Chapter 169 CHAPTER 169
The meeting in Red Valley’s council house had been tense even before the doors burst open.
Ethan stood at the head of the long wooden table, one hand braced against its surface as he listened to Alpha Reed and the elders debate patrol routes and possible search patterns. Liam sat to his right, silent but attentive, his jaw tight with focus. The missing boys weighed heavily on every word spoken in that room.
No one noticed the hurried footsteps outside until the door flew open.
Lisa stood there, breathless.
Her hair was slightly disheveled, her chest rising and falling in shallow gasps. For a split second, the room froze in stunned silence.
Ethan’s heart dropped. “What happened?”
Liam was already on his feet before the question finished leaving Ethan’s mouth. He crossed the room in long strides and reached her first, steadying her by the shoulders.
“Lisa,” he said urgently. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, but she did not speak.
“Where is Isabel?” Ethan demanded, stepping closer. His mind leaped instantly to danger. “Did something happen to her?”
As if summoned by his fear, Isabel appeared in the doorway moments later, slightly bent forward as she caught her breath. The older village woman who had accompanied them followed closely behind, equally shaken.
Ethan exhaled slowly when he saw Isabel intact. “Could someone tell me why you are all running as though the forest is on fire?” he asked, though the tension in his voice remained.
Isabel straightened, still breathing hard. “It’s Lisa,” she said. “Something happened at the tree.”
Liam’s hands tightened slightly on Lisa’s arms. “What happened?” he asked again, softer now.
Lisa lifted her head.
Her eyes were wide, not with fear exactly, but with revelation. With shock.
“I figured it out,” she said quietly.
The elders exchanged uneasy glances.
“What did you figure out?” Ethan asked carefully.
“The tree recognized me,” she continued, her voice gaining steadiness as the words began to form properly. “It wasn’t just reacting. It connected to me.”
Reed frowned. “Connected how?”
Lisa swallowed. “I saw her.”
The room stilled.
“Who?” Liam asked gently.
“The witch,” Lisa said. “The one who destroyed Mooncrest.”
A murmur moved across the elders.
“She was there when my mother planted the tree,” Lisa continued. “She was younger then, but I saw her clearly. She wasn’t just a memory. She spoke to me.”
Ethan’s brows drew together. “Spoke to you?”
Lisa nodded slowly. “She said my mother trusted her. That friendship was stronger than fear.”
Silence fell again.
“She looked exactly like Sarah - the Silverpine witch.” Lisa added, her voice trembling now.
The words settled into the room like a stone dropped into still water.
Liam glanced at Ethan, gauging his reaction.
Ethan felt something shift deep inside him.
“What are you saying?” he asked quietly.
“I’m saying,” Lisa replied, turning to face him fully now, “that the witch who destroyed Mooncrest was our mother’s friend. And I think she is Sarah’s mother.”
The elders began whispering among themselves.
“Luna Irene was trying to warn me,” Lisa continued, emotion creeping into her voice. “Yesterday by the fire. She was trying to tell me not to repeat my mother’s mistake. That history is circling back.”
Her composure cracked.
“Everyone knew something,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “Everyone kept it from us.”
Liam instinctively moved closer to her, one hand resting lightly at her back.
Ethan did not speak.
He was not looking at Lisa anymore. He was looking at nothing.
Inside him, something began unraveling.
He reached inward, toward Rex.
“Rex.”
“Why don’t I remember her?”
The silence inside his mind was immediate and heavy.
“I remember everything from that time,” Ethan continued internally. “The fire. The screams. The smoke. I remember Mother laughing. I remember Father shouting orders. But I don’t remember a friend.”
There was a pause before Rex answered.
“Neither do I.”
The response chilled him.
Ethan’s breathing grew shallow.
“It’s as if something is missing, it’s as if it was removed.” Rex added.
The word struck him hard.
Removed.
Ethan’s eyes lifted slowly to meet Lisa’s.
“If she was our mother’s friend,” he said carefully, “then I should remember her.”
Lisa nodded through her tears.
“But I don’t,” he whispered.
The elders had fallen silent now, sensing something deeper than rumor was unfolding.
He dragged a hand through his hair, trying to steady the rush of thoughts. If both he and his wolf had no memory of this woman, and yet she had clearly existed - had traveled, had planted a tree - then something had intervened.
Does that mean… Ethan’s thoughts faltered.
He forced himself to continue inward.
“Rex… if we don’t remember her, who made sure we didn’t?”
Rex did not answer immediately.
“I do not know,” he admitted finally. “But it was not natural forgetting.”
Ethan’s stomach dropped.
He looked at Lisa again, devastation beginning to settle into his features.
Lisa’s tears fell freely now. “She said blood remembers.”
The phrase sent a cold ripple through the room.
Ethan felt the ground beneath his certainty begin to shift.
“If Elder Vaughn was right…” he began quietly.
The elders stiffened at the name.
“If he was right that something about the fire was never fully explained…” Ethan continued, his voice strained, “then what does that mean?”
He looked around the room, but no one had answers.
His thoughts turned darker.
If his parents had invited that woman into Mooncrest willingly… if they had trusted her… then the fire was not random. It was not purely invasion.
It was betrayal.
And if they had hidden that truth…
“Ethan,” Liam said firmly, sensing the direction of his thoughts. “Slow down.”
But the doubt had already taken root.
“I have spent seventeen years believing my parents were simply victims of a witch’s cruelty,” Ethan said quietly. “But if they knew her…”
Liam shook his head. “We don’t know everything yet.”
“No,” Ethan agreed, though his voice lacked conviction. “but we know enough.”
Inside him, Rex was restless.
“There is something else,” Rex murmured.
“What?”
“The tree.”
Ethan blinked. “What about it?”
“If it responded to Lisa’s blood… then it was never just a gift.”
The implication was heavy.
It had been planted with intention.
Ethan exhaled slowly, trying to piece the fragments together.
“If this is true,” Reed said cautiously, “then we are not just dealing with an enemy outside our borders. We are dealing with a history we never fully understood.”
Ethan nodded faintly.
The weight of that possibility settled heavily over them.
Lisa wiped her tears, though her hands were still trembling.
“She knew I would find it,” she whispered. “She wanted me to.”
The room went very still.
That was not coincidence.
That was strategy.
Ethan felt his world tilt slightly.
The witch who had burned Mooncrest was alive.
She was not hiding in fear.
She was watching.
And now, she had made contact.
Ethan drew in a slow breath, but it did little to steady him.
Outside, the valley remained peaceful, unaware that the past had just cracked open inside its council chamber.