The Returns Of Shadows

The Returns Of Shadows
Chapter 13

The Return of Shadows

The morning broke with an eerie stillness — the kind that thickened even the air.

The sun that came in through the curtains was pale, faltering, and the mansion itself appeared to be in suspense.

I knew something was wrong the moment I opened my eyes. It was too quiet. No footsteps, no distant chatter of maids, no squeak of guards changing positions outside my door. Only quiet.

Then came the voices.

Raw, commanding, thundering down the marble halls like a storm from ancient times.

The elders of the Alphas had arrived.

Ronan's grandmother and his father.

My heart dropped.

I heard them before I saw them — a woman's voice harsh and cold as steel, and a man's voice deep and ancient and sonorous. The air itself changed when they entered the mansion. The walls seemed to yield to their supremacy.

I stood frozen in the corner of my bedroom, clutching my knees. I didn't want to be seen. I didn't want to breathe.

Because I already knew why their visit was.

They were not here to chit-chat. They were here on behalf of me.

\---

The doors groaned open and shut closer and closer, until finally, my room handle turned.

The door creaked open.

Two people came in — Ronan's grandmother and his father.

The woman was gaunt and tall, her silvered hair pulled back into a tight bun. Her eyes were sharp, a chilly blue that took in everything. The man beside her carried a carved cane — not because he needed one, but because it reminded everyone else where his power was.

The moment their eyes landed on me, the air was heavy.

"There she is," his grandmother sneered. "The girl."

His father said nothing, simply stared at me as a human stares at a dangerous animal.

I wanted to speak, to greet them, to offer something polite — but my words were stuck in my throat.

His grandmother moved up. "So this is the one who's blown my grandson's judgment to dust."

There was distaste in her voice.

I bowed my head, trembling. "Good morning, ma'am."

"Don't you go pretending manners with me," she snarled. "Do you have any conception of what you've done to this house? To our reputation? You think we don't see how Ronan protects you? Keeps you in the background like some secret sin?"

My breath shook. "I—I didn't do anything, I swear—"

"Silence!"

Her voice lashed through the air like a whip.

I tugged violently back,instinctively shrinking away into the wall.

His eyes contracted. "You tell me you've done nothing," he said slowly, "and yet ever since your arrival, our house has been in an uproar of distress. Ronan resists us. The pack whispers behind our backs. You did this."

I tossed my head quickly. "Please, I never asked for all of this. I never asked him to shield me.".

His grandmother's laughter was mocking and vicious. "Didn't ask? Oh, child, the smart ones never ask — they let men get themselves ruined on their own."

I felt a stinging of tears in the back of my eyes, but I blinked them away.

"I would leave if I could," I panted. "I never wanted to be here.".

She stepped forward again, her shadow falling across my face. "You think we'd take it? That after what your people did to our family, you'd just leave? You'd ask for mercy when your blood carries the curse that burned everything we worked for to the ground?"

My heart skipped a beat. "My people?"

Her eyes were hot. "Don't pretend you don't know. The fire that killed Ronan's parents — your father's name was spoken that night."

The room spun around for a moment.

I remembered that evening — the flames, the cries, the pungent smell of smoke and ash. But my father… my father had tried to save me.

He'd died in the same fire.

"Y-you're wrong," I stammered. "My father—"

"Enough!"

She slapped her hand against the table beside her. The blow was so hard that it startled me.

"You will not lie in this house. You've lied to my grandson, but you will not lie to me. I know all about you. You're poison, and you'll destroy him as your father destroyed his."

I shook my head back and forth, back and forth, until my eyes stung with tears. "Please—"

"Shut her up," she spat coldly, turning to his dad. "Before I lose my temper."

But before he had a chance to step, another voice echoed through the space.

"Enough."

The voice halted everyone where they stood.

Ronan stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable but his presence larger than life. The air around him appeared to ripple.

