Chapter 44 Gabriel Reveals Himself (Gabriel POV)
The new moon is perfect for this.
I've been tracking Vivienne for the past hour, watching from the shadows as she runs through the forest alone. Not wolf. Human. Just running like humans do when they need to escape their own thoughts but don't know how.
She's processing. I can tell from the way she moves…erratic, without her usual fluid grace. From the way she stops every few minutes to press her palms against her eyes like she can scrub away whatever she's seeing.
Freya showed her. I know she did. Saw them leave the chapel together hours ago, Vivienne looking like someone had reached inside and torn out essential pieces.
The truth about our mother. About what Edmund did.
About what he plans to do.
Rachel's voice crackles in my earpiece. "Are you sure about this timing? She's already fragile. Adding family trauma might…"
"It's now or never," I murmur, low enough that Vivienne won't hear even with enhanced senses. "Edmund's attack is in three weeks. If I wait longer, she goes into that battle not knowing she has family beyond the psychotic hunter who raised her."
"She has Declan. She has the pack."
"She has a mate bond that's two months old and a pack that half-suspects she's a spy." I'm moving parallel to her path now, keeping pace in wolf form. "She needs to know her brother didn't abandon her. That Gabriel survived. That she's not the last Silvermane."
"You're also doing this because you can't stand watching from the shadows anymore."
Rachel knows me too well. "That too."
"Good luck. Try not to get mauled. She's unstable and you're essentially a stranger who happens to share DNA."
"Noted." I disconnect the earpiece, tucking it into the small pack tied around my wolf neck.
Vivienne has stopped running. She's in a clearing I recognize…the same one where she first transformed two months ago, where Declan found her surrounded by six pack members and Edmund with a crossbow.
Full circle.
She sinks to the ground, knees pulled to her chest, face buried in her arms. Even from thirty feet away, I can hear her breathing…ragged, fighting tears or maybe surrendering to them.
Now. While she's still, while the new moon keeps her human, while she's too emotionally raw to run before I can explain.
I shift, the transformation smooth despite the lack of lunar power. Clothes materialize with the shift…pack magic, useful for moments exactly like this when appearing naked to your traumatized sister seems like a terrible idea.
"Vivienne."
Her head snaps up, eyes wide. In the darkness, they catch what little starlight exists, reflecting silver despite being violet-grey.
"Who…" She's on her feet instantly, hands raised in a defensive stance Declan clearly taught her. "Show yourself."
I step from the trees, hands visible and non-threatening. "It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you."
She squints, trying to make out features in the darkness. "How do you know my name?"
"Because you're my sister." The words feel strange after seventeen years of silence. "I'm Gabriel. Gabriel Ashford. Though I suppose we're both Silvermanes now, if we're being accurate about bloodlines."
She goes completely still. "Gabriel. My brother Gabriel."
"Yes."
"Who died when I was a baby."
"Who ran when you were a baby. Not quite the same thing, though I can see why Edmund would prefer the first version."
Vivienne takes a step closer, still wary. "Prove it. Tell me something only my brother would know."
"You were born on March 15th at 3:47 AM. You weighed seven pounds, three ounces. You came out screaming and didn't stop for twenty minutes." I swallow against the memory. "Mum transformed during labor because the pain was too much. She lost control. Edmund panicked and killed her with a silver letter opener while she was in wolf form."
"You saw that." It's not a question.
"I was four years old, sitting in the corner with a stuffed wolf I'd had since I was two. I watched the whole thing. Watched him kill her. Watched you come into the world covered in our mother's blood." The words come easier than expected. "Then I ran. Grabbed the silver pendant Mum had been wearing and ran because I knew if I stayed, I'd be next."
"The pendant." Vivienne's hand goes to her throat, touching the wolf that hangs there. "You left this for me. On my nightstand."
"Two weeks ago. Wanted you to know I was watching. That you weren't alone." I take another step closer. "Though I apparently timed it terribly, given everything else happening in your life right now."
She's studying my face now, close enough to make out features even in the darkness. I know what she's seeing…silver eyes identical to hers, dark hair like our mother's, the bone structure we both inherited from the Silvermane line.
