Chapter 4 The Ugly Truth
Tasha:
"Please,please,don't you turn me down now...you're the only one left." I begged to Rhett invisibly as I stepped forward.
Night had already settled by the time I reached Stoneclaw’s territory. The air carried a faint chill, that slips under the skin and lingers even when you try to shake it off. Lights glowed inside Rhett’s apartment, spilling through the curtains in soft amber strips. For a moment, I stood on the porch, grounding myself, trying to steady the emotions tangled inside me.
My family had thrown me out, called me a forbidden creature, words that still echoed inside my ribs like a bruise I couldn't place my hands on. Maybe Rhett would understand. Maybe he’d see me and recognize me. Maybe someone I loved would finally stop looking at me like a nightmare crawling into their home.
I knocked.
The door opened halfway already. And everything in me went still.
Rhett stood barefoot, his hair slightly mussed, breath uneven as if he’d been doing something physical. His shirt was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, revealing flushed skin. Behind him, the unmistakable scent of slick….intimate, warm, unmistakably sexual….hung in the air like a heavy mist. It hit my senses before my eyes caught up.
A woman’s scent blended into it. Sweet but sharp. Familiar.
Alexandra…my rival from Snowpack.
Rhett froze when he saw me. All color drained from his face so quickly it looked painful. He gripped the edge of the door as though he needed something to keep himself upright. My heart shattered to see the wolf I love so dearly, getting scared of me.
“Tasha,” he breathed, voice thin, barely holding its shape. “You..how—”
Before he got another word out, Alexandra stepped into view behind him, I gulped the pain.
She wore one of his shirts. Only his shirt. Long enough to cover her thighs but not long enough to hide the fact she hadn’t bothered with anything else. Her silver hair was tousled, falling messily over her shoulders, and her complexion carried the warm flush of someone who had been touched recently… and willingly. She was glowing….the same way I used to glow after….
Her expression shifted as soon as she saw me. Confusion and disbelief. And then fear….raw, instinctual fear that widened her eyes and tightened every part of her posture. She took a step back, one hand clutching the shirt closed around her chest.
Rhett moved slightly as if trying to block her from my view. I noticed every movement…what the hell happened within a night?
Something inside me cracked….not loudly, not violently, but in a way that left my breath unsteady. The scents in the room kept crawling into me: the intimacy, the heat, the traces of something that should have belonged to me. And then, their scents turned bitter, heavy and filled with fear.
I tried to speak but my voice wavered. “Rhett?”
He swallowed hard. “You… shouldn’t be here.”
“Why?” My eyes moved past him toward Alexandra even though I didn’t want to look at her. “Why is she here? Why are you—” My throat tightened. “Why are you both like this?”
The words weren’t loud, but they trembled in a way that felt humiliating.
Rhett ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head as though he couldn’t decide where to begin.
“T-Tasha, how did you come back??” I gave him a confused look.
" Why is everybody acting so strange, Rhett? Why does it matter how I came back after you all left me there in the warehouse and didn’t bring me home when I fainted?” My voice wavered but he looked more pale now.
“Tasha….it’s not what you think it is. When did you wake up? What do you remember?”. He took a step back when I took a step forward, it broke my heart again and I felt a strange burn in my body and eyes.
" I just woke up in a cave out in the jungle. I only remember fighting the rogues from the Snowpack and perhaps I fainted. I don’t remember what happened before that.” I gave a sharp look at Alexandra who was still standing in the background, still shocked and horrified.
“Why? Did I interrupt something my fiance? You didn’t want me here? Why are you both scared?"
“Tasha, please,” he whispered. “This isn’t…gods, this isn’t what you think it is.”
“Really?” I stepped forward without meaning to. The slick in the air was unmistakable. The room didn’t lie. The scent of two wolves who had been inches from each other minutes ago didn’t lie. “Because it smells exactly like what it is.”
Alexandra flinched at the tone, and Rhett’s jaw tightened.
“Tasha, go back outside for a moment,” he said gently….too gently….like someone trying to calm a wild creature. “I’ll talk to you. Just give me a second.”
“No.” My voice cracked again, but I didn’t stop. “Tell me right here. Right now. Why is everyone acting terrified? Why does my family think I’m some kind of monster? Why did they drag me out of my own home? And why are you—” My breath shook. “Why are you with her?”
