Chapter 34 Margaret's Revelation
The morning after our arrival at Northern Sanctuary, I wake to find Rory already gone.
Panic seizes me immediately. I bolt from bed, heart racing, ready to tear the compound apart looking for her.
Then I hear it. Laughter. Children's laughter, bright and carefree.
I look out the window to see Rory in the courtyard below, playing tag with three other wolf children. They're shifting mid-run—human to wolf to human again—like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Rory is glowing. Actually glowing with happiness.
This is what I've denied her for three years. The simple joy of being herself around others who understand.
I'm watching them play when there's a knock at the door.
Margaret stands on the porch, looking out of place in her sensible cardigan and pearls among all these wolves.
"Margaret? How did you—"
"Mark called me last night. Told me what happened." She steps inside without waiting for invitation. "I came as soon as I could."
"You didn't have to—"
"Yes, I did." She settles into the armchair by the fireplace. "Sage, we need to talk. Really talk. About things I should have told you a long time ago."
I sink onto the couch, suddenly exhausted. "What things?"
Margaret is quiet for a long moment, her gaze distant. "I told you once that I know things. That I see things. I've let you believe that was just intuition. Observation. But the truth is more complicated."
"I don't understand."
"My husband—Chen Wei—he was a wolf."
The words hang in the air between us.
"What?"
"Chen Wei wasn't just a doctor. He was a healer from the Jade Mountain Pack in China. One of the most powerful packs in Asia." Margaret's hands shake slightly as she speaks. "We met forty-two years ago when he came to Vancouver on a diplomatic mission. I was working as a translator. It was... it was love at first sight."
I stare at her, trying to process this information.
"His pack didn't approve. I was human. Weak. Inappropriate for someone of his standing. But Wei didn't care. He chose me anyway. Rejected the mate his pack had selected for him and married me instead."
"Margaret—"
"They exiled him for it. Cast him out like he was nothing. Like forty years of service, of loyalty, of healing—like none of it mattered because he dared to love a human." Her voice cracks. "We built a life here. A good life. Wei opened his practice, helped both humans and wolves who needed medical care. We were happy."
"What happened?"
"Twenty-three years ago, there was a fire at a refugee center downtown. Arson. Anti-immigration hate crime. Wei was one of the first responders." Margaret wipes her eyes. "He saved seventeen people that night. Got them out of the building before it collapsed. But he went back in for one more child—a little boy trapped on the third floor."
I can already see where this is going.
"The building came down. Wei used his body to shield the child. The boy survived. Wei didn't." She looks at me directly. "He died protecting a human child from a fire set by human hatred. And do you know what his pack did when they heard?"
I shake my head.
"Nothing. They did nothing. Didn't attend his funeral. Didn't acknowledge his sacrifice. As far as they were concerned, he stopped existing the day he chose me over them."
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Be angry. Be furious at a system that values bloodlines over love. Politics over compassion. Power over everything else." Margaret leans forward. "I've spent the last twenty-three years helping wolves in Wei's name. Helping them hide, heal, survive. Because he taught me that being a wolf doesn't make you more than human. And being human doesn't make you less than a wolf."
"Is that why you helped me?"
"Partly. But also because I saw something in you that reminded me of Wei. That same quiet strength. That same refusal to bow to injustice." She smiles sadly. "And when I met Rory—when I saw what she was—I knew. I knew you'd need more than just shelter. You'd need someone who understood both worlds."
"You've been protecting us. Knowingly protecting us."
"Of course I have. Did you really think I believed all those excuses about Aurora's advanced development? Her unusual eyes?" Margaret laughs softly. "Sage, I recognized what she was the first time I met her. A wolf child. Born to a rogue mother with more courage than sense."
Tears stream down my face. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because you weren't ready to hear it. You were still in survival mode. Still running from your past." She reaches across and takes my hand. "But you're not running anymore, are you?"
"No. We can't. Not after yesterday."
"Good. Because Rory needs you to stand firm. To fight for her place in this world instead of hiding from it."
We sit in silence for a moment, hands clasped, two women bound by love for wolves who changed our lives.
"Did Wei ever regret it?" I ask finally. "Choosing you over his pack?"