"You have her eyes," she whispers. "In the memories Freya showed me, I saw you. Four years old. Calling Edmund a monster."
"I was right, wasn't I?"
"Yes." The word breaks slightly. "He's planning to kill me in three weeks. To kill everyone."
"I know. I've been monitoring his communications, tracking his hunter network." I gesture to the clearing. "Can we sit? This is a long conversation and you look like you're about to collapse."
Vivienne sinks back to the ground without argument, exhaustion winning over caution. I sit across from her, maintaining enough distance to not feel threatening.
"Why now?" she asks. "Why reveal yourself now after seventeen years of hiding?"
"Because you weren't ready before. You were human…or thought you were. Under Edmund's control. Living the life he constructed for you." I lean back against a tree trunk. "But now you're awakened. You're pack. You know what you are. You can handle the truth about having a brother who survived."
"Handle it. Right. Because I'm handling everything else so well." The bitter laugh escapes her. "I learned tonight that every memory I have of my childhood is filtered through magical conditioning and psychological manipulation. That my father murdered my mother while she was trying to communicate with him. That he tortured me with silver and dark magic to keep me human. And now I find out my supposedly-dead brother has been alive this whole time, watching from the shadows."
"When you put it that way, my timing does seem particularly terrible."
She looks at me sharply, then realizes I'm trying for humor. "That's not funny."
"Little bit funny. In a tragic, awful sort of way."
"You sound like Declan's pack. One of them keeps making jokes during serious moments. Owen, I think."
"Gallows humor. When everything's terrible, sometimes all you can do is laugh or go insane." I pull up a handful of grass, shredding it absently. "I've been going slightly insane for seventeen years, if I'm honest. Watching you grow up from a distance. Wanting to approach but knowing it would endanger you more than help."
"Edmund would have killed you."
"Edmund has tried to kill me. Multiple times, actually. I've gotten quite good at staying one step ahead of him." I meet her eyes. "Did Freya show you the part where his success rate dropped significantly over the past decade?"
"She mentioned someone had been sabotaging his hunts."
"That was me. Every time he got close to discovering a pack near you, every time his intelligence suggested werewolves in your area, I interfered. Fed him false information. Redirected his hunters. Made sure his attention stayed far away from anything that might accidentally trigger your awakening before you were ready."
Vivienne processes this, her expression shifting. "You've been protecting me. This whole time."
"From a distance, yes. It's not the same as being there. Not the same as being a real brother. But it's what I could do without putting you in more danger."
"Why would approaching me put me in danger?"
"Because Edmund monitors you constantly. If I'd made contact before you awakened, he would have known immediately. Would have intensified the suppression, maybe even tried something more permanent." I shred another handful of grass. "Better to wait until you were strong enough to defend yourself. Until you had a pack that would protect you. Until the mate bond made it impossible for Edmund to suppress you further."
"You've been waiting for me to bond with Declan."
"I've been waiting for you to have support systems Edmund couldn't control or eliminate. Declan, the pack, Freya, even your human roommate. they're all pieces of a foundation that makes you harder to manipulate or kill." I brush grass off my jeans. "Though I'll admit, I didn't anticipate the whole 'Edmund planning a massacre during a supernatural tournament' development. That's new and terrible."
"Three weeks," Vivienne says quietly. "He has twenty-three hunters. Military-grade weapons. A trap designed specifically to kill fifty werewolves at once."
"I know. My pack has been monitoring his purchases, his communications, his movements. We know about the silver gas, the UV cannons, the tactical plans." I lean forward. "We also know his fatal flaw."
"Freya said he hasn't accounted for Silvermane power."
"Exactly. Edmund spent seventeen years studying standard werewolf abilities. Pack dynamics, territorial instincts, transformation capabilities he's documented in other wolves. But he has no idea what Silvermanes can actually do when fully awakened."
"Neither do I, honestly. I accidentally released a dominance howl this afternoon that made every supernatural on campus instinctively submit. I have no idea how I did it or how to control it."
