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Although history knew that William's death had sparked off the Great War, no one spoke of Amina, his eldest daughter, whose descendants picked up where her father stopped.

Amina bore Gerard two grandsons. The eldest called Amalak, and the youngest, Noel, who was the jewel of Gerard's old eyes.

From the moment Noel took his first breath, it was as if Gerard saw his own reflection in the boy.

Noel in question practically worshiped Gerald and it was no wonder that when he died during the war, Noel took up his "legacy".

With the influence of his family name and his grandfather's old allies Noel rose through the ranks with alarming speed.

He spearheaded several violent missions under the guise of "containment" and "control," leading raids on werewolf safehouses, overseeing interrogations, and proudly executing what he called "cleanses. "

He did not just inherit Gerard's hatred; he refined, streamlined and modernized it.

He wrote manuals, trained men, and built an entire ideology around purging the were-kind.

It became a legacy passed not through teachings, but through blood.

His children learned the hatred with their milk, raised on bedtime stories of the "beasts" who destroyed their family and the humans who would rise again.

But war devours everything, no matter how noble the disguise. When the final battles of the Great War unfolded, the Gerard bloodline suffered heavy blows. Of all the descendants of Minister Gerard, only a few made it out alive. His descendants were scattered or slaughtered on the field.

However the world changed. The accords were signed, and a new era was born, one that no longer permitted the open butchering of werewolves. The war crimes finally buried beneath politics and peace.

But not all legacies die with treaties.

The Turner family, descended from a bastard son of Gerard, survived. They did not parade their hatred in the public like their ancestors. No, they adapted. The hunt was no longer legal, so they worked in secret. And in the shadows, they thrived.

The Turner family were wolf hunters, bounty killers, and assassins. You name it. They built a network that didn't deal in drugs or guns, rather traded in fangs, pelts, and claws.

It was hard to tell what they were since they lived an ordinary life, taking up meager jobs like clerks, merchants, teachers. But in private, they were killers, carrying blades and bullets dipped in wolfsbane. They operated carefully, leaving no trails or witnesses.

The Turners were not just hunters. They were preservationists of a forgotten creed. A family that saw themselves not as murderers, but as soldiers in an eternal war. A war the rest of the world pretended was over.

But the Turners knew better.

They knew that war never truly ends. It only sleeps. And now, two centuries later, it stirs again. This time, only one side would win.

Right now, cynthia passed the small bottle of Ignis to each member of the family.

But Joseph turned it over in his hand, unimpressed. "Doesn't look like much," he said, then began tossing it into the air, playing with it.

"Don't!" Cynthia snapped at him. "Even a single drop is precious."

Joseph caught it and smirked at her. "Alright, honey. If you say so." His tone was sweet, but mocking.

Patrick's jaw clenched slightly. He didn't like the way his brother spoke to Cynthia, but he said nothing.

Vera inspected the bottle, unimpressed. "So how exactly is this supposed to help us wipe out werewolves?" Her disdain was clear.

Anything that came from Patrick rarely earned the family's approval. While she and Joseph were learning to wield knives and shoot guns as kids, Patrick had been buried in his science books. To them, he was the odd one out.

"That is Ignis," Patrick began, "It enhances human abilities, albeit temporarily. For five minutes, a human becomes like a wolf. Strength for strength. Bloodlust for Bloodlust."

Vera and Joseph exchanged skeptical looks.

Moira placed hers down with a soft clink and reclined elegantly in her seat. "I've heard whispers about a drug like this," she said. "Thought it was just the nonsense of bored humans, turns out it was my own son behind it." She looked at him with pride. "I have to admit, Elias, I'm impressed."

"Or he's bluffing." Joseph chuckled, but the tightness in his tone betrayed a flicker of jealousy. His mother's praise was always his. Elias didn't deserve it.

"It's not a bluff." Cynthia interjected, already picking up the remote. She turned on the television. "Let me show you."

The screen came to life and showed a lab which they assumed was Patrick's and where he conducted his experiments. In the video, a human male was injected with Ignis and guided into a glass cell. A moment later, a young werewolf was led in. And then, the fight started.

At first, the werewolf had the upper hand with his supernatural features. But not long after the human struck back with increasing speed, his strength unnaturally amplified. He pummeled the werewolf relentlessly, blow after blow, until he cracked his skull open and left him dead on the floor.

For a moment, the room was silent. The Turner family could not believe what they just saw.

Then Vera leaned forward slowly, a dangerous glint in her eye and a crooked smile on her lips. "How do you make more of that?"

Patrick straightened, pride glinting in his eyes.

"Alpha King Elijah personally contracted me after reading my published work.

I was asked to study both werewolf and human genes.

Every student's DNA was catalogued. Matches were made—pairings that could produce offspring with more wolf blood than human.

His goal was to rebuild their dwindling population.

But during my research, I discovered something else.

A compound that could give humans the one thing they've never had.

Power. Ignis is made from spinal fluids extracted from werewolves. "

Vera was already rolling up her sleeve. "Then give me one. Let's see what it feels like."

Patrick hesitated. "There are complications," he admitted. "Besides, we don't need to use it ourselves. At least not until I have modified it enough. The goal is to rally the right people, not turn ourselves into experiments."