Chapter 54 THE SOLUTION
WILLA’S POV
I paced around the room as I waited for my family to arrive, leaving Lewis to comfort Sarina.
I honestly didn’t have the mind, nor the emotional capacity, to cater to her at the moment. Because I was barely holding myself together as it was.
My twins…
My beautiful, beautiful twins…
Without the parental blood link binding them to me as their guide and protector, their inner wolves were bound to take over and dominate them. Their inner wolves would go rogue with no one to keep them in line. That would catastrophically lead the twins to losing their humanity completely.
My children could become real and proper forest wolves, and it was all because of me and Gallahan.
What kind of mother…
I closed my eyes, trying to stop more tears from falling. But my effort was all in vain. There was no way I could stop crying in this situation.
I was about to lose Calisto and Gillian, all because I was prideful and I was a liar. The words I spat out to Gallahan did this to them, and…
My pacing was halted when William barged into the room, followed by our parents and Grandpa.
William quickly stormed towards Calisto's bed, where I had moved Gillian and nested them together with their favorite pillows, blankets, and plush animals, along with my own stuff. William knelt by the bed and laid his ceremonial robe on top of mine, which I had used to blanket the twins with.
Meanwhile, mom wordlessly enveloped me in her familiar and comforting embrace, her hand rubbing soothing circles along my back.
Grandpa and Dad, on the other hand, had a different plan. They immediately went on to interrogate me.
“What in the world happened, child?” Grandpa asked gently, just as Dad demanded, “Who the hell is the father?!”
I flinched at the loud volume of my Dad’s voice, causing Mom to immediately chastise him, saying, “Wendell! Can’t you see she is in distress?”
Before Dad could get a reply out of his mouth, Grandpa spoke and commandeered the entire attention of everyone in the room, sans my sleeping children.
“I believe we should have the conversation downstairs. The room is too cramped with all of us inside, and our own strong emotions could further upset the twins’ inner wolves. We cannot afford to worsen their agitation after experiencing rejection from the broken the parental blood link. So come, let us all go down and leave William to look after them.”
Everybody, except for William, shuffled out of the room.
Mom guided me along the way, not once removing her hold across my shoulders. She sat down beside me on the couch and said, “Lewis, Sarina, would the two of you be so kind as to prepare us a pot of tea please?”
“Of course, Luna Felicity,” Lewis said obligingly before taking a mildly dazed Sarina to the kitchen with him.
“Now, child…” Grandpa broached carefully as he settled himself on the spot on my other side. He took my hand and said, “Will you tell us how in the world this happened? I know you love those children with every fiber of your being. How could you have severed the parental bond link in less than two hours after the Ascension Rite?”
“I met their father, and… and we fought. It was ugly. It even got physical, and-”
“What?!” Dad, who had been pacing all over the living area, roared angrily as he whirled around to face me. “Just who is this man who dare-”
“Dad,” I shakily interrupted. “It was me. I was the one who got physical with him. I…”
My gaze strayed to my trembling hands, which I had furiously cleaned free of Gallahan’s blood before building a nest for the twins. Then my eyes fluttered close as I felt a fresh batch of tears well up.
“He didn’t… He didn’t harm me. It was just me. It was all me. I was the one who threw his attempts at amicable conversation back to his face. It was…me. I was so stupid. I was scared he was going to get Calisto and Gillian from me. I was scared of having him as their father because of who he is, so I’ve said things I shouldn’t have said.”
“Willa, sweetheart,” Mom coaxed gently. “What did you say? What did you say that could’ve possibly broken the blood link?”
“I said…” Tears streamed down my face ceaselessly at this point, and my lungs felt so full of agony and regret that I could hardly breathe. “I said We would never have a child together, because I would never spawn one for a man like him.”
“Oh, Willa.”
Grandpa’s grunt of defeat was a confirmation that my words have really destroyed the newly formed parental blood link.
But there was still a small, stupid and stubborn part of me that was still clinging to a thin thread of hope that it wasn’t true. So I said, “But I didn’t mean it! I love my twins, regardless of who their father is.”
“But child,” Grandpa interjected, “I am afraid you did mean it in the heat of the moment. While you were standing face to face with the man.”
“But, but Grandpa! How could such words break the link?! It’s not even a formal denunciation.”
I knew I was grasping at straws, but I just couldn’t quite fully accept the truth yet. I couldn’t stomach how I had broken the link and put my children in grave danger.
“It didn’t have to be a formal oath to renounce your ties with the twins, because the parental blood link had just formed. It hadn’t fully settled yet. It would’ve taken a couple of weeks for it to truly take root and solidify. So intent, no matter how small, was all you really need,” Mom explained.
“This is why the older generation had always insisted on the importance of belonging to a family and to a pack. Now, look at this mess. Because of ignorance that-”
“Wendell,” Grandpa cut him off, seeing how I had curled myself in an attempt to make myself smaller in shame. “Now is not the time to chastise her. Shaming your daughter does not help her and the twins.”
Still, there was a defiant part of me that wanted to argue that it wasn’t because of ignorance.
I knew well enough about the role of a family in helping ground young, volatile werewolves to their humanity and in properly guiding them to grow with their inner wolf.
For a pup to be left without a link to one parent would be akin to forfeiting their humanity, since the parents were supposed to be their anchor. Their young inner wolf would also have to acknowledge the adult’s mature and more powerful inner wolf and follow their lead.
Without the link, their inner wolf would go rogue and uncontrollable.
I knew all of these.
So I also knew that my pride, my foolish selfishness, my cowardice, and my inability to handle my feelings around Gallahan were to blame. Not ignorance.
“But we can fix this, right?” I said, my voice shaking with unmistakable desperation. “With nesting. Orphans, especially of the war, just had to be nested for days after losing their parents. Surely the same can be done for Calisto and Gillian.”
“Indeed, nesting has proven effective in preventing children from going rogue. But as for the twins’ case, it wouldn’t be as simple.”
“What do you mean?”
Just then, Lewis came in with a tray of tea-things. He gently laid it on the coffee table, then quietly excused himself back into the kitchen.
Once Lewis was out of sight, Grandpa finally answered my question. “The twins’ case is a little more… complicated. Those other children were not rejected or abandoned like the twins. They were orphaned, Willa. Their blood links were severed by death and not by choice. That alone sets the twins apart.”
Mom then added, “Calisto and Gillian are also children of fated mates. On top of that, they were rejected and abandoned by both parents at the same time while the parental blood link is still so fresh and new. You said to William that the father did the same, right?”
I nodded.
“That makes things harder,” Grandpa said softly, seemingly talking to himself rather than to the room at large. “Their inner wolves must be feeling angry at being abandoned so suddenly by both parents.”
Mom reached for the teapot and filled all four teacups as she quickly chimed in before I could fall further into despair. “The solution itself is very simple, Willa. It’s still nesting, you see. What makes it hard and complicated is how you will have to go about it.”
My confusion must’ve been apparent on my face because Grandpa sighed and explained, “You must complete your bond with their father, and you must do the entire nesting process with him.”