Revealing the Secret

Sitting on top of a branch, near the top of a tree, I looked down at the clearing in front of me as Bella and Edward came into it.

I've got to say, my claws are pretty useful, even when I'm not using them to rend people to shreds. Without my claws, I can't be sure that I'd be able to stay on this tree without completely crushing it with brunt force if I gripped it too hard.

With my claws, however, I could just slide them into the tree and they got hooked into it, like meat hooks into a carcass.

Bella came to a stop after throwing her bag to the ground. She shivered from the cold air before turning around and staring stubbornly at the oncoming Edward before she started speaking.

"You're impossibly fast and strong," she paused before speaking with a slightly outlandish tone, "Your skin is pale white and ice-cold, and your eyes change color."

She stopped and got her breath before carrying on, her voice shaking as she did, "A-and sometimes you speak like...like you're from a different time. I've never seen you eat or drink anything, and whenever it's sunny...you're not in school, like you're not allowed to go out in the sunlight," as she continued to speak, Edward silently walked up behind her, looking up at me with a grim look, to which I shrugged my shoulders.

He glared at me before looking back at Bella when she asked him a question.

"How old are you, Edward?" she whispered, her voice shaky from either the cold or some kind of fear she was feeling; it could be either or both.

While still behind her, Edward loomed over her small frame before answering, "Seventeen," he muttered, seemingly lost in thought.

Silence reigned throughout this part of the woodland area for a few seconds before Bella spoke skeptically, "How long have you been 17?" her tone was slightly biting and it caused Edward to go stay silent for a little longer with a face that looked worried or scared, like a kid who'd been caught lying by his parents.

"...A while," when he said this, Bella let out a shaky exhale, forming white mist in front of her. Edward made nothing like that when he 'breathed' showing he was the same temperature as the surroundings or even lower.

Me, however? I was like a steam train, whenever I breathed out, it was like I was just exhaling smoke.

But anyway, back to the big reveal.

Bella seemed to be hyperventilating as she rapidly took in air and expelled it before it did its job or oxidizing her blood properly and her already pale skin got even more so, looking closer to Edward's if anything.

She took a sharp inhale of breath, making a weird gasping sound, before she started speaking, "I know w-what you are," she got out in between shallow and quick breaths.

"Say it," Edward spat out like he didn't want to say the word himself, "Out loud," Bella paused, too busy looking off in the distance. Edward, seemingly getting impatient, spoke again, "Say it, Bella!"

"V-vampire..." her quiet voice came out, alive with fear but also...some kind of cathartic experience.

Edward's face looked like his heart was in his mouth as he spoke again, "Are you afraid?" to which Bella turned around and shook her head steadily from side to side.

"No."

This answer seemed to hit Edward like a ton of bricks and his brows furrowed as he thought of ways to scare Bella and to keep her away for her own good. It didn't take too long for him to think up a way to do that.

"Then ask me the most basic question. What do we eat?" he emphasized the word eat, showing the significance of what was happening; she was food prey, and he was the predator.

Though I had to hold back laughter imagining Edythe trying to do the same to me if I didn't show her I was part of her side of the world.

"You won't hurt me," Bella said with such a self-assured look and tone, that I had to widen my eyes a little - where did she get her confidence from?

Seeming unhappy with her reply, Edward grabbed her wrist before pretty much dragging her with him as he walked toward the foot of the mountain next to us.

Bella was breathing shakily at the moment, possibly thinking Edward was about to kill her, but she managed to get out a question, "Where are we going?"

"Up the mountain. Out of the cloud back - you need to see what I look like in the sunlight," his voice was urgent and he continued dragging her up the incline. I, however, wasn't standing idly by and slid down the tree trunk using my surprisingly high weight* to leverage myself down when I wasn't actively trying to keep my claws dug in deep into the bark and wood.

(*A/N - He's a living organism, so unlike the Vampires who are changed by the Venom to become harder and more akin to granite, Alex needs to become denser to become harder and to deal with his body's power. Hence his supernaturally enhanced weight. This will keep him sleek and lean while letting him pack one hell of a punch.)

