Chapter 46 Rebuilding Trust
The next morning, the entire pack knew something had happened.
Young Sera’s emotional breakdown had rippled through the kingdom like a shockwave. Empaths felt it. Healers sensed it. Even wolves with minimal magical sensitivity woke feeling unsettled, as if reality itself had trembled in the night.
Marcus and Elena came to Selene’s room at dawn to find their daughter asleep in her aunt’s arms, tear-stained and exhausted.
“What happened?” Marcus demanded, his protective instincts flaring. “Is she hurt? Did someone attack her?”
“She attacked herself,” Selene said quietly, careful not to wake young Sera. “With isolation. With internalised pain. With loneliness, she thought she had to carry alone.” She looked at her brother with ancient eyes. “We almost lost her last night. Not to the Void Lords directly. To the darkness they cultivate. The despair that makes their offer seem reasonable.”
Elena’s hand flew to her mouth. “She was going to run away. I found the bag this morning. Half packed. Hidden under her bed.”
“She was going to run straight into their trap,” Selene confirmed. “But Sera, our mother, manifested. Burned through months of accumulated power to appear physically in her room. Gave young Sera one final chance to choose differently.”
“Sera manifested?” Marcus’s voice filled with wonder and grief. “Mother was here? In the physical world?”
“For maybe two minutes. At tremendous cost. She will not be able to visit dreams for months. Maybe longer. She spent everything to stop young Sera from leaving.”
Marcus sank into a chair, his face in his hands. “I failed her. I was so focused on protecting her from external threats that I did not see the internal ones. Did not notice how badly she was suffering.”
“We all failed her,” Selene said. “We were so busy preparing her for sixteen that we forgot she had to survive being twelve first. Had to live through adolescence before facing cosmic destiny.”
Young Sera stirred, her eyes opening slowly. When she saw her parents, shame flooded her face.
“I am sorry,” she whispered. “I am so sorry. I did not mean to worry everyone. I just… I could not breathe anymore. Could not keep pretending everything was fine when it was not.”
Elena moved immediately, gathering her daughter close. “You never have to pretend with us. Never. If you are hurting, you tell us. If you are scared, you tell us. If you need help, you ask. That is not weakness. That is trust.”
“But I am supposed to be the Shadow Queen. Supposed to be strong. Supposed to be ready for anything.”
“You are twelve,” Marcus said firmly. “Twelve. You are not supposed to be ready for anything. You are supposed to be learning. Growing. Making mistakes. Being a child.”
“But I am not a normal child.”
“No. But that does not mean you have to carry everything alone. That does not mean you are not allowed to need people.” He knelt beside the bed. “Sera, I have been so focused on your destiny that I forgot about your present. Forgot that you are my daughter first, Shadow Queen second. That changes now. Starting today.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we are putting your training on hold. Not stopping it completely, but scaling it back. You need time to just be twelve. To play. To make friends. To have experiences that have nothing to do with Void Lords or prophecies or cosmic destiny.”
“But we only have four years—”
“And you will spend those four years living, not just preparing to die.” Marcus’s voice was absolute. “Because if we do nothing but train you for the worst, you will be so brittle when it arrives that you will shatter. You need flexibility. Resilience. Joy. Those things cannot be taught. They have to be experienced.”
Young Sera looked uncertain. “What if I fall behind? What if I am not ready when the time comes?”
“Then you improvise. Adapt. Do what our family has always done—survive the impossible through sheer stubborn refusal to quit.” Selene squeezed her hand. “But right now, your biggest enemy is not the Void Lords. It is the belief that you have to face everything alone. So we fight that first.”
Over the next few weeks, everything changed.
Marcus cut back on his Alpha King duties, delegating more to his betas so he could spend time with young Sera. Not training time. Not strategy sessions. Just time. Father and daughter time.
They went on walks through the forest. Had quiet dinners where they talked about nothing important. Sat in comfortable silence while reading books side by side.
