CHAPTER 60

Huff huff.

A deer could be found lying flat on the coarse ground with one of its sides bleeding from four slash wounds. 

Its eyes shook with primal fear as it let out its last dying whines, fighting against its inevitable death as much as it futilely could to win against its survival instincts, but alas death was a cruel mistress to all. 

Its eyes gradually lost its final glimmer of life but before its consciousness faded, the silhouette of a man appeared in its vision and it finally understood that there was no way it could have survived. 

"This still feels weird no matter how many times I go through it." Tristan said with a slight grimace on his face as he was bombarded with the feelings the deer experienced in his last moments. 

"This is quickly proving to be annoying." He complained as he picked up the deer and flung it over his body. His abilities had all been heightened to a plateau he had once been far from and that reflected in the way his strength grew.

Other than the basic increase in all of his apparent physical abilities, his not so apparent ones were the ones that really got some interesting evolution. 

First of all was that he was now able to secrete venom from his fangs anytime he wanted and all it'll take was a bite from him to bring any prey progressively closer to death's doors. While he still hadn't been able to test its effectiveness against other supernaturals, he knew instinctively that not everyone could survive it, supernatural included. 

The other thing was that he could now easily track someone with their raw emotions; that coupled with all of his other senses made it impossibly hard for any prey to escape him once they entered his sights. 

He chuckled as he remembered how pouty Malia became when she found out that his already frightening speed not only increased, but his senses had completely eclipsed hers by a large margin. She could no longer compete with him in any area anymore and that had fouled her mood a great deal. 

Another thing that was noteworthy was how deep his connection with the night had gotten. It was a metaphysical phenomenon but he felt as if the night was actually beckoning to him to come forward and he was just a step from achieving that and seeing what the primal darkness had to offer. 

With the deer over his shoulder, his feet slightly left the ground and with it he had traveled a great distance. 

The first few days after his change had been quite hectic for him as his thirst had been messed up and he would randomly suffer from its hunger. It made him ever more thankful that he had someone like Malia by his side. Someone who understood him without him having a need to explain. 

It's been two weeks since they killed the Alpha and not one word had been heard from Derek and in those two weeks, a few things had changed that weren't Tristan. 

First of all was that Allison finally started coming over and he was ashamed to say he didn't have it in him to turn her away, not when she looked that pitiful. 

And the second was that he suspected she already knew about them being supernaturals. 

Reading emotions was a very hard thing to do and he was still having problems doing so with animals so it wasn't surprising that reading and understanding a human's emotion was very hard for him as he had nothing to base it off on. 

For example, it was easy to know when something or someone is angry but understanding why they were angry and what they were angry at was impossibly hard to do if they were not focusing on it. It was the same with Allison. 

He had known she was suspicious and somewhat knowledgeable of their supernatural status but figuring out why had taken him quite some time. 

Though none of that stopped her from frequently coming over so he just kept silent about it, mostly because he was sure she had yet to tell anyone about them. 

"Damn, I need to cut and dress this before she comes over." Tristan said as he could see their house approaching quickly with how fast he was moving. 

Thankfully for Allison, her parents allowed her time to hangout with her friends, which were just Tristan and Malia, and she made sure that that was time well spent. 

Dropping the deer quite a distance away from the house, Tristan went inside to get his tools before spending the next hour skinning and dressing the deer. Since there was no way he and Malia could finish all the meat with how frequent his hunting has been lately, Tristan started selling most of the meat for some good bucks. 

…. 

Five people were seated in the living room watching a movie while cuddled up together, their mouths munching on snacks as they shared some good laughs and critiques as the movie went on. 

Brett and Lori had come over to catch the movie when Allison was also there and since this was the first time meeting any of Tristan's and Malia's 'family', she postponed her time going home.

Malia sat in the middle with Lori and Brett by her side while Tristan sat in between Malia and Allison as the two used him as some sort of pillow. 

Well Malia outright used him as a pillow while Allison, try as she might, wasn't so subtle with her intentions, not that she had a chance at hiding them when Tristan could read her like an open book, not that she was aware of it. 

"That had got to be one of the lamest and yet comedic vampire movies I've ever seen." Malia guffawed as the minutes finally wrapped up and the credits started rolling up. 

"Right? I mean come on, centuries old vampires can't be that stupid, can they?" Allison said with a laugh of her own as she shifted a little to gain a better spot as she leaned against Tristan's arm. 

Not missing a chance to tease Tristan, Lori jumped into the conversation. "What's it with ancient vampires and trying to enslave the world? Don't they know how to use their time for more productive reasons? At least the werewolves were able to get it right."

They all chuckled, four of them aware of the running joke while the last one remained oblivious to the deeper meaning of the conversation. 

They kept laughing as they revisited the funny moments of the movie they watched until Allison saw the time. 

"Shit! I'm gonna be late." She said as she got up and checked her phone, and like she expected there were 3 missed calls from her dad. 

"Come on, I'll walk you out to your car." Tristan said and withdrew himself from Malia's clutches, ignoring the cute pouty frown on her face. 

As they both walked slowly towards her car, Allison started small talks with Tristan. "Brett and Lori are both nice. How come I haven't met them all this time?"

"Because you only recently started coming over."

She laughed at that and poked him with her elbows in reproach. "And whose fault is that?"

"Guilty as charged." Tristan said and turned to Allison who was looking at him with a somewhat genuine smile. 'Somewhat' as in what she was feeling sometimes opposed what she was showing. "Anything wrong?"

Allison bit her lips in consideration of whether to voice what she was thinking as it could come across as ungrateful, but she was also feeling a bit insecure about it. "It's just that you changed, and I-" 

She couldn't finish her words as Tristan interjected. "You were thinking whether my overly considerate and friendly reaction towards you is just because Kate died?"

Allison hung her head down in shame but she couldn't deny that she really wanted to know. She doesn't know how she will feel after hearing what he had to say but she wanted to hear it. 

"It's partly because of that but I think that's natural sympathy. Another, probably the most important, is that you are my friend, and a cherished one at that." He said casually before shaking his head as he caught the direction of her thoughts. "You think too much, Allison. Besides, I also changed too."

They were already at the car and Allison was about to get in when she remembered something and asked. "I remember you and Malia once asking me what I'd do if you were werewolves; why werewolves specifically?" 

Tristan smiled in amusement but answered, making everything less ambiguous but still under their flimsy of ignorance. "Well, it's because werewolves are kind of cool and unlike vampires, they are peaceful guys in most of the stories you'll read."

"Not the ones I've read though." She said with an edge Tristan couldn't quite place his finger on. 

"Then you must have been reading a horror book." He joked, something that used to be rare for him to do but he finally accepted that he was changing and not just because of an Alpha's blood. He really was changing. "Goodnight Allison."

"Bye Tristan."

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