meanwhile, Alpha Luca and Romeo were sitting parallel to one another in the car. Romeo was driving them to the shape-shifting realm.

"How did it happen?" demanded Luca while turning down the volume of the radio. He was referring to Romeo's abduction.

"I have no idea," replied Romeo while taking a sharp turn.

"I can't even remember how it happened. Everything happened so quickly. It was almost as if I was in a trance. I don't just get it." he revealed, sounding pissed.

"They don't know who they are messing with." Luca started fixing his eyes on the road.

"When I get my hands on them, I will snap every living breath out of them." threatened Romeo. He was referring to his abductors.

"Not before I get them first." Luca retorted and winked.

"We are almost here," announced Romeo after bringing the car to a halt.

Romeo stopped the car in front of a store. "I need to urgently get something," he informed Luca and quickly stepped down from the car before Luca could ask what it was that he needed to get.

Luca heaved a deep sigh and tightened his fist as he thought of blood to be spilled excited him. He was already imagining the bodies he would litter in the shape-shifting realm when the need arises.

" Let's go," Romeo said after stepping into the car. He had returned from the grocery store and was seated in the car.

"I wouldn't hesitate to give them a show when the need arises," vowed Luca while showing his tightened fist to Romeo.

Romeo was as silent as a tomb. He was starting the car and Luca concluded that there was no need to bother him with small talks for he must have enough on his plate already.

After starting the car, Romeo turned the car taking another route. Luca was astonished by the act.

"Romeo, what are you doing?" demanded a confused Luca." Why are you changing direction?" he further asked.

"I've changed my mind," replied Romeo.

"What?" yelled Luca while sitting up properly. Romeo was already driving the car in a different direction.

"I'm no longer going to the shape-shifting realm." Romeo blurted much to Luca's surprise.

"You must be joking." Luca fired back but Romeo wasn't. He kept driving the car in the new direction he took.

Alpha Luca was suspicious and he assumed that something was wrong. He began dragging the wheel of the vehicle with Rome and he successfully managed to hit the break hard thereby bringing the car to a stop.

He stared deeply at Romeo and discovered that the Romeo who got into the car wasn't Romeo but a shapeshifter pretending to be him.

"Shit" he cursed.

Alpha Luca was utterly dumbfounded to discover that the person in the car with him wasn't Romeo but another shapeshifter who had taken the form of Romeo. The real Romeo was still back at the store.