"That's where I come in." I allow myself a small smile. "I'm twenty-one. I've been fully awakened since I was four. I've spent seventeen years mastering abilities Edmund doesn't know exist. And Vivienne, I can teach you. Can show you what you're actually capable of beyond basic transformation."
She studies me for a long moment. "You lead a pack."
"A small one. Survivors from Edmund's hunts over the years. Werewolves who had nowhere else to go, whose packs were decimated by coordinated hunter attacks." I count them off on my fingers. "Rachel from the Highland massacre three years ago. Thomas from the Cornwall attack five years back. Kieran…different Kieran than the one in Declan's pack…whose family was wiped out when he was fifteen."
"How many total?"
"Eight including me. We're not large but we're loyal. And we're all motivated by the same thing, making sure Edmund Ashford never succeeds in another hunt."
"Revenge."
"Survival. Prevention. Justice. Call it what you want." I shrug. "The point is, we've been building toward this for years. And now, with you awakened and Edmund planning his grand massacre, it's time to act instead of hide."
Vivienne is quiet, processing. I can see her journalist brain working, weighing information, looking for inconsistencies, trying to determine if I'm trustworthy.
"Why didn't you stay?" The question comes softly. "After Mum died. Why run instead of staying to protect me?"
"Because I was four years old and I'd just watched my father murder my mother while she was in wolf form. My eyes had turned silver right in front of him. He knew what I was." I meet her gaze steadily. "If I'd stayed, he would have killed me. And then who would have survived to tell you the truth seventeen years later?"
"You chose survival over family."
"I chose survival so family would still exist when you were ready to know it." I soften my voice. "Vivienne, staying would have been noble and stupid and would have resulted in Edmund having two dead children instead of one missing and one suppressed. Running gave us both a chance."
"A chance you took seventeen years to act on."
"Because you weren't ready!" The frustration bleeds through. "What was I supposed to do? Approach you when you were seven and believing every lie Edmund told you? When you were ten and so heavily suppressed you couldn't even recognize your own supernatural nature? When you were fifteen and isolated so completely you had no frame of reference for pack dynamics or werewolf society?"
I stand, pacing. "I waited because approaching too early would have either gotten us both killed or would have shattered you so completely you'd never recover. I waited because timing matters. Because you needed to awaken naturally, to find your mate, to have support systems that Edmund couldn't destroy before learning you had a brother who'd been watching over you."
"Watching but not helping."
"I've been helping! Every sabotaged hunt, every false lead, every time I kept Edmund's attention away from you, that was helping!" I force myself to stop pacing, to breathe. "I know it's not the same as being there. I know you feel abandoned. But I made the choices I thought gave us both the best chance of surviving Edmund long enough to stop him."
Vivienne stands too, facing me across the clearing. "And now? What's your plan now?"
"Now I teach you what it means to be Silvermane. I show you abilities Edmund doesn't know exist. I help you prepare for his attack while also preparing my pack to fight beside yours." I close the distance between us slightly. "And now I stop hiding in shadows and start being the brother I should have been all along. If you'll let me."
"If I'll let you."
"I know I don't have the right to ask. Don't have the right to expect trust after seventeen years of silence. But Vivienne, you're my sister. My only family. And I can't…" My voice cracks slightly. "I can't watch you walk into that battle alone. Can't stay hidden while Edmund tries to kill you the way he killed our mother. Can't keep pretending I'm not invested when you're the only person in the world who shares my blood and my history and my loss."
She's looking at me with an expression I can't read. Then, without warning, she crosses the remaining distance and wraps her arms around me.
I freeze, not expecting physical contact, not sure how to respond.
Then I hug her back.
We stand there in the dark clearing, two Silvermanes who should have grown up together but didn't, holding on like we can make up for seventeen years of separation in a single embrace.
She's crying. I realize I am too.
"I thought I was alone," she whispers against my shoulder. "Thought I was the last one. That everyone who shared our mother's blood was dead or gone."
"You were never alone. I've been here. Watching. Waiting." I pull back slightly to look at her face. "And now I'm done waiting. Done hiding. Whatever comes next, we face it together. As family. As Silvermanes."