Rhett closed his eyes as if bracing himself. When he opened them, the fear was still there, flickering like a candle in a storm.
“Alexandra,” he said quietly, “go back to my room.”
She didn’t move at first. Her eyes were fixed on me, unblinking, wide with panic.
“Go,” he repeated, firmer.
She hesitated, then disappeared down the hallway, clutching his shirt tighter. Her scent faded a little but not enough to erase the ache building in my chest.
Rhett shut the door behind him but didn’t step closer. He hovered near it as if unsure if approaching me was safe.
“Tasha,” he began, voice trembling around the edges, “you… you died.”
I stared at him like he was spewing nonsense. The shock was too much for me to react. “No…” I whispered, shaking my head wildly.
"I was attacked, but I survived. I woke up in a cave—”
“You died,” he repeated, breathing unsteadily. “Six months ago.”
The world tilted so sharply that the edges of my vision dimmed. “What are you talking about? It was last night. I remember the wolves. I remember fighting them. And then…”
Fragments… blurred shapes….voices far away….the cave….. Noah.
Rhett’s eyes glistened with…fear, disbelief, maybe even grief….but none of it softened the blow.
“Tasha,” he whispered, “we found your blood in the warehouse. All of it. There was so much… no wolf could survive that. We searched for your body for days. Then weeks. Then it turned into months. Every trail led back to the same thing. Your blood carried the scent of death.”
He exhaled shakily, clutching the back of a chair as his knees weakened. “Tasha… we mourned you.”
Something inside me recoiled at the word. “Mourned?” I stepped back. “You mourned me? For six months? And… you already… moved on?”
His gaze faltered. “It wasn’t like that.”
“It wasn’t?” My voice broke. “Because it smells exactly like that.”
He flinched.
I continued, unable to stop the words spilling from whatever shredded part of me had cracked open. “You were in bed with her, Rhett. Not grieving. You weren’t looking broken. No, you weren’t searching. Not mourning. Because if you were, you would have found me right outside in the jungle, in the cave. You knew where it was…You were—”
“Tasha, stop.” His voice cracked sharply.
“For the sake of the wolves…don’t suspect my love for you. You know how much I loved you Tasha…I was going to marry you! How can you say I didn’t try to find my bride?” His voice wavered and my chest hurt a bit too painfully…it was a strange pain.
“Fuck, I even slept outside the warehouse for three damn nights, waiting for you to show up, maybe wounded, maybe surviving. Ignoring the fact that your blood had the smell of death! I was hoping for the impossible Tasha!! But I couldn’t even see you…. one last time!”, his voice cracked and tears spilled like beads from his steel grey eyes.
“You don’t know what I went through without you Tasha. How much I suffered, how many times did I sniff your blood to try and trace any signs of life."
The faint thump of my heart was going more faint now, I could feel my breaths skip, my fingers burning, but I had no idea what was happening.
“You said you loved me? What do you mean “loved"? You don’t love me anymore? The girl you were in love with and engaged to for four years?” I couldn’t hide the hurt anymore.
He looked at me helplessly, then gave me an overall observing look.
“You don’t understand what…. you look like now.”
The words hit differently.
A cold ripple slid through me. “What do I look like?”
Rhett swallowed again, fear returning so strongly it tightened every line of his face.
“You’re pale,” he whispered. “Your eyes….gods, your eyes aren’t the same. I can feel your heartbeat is slow, almost nonexistent. Your scent is wrong…. like a burnt coal, it used to be lavender. And when I look at you, something inside me…” He pressed a trembling hand to his chest. “It recoils. Wolves only react like that when they sense death. Or something close to it.”
My mouth felt dry. Too dry.
“Remember…one time I asked you that stupid question..would you still love me if I were a worm?” I chuckled sadly. “You didn’t think twice before answering yes….you said you will love me even after death. What is this Rhett?? I-I am now…dead.” The burning sensation got higher now, too much like I drank something I was not supposed to drink. Rhett looked at me with hurt, his low hiccups filled the air, “I’m sorry Tasha…I would have loved you still if you were just dead….but this…this is not possible.” He pointed at me like I was an alien.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if you’re standing here,” Rhett whispered, “someone brought you back. And that’s forbidden for a reason. Resurrections don’t return the wolf that died. They bring back a different version… a darker one. A demon-wolf. A corrupted soul.” His shoulders shook. “And I don’t know how to stand in front of you without feeling like I’m standing in front of something that could tear me apart.”
