Chapter 176: I WANT THEM TO TRY THAT

The road to the beach was sealed, and there were a lot of soldiers patrolling there. The news about the capture of Admiral Jack Blackwood made it into the headlines.

People cursed the animagus, calling them monsters, and on the streets, fear spread like a disease. They couldn’t trust one another, and the criminal cases increased significantly. Most of them used the same excuse—they assumed the other person was a monster; therefore, they attacked them.

Some people managed to actually attack the shifters, which ended up with the death of the shifters because people would gang up on them.

However, even when they mistakenly targeted innocent people, it would usually end up with death as well.

It was less than three months since the first announcement of the existence of the shifters, but the country had changed drastically.

"What do you want?" Jack asked Zade when he entered the room. He was not sure how long he had been here, but this man named Zade, the owner of the Blaze Company, who was no other than a shifter, had been trying to talk to him, asking a few questions that he didn’t want to answer.

Jack thought he was going to be tortured and then killed. He had prepared himself for that, but the shifters didn’t do anything, aside from keeping him in this room and negotiating with him.

"The same demand." Zade put down the phone and told Jack to make a call.

Seara had confirmed that he was not under the influence or even a host of the devil. She could sense the dreadful feeling from him, but it was more about the fact that Jack was too close to the devil, so the ominous feeling rubbed off on him.

"I will never do that." Jack narrowed his eyes at Zade. He couldn’t believe that an ancient myth that they thought was only a bedtime story was actually real. There were humans who could shift into animals.

"This is a peace treaty between two kinds. If this continues, more lives have to be sacrificed." Zade was calm, despite the pressure from his alphas, who wanted him to take a strong stance against the human.

Their idea was to send Jack’s limb by limb to the human monarch on behalf of all shifters who had died.

"Sacrificed? It is your kind that has deceived us for so long, living among humans. What do you want after that? Are you planning to invade the human kind?" Jack came from the military; he was not scared, even if he had to die in the enemy’s hands.

"Deceive you?" Zade raised his brows. "We have been living alongside each other for so many centuries. Explain to me what you mean by invading your human kind. If we wanted to do something, we would have done it a long time ago."

"Do you think I am going to believe you?"

"Do you think if the shifters wanted to annihilate humans, your race would survive?"

The only reason they refrained from doing it was that they were bound by a powerful magic that prohibited them from killing humans. However, Jack was unaware of this, and Zade was not feeling generous enough to enlighten him.

"Is that a threat?" Jack narrowed his eyes dangerously. He was over fifty years old with a bald head and a crooked nose. His black eyes were sharp, and his thin lips would press into a slit whenever he was holding back his anger.

"That’s a fact. You have seen for yourself that your weapons are not helping you survive us. The fact that you are here despite the armies that you brought to my door is the undeniable fact that you can’t deny that the shifters would be able to kill your race anytime if we wanted it."

Jack’s expression turned ashen. He didn’t like to be threatened. But he needed to be smart if he wanted to get out of here alive.

"The fact that you, humans, only find out about us recently proves that we mean no harm."

"Your people killed my people."

"I can say the same."

Zade nodded and showed a few videos on the tablet that Zephyr brought. All of the videos were of the shifters, who were being prosecuted and killed most horrendously.

"Who is the barbaric one here then?" Zade asked after Jack had finished watching the videos.

"There are cases where your kind attacked humans, even before your existence was exposed."

Zade leaned over and looked at Jack right in the eyes. "You humans attacked each other, and there are a lot more cases of that. Doesn’t it make you more devilish than us?"

There was silence that stretched out between them until Jack made a decision. "What do you want me to do?"

***

Seara approached Zade when he entered the room; he looked a little bit haggard with so many things that he had to handle at once.

After they managed to capture Jack Blackwood, they retreated, and now they were in a different hideout. It was a pity they had to leave the beach house. The Quantum Protocol personnel had occupied the beach house, just as they had done with the Residence.

"Are you sure you are going to free him? Can you trust him?" Seara sat down next to Zade on the sofa; she handed him a glass of water.

"No." Zade sipped the water to moisten his throat.

"Then why will you release him? If the alphas know about your decision, they will get even madder with you." Seara then added. "And his life will be in danger too. We have agreed that Owen is used as a host for the devil. The public has learned the shifters have kidnapped Admiral Jack; if the devil does something to him, they can pin the blame on us."

Zade looked at his mate; he was impressed that Seara could understand how things worked and her worry was valid.

"I want the devil to try that."