Elena started a garden with young Sera, teaching her about plants and patience and the satisfaction of watching things grow. They spent hours with dirt under their nails, discussing everything and nothing.
Selene adjusted her training regimen. Instead of intense daily sessions focused on combat and power control, she introduced play. Games that happened to teach skills. Stories that happened to convey strategy. Laughter that happened to build resilience.
And slowly, painfully, young Sera began to heal.
Not completely. The loneliness did not vanish. The desire to be someone’s first choice did not disappear. But the sharp edges softened. The desperation eased.
She learned that being loved imperfectly was better than not being loved at all. That choosing to accept the love offered, even when it was not exactly what she wanted, was its own form of strength.
Through the veil, I watched all of this while recovering from my manifestation. It had cost me more than I anticipated. Not just power, but substance. I was thinner now. More translucent. Less solid even in the space between.
“You gave too much,” my mother said, her face etched with concern. “You might have permanently weakened yourself.”
“It was worth it.” I watched young Sera laugh at something Marcus said, genuine joy lighting her face. “She is alive. She is healing. That is worth any cost.”
“But what about when she needs you again? When sixteen arrives and the Void Lords make their final move? You may not have the strength to help her then.”
“Then others will help. Selene. Marcus. Elena. The entire pack. The First Wolf. You.” I smiled despite my weakness. “That is what we have been building all along, is it not? A community. A foundation. So that no one person has to carry everything alone.”
The First Wolf appeared beside us, her starlight eyes thoughtful. “You have learned well. The lesson you are teaching young Sera is the same one you needed to learn yourself. That individual strength matters less than collective resilience. That no hero succeeds alone. That love multiplied is stronger than power concentrated.”
“Will it be enough?” I asked. “Against the Void Lords?”
“I do not know. But it is the best chance we have.”
Months passed. Young Sera turned thirteen.
The change in her was remarkable. She was still serious, still carried the weight of her destiny, but underneath was something that had been missing before. Lightness. Hope. The ability to laugh without guilt.
She made friends with other pack children for the first time. Found a small circle of wolves her age who did not treat her like the Shadow Queen but like Sera. Just Sera.
A boy named Kai, son of one of the betas, became particularly close. They trained together, studied together, spent hours talking about everything except prophecies and cosmic threats.
Through the veil, I watched their friendship deepen and felt both joy and concern.
“She is getting attached,” the First Wolf observed. “Investing emotionally in someone who might become a vulnerability.”
“Or he might become a strength. Someone worth fighting for. A reason to choose life over possession.”
“The Void Lords will see it that way. They will use him against her.”
“Let them try. She will be stronger for having someone to protect. Love does not make you weak. It gives you something worth being strong for.”
But my confidence wavered when, three months later, Kai suddenly disappeared.
He went to bed one night and was gone by morning. No trace. No trail. No explanation.
Young Sera was devastated.
“Where is he?” she demanded, her power flaring with grief. “Where did Kai go?”
Search parties found nothing. Tracking spells revealed no trail. It was as if Kai had simply ceased to exist.
“This is the Void Lords’ work,” Selene said grimly during an emergency council meeting. “They are escalating. Moving from psychological warfare to physical action.”
“But why Kai? Why not attack Sera directly?”
“Because taking her friend hurts her more than attacking her would.” Elder Thaddeus’s ancient face was grave. “They are showing her that attachment is dangerous. That loving anyone makes them a target. They are trying to convince her that isolation is safer than connection.”
Young Sera stood before the council, her thirteen-year-old face carved from stone. “Find him. I do not care what it costs. I do not care what we have to do. Find him and bring him back.”
“We are trying,” Marcus said. “But Sera, you have to prepare yourself. If the Void Lords took him, if they pulled him into the space between—”
“Then I will go there and get him out.”
“Absolutely not,” Selene said sharply. “That is exactly what they want. You, vulnerable, in their territory, desperate enough to make poor choices.”
