Chapter 112: Mother
The forest was too still.
Even the wind had gone silent, the tall pines standing like frozen sentinels beneath the heavy shroud of night. Damian stepped through the snow with deliberate grace, his ears attuned to every creak, every shift in the underbrush. Isla followed close, her breath visible in the icy air, her senses sharp, too sharp.
The cold didn’t bother her anymore. That alone was a warning.
Her skin prickled beneath her cloak, not from the temperature, but from something else. Something primal. She could feel it again, the way the world reacted to her now. The way animals stilled when she walked by. The way the shadows bent toward her.
She wasn’t just carrying a child.
She was carrying a storm.
A shift in the bond between her and Damian sent a ripple down her spine. She glanced at him. His jaw was set, but she could feel the unease he didn’t voice.
He’d felt it too.
Something was wrong. A howl tore through the stillness, far in the distance. Not a patrol. Not one of theirs.
Rogue.
Damian’s hand was already at Isla’s back, guiding her behind a thick tree. “Stay here.”
“No.”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the quiet with a finality that made him pause. She met his eyes and saw the battle raging in them, Alpha instincts versus mate bond.
“I’m not hiding,” she said. “Brienne is out there and if you think I’ll let you walk into whatever trap this is without me, you don’t know me at all.”
Damian cursed under his breath but nodded.
They moved together.
Vincent stood at the edge of the old boundary stones, the snow untouched at his feet. A dark smile played on his lips as he turned the blade in his hand, its edge glinting under the moonlight.
“Bring her,” he ordered.
Brienne was dragged forward, her hands bound in glowing runes, flickering red as though pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat. She didn’t flinch as she was thrown to the ground before him.
“I thought you wanted Isla,” she said, voice hoarse. “Not me.”
“Oh, I do,” Vincent replied, crouching beside her. “But the thing about wolves… is that they’re pack animals and the fastest way to pull one out of hiding is to threaten what they love.”
“You won’t break her,” Brienne hissed.
“I’m not trying to,” he said, voice soft and serpentine. “I’m going to set her free.”
Brienne’s heart skipped. She didn’t like the glint in his eyes. It wasn’t madness. It was worse. True belief, fanatical and unwavering to its core. She wasn’t sure if they had brain washed him or rather if for the first time he felt some kind of true belonging…
“You don’t understand what she’s carrying,” he whispered. “No one does. But I’ve seen it in visions. In dreams. That child, her child, will either tear this world apart… or save it.”
He stood, eyes scanning the tree line.
“And I’d much rather be on the right side when the scales tip.”
Back at the fortress, Raven stood before the fire in the sanctuary chamber, her silver eyes dull and distant. She was not alone.
A small deer carcass lay before her, limp, untouched by claw or fang.
Killed by fear.
She didn’t need to touch it to know what had happened. The energy in the air was distorted. Warped. Every spirit in the surrounding forest had gone still.
The child was awakening.
She turned to the shadows, where the Elders once walked. They were no longer visible to most, but she could feel them hovering, watching Isla through her.
“It’s starting,” she whispered.
No reply. Just silence.
Were they afraid?
Damian halted abruptly.
Isla smelled it too.
Smoke.
Not from a hearth or bonfire. It was acrid, oily, man-made. The worst kind.
They crested the ridge and saw it.
A clearing, lit by unnatural blue flames. Ancient stones surrounded a burning sigil on the ground, one she recognized from the old texts Raven once showed her. A summoning circle. Wolf blood marked its edges.
“Brienne,” Isla breathed.
There were no bodies, no fight. Just the circle… and a ribbon of blood trailing into the trees.
Damian moved ahead, his fury barely leashed, but Isla knelt beside the circle.
The runes weren’t just for summoning.
They were binding.
A memory slammed into her, Raven’s voice echoing from days ago.
They will try to separate you, isolate your bond, sever what makes you strong. Don’t let them, Isla. Don’t let them turn the child against you.
She pressed her palm to the stone and flinched.
The earth was scorched beneath the snow. A remnant of power not of this world. Not entirely wolf. Not even Elder. Something else.
Suddenly, her body shuddered. Not from the cold but from within.
A pulse. One, then two. The baby moved, but not like before. This time, her vision flashed white, her senses stretched beyond herself. She could hear voices whispering her name, some from the past, some from a future she hadn’t lived.
Her hand flew to her stomach and that’s when she heard it. A voice inside her mind, not her own.
“Mother.”
Isla gasped and fell back.
Damian was instantly beside her, arms cradling her as if she’d been struck.
“What is it? What happened?” he demanded, brushing snow from her face.
She looked up at him, eyes wide with terror.
“I heard it,” she whispered. “The baby. It spoke to me.”
Damian froze.
“Are you sure..?”
“Yes,” she said, shaking. “It knows. It’s aware. It’s… it’s not just a child. It’s something else.”
He didn’t doubt her. Not after everything.
“We need to find Brienne,” he said. “Now.”
“But this was only the beginning,” Isla murmured, still staring at the circle. “Vincent isn’t just baiting us. He’s using Brienne to awaken it faster.”
She looked at Damian, voice steadying despite the panic in her blood.
“If we don’t stop him soon, I won’t have to choose between the child and the pack.”
She swallowed hard.
“It’ll choose for me.”