Dropping to the floor silently, I went over and picked up Bella's bag before running after the two broody teens (one of them's 108 but he was turned when he was 17, so I guess it still counts, right?).

I couldn't hope to match Edward's speed and doubted I'd be able to do it even if I was fully phased and had shifted into my wolf form. Edward was average at everything else but his speed...goddamn that guy is fast!

Though in a fight I'd hold the advantage - his average Vampiric strength would be overpowered by my superior strength and all of his attacks would fail to break through my durability. Plus my Mental Shield ability would stop him from predicting my moves through his telepathy gift.

It didn't take long to catch up to them, especially since Edward wasn't even going full-throttle on the sprinting out of his fondness for Bella and not wanting to give her whiplash.

When I did, Bella was looking at Edward who was sparkling in the sunlight. It also fascinated me on why they shone and now I was a shapeshifter I could see why - their skin was like a crystal in my eyes. When there was no direct sunlight, his skin looked normal, albeit like pale marble, but when sunlight hit him, it reflected off of his skin making multiple sparkle-like lights which showed his skin's true appearance that looked like diamonds. Their skin was practically crystal which is what gives it its hardness.

Bella was gushing over Edwards skin as I stalked behind the two of them, seeming to blend so well into the vegetation that not even Edward could tell I was here. Though I could see his eyes darting around and looking at the tops of the surrounding trees.

But when Bella called his skin beautiful, his attention was back on her and his face curled up in disgust, "Beautiful?" he scoffed with disbelief apparent on his face, "This is the skin of a killer, Bella," his voice shaking as he turned away from her and moved out of the sunlight.

Bella followed after him like a lost puppy, while I followed them through the trees like a predator lurking in the dark.

"I'm a killer," he said with a tone of finality. But Bella rushed over to him, shaking her head.

"I don't believe that, Edward."

Looking at Bella with disdain he replied, "That's because you believe the lie," he tried to walk away from her but she stubbornly followed, "It's camouflage," he said with no little amount of self-hatred before he stopped and turned around to face Bella, "I'm the world's most dangerous predator...Everything about me invites you in, my voice, my face, even my smell...As if I would need any of that."

He looked at her with a sort of weird arrogance before he flashed away to a rock on the opposite side of the clearing they were in.

He looked down at Bella and shouted with a slightly manic tone, "As if you could outrun me!" he flashed back next to Bella, "As if you could fight me off!" he reached over to a tree root next to them and ripped it fully out of the ground, along with a chunk of the tree, before throwing it across the clearing.

The conversation would've carried on as it did in the series but I was getting a bit bored of just waiting off to the side.

"But you wouldn't hurt her, would you, Edward?" I walked out from between the trees, looking at him with an assured look, "You couldn't bear to hurt her and you know it. It's why you're trying to scare her off."

I walked over to the two and saw Bella looking at me with shock, while Edward looked at me with a face contorted in frustration.

"You should know she's not meant for our world!" he yelled at me, walking menacingly at me with a grim face, "Why do you seem insistent on her finding out!?" he grabbed me by the collar, or well, he tried to.

I might not be as strong as a vampire yet, but I could definitely get one of their feet with a burst of explosive power.

Flinging an uppercut out as fast as I could, Edward seemed shocked by the speed and failed to react in time. As my fist hit his marble-like chin, a resounding sound echoed throughout the clearing, sounding like a pickaxe had hit stone or something hard, and Edward found himself getting thrown off his feet because despite his strength advantage, he still weighed the same amount as a normal human, so my superhuman force could easily take him off his feet and into the air.

He continued flying upward until he hit the big rocks behind him and next to where Bella was standing.

"Don't go trying to intimidate me, you prick," I laughed before continuing with a disdainful smile, "I'll put you on your ass, sparkles," finishing this, I just saw Edward look at me with shock before his eyes gazed down at the cuts on my knuckles which were already rapidly healing.

He seemed to calm down as he slid down the rock but I ignored him and walked over to Bella.

