Chapter 134 Breaking Point
Rowan's POV
The revelation hangs in the air for exactly three seconds.
Then Malia turns and storms out.
Not running. Walking with rigid control that's somehow worse than flight. Like she's holding herself together through sheer force of will.
"Malia—" Aiden starts to follow.
"I'll go," I say quickly. "You stay here. Process. I'll—I'll bring her back."
I don't wait for agreement. Just chase after her, leaving the suite, the evidence, the shocked silence behind.
The hallway is empty. Evening settling over campus, most students at dinner or in their rooms. I catch a glimpse of her turning the corner toward the stairs.
"Malia, wait!"
She doesn't slow. Takes the stairs quickly despite her healing leg. I follow, keeping pace but not crowding.
She pushes through the building's exit into the courtyard. The sky is darkening—that deep blue of early evening, stars just beginning to appear. Cold air hits us both. She doesn't seem to notice.
"Malia—"
"Don't." The word comes out choked. "Just—don't."
But she's slowing. Finally slowing. Her steps becoming less certain until she stops completely in the middle of the empty quad.
And then she's crying.
Not the quiet, controlled tears I've seen before. This is raw. Broken. Sobs that shake her entire body as she wraps her arms around herself.
I close the distance carefully. "Hey—"
"How can I be—" She can't finish. The sobs taking over. "How can I be related to someone so powerful when my entire life has been—"
She stops. Gasps for air. Tries again.
"My whole life has been hell, Rowan." The words come out jagged. Painful. "Growing up was—it was so bad. My father tried. He tried so hard but we had nothing. We were nobody. I was bullied for being hybrid, for being poor, for being other in every possible way."
I move closer. She doesn't push me away.
"And then he died." Her voice breaks completely. "And I thought it couldn't get worse but it did. My stepmother—she never wanted me. Never hid it. And her daughters, my stepsisters—" She laughs bitterly through the tears. "They made sure I knew every single day that I didn't belong. That I was a burden. That I was taking up space meant for real family."
"Malia—"
"That's why I didn't go home for the island vacation." The confession spills out. "Why I lied and said I had plans. Because there is no home. Not for me. My stepmother made it very clear—my father's scholarship money could pay for school but that's it. No room for me in the house anymore. No place at the table. No family."
Damn it.
"I've been alone since he died." She's looking at nothing now. Lost in memory. "Completely alone. And you're telling me I'm the daughter of Lady Aurora Mooncrest? One of the most powerful supernatural beings in history? That's—that's insane. If I was really her daughter, why would my life be like this? Why would I grow up with nothing? Why would nobody want me?"
"Because she was protecting you." I say it gently. "Keeping your existence secret. Hiding you from people who would use you or destroy you."
"By making me grow up poor and alone and hated?" She turns to me, face streaked with tears. "That's not protection. That's abandonment."
"Maybe she didn't have a choice. Maybe—"
"There's always a choice." Malia's voice hardens. "She chose to leave me with nothing. No family that wanted me. No explanation of what I was. No preparation for abilities I don't understand. Just—secrets and gaps and a father who died before he could tell me the truth."
I don't have an answer for that. Because she's right. If Aurora really was her mother and deliberately hid her, abandoned her to a life of struggle and isolation—that's not protection. That's cruelty.
"I don't want to be a Mooncrest," Malia says quietly. "I don't want this legacy or this bloodline or this power. I just wanted—" Her voice breaks again. "I just wanted to belong somewhere. To have people who wanted me. To not be alone anymore."
"You're not alone." I step closer. "You have us. Aiden, Cian, me. July and Freddy. You have pack."
"Do I?" She looks at me with devastated eyes. "Because it feels like every time I think I've found somewhere I belong, something happens. Someone destroys it. Or I destroy it myself. And now you're telling me I'm this—this heir to power I never asked for, that I don't want, that's only going to make everything more complicated."
"It doesn't have to—"
"Yes it does." She wipes at her face angrily. "You know it does. If word gets out that I'm a Mooncrest heir, everything changes. People will either worship me or try to destroy me. I'll never just be Malia again. I'll be a symbol. A threat. A prize to be won or eliminated."
She's not wrong.
