Chapter 136

ISABELLA

It had been days since Knox returned, and I hadn’t pressed him with too many questions, though the urge to know everything gnawed at me. I wanted to give him time to heal, to regain his strength after what he'd been through. But now, as I watched him move around the room with more ease, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I needed to know.

I found him in the appartment we live in the pack house, sitting on the couch, his long legs stretched out, staring at the fire. He looked better, the weariness from his time in captivity slowly leaving his face, though there was still something shadowing his usual smile. It was time.

I sat down next to him, close enough to feel the warmth of his body, but I didn't speak right away. Knox had always been the charmer, the joker of the group, but even he had been quieter since coming home. I took a deep breath, bracing myself.

"Knox," I began, keeping my voice soft but firm. "I didn’t want to overwhelm you when you first got back. I know you’ve been through hell. But I need to understand. I need to know what happened with... her."

His gaze flickered toward me, hazel eyes shadowed in a way I hadn't seen before. He knew exactly who I meant. My mother.

For a moment, he didn’t say anything, just stared at the fire as if gathering his thoughts. When he finally spoke, his voice was careful, cautious.

"Isa," he began, rubbing his hands together. "I didn’t want to throw everything at you all at once. Especially not after what I found out." He paused, like he was weighing his words. "But you deserve the truth."

I nodded, bracing myself. This wasn’t going to be easy to hear.

"I didn’t know what to expect when I realized Emilia—your mother—was leading the hunters," Knox continued, his voice low. "I wasn’t sure if she was trying to use me as bait or if she had some other motive. But she wasn’t... how I expected. Not at all."

Hearing her name like that, spoken as if she were a stranger, made my stomach twist. She had always been this distant, almost mythical figure in my life. The mother who died when I was too young to really remember her. But now? She was real, alive, and she'd taken Knox captive.

"How was she?" I asked, my voice tight, barely holding back the emotion I was trying to contain.

Knox exhaled, leaning back against the couch, his expression shifting into something between frustration and confusion. "She’s tough, cold even. But not in the way you’d think. She’s not heartless. It’s like... like she’s doing what she thinks is right. Like she believes she has no other choice."

I frowned, trying to wrap my mind around the idea. My mother. A werewolf hunter. And not just any hunter, but one who led them, who’d been part of this whole nightmare. "Did she ever talk about my father? About why she left?"

Knox nodded slowly, his gaze meeting mine, and I saw the hesitation in his eyes. "Yeah. She told me about him. About Salvatore."

Hearing my father’s name from Knox’s lips sent a chill through me. I’d only ever known one version of his story—he was a human, a kind man who loved my mother, who died of cancer years after her supposed death. But there was more. There had to be.

"Salvatore... your father," Knox said slowly, as if trying to find the right way to break the news. "He wasn’t just human, Isa. He was half-werewolf. But he didn’t have a wolf. She said it like it was some kind of curse or... something tragic."

My heart clenched painfully. "Half-werewolf? But... but how?"

Knox sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Emilia didn’t tell me everything, but from what I gathered, she didn’t know Salvatore had werewolf blood when they met. When she found out, it changed things. She left to avoid having to kill him. She was a hunter—she had to follow their rules. But she couldn’t do it, Isa. She loved him."

The weight of his words settled heavily in my chest. My mother hadn’t died in an accident. She had abandoned me and my father to protect us—from herself, from the hunters, from the truth of what he was. The truth of what I was.

"So she just left us?" My voice cracked, and I hated how vulnerable I sounded. "She let me believe she was dead?"

Knox leaned closer, his voice gentler now. "She thought it was the only way. She thought it was the only way to protect both of you. If the hunters found out what your dad was... it would’ve been bad, Isa. And I think she didn’t want you caught in the middle of all of that."

I swallowed hard, my mind spinning. I felt like the ground had been ripped out from under me, like everything I thought I knew about my past had been a lie.

"Knox," I whispered, staring at the fire. "Why didn’t she come back? Why did she stay with the hunters?"

He hesitated, his fingers tapping lightly against his knee. "I asked her that, too. She said she’s been trying to stop the hunters from targeting your father’s side of the family. It’s why she’s been so involved, why she leads them. To keep them away from you."

I didn’t know what to think anymore. Everything felt like it had been flipped upside down. My father—half-werewolf. My mother—a hunter, alive, and leading the very people who were supposed to be my enemy.

Knox’s hand rested gently on my arm, grounding me. "I’m sorry, Isa. I know this is a lot. But whatever happens next... we’re going to get through it together. You have me, you have Asher and Jax. And we’ll find Emilia. We’ll get the answers you deserve."

I nodded, though my heart was still racing, my thoughts tangled in a storm of confusion and grief. My family’s past was more complicated than I ever imagined, and now I had no choice but to face it.