Smiling, I looked at my shocked sister before teasing saying, "Looks like you finally figured it out - you took your time, Bella," I playfully slapped her on the shoulder, "Welcome to the world of the supernatural~" I opened my arms like it was some big event and in some ways, it was. This would kick start a few of the major events in the series, after all.

"A-Alex..." Bella started before looking between me and Edward who had left a crack when he hit the rock behind him, before focusing in on me, "Alex! Why'd you not tell me you're like him?!"

Hearing her I lifted a finger in front of her to silence her, "One, I'm not like him. I'm not a Vampire. And two, would you have believed me even if I told you? 'Oh hey, Bella, I'm a supernatural creature!' Would've gone down a treat, right?" I sarcastically said as I looked over at Edward who was glaring at me, "What?" I said in response to his glare.

"You're stronger than I'd have thought you would be. Much stronger," he looked suspiciously at me, seemingly knowing a normal Shapeshifter wouldn't be able to do what I just did to him.

Oh well, it was gonna come out soon enough. Even so, I just shrugged at him and turned back to Bella who fired her first question at me.

"What are you then, Alex? I, I tried to look for Supernatural creatures who had incredibly high body temperature but apart from spirits, I couldn't find anything..." she seemed slightly disappointed in herself and I just shook my head at her obsession with finding out people's secrets.

Sighing, I thinly smiled at her, "What is always at odds with Vampires in the movies, Bella? The natural enemy for Vampires other than Werewolves?" I asked some rhetorical questions before smiling proudly, "I'm a Lycan, Bella," I called myself that because I'm not even sure I'm a pure shapeshifter anymore.

Think about it, do any of the other shapeshifters in the series show the ability to selectively bring out their claws and fangs? I know it could be because of my Superior Shapeshifter heritage but that leads to my next question:

Could a pure shapeshifter ever become as strong as a Vampire? Probably not, otherwise there would have been some in the series or at least a mention of certain shapeshifters who were strong enough to do so*. The easiest way to raise the strength for a God of that kind of power would be to merge the shapeshifter with a Child of the Moon or the Werewolves of the Twilight universe. It would make sense to my selective shifting and the fact that I couldn't fully shift - my body's going through multiple changes and before they've settled I can't shift properly.

(*A/N - Fun fact, even in Full-Wolf form, Shapeshifters are weaker in terms of strength to Vampires. So a Shapeshifter being stronger than a Vampire should have been a well-known fact, especially toward the end of the series. I think it's because Shapeshifters are limited in terms of Body Strength potential and instead have to get stronger the same way wolves do; through teamwork and taking bigger predators down with higher numbers.)

My conclusion? I might be a Hybrid between a Werewolf and a Shapeshifter which has given birth to a much more potent Supernatural Entity. I wouldn't know until I could fully shift but that was over 6 weeks away.

So, I kept it simple and threw out a word which I guessed could mean either thing I was thinking made up my supernatural genetic code.

Goddammit...why couldn't I have been more specific with my wish?

Bringing me out of my lamenting, Bella looked up at me with wide eyes, "How?" I looked at her in confusion, prompting her to elaborate, "I mean, h-how, how did you become a Lycan?" she stuttered over her words which caused me to smile and look off into the treeline.

"I don't know. I've only recently started awakening as one after I came in contact with some Vampires," I pointed over at Edward before carrying on, "In the cafeteria at school. Around the same time you came back to Forks. It came with a general understanding of what I am and how I'm changing - some kind of genetic memory, I guess," I mumbled on, lying out my ass but from the serious look in Bella's eyes, she believed it, so I carried on, "So, if I had to make an educated guess, I was born like this. It's in my genes. Might be a recessive gene in our family or something and guessing from your lack of anything other than human, you most likely don't have the gene."

I shrugged my shoulder before looking over at Edward who seemed to be trying his hardest to break my mental shield but it held strong, not even budging under his telepathy.

As Bella started to open her mouth, I knew I was in for a slew of questions. Oh, fun.