Chapter 77 WHO IS ARCHIE ?
Adam's POV
“Get your story straight by tomorrow morning,” Kael had told her last night.
I fell asleep with the echo of those words and woke up feeling like all my bones were made of cotton.
I got up, lazily put on my clothes, and started looking for Kael.
He was already in the sitting room, sitting in the chair by the window, hands folded, face calm but not at peace. Sara was sitting right across him, she had a long scarf. The guards stood near the door like a statue.
“You slept badly?” Kael asked me, immediately turning his attention to me as I walked in.
“I slept like a drunk man,” I mumbled.
“You’re pale,” he said.
“I know,” I said, because he didn’t need to tell me anything I didn’t already feel. My stomach was a knot. My head felt full of noise.
Sara cleared her throat. “Alpha,” she said, voice rough with something like shame. “I will tell you everything. I promise.”
Kael turned to her. “Start.”
She looked at me first, then at Kael. “I need you to hear me,” she said. “I don’t want your mercy. I just want you to know the truth and I really hope at the end of the day I'll be able to stay with my son.”
“I want the truth,” Kael said softly. “Tell us the truth.”
Sara swallowed. “They took him from me. They didn’t take him the way people adopt children,” she said, voice shaking but firm. “I didn't give my child up, they took him from my arms. That heartless Alpha used my son for their experiments. They said he was special, that his body reacted differently, that he could endure what others couldn’t. When they brought him back to me, he wasn’t my Archie anymore. He was like a mindless doll. He didn’t speak right. He didn’t look at me. He would stare through walls like there was nothing inside him. They said it was temporary, that he would stabilize.”
She clenched her hands. “They only let me keep him until they finished developing the suppressant pills. Once they had them, they took him again. They returned him, they said he would be ‘safe’ among humans. They gave him to Marcus and ordered him to move far away, into human territory, to make sure Archie would never awaken as what he's been turned into.”
My throat closed. I wanted to scrape my skin off. “The pills. So it was really for madness and—”
“—and you took them every day,” Sara said. “I saw the original packets. I saw the label once, and it was to tame what they've put inside you. It was called ‘Stillwater.’ It’s a suppressor. I know because I saw it used before… on other children.”
Kael’s hand tightened on my arm. “Suppressor for what? What exactly are they trying to suppress? What did they put into the children?”
“For changing,” Sara said. “For shifting. For whatever they tried to keep from waking. I don't know what they put inside them or what went wrong with the experiment. But I do know the pills keep one's wolf asleep as a side effect. That's how they killed my child's wolf.”
My head spun. “Wolf,” I whispered before I could stop myself. “You said—”
“She said I’m a werewolf,” I finished, louder than I meant. My heartbeat thudded in my ears like footsteps.
Kael’s jaw worked. “You said he’s a werewolf,” he repeated to Sara, slowly.
“Yes,” she said. “I saw the reports. I used to work—” she stopped, the word gone. “I used to know the men in the clinic. They experimented. They wanted a weapon. They wanted a body that could heal and hurt. They gave things to children. Some changed, some never did until they weren’t on the pills anymore. My son, Archie, was special. He could heal. They called him useful. They called him a potential weapon. So they kept him under.”
I wanted to laugh. I wanted to throw something. “This is insane,” I said. “This is— this is a messed up story someone tells at night to, I don't know, to scare a child into behaving. I’m not a werewolf.”
“You are,” Sara said gently. “And you were a wild and sweet and stubborn boy. You had this laugh…” her face folded. “When I saw you, it was like time folded. The face is still the same.”
I had to stop the images. “I don’t remember any of that,” I said.
“They took my Archie's memories,” she said. “They killed off your wolf and turned my little boy into something else. They used things to keep him small. They gave him the pills to keep him from ever healing. I swear to you, I’m telling the truth.”
Kael leaned forward. “Why come now?”
“They’re chasing me,” she said, voice shaking. “They’ve started asking questions. The Alpha got angry when someone said I’d given up my son, but I only stopped searching for my child after I heard he was with you. I knew he'd be safe and happy with his mate. They sent men after me so I ran and hid but it's only a matter of time before they find and kill me so I decided to come see my son. I know it’s years lost, but I had to try.”
Kael’s eyes were flat and emotionless. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because I have no reason to lie, I'm not asking for anything other than being with my son,” she said.
I could see the wheels in Kael’s mind spinning. He looked at me, then at Sara. “We will not run someone out without proof,” he said quietly. “We will not throw a terrified woman to the wolves.”
“She is still claiming to be my mother,” I said, voice small, clutching the armrest.
“Yes,” Sara said, eyes on me. “Archie—Adam—your name was Archie when I held you. You were a child. They told me they wouldn't harm you, I didn't know they'd turn you into a different person.” She turned to Kael, “Alpha, medically we could test.”
I didn’t want tests. Tests felt like evidence you had to pass. Tests felt like prison.
“No. I don't want any medical tests.” I said, shaking my head like my words are not enough.
Kael reached for my hand and squeezed. “It’s okay. I won't force you to do any test. I can handle this.”
Kael turned back to Sara. “If you’re telling the truth, we protect you. If you’re lying, you will be jailed until we find the facts. Understood?”
She nodded, tears spilling. “Please. Please don’t hand me over.”
“You can continue staying in the chamber you were given,” he said firmly. “Do not leave the compound.”
She bowed so low I thought her forehead would touch the floor. “Thank you. Thank you, Alpha.”
He kept talking, asking questions I couldn’t keep up with, arranging a room, arranging a guard who would be kind. He spoke like he was covering ground in case of war. He spoke like he always did: with that quiet authority that made people listen.
I felt like a spectator in my own life.
“Adam,” he said suddenly, soft and close enough only I could hear. “Do you want to walk?”
“Yes,” I said too fast. The room felt thick; the walls were closing in. “I need air. I'm overwhelmed.”
He stood immediately. “We’ll walk.”
Sara hesitated, then stood. “If you will have me—”
“I will,” Kael said without looking at her.
We stepped outside into the morning light. The field smelled of grass and cold earth and something clean. I took a deep breath. It helped. For a second it made the world less ridiculous.
Sara walked a few steps behind us, hands trembling.
Kael walked close enough that his shoulder brushed mine. I kept touching my stomach, feeling for the strange little flutter that had become part of the quiet panic inside me.
We rounded the edge of the practice field. A group of boys, and Mira, were kicking a leather ball back and forth, laughing. They were young and loud and careless and Mira seems to be either playing around with them or teaching them. It felt like someone else’s life, small and bright.
One of them kicked the ball high and it flew through the air, a perfect arc.
It hit the side of my head.
Hard.
I saw the ball before it hit, a brown blur. Then there was a crack across my head and heat and then something wet.
Kael barked something sharp — I didn’t hear the words, only the tone — and I saw him move like a blur.
I touched my nose and my fingers came away wet and red.
The world shuddered. Mira was shouting from the path, running toward us, her face— anger? concern? I couldn’t tell. Everything blurred.
“I’m fine,” I tried to say. My voice floated far away.
“Adam!” Kael called, but then his voice sounded distant.
My knees went weak. I felt myself tipping, like I was unplugging.
“Hold on,” Kael said. He was there, hands on my arms, then my chest, then catching me so hard the breath left me. The last thing I saw was Kael’s face, hard and terrified, the sky spinning above him.
Then it was dark.