"And Vesper—" Malia continues. "She knew. Didn't she? That's why she flagged me. Why she's been destroying me from day one. Because she suspected what I was."
"Probably." I can't lie to her. "She recognized something. Had suspicions. And decided you were too dangerous to exist freely."
"So she tried to drive me out." Malia laughs hollowly. "Almost succeeded too. I was hours away from being expelled. Hours away from losing everything. Again."
"But you weren't." I take her hands. Cold. Trembling. "The expulsion's reversed. Lydia confessed. You get to stay."
"For now." She pulls her hands away. "Until the next crisis. Until someone else decides I'm too dangerous or too different or too much of whatever I'm not supposed to be."
"Malia—"
"I'm so tired, Rowan." She sinks down onto a nearby bench. "Tired of fighting. Tired of being targeted. Tired of discovering new ways I'm broken or dangerous or wrong."
I sit beside her. Close but not crowding. "You're not wrong."
"Aren't I? Because it feels like every part of me is wrong. Hybrid genetics that make me other. Powers that shouldn't exist. A bloodline I never knew about connected to someone so powerful it paints a target on my back." She looks at me. "How is any of that not wrong?"
"It's complicated." I choose my words carefully. "But complicated isn't the same as wrong. You didn't ask for any of this. The hybrid genetics, the Mooncrest bloodline, the abilities—none of that was your choice. You're dealing with the hand you were dealt. That doesn't make you wrong. It makes you strong."
"I don't feel strong. I feel—" She stops. "Broken. Like I'm being pulled in a thousand directions and I don't know which way is up anymore."
"Then let us help." I shift closer. "You don't have to figure this out alone. We're pack. That means we carry this together."
"Even this? Even—" She gestures vaguely. "Even the whole Mooncrest heir thing?"
"Especially that." I'm firm. "Whatever this bloodline means, whatever complications it brings—we face it together. You, me, Aiden, Cian. July and Freddy. All of us."
"Why?" The question is small. Vulnerable. "Why would you willingly take on that kind of complication?"
"Because you're pack." Simple. True. "And pack doesn't abandon each other when things get complicated. We lean in. We fight harder. We protect what's ours."
"I'm yours?"
"You're ours." I correct gently. "Have been since the island. Probably before that. The bond—it chose you. We chose you. That doesn't change because we found out your bloodline is more complicated than we thought."
She's quiet for a long moment. Staring at her hands. At the fading bruises from the preserve. At evidence of how much she's been through.
"I don't know how to be a Mooncrest heir," she finally whispers. "I don't know how to be anything except—surviving. Barely."
"Then we figure it out together." I bump my shoulder against hers. "Starting with getting you back inside before you freeze."
She looks around. Realizes how cold it's gotten. How dark. "How long have we been out here?"
"Long enough." I stand up. Offer my hand to Malia. "Come on lets go back to the dorms. We should face the others. Try to make sense of this as a group instead of by ourselves."
Malia looks at my hand for a moment then takes it. I help her up. We start walking back to the dorms. We do not say a word to each other. Her hand is cold. It gets warmer as we walk.
When we get to the entrance of the building Malia stops. "Rowan, what if this thing about my bloodline is true and I cannot control the powers that come with it? What if I hurt someone " She is having trouble finding the words.
I squeeze her hand. "Then we will deal with it together. Malia you have been able to do things that Mooncrest people can do even though you did not know what they were.. Yes you lost control at the preserve but you have also shown that you can control yourself. You are doing better than anyone could expect considering what you are going through."
Malia does not look reassured. "That does not make me feel much better " she says.
I turn to face her. "It is the truth though. You are strong, Malia. Stronger than you think you are.. You do not have to do this by yourself anymore. So stop trying to handle everything on your own."
Malia nods slowly. Wipes her eyes. "Okay " she says quietly. "Lets go back and face this. Lets try to figure it out."
I ask her "Together?"
She says, "Together."
We go back to our suite, where Aiden and Cian are waiting for us along with the evidence that changes everything. We have to deal with the fact that Malia Reed, a girl who has been through a lot and is just trying to survive 's also the heir to one of the most powerful bloodlines, in supernatural history.
We will have to figure out what this means all of us. Like a pack does. When things seem impossible and the consequences are scary we will face them together.
Always.