Chapter 59
Beatrice’s POV
"Why was I abandoned?" I ask, more rage building up inside me. I swallow hard to control it “You’ve… had these all along, All the memories?”
Her eyes glisten. “Every single one.”
The man step into the room, his presence filling it with quiet strength. “We never stopped watching you,” he says.
My voice crack. “Then why wasn’t I with you? Why the hell was I alone my whole life?”
They exchange a glance, the kind of glance people share when the truth is sharp enough to cut.
“You were never meant to be alone,” my mother whispers, “but keeping you with us… would have meant your death before your first birthday.”
I blink at her. “What?”
“There are… rules,” my father says slowly, as if weighing every word. “Old, ancient laws among our kind. You are not just a wolf, Raven. You are more. A child of two bloodlines that were never meant to mix. Your mother,” he nods toward her , “is of the Stormblood, wolves born with the gift to command the wind and the skies. And I…” He hesitated, his jaw tightening. “I am not wolf. I am Ursar , bear-born , descended from the mountain guardians. Together, we made you. And that… broke every law that keeps peace between the bloodlines.”
I stumble back until my legs hit the bed. “So you abandoned me… because I’m… illegal?”
Tears shimmer in my mother’s eyes. “Because they would have hunted you before you could even walk.”
My father’s gaze was steady. “We hid you in the Alpha's mansion and placed protections around you. But we could never come close, never reveal ourselves… until now.” She explains, nothing makes sense now.
“Why now?” My voice rise. “What’s changed?”
“The Shadow has found you,” my mother says her voice trembling. “And it won’t stop until it devours everything you are. The only way you survive is if you come home to us… and learn what you were born to be.”
I sit frozen, my heart a drumbeat in my ears. Part of me wanted to scream, part of me wanted to cling to them, and part of me just wanted to run until my legs give out.
The air in the room feel heavier, charged with a strange energy. My mother steps forward, her hand warm as it closed over mine. “Raven… you’re not unlucky. You are chosen. And your story is only just beginning.”
The air between us is thick, every word theyspeak pressing heavier on my chest. My mother’s gaze flick toward the window, as though the past was still out there, waiting in the shadows.
Her hand tightens on mine. “You should know what we gave up,” she murmured. “What I gave up.”
Her voice fades… and suddenly, it is as if the room had fallen away.
Flashback – Her Mother’s POV
The night was a storm without rain. Clouds rolled like black waves across the moon, and the wind howled in warning. I cradled you against my chest so small, so warm, your heartbeat fluttering like a frightened bird.
We had minutes before they found us. I could already smell them, the Stormblood trackers, their scent sharp and metallic on the wind. Behind me, your father’s footsteps pounded against the earth, each stride a promise to protect us.
“We have to move faster,” he growled, shifting into his half-form, shoulders bulking, claws glinting in the moonlight.
My throat burned. “I can’t run any faster with her. She’ll...”
“She’ll die if you stop,” he cut in, voice heavy with fear.
Every instinct screamed at me to keep you close, to never let you go. But I knew the truth: they didn’t just want you dead. They wanted your body as proof. They wanted your blood to seal an oath of vengeance between the clans.
We reached the edge of Nadine West settlement where the forest ended and the faint glow of houses began. I felt my knees weaken. This was it. This was where I’d lose you. I slowed the time making sure to place you in front of the Alpha’s mansion gate.
“Is it safe?” I whispered.
Your father sniffed the air, his bear eyes narrowing. “For now. The protection spell will hold if we cast it together.”
I kissed your tiny forehead, breathing in your scent as if I could trap it inside my lungs forever. “You won’t remember this,” I whispered against your skin. “But I will. Every second. Every breath.”
We laid you in the basket, tucking the quilt around you, the same one now on your bed upstairs. The moment I stepped back, I felt like I’d torn my own heart out.
Your father spoke the incantation, his deep voice vibrating through the night. I added mine, the air thickening with magic until the basket shimmered faintly and the wind shifted, carrying your scent away from any predator who might track you.
From the shadows, a wolf’s howl cut through the air, too close.
“We have to go,” your father urged, grabbing my hand.
I looked at you one last time. Your tiny hand had escaped the quilt, fingers curled like you were holding on to something invisible. I almost reached back for you. Almost.
But I turned. I ran. And I didn’t stop until the howls faded into the distance… and the ache in my chest became a wound I’ve carried since then.
Back to Present – Beatrice’s POV
My breath hitches. I hadn’t just heard her words, I had lived them. For a moment, I swear I could feel the cold wind on my skin, the weight of that tiny quilt around me.
My mother’s eyes shimmer as though she’d just run through that night again too. “We didn’t abandon you because we didn’t love you, Raven. We abandoned you because we loved you enough to let you live.”
I didn’t know if I wanted to cry, scream, or collapse into her arms.
Outside, the wind rattled the window, carrying with it the echo of a wolf’s howl. Only this time… I wasn’t sure it was from her memory.
My mother’s words still rang in my ears, my heart thudding like it had been dropped into someone else’s ribcage.
The window rattled again, this time sharper, as if something had brushed against the glass. I glanced toward it, expecting nothing more than the wind’s mischief — but the curtain was moving, slow, deliberate, like fingers tracing its edge.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
My father’s head snapped up, every line of his body tightening. “Stay here.”
He crossed the room in three strides, but before he could reach the window, a shadow slid away into the night, tall, fluid, and wrong in the way a nightmare is wrong.
For a heartbeat, the scent of ozone and ash hung in the air.
My mother’s hand clamped around mine. “They’ve found you.”
Somewhere out there, something howled again. This time, it wasn’t a wolf.