Chapter 115

Chapter 115


Ivonne entered through the front door, her heels softly tapping against the marble floor. The house was dark, enveloped in silence. Only the low hum of electricity and the distant ticking of the grandfather clock reminded her she was still tied to the real world.

The door shut behind her, and there she stood for a moment, letting the chaos of the night sift through her mind. She was still trying to sort it all out.

"Darius..." she breathed, a smile playing at the edges of her mouth. "He actually recruited human hunters."
It had been swift, brutal, and efficient. The way Darius moved—an assassin’s grace, silent as a phantom—was now engraved in her mind.

He led a team of mercenaries, humans trained to work in a world where wolves existed, with the knowledge to do them harm. They were a rare breed. Most humans were just, well, human. But these few were something else entirely.
It was a risk, recruiting them. But it brought a reward.

Then she did observe the absence of Tobias.
He had not come home with her.

Ivonne walked through the corridors, straining to hear any hint that he was around, but the house remained utterly silent. She was not in the least bit convinced that he was anywhere near as she forced herself to think of alternate scenarios.

He could have been out checking the wide-open spaces that surrounded the house. He could have been doing some sort of interior work that didn't involve her directly.

Or...maybe this was what he wanted, for her to think he was dead when in truth he was very much alive.

She looked at her reflection in the hall mirror and adjusted a couple of wayward hairs. She appeared unruffled, but radiantly so, as if she had just walked across the stage at some awards ceremony.

Yet, beneath that polished exterior, the familiar tightness in her stomach told her that this was all somehow so wrong.
An issue was present.

When Tobias finally got back, it was clear to Ivonne that he had no idea she was waiting for him.

He had made so many fresh footprints in the snow, Ivonne could hear his approach before she saw him. She didn't just hear him, though; she had a sense of him that was almost physical, the way one might feel a gust of wind before you see the trees blowing.

The door opened to reveal Tobias, tall and broad through the shoulders. Ivonne stepped into the foyer, the unfurnished, unlit winter between them demanding that she say something.

“Tobias," she said softly, putting her hand out to him. "You made me think that…"
However, he did not hold her or let her speak.

“Wait a minute,” Tobias shouted, the tone of his voice was sharp enough to make blood run cold.
Ivonne got scared and she couldn't respond for a moment. Her heart missed a beat.

Unsmiling Tobias entered, his eyes were glued to her. There were no tenderness or recognition in them. Just cold, unfiltered rage.

He looked worn-out, like he's had more than a handful to deal with since the battle. There was something in his expression that shattered, some wild thoughts that revealed in his eyes.

"You are truly a wombless person, aren't you?" he said in a dull tone.
The words he used hit her like someone shot her in the chest.
Ivonne's smile was no longer there, it just disappeared.
“…What?”
"Word for word," he added.
Her breath got stuck in her throat. Her face went white.

“Where is he getting this from? Her thoughts ran, exploring a variety of options. She had managed to keep it hidden so well. Covered her tracks. Denied any evidence. No one would've known—unless…

Martha!!

She had to follow her at the hospital.
Tobias came a step closer to her, his hands clenched into fists.
“Tell me, are you even capable of carrying a child? Or was this entire thing just a show being carried out from the very start?

Ivonne opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her pulse thundered in her ears. She felt like the ground beneath her was about to split open.

“Tobias… I…”

He scoffed. “So it’s true.”

She shook her head, trying to find the words, but her tongue felt numb.

“I didn’t lie,” she whispered. “I just… didn’t tell you everything.”

“That’s called lying by omission, Ivonne,” he snapped. “Don’t insult my intelligence.”




Martha moved quickly through the hospital corridors, brushing past nurses and healers. Her side was bleeding from a hunter’s crossbolt, but she didn’t care. Something felt off. Ivonne had slipped away earlier, claiming she needed to check on a wounded ally. But Martha knew better. She’d seen the tension in Ivonne’s posture, the way her eyes darted.