"Not once. He used to say that pack is about loyalty and love. And he was more loyal to our marriage, our life together, than he ever could have been to a pack that valued tradition over truth." Margaret squeezes my hand. "Mason will have to make the same choice, Sage. Pack politics or true mate. He can't have both."
"He already chose."
"Three years ago, yes. But people change. Circumstances change. The question is: if he chooses differently this time, will you let him back in?"
I don't have an answer for that.
Margaret stays for lunch, watching Rory play with the other children, sharing stories about Wei and the wolves he helped over the years.
"There was this one young wolf," she says, smiling at the memory. "Couldn't have been more than nineteen. Came to Wei terrified because he'd been bitten by a rogue and didn't know what he was turning into. Wei helped him through his first shift, taught him control, connected him with a pack that would accept him."
"What happened to him?"
"He became a healer himself. Dedicated his life to helping other newly turned wolves navigate their transformations." Margaret's eyes sparkle. "His name was Marcus Chen."
My jaw drops. "Mark? Our Mark?"
"Wei's nephew, actually. Named after him. When Wei died, Marcus took over his work. Helping wolves who fall through the cracks. Building the sanctuary. Carrying on Wei's legacy." She looks at me. "That's why I sent you to him that first day. Why I trusted him with your secret. Because I knew he'd protect you the way Wei would have wanted."
Everything suddenly makes sense. Mark's immediate acceptance. His willingness to help without questions. The way he looked at me with such understanding.
He'd been prepared for me. By Margaret. By his uncle's legacy.
"Does he know?" I ask. "About you and Wei?"
"Of course. He was there when Wei died. Held his hand at the end." Margaret's voice wavers. "Wei's last words were 'protect them.' Not the pack. Not the wolves. Them. The ones who get left behind. The rogues and outcasts and displaced. Mark has been honoring that request ever since."
That evening, after Margaret leaves, I find Mark in the main lodge going over security protocols.
"We need to talk," I say.
He looks up from his laptop. "I was wondering when you'd figure it out."
"Your uncle. Chen Wei."
"The best man I ever knew. Would have done anything for anyone, wolf or human." Mark closes the laptop. "Margaret told you?"
"Everything. About Wei, about the fire, about you."
"Then you understand why I've been so invested in helping you." He stands, moving to the window that overlooks the compound. "You remind me of him, Sage. That same willingness to sacrifice everything for what's right. For who you love."
"I'm nothing like—"
"You left a pack to protect your child. He left a pack to protect his mate. You've survived three years alone against impossible odds. He spent twenty-three years building a life that honored both his wolf nature and his human heart." Mark turns to face me. "You're exactly like him. And Rory is going to grow up knowing that courage isn't about power or rank. It's about standing firm in who you are, even when the whole world tells you you're wrong."
"What if I'm not strong enough?"
"You carried twins while starving in the forest. You survived rejection, grief, and loss that would have destroyed most wolves. You've raised a child who shifts at three years old and reads at a seventh-grade level." He smiles. "Sage, you're the strongest person I know. You just don't see it yet."
I want to believe him. Want to believe I'm capable of being what Rory needs.
But doubt is a familiar companion.
"Mason is coming," I say quietly. "Damon texted me. He saw the video. He knows where we are."
"And how do you feel about that?"
"Terrified. Angry. Hopeful. All of it at once."
"That's called being human. Or wolf. Or whatever we are." Mark moves to the door. "When he gets here—and he will get here—you'll handle it. Not because you're strong or brave or any of those other words people use. But because you're Rory's mother. And mothers protect their children from everything. Even well-meaning fathers who destroyed them once before."
After he leaves, I stand at the window watching Rory play in the courtyard.
She's teaching the other children how to shift mid-stride like she does. Demonstrating control that took me years to develop.
A natural Alpha. A born leader.
Everything Mason should have been.
Everything he threw away when he chose Stella over us.
My phone buzzes with another text from Damon.
'He crossed the border into Canada three hours ago. Should be there by tomorrow afternoon. Sage, please—give him a chance. Let him explain. Let him know his daughter.'
I don't respond.
Instead, I watch Rory laugh as a smaller child successfully shifts for the first time, her face glowing with pride at helping someone else succeed.
Mason created this child. This perfect, extraordinary creature who somehow rose above his rejection, my trauma, and all the impossible circumstances of her birth.
He deserves to meet her.
But does he deserve to be part of her life?
That's the question I still can't answer.