"Together," she echoes. "I like the sound of that."
"Good. Because I have about seventeen years of sibling bonding to make up for and only three weeks to do it in before we fight for our lives." I manage a watery smile. "Think we can manage accelerated family reconciliation while also preparing for battle?"
"We're Silvermane. We can manage anything." She wipes her eyes, matching my smile. "Apparently it runs in the bloodline."
"Mum would be proud of you, you know. Of who you're becoming. What you're fighting for."
"She'd be proud of you too. Surviving. Building a pack. Protecting me even when I didn't know I needed it."
We stand there for another moment, just looking at each other. Siblings. Family. The last two Silvermanes in Britain, maybe the world.
"I should get back," Vivienne finally says. "Declan's probably losing his mind wondering where I am. And I need to tell him about you. About all of this."
"Of course. Just…" I hesitate. "Be careful what you share about my pack's location. I trust Declan, but the fewer people who know where we are, the safer we stay."
"Understood." She pauses. "Will I see you again before the battle? Or is this another seventeen-year disappearing act?"
"You'll see me. I'm done hiding." I shift back to wolf form, the transformation smooth. Through the pack bond with my own wolves, I sense Rachel's relief that I survived the encounter without getting mauled.
Vivienne watches me shift, her expression thoughtful. "That's so smooth. No pain at all."
I shift back to human just long enough to respond. "Practice. I'll teach you. Among other things."
"I'd like that."
"Good. I'll contact you tomorrow. We'll arrange proper training." Back to wolf form. "Now go. Your mate is probably about to organize a search party."
She laughs, the sound lighter than before. "Probably. He's protective."
I watch her walk away, back toward campus and her complicated life full of mate bonds and pack politics and the impossible task of stopping our father's massacre.
But now she knows. Knows she has family beyond Edmund. Knows Gabriel survived. Knows she's not the last Silvermane.
And in three weeks, when Edmund's hunters attack, he's going to discover that killing one Silvermane seventeen years ago doesn't mean he knows how to kill two of us now.
Rachel's voice crackles back in my ear as I sprint through the forest. "How did it go?"
"She didn't maul me. We hugged and cried. I'm officially no longer a mysterious shadow figure."
"About time. You've been brooding dramatically for weeks about the timing."
"I don't brood."
"Gabriel, you're literally a wolf hiding in shadows watching your sister from afar while tortured by guilt about abandoning her. That's the definition of brooding."
"That's being cautious and strategic."
"That's brooding with a strategic excuse." She pauses. "But seriously. She took it well?"
"Better than expected. Though given what Freya showed her tonight, learning she has a living brother probably ranks low on the trauma scale."
"Silver lining: you can't possibly make her emotional state worse."
"That's a terrible silver lining but I'll take it." I leap over a fallen log, heading deeper into the forest toward where my pack waits. "She wants training. Wants to learn what Silvermanes can actually do."
"Can you teach her in three weeks what took you seventeen years to master?"
"No. But I can teach her enough to surprise Edmund. Enough to access power he's never seen. Enough to give us an advantage in a battle we're statistically destined to lose."
"Optimistic."
"Realistic. We're fighting two dozen professional hunters with military equipment in an enclosed space designed specifically to kill us. Optimism would be assuming we all survive. I'm going for 'some of us survive and Edmund's plan fails catastrophically.'"
"Aim high, Gabriel."
"Always." I slow as I reach the den, shifting back to human as I approach the entrance. "Tell the others we're moving to active preparation phase. Training intensifies. Battle planning begins. In three weeks, we stop hiding and start fighting."
"Finally." Rachel appears from the shadows, her red hair catching moonlight that technically shouldn't exist during new moon but does anyway because werewolf magic is weird. "I was getting tired of surveillance and sabotage. Time for actual confrontation."
"Just one question."
"What?"
"Think Edmund has any idea he's about to face not one but two Silvermanes, plus two packs worth of werewolves he assumed would be competing against each other instead of united against him?"
Rachel grins, sharp and fierce. "Not even slightly. And I can't wait to see his face when he realizes."
Neither can I.