Chapter 45 The conversation
Zara:s POV
I got out of his grip and proceeded to walking down to the garden.
"I don't belong to you Kai." I said as a matter of fact.
I ignored him. I would someday believe that we are perfect for each other but until then, I'm going to push him away away as I could.
"Zara Night. Report to my office." Dr. Voss's voice sounded through the academy mic.
Way to go Dr. Voss. Just now that we were about to get into a conversation.
"I'll see you later." I said as I sidestepped and walked towards Dr. Voss's office.
He let me go and the eyes piercing through my back made me know that he watched my figure until it faded into thin air. On reaching Dr. Voss's office, I took a deep breath, cleared my head from all thoughts other than academic classes.
Stepping into her office, I caught something in the air. Silently sniffing, I came across two people whom I had so many questions for because to me they had ruined me.
"Zara." I heard the woman said.
Her voice hit me like a memory I never asked for soft, familiar, almost gentle… but threaded with a kind of power that made the air vibrate.
My mother.
Alive.
Standing in Dr. Voss’s office like she hadn’t abandoned me for nineteen years. Like she hadn’t left me to rot in the basement with defective wolves. Like she hadn’t watched somehow, somewhere while I scrubbed floors and tried to shift until my bones nearly broke.
My breath stilled in my lungs.
She stepped forward, dark hair cascading over her shoulders, the faint glow of silver in her irises matching the flicker I sometimes saw in my own reflection. Her presence was wrong and right at the same time a contradiction I couldn’t breathe around.
The man beside her.. my father...watched silently, arms crossed, gaze sharp enough to slice through steel.
I didn’t bow. I didn’t greet them.
I just stared.
“Why are you here?” I asked, my voice low, flat, and honest in the ugliest way.
My mother flinched. Just a little.
“We have been trying to reach you,” she said softly.
“You weren’t safe here anymore.”
A bitter laugh scraped up my throat.
“Oh, now you care about my safety?
Nineteen years later?”
My father shifted.
“Zara, you must understand”
“I must understand nothing,” I cut in, stepping away from both of them.
“You abandoned me on a killing ground. A breeding facility. You left me with Voss. You let me think I was broken.”
“We hid you to protect you,” my mother insisted.
I shook my head.
“From what? From being what I am? Or from becoming what you were afraid of?”
The silence that followed answered more than their words ever could.
Dr. Voss watched from the corner, arms folded, amused as if she were observing a family reunion that doubled as a battlefield.
My mother exhaled shakily.
“Zara… “You’re awakening. Faster than we anticipated. The Devourer instincts are surfacing. You’ve felt it, haven’t you? The flickers. The memory gaps. The hunger.”
I stiffened.
Hunger.
Not for food.
Not even for power.
But something older....omething I didn’t have a name for yet.
My father stepped forward, lowering his voice.
“Someone triggered your abilities before we were ready. Someone inside the academy. Someone working for the Harvest.”
I blinked.
“The Harvest?”
Dr. Voss smirked behind them. My mother ignored her.
“The future-werewolves,” she explained.
“The evolved versions of us. They are dying. Their timeline is collapsing. They’ve been harvesting life essence from this time to survive. You were created to destroy them.”
Created.
Not born.
The word punched through me.
“So I’m a weapon.”
My mother’s eyes softened. “You are more than that.”
“Really? Because all I’ve done is kill people I never meant to touch.”
She winced. My father actually looked away.
“You don’t understand your own nature yet,” he said quietly.
“Devourers don’t just kill, Zara. They balance. They take and give. You were meant to end the cycle, not repeat it.”
“End the cycle,” I repeated.
“By absorbing other wolves?”
My mother stepped closer, her voice dropping.
“By absorbing the ones who deserve it.”
A cold shiver crawled down my spine.
Her eyes flickered just once. A glint of silver fire. And in that glint, I saw something I didn’t want to see:
She wasn’t telling me everything.
“Why come now?” I asked slowly.
“Why today? Why after all these years?”
Both of them went still.
And in that stillness, something in the room shifted, an energy, a pressure, like the air was holding its breath.
My mother swallowed hard.
“Because someone has activated the Harvest Sequence,” she whispered.
“The final one.”
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
My father answered.
“It means the future-werewolves are coming for you directly. Not the academy. Not the students. You. Because you’re the last Devourer. And if they get their hands on you, Zara… reality collapses.”
My throat tightened.
“And Kai?” I asked before I could stop myself.
They shared a look. A heavy one.
“The hybrid was designed to kill you,” my father said.
“If his original consciousness wins, he may protect you. If the clone programming wins…” He shook his head.
“He’ll finish what Voss started.”
“So he’s another weapon,” I whispered.
“Not just a weapon,” my mother said.
“A mirror of you. You were always meant to collide.”
My heart pounded.
Too fast.
Too loud.
“Why are you really here?” I demanded.
“Don’t sugarcoat it.”
They looked at each other again, and this time the truth cracked through.
“To take you,” my mother finally said.
“To bring you back where you belong. To train you before Voss or the Harvest claims you.”
I stared.
Then said the only thing my heart allowed.
“No.”
My mother blinked. “Zara”
“No,” I repeated, stepping back.
“You don’t get to disappear for nineteen years and suddenly decide what’s best for me. You don’t get to drag me off to some rebellion base in space like you’re doing me a favor.”
“You don’t understand” she started.
“You’re damn right I don’t,” I snapped.
“Because you didn’t raise me. You didn’t watch me bleed to shift. You didn’t watch me scrub bathrooms while other wolves laughed in my face. You didn’t watch me lose myself or my memories.”
My voice cracked.
“You weren’t there.”
My mother’s eyes burned.
“Zara…“Your memories were erased for your own safety.”
That froze me.
I swallowed.
Hard.
“What did you just say?”
Her face fell.
The truth hung between us.
“You didn’t just hide me,” I whispered.
“You took my memories.”
Her silence confirmed it.
I took a shaky breath, hands trembling.
“No,” I said again, stepping toward the door.
“I’m not leaving with you. Not today. Not until I know who I am without you trying to shape me.”
My mother reached out instinctively.
“Zara, please”
I flinched back.
Her hand froze mid-air.
And something in her expression broke.
“We don’t have time,” my father warned quietly.
“The Harvest signal is already active. We can feel it. They’re on their way.”
I exhaled shakily.
“Then I’ll face them here.”
My mother stiffened.
“You’re not ready.”
“Maybe not.” I pushed the door open.
“But I’m done running.”
Behind me, I heard her whisper my name soft, aching, afraid.
And as I stepped into the hallway, I realized something:
If my parents were truly afraid…
Then something far worse than Dr. Voss or the academy or even Kai’s programming…was already here.