The words sank inside me slowly, painfully, one by one.
Demon….
Corrupted….
Forbidden….
“So,” I said quietly, “you’re scared of me.”
He didn’t deny it. He didn’t have to. His silence was enough.
“And Alexandra?” My chest tightened again. “Did you move on with her because you loved her?”
“No,” he said quickly, desperately. “Never. I was forced to move on. Your parents agreed. Your pack elders agreed. Everyone said it was the only way for the alliance to stay stable after your death.”
My laugh came out broken and hollow. “So I died, and they replaced me.”
“That’s not—”
“And you didn’t fight it,” I continued, the betrayal slicing deeper. “You didn’t keep looking. You didn’t question anything. You just let them hand you another girl like I was a position that needed filling.”
“I looked for you,” he blurted out, and his voice cracked violently. “I tore through half the territory. I searched the borders until my wolf collapsed. I slept outside that damned warehouse for three nights hoping your scent would return I told you. I tried, Tasha. I swear I did. But there was nothing left to trace. Nothing but death.”
The honesty in his voice was painful, but so was the reality.
“You gave up,” I whispered.
He didn’t argue.
“You gave up on me.” My jaw trembled. “And then you let her into your bed.”
“It wasn’t like that,” he said again, weaker this time.
“It feels exactly like that.”
Tears blurred my vision, but they weren’t normal tears. When they rolled down my cheek, they left behind faint dark streaks…..inky, unnatural.
Rhett’s eyes widened. “Tasha…your tears…”
I wiped them quickly, feeling the sticky black smear across my skin. Panic rushed into me. “I need to go.”
“Tasha, wait—”
“No.” I backed away from him, stepping off the porch. “Everyone in this town is terrified of me. My own mother called me forbidden. You’re standing here shaking. And whatever this is—” I brushed another tear away, seeing the black smear darken. “I don’t even understand it. But I don’t know where to go and what to do with my existence anymore..for me, I just went to party with you last night and came back today and now it’s all different.”
Rhett followed me to the doorway but didn’t step past it. His fear stopped him like a boundary he couldn’t cross.
“Tasha,” he pleaded softly, “I don’t know what you’ve become… and I really hope you find a purpose to live now. I can only wish the best for you….but wherever you go…whatever you do…please….don’t hurt anyone.”
The words sliced through something inside me. They hurt more than Alexandra’s scent, more than seeing her in his shirt, more than any revelation could have.
“Is that what you really think of me?” I whispered. “That I’d hurt you? Or her? Or anyone?”
He didn’t respond. His silence was all the answer I needed.
I turned away.
“Tasha…..just tell me one thing,” he called after me. “How did you come back? Who did this to you?”
Noah’s last words echoed sharply in my mind.
Don’t tell anyone about me.
“I don’t know,” I lied without stopping. “I don’t remember.”
Rhett’s breath stuttered. “Please be careful,” he said, voice cracking. “If someone resurrected you… they didn’t do it out of kindness.”
I didn’t look back.
I kept walking until his house was swallowed by the darkness behind me.
His last voice came from the back…
“We weren’t meant to be Tasha…maybe in another life…” I chuckled with a broken heart but didn’t turn around…I didn’t have it in me to look at the love of my life like a stranger, scared of me.
“You weren’t mine to begin with." I whispered while looking at the sky.
The night air felt colder now. Like it was mourning with me. My heartbeat thudded faintly, almost sluggish, like it was trying to remember a rhythm it no longer owned.
There was only one place I could go now.
Only one person who had answers.
Noah.
The old werewolf in the cave with riddles and warnings and eyes that saw more than he spoke.
He resurrected me.
He broke a law older than any of our packs.
And he left me in a world where everyone I loved recoiled from me.
My breath came out shaky as more black tears slipped down my cheeks.
I wiped them away, took one trembling step forward, then another.
I needed answers.
“Why was I resurrected?”