Chapter 50 — Danger?

50

I stepped into the cozy, pretty house with Lucian. I had chosen to wear a nice, buttoned dress rather than my usual sweatpants today. Even if his mother was not in her senses, I wanted to appear presentable.

"Where is Mom?" He turned to ask one of the omegas who had opened the door.

"She is in on the deck, Alpha," she replied.

The house was two-storied. The ground floor had a main hall, kitchen/dining area, and backyard. It was well furnished with state-of-the-art furniture.

The upper floor had bedrooms, a central living room, and a huge deck overlooking the river. It was beautiful, and I fell in love with it immediately.

I nervously approached an older woman in her 50s sitting in an armchair knitting something.

"Hey, Mom," Lucian said, walking over and pulling her in for a hug and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

"How are you today?"

She turned and looked a little confused, then affectionately patted his dark, bristled jaw. She told him, "Are you back from school?"

He smiled, "Yes, I am back from school."

"Well, where is your sister? Tell her I don't like that hideous blue hair color of hers."

He chuckled.

"Mom, I found my mate." He looked at me and gestured for me to come forward.

The white-haired woman stared at me with her piercing green eyes. So, this is where Lucian got his eyes from. She was a strikingly beautiful woman. Werewolves live long. She was still lovely though her hair had turned white, and she looked like a human would in their 50s, which was not normal for a wolf.

"Rose! What are you doing here?" she asked, a little confused.

Lucian narrowed his eyes. "Mother, this is Alice, my mate."

She held my hands and said in an agitated voice.

"Rose, Regina is still alive. You must kill her."

"Mother, she is not Rose," he sighed.

"Who is Regina?" I asked. I was shocked beyond words because Rose was my mother's name "The witch!" she whispered, and then she suddenly let go of my hand and picked up her knitting as if nothing happened.

Lucian and I exchanged looks.

"I am sorry. I told you she is not in her senses,” he apologized.

"On the contrary, I feel she still remembers things from the past. Rose was my mother's name. And I believe she thinks I am her. I look like my mother," I said.

His eyes widened in surprise.

"That means our mothers knew each other?"

I nodded.

"What happened to her?" I asked.

He took a deep breath.

"The poison killed her wolf. It's rare, but there is a poison that can do it. Losing my dad, and then her wolf drove her insane," he said sadly.

That explained the unnatural aging. She was human now. I felt a surge of pity for the woman. Our wolves are part of our souls. I could not imagine living without my wolf.

Leaving his mom in the care of the Omegas, we walked out of his house. The visit had raised more questions for me.

"Lucian, wait! We need to talk."

He stopped and turned, raising his eyebrows.

"Who is Regina? Do you know something that I am unaware of?" I asked.

He sighed.

"Trust me. You are better off not knowing about her," he replied and started walking away briskly.

"Lucian, don't you think you must try to find out what your mother meant?" I insisted.

We had now left the garden and were walking down the path to the packhouse.

"My mother says a lot of stuff. Most of it is just irrelevant jabber," he said with a hardened face.

"She called me Rose, though. She recognized my mother. Yeah, I am not her, but she was not blabbering. Are you hiding something?" I implored.

He ran a hand through his hair.

"You won't like this, Alice."

I stepped closer and hugged him.

"It's ok. I can take it." I felt his body shudder in response.

He pulled me towards the woods, and we sat near the riverbank.

"Your mother was a witch, as you already know. Witches live in covens similar to packs, but they are smaller. When she left her coven to be with your father, her leader and a few others didn't like it."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Then when you were born, they wanted you."

"What! Why did they want me?"

"You are special, Alice," he said, tucking a strand of my hair back.

"I don't understand."

"Well, I don't understand most of it myself, but you have a mix of witch and werewolf blood."

"So does Rick."

"Rick is a man. Witches inherit their powers from their mothers; hence, you are special, not him."

"Wait! Are you implying that I am a witch? Because that is ridiculous!"

"No, I am not implying that. Now listen very carefully..."

He explained the scenario of my parent's death. The attack on the hotel for me and my mother defending me from her leader, Regina.

"It was all because of me," I mumbled. "It was all my fault." I could not stop the tears anymore. All this while I was under the assumption that I was sent away because of my trauma. But now I knew it was because I was a danger to my pack and my family. I should not have existed at all!

"That's not true, Alice," he said. Of course, he heard my thoughts. I was open to him. In my anxiety, I had not guarded my thoughts.

"Then what is the truth, Lucian? All this while...I even resented Rick for sending me away. While he, Aunt Flora, and everyone was just trying to protect me."

My breathing became ragged, and I was losing control. Lana was taking over.

"Alice, you are shifting!" he shouted. But I was already sprinting through the forest, tearing off my dress. I had shifted, and I was running to escape my pain.

I heard his call in my mind to stop, but I ignored it.

I ran for miles, and I was not sure if Lucian was following me. I had closed my mind to him. I wanted to be alone.

As I passed by a small hill, a whiff of a male wolf reached my nostrils. It was familiar, but it was not Lucian's or any other wolf from the pack.

Then the scent of a female wolf started to mix with the male scent. I sensed fear and the female's blood. Something was wrong.

Following the scent, I moved through the brush and finally saw her—Meg, one of the girls who worked in the kitchen.

She was tied up and naked. Her face was bruised, and her body was battered with multiple cuts and bruises.

One wolf was raping her while another stalked the ground around her, circling her like a lump of raw meat. She was crying out in pain.

"Lucian!" I screamed in my mind, horrified by the scene. I prayed he could hear me. I heard one word come back to me like he was mumbling it from a distance, “Run.”

I suddenly recognized those wolves. They were the renegades or part of those who had kidnapped me. Now they were hurting a member of my pack. I was not going to run.

Two heads popped up and turned to stare at me. They had smelled me.

I bared my teeth and growled. Lucian's voice bellowed into my head, “Run, I will take care of them."

“I cannot run away while one of my pack members is being raped!” I thought back to him. I had to stay and fight.

“You will do no such thing,” Lucian called, sounding desperate. “Run now.”

I chose to ignore him.