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"There are rumors that they try to breed our wolf-males with females to get them pregnant, then they plan to take the children away to train them as weapons to do as they please and follow only their commands. Those children, they plan to experiment on them with so many DNA combinations with the hope of creating something...stronger, more powerful, breathing machines, they can use to annihilate us all."

"That's very awful!" Ismena gasped, horrified. No wonder these changelings hate humans.

"It is." Anger flashed in the woman's eyes, "They have been at it for decades. They have machines and all kinds of drugs they use in capturing and caging our wolf-males, then kidnap human females and even our females to the lab to breed them with the males."

"Have they ever succeeded?" Ismena asked, already dreading the answer. "Have they ever managed to make those children?"

Eline shook her head, "No, they haven't. They think they have us all figured out, bastards don't know that they don't." A cynical smile touched her lips, "A male changeling's seed can only take root in a mate's body. If she is not a mate or a potential mate, she can NEVER get pregnant by any changeling."

"Woah. Really?"

"Yes. So, they haven't been able to succeed. Potential mates are very rare, none of the human females are that. Not that all those girls come out of that experience alive..." She trailed off, remembering the particular rumor about the Alpha King and some other wolf-males killing their human females' victims.

"As for us, changeling females, our body is very picky. We can only get pregnant by our mates only because that is the only person our body is compatible with...the only person our body will release an egg for. No other changeling or human can achieve that. We don't even menstruate."

"Really?" Ismena asked incredulously.

Eline nodded, "Yes. Once you find your mate, your body starts ovulating. Sometimes, it doesn't start unless you get intimate with your mate, then it triggers it too. We can only carry our mate's child, but those monsters don't know that."

"I'm glad they don't know it. Bastards." Ismena raged.

Eline hesitated, "Well, there's an exception too. It's a rumor I heard but I don't know how true it is. I heard that relatives can also...well...breed us."

"Really? Your relative? Like your sibling or something like that?" She shrieked, disbelievingly.

The other woman shrugged, "I don't know how true it is because no changeling in his or her right mind will ever want to test that theory, but I'm thinking it to be true because our bodies are all about compatibilities. That's what makes a Mate—if your body is perfectly compatible with another person's, be it human or changeling. A relative's body is definitely compatible with yours because you both are related."

Ismena understands the logic. She was happy about everything she learned today. "Thank you so much for telling me all these."

"I trust you." She said simply, "The heavens have to trust you too, to make you highly compatible with our Alpha King. Never use the knowledge you learned today against us, Ismena."

"I will never do anything of that sort." She stated matter-of-factly. Why will she do something like that?

"Good. As I said, the Alpha King has suffered, much more than most of the changeling males I know who has lived and died...and he's barely thirty-four years old." She shook her head, "I want him to be happy. We all want him to be happy again."

She stopped and faced Ismena, "The light went out of his eyes eighteen years ago, after he lived through hell, lost his mother and father...and then, his sister."

Her heart has gone out for Wolfariane. No wonder the man wears a frown like a second skin. This is so tragic. "His sister is dead?"

Eline blinked back tears, "Some situations are worst than death... Sometimes, death is a blessing..."

Through the rest of the walk home, Ismena wondered what she meant by that...?

CHAPTER 31. HIS DAMAGED HALF.

They were almost at the door of the house when Eline stopped and turned to her, "You have a very bad heart disease that is already killing you because strangely, your body is not responding to treatments. But since you met the Alpha King and established physical contact with him, you have been feeling way better than you've felt in a long time. Am I right?"

Ismena was dumbfounded to answer the question. Suddenly, this woman is putting all her inner turmoils into words. How did she know that? She never told anybody about it.

Eline continued, "That is because you're not only his mate but also your mating compatibilities are very high. If you mate with him and you keep sharing sexual intimacies with him, it'll take time but your body will heal entirely."

"W-What are you insinuating?" She whispered, suddenly scared. She is soterrified to hope.

"I'm saying that there's a way for you not to die. To mate, and keep having intimacies with your partner." That said, Eline turned and walked into the house.

The rest of the day Ismena couldn't stop thinking about what Eline told her today. There's a way she wouldn't die...?

There's a way for her to live more than a few weeks.