Chapter 337

Chapter 337
My skin tightens instantly. Goosebumps race over me as I stumble back without thinking, arms wrapping around myself as though that might stop what I’m seeing. I can’t breathe properly. I don’t want to see this. I never want to see her like this again.

Tears build fast, blurring the scene.

A broken sound escapes me before I can stop it, and I tear my gaze away completely, as though looking anywhere else might undo what I’ve already seen.

“You traded your life for hers,” I sob, the realisation hitting too late. “Your grief… it broke the fake curse.”

“Wrong,” my father says quietly.

Before I can spiral further, he slides a hand over my shoulder and pulls me into his side, firm enough to ground me, gentle enough not to crush me. “I already knew what the real curse was. I chose not to act on it because I knew it would find a way to kill me anyway. And I was right—it still did.”

I flinch. “Then what did you do?”

“I took her death,” he replies without hesitation, “and I gave her back life. But there was no way to save the child. I only had one life, so only one of them could be saved. By the time I acted, it was already decided.”

My breath stutters. “That’s—”

He interrupts me immediately, turning my face away from the scene with two fingers pinching my nose lightly, keeping me anchored to him instead of the memory. “And then you happened. You absorbed my essence before I fully died. My energy, my power—everything I built myself stayed behind in me long enough for you to take it.”

His tone stays steady, factual, as if he has rehearsed this truth too many times to be shaken by it now.

“You did take it,” he adds. “That is why you shifted so early. Why Zinnia is what she is—strong, aware, almost too knowledgeable. She didn’t just form from nothing. She absorbed her father’s wolf.”

I swallow hard and lift my gaze to him. “Is that the truth?”

“It’s the truth you need to work with right now.”

“And you still can’t tell me everything,” I whisper, “especially about the child?”

His expression shifts into something almost proud. “She is the reason all of this is even possible. My presence inside you as a spirit guardian, your wolf, your mate bond being redirected to someone capable of protecting you properly… Scarlette, Apple, all of it. That was her doing. She set the path so you wouldn’t walk it alone.”

My chest tightens. “So I just… figure the rest out?”

“You have to,” he says simply. “She cannot carry everything for you, Sapphire. There are truths you must uncover yourself.”

“I have to figure things out to keep the balance,” I murmur.

He cups my face in both hands, thumbs brushing my cheeks with an ache of pride and sorrow tangled together. “I am proud of you, baby. Truly. You are doing better than you think.”

His voice softens further, but the weight of it deepens.

“It is hard, and it will keep being hard. But you must see this through to the end. Otherwise the child who sacrificed everything for me suffers for eternity. And not just her—you do this for your mother, for me, for your mate, for everyone tied to you.”

His eyes hold mine firmly now.

“You will lose people, Sapphire. That is part of what it means to be a blood wolf. I can only pray your heart survives it. You will need your mate. Your pack. Your people. Never forget—there is an epilogue to your story. But to reach it, you have to survive the chapters first.”

Tears spill freely now, no longer held back. The truth lands fully this time—my parents are gone. Not metaphorically. Not temporarily. Gone. And more losses are coming. I have already nearly lost Scarlette, Apple, Earnest… and I do not know how many more I can take.

“I know,” he says softly, as if reading every fracture of thought forming inside me. “It hurts. I know it does. But you must be strong—for your mate, for your people, for your future. I will keep guiding you where I can. And the universe will keep pushing you where you need to go.”

I break then.

I wrap my arms around him, burying my face into his chest and sobbing like I am trying to empty myself of grief. His hand moves through my hair slowly, steadying me, and he begins to hum a soft tune—something familiar enough to loosen the knot in my chest.

The sound fades.

The edges of everything blur.

It stops feeling real.

It feels like I am crying inside a dream.

And then I wake.

Tears are already on my face. My breath comes in broken pulls as I sit up sharply.

“Sapphire! She’s awake!” Scarlette’s voice cuts through the room.

I don’t answer properly. I just break down.

The sobs come hard and uncontrollable, ripping out of me before I can even understand why. He didn’t give me enough to solve anything—but he gave me something worse. Weight. Pressure. Truth I cannot yet carry.

I feel like I am drowning in it. Not just sadness, like I am carrying grief that does not fully belong to me, and still crushing under its weight all the same.