So she followed.

Martha stopped just outside one of the consultation rooms and pressed her back to the wall. Voices drifted out through the cracked door.

“Doctor, this is sensitive. There can’t be any record,” Ivonne said, voice low but unmistakable.

“I understand,” the doctor replied. “But this is your third visit in five years. The scar tissue from the hysterectomy—”

“I know,” Ivonne cut in. “I know what I am. I don’t need a damn reminder.”

“You were very clear. No paper trail. But verbal notes still remain among staff who remember your case.”

“I don’t care,” she hissed. “Erase it. Burn it if you have to. No one can know I can’t carry a child. No one.”

Martha’s jaw dropped. She stumbled backward, knocking over a metal cart. The clatter rang out like a gunshot.

Inside, silence.

Martha fled.

As soon as she hit the parking lot, she grabbed her phone and dialed Tobias.

He picked up on the first ring.

“Martha?”

“I need to tell you something,” she gasped. “Now.”




Tobias was looking at Ivonne as if she was unknown to him.

"You were a part of my dreams for years," he revealed. "I was building a future, I could see myself having a family, I was looking up to my children growing up strong. You made me believe this was possible."

"I swear I never meant to cause you any pain," Ivonne told, her voice breaking.
"Are you telling me you were using the hopes I confided in you as a weapon?" Tobias spoke through his teeth. "That's the source of my pain."

"Tobias, I was just scared," she begged. "I was scared that you would go away. Scared that you wouldn't see me as the same person. Was it easy to hide something like that from you?"

"You believe I would abandon you because of that?" he demanded. "Is that what you think is my character?"

“I don’t know at all what I thought,” she said, “I just simply could not lose you. Not after each and everything.”

He paced the floor turning away like a caged animal.

Ivonne moved in order to touch his arm. He yanked it away.

He quietly said, “I was just wanted to be with you forever,”

Ivonne went still.

“What?”

He laughed bitterly. “Yeah. Everything was planned by me beforehand. After the war. After the dust settled. I meant to suggest that we be friends. But in everything… not only in alliance.”

A tear streaked down her cheek.

She whispered, “I didn’t ask for being born broken.”

He said, “You’re not broken at all.” “I thought that I loved a woman and then realized you’re just not her at all.”

Again now silence fell, both suffocating and then thick.

“Protecting myself wasn’t my only lie,” Ivonne said, “I tried protecting us, having fought next to you.” Killed for you. "I've bled for this cause, you know".

“Tobias, you lacked faith in me,” he answered. “Now all that’s built seems empty.”

Ivonne sank into the chair beside the staircase staring at the earlier blood on her hands. She barely remembered how it got there.

"Perhaps someday we could find a path if I could manage it quite enough." A charm. A science. Something.”

He said, “I would’ve fought for that with you, but I needed the truth, rather than this illusion.”

With desperate eyes Ivonne looked up at him. “So what now?”

Tobias stood just at the bottom of that staircase. His jaw was clenched.

“I need time and space.”

“You’re leaving?”

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said. “But you have to understand that right now, I can’t look at you without wondering what else you’ve held back from me.”

Ivonne’s face crumpled. “Don’t do this…”

But he turned and plodded up steps that rang and rang like a nail in a coffin.

At the top, he paused.

“When Martha told me, I stood up for you. I told her she was lying. That she didn’t get you like I got you.” He glanced behind him. “But she was right.”

Then he was gone from the living room

In the dim light, Ivonne sat by herself, shaking.

Thunder rolled outside. The rain was sobbing on the windows.

She touched her stomach. Flat. Empty. As it always had been.

Of all the wars she’d waged and blood shed shed, this moment hurt worst of all.

And deep inside, something colder than fear welled up.

A rage.

Not just at Tobias.

Not just at Martha.

But at the world.

If they wanted a villain… she would give them one.

Her happiness had never really lasted, sorrows always find a way to creep in