His grandmother turned to him. "Ronan—"

"I said enough." His tone was smooth, but lethal. The kind of smooth that heralded a storm brewing.

She crossed her arms. "You take that stand and defend her again? In front of me? In your father's house?"

"I'm defending what's mine," he said quietly.

The words hit me like lightning.

What's mine.

For a second, even his grandmother looked stunned. Then her eyes tightened, anger flashing in them. "You shame us, Ronan. You bring that girl — that tainted blood — into our house and call her your own?"

Ronan's jaw locked, but he didn't retreat. "I claim her as under my protection."

His father's voice rumbled low. "You risked the pack for her, boy. Do you understand that? You risked the prophecy, the order your father gave his life to maintain, at risk."

"I do," Ronan said quietly. "And I will carry it.".

His grandmother inched closer to him, her voice trembling with fury. "You're not an Alpha if you let your emotions cloud your good judgment. She's making a fool of you."

"Then I want to be a fool," he said bluntly.

Her breath stumbled. The entire room was frozen into temporary silence.

I stood and watched them — all three of them — engaged in a wordless battle of pride, hurt, and centuries of fury. I couldn't breathe. I didn't know what to say, what to do.

Finally, his grandmother turned away, her words shaking not from vulnerability, but from anger held too tightly. "You'll regret this. You'll both regret this."

She elbowed him, her scent like frosty lavender and poison. His father followed behind them, not a word, but with lips compressed, his eyes darting over me before shutting the door.

That sound lingered in the air long after they had departed.

\---

Ronan didn't move for a moment, his back to me.

The silence between us was agonizing.

When he finally spoke, his voice was gentler than I'd ever heard it. "Are you hurt?"

I shook my head, slow. "No."

He turned, and his eyes went soft for an instant. "I'm sorry."

The words curled him over.
I wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault — that it was. It all was. Everything since he brought me here had fallen apart into pain.

"I'm fine," I whispered, though my voice cracked halfway.

He didn't answer, just let me stand there.

He did not creep closer. He just looked at me, expecting something that I could not give.

Then he said something that turned my heart around in half.

"I won't let them hurt you."

It was a promise. A dangerous one.

But when his words finally broke through, all I could think of was what his grandmother had told me — about the fire, about my father, about the curse that tied our families together in this impossible manner.

For if even a piece of it was true….

Then Ronan wasn't just standing up for me.

He was standing up for the one individual his family believed had destroyed everything they loved.

And that type of protection always came at a cost.

\---

He left shortly afterwards, the sound of his footsteps fading down the hall.

I sat alone in that room, shivering, my hands cold against my knees.

The ringing of his grandmother's words would not cease.

"You'll kill him, just like your dad killed his."

I slapped my hands over my ears, trying to block it out — but I couldn't. Because deep down, some small, frightened part of me was frightened that it might.

Maybe I was doomed. Maybe my blood was poisoned. Maybe I was the spark that would set this town ablaze — and reduce it to ashes once more.

I stood before the closed door for hours, hoping Ronan would return, to retrieve something that would remove the aching in my chest. But he didn't.

And silence conveyed more than words ever could.

\---

The night became day, but I couldn't sleep. I stood at the window, staring out into the moonlight streaming across the floor.

It was too clean for this kind of place — too soft for a person like me.

I saw movement below, in the courtyard.

Two individuals.

His father and his grandmother.

They were arguing to one another near the gate, their faces hidden by the moonlight.

I couldn't catch everything that they were saying, but one sentence cut clearly on the wind.

> "If he won't get rid of her, we will."

My heart turned to ice.

I moved away from the window, taking quick, jagged breaths.

They were pursuing me.

They wanted to kill me.

The realization crystallized in my chest like a chunk of ice.

I wasn't just despised.

I was hunted.

And as I pressed my shaking body against the frozen wall, one thing roared through my head — louder than the lightning outside, louder than the pounding of my heart.

I must survive this era.

At any price.