apter 26
“We thought you were our precious daughter,” their mother’s voice cracked with horror and disgust. “But it was all an act!”
“Deceiving your own parents, destroying your sister – you took her life!” Each word dripped with ‘anguish.
Knowing her mask had finally shattered, Winter’s eyes blazed with defiance. “How is this my fault?”
she screamed.
I didn’t kill her!”
“YOU banished her from the pack! VALDRIN took her heart! I did nothing – I’m the innocent one!”
“Weren’t you the ones who hated her? Wanted her gone? Now she’s dead and you pretend to mourn? What kind of parents are you?”
Their father clutched his chest, staggering under her venom.
Winter pressed on, eyes wild: “All my life, you told me Ravenna owed me for weakening my heart in the womb. That she was born owing me a debt.”
“Mother, didn’t you wish you’d only birthed me? Well, now you have your wish. Her heart beats in my chest–pretend you only had one daughter. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Winter couldn’t understand their change of heart. This wasn’t how it used to be.
Her mother froze, struck by her own words coming back to haunt her.
“My fault!” she collapsed, clutching Ravenna’s portrait. “I poisoned you with my hatred! I failed as a mother! I killed my own daughter!”
Her tears fell like rain as decades seemed to age her in moments.
Valdrin arrived to find Winter’s father convulsing on the floor, her mother lost in grief, and Winter watching with cold eyes.
As she turned to leave, he seized her arm, his eyes burning. “Why did you destroy Ravenna?”
Winter wrenched away, snarling: “I destroyed her? YOU killed her! I did nothing! You all push your alt onto me, but you’re the hypocrites, the cruel ones.”
Compted 30
“You should thank me. Without me, she’d be nothing but ashes. At least her heart still beats -in my
chest.”
Valdrin stumbled, bitter laughter escaping him. “Yes, I’m cruel. I’m the hypocrite.”
“I killed Ravenna.”
“But you…” his voice turned deadly, “have no right to her sacred heart!”
His hands locked around Winter’s throat, pinning her down. As she clawed at him in panic, he suddenly released her.
n his ha
Steel glinted in his hand a ritual blade.
“Alpha, please,” Winter whimpered, all arrogance gone. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”
But Valdrin was lost to reason. Two voices warred in his mind – Ravenna’s pain reminding him of his
betrayal, and Winter’s mockery taunting his foolishness.