“I will not abandon him. He is my friend. He matters.”
“And you matter too. To all of us. We cannot risk losing you to save him.”
Young Sera’s stormy grey eyes blazed with fury. “Then I go alone. Without permission. Without help. I will not be the person who abandons people just because saving them is dangerous.”
“Sera—”
“No. Everyone always tells me about my destiny. My purpose. My responsibility to the world. But what about my responsibility to the people I actually love? What about Kai?” Her voice broke. “He was my friend. Maybe my first real friend. And you want me to just accept that he is gone? To move on? To prioritise my safety over his life?”
The council fell silent.
Because she was right.
We had spent so much energy protecting young Sera from the Void Lords that we had inadvertently taught her that her safety mattered more than anything. More than friendship. More than loyalty. More than the very values we wanted her to embody.
“She has to try,” I said through the veil to Selene, pushing words through our bond despite my weakness. “If she does not try to save him, if she accepts that people she loves are expendable, then the Void Lords win anyway. They prove that love makes you choose yourself over others. That in the end, everyone is alone.”
Selene’s face tightened, receiving my message. “You are right. She has to try. But not alone. Not unprotected. Not without every advantage we can give her.”
She turned to young Sera. “You can go after Kai. But not alone. I come with you. As do three other volunteers. And we do not rush in. We plan. We prepare. We give you the best possible chance of success.”
“How long will that take?”
“Three days. Maybe four. To gather intelligence, prepare protections, coordinate with the spirits in the space between.”
“He might not have three days.”
“Then we work fast. But we do not throw you into the void unprepared. That helps no one.”
Young Sera wanted to argue. I felt it through our distant connection. Wanted to run immediately, to save Kai through sheer determination and love.
But she was also learning. Learning to balance courage with wisdom. Passion for strategy. The desire to help with the reality of what actually helped.
“Three days,” she agreed. “But not a moment longer. After three days, I go with or without help.”
“Fair enough.”
The next three days were a frenzy of preparation.
Selene gathered the strongest warriors. Mora created protective amulets. Elder Thaddeus researched the space between, looking for weaknesses in Void Lord territory.
And I, despite my weakened state, began preparing for something I had never attempted.
Guiding a rescue mission from the other side of the veil. Being the bridge between the living and the dead, the guardian who could navigate spaces the living could barely perceive.
Through the veil, the First Wolf approached. “This is dangerous. You are still recovering. Pushing yourself now could destroy you completely.”
“I have to try. Kai matters to her. Which means he matters to me.”
“Even if helping him costs you everything?”
“Especially then. Because that is what love means. Choosing others even when it costs you. That is the lesson she needs to see. The example she needs to follow.”
“Or the example that breaks her. If you burn yourself out saving her friend, who will protect her at sixteen?”
I had no answer.
Because both were true.
Helping now might mean failing later. But refusing to help now would teach her that love had limits. That at some point, self-preservation mattered more than loyalty.
And that lesson would destroy her more surely than any Void Lord.
“We do what we always do,” I said finally. “We make the best choice we can in the moment. And we trust that the foundation we have built will hold even if we cannot be there to maintain it.”
The three days passed.
The rescue team assembled. Young Sera stood at the centre, her power coiling around her like visible light, preparing to dive into the space between.
“Ready?” Selene asked.
“Ready.”
They stepped together into the void, crossing from the living world into the space between where the dead dwelled and the Void Lords waited.
Where Kai was imprisoned.
Where young Sera would face her first real test.
Not at sixteen as prophesied.
But at thirteen, motivated by love and loyalty and the desperate need to prove that people mattered more than safety.
Through the veil, I watched them enter my realm.
And I prepared to guide them through dangers I barely understood myself.
To protect my granddaughter while she tried to save her friend.
To prove that love was stronger than entropy.
Or die trying.
The rescue had begun.
And nothing would ever be the same.