Chapter 6
I took my mother‘ s urn and left the city behind, the weight of her ashes heavy in my arms. The path ahead felt uncertain, but there was one place I knew I had to go -back to the woods where everything had started.
The same woods, where my mother had found Talon years ago, saving him from the
rogue
werewolves who had left him on the brink of death. His body was too frail to shift back into human form. As our tribe’s healer, she brought him home despite the danger. I was just a child, too young to understand why she would take in a stranger, especially one as sick and helpless as Talon had been. Unaware of the deeper consequences, my mother didn’t know that Talon was the heir to an enemy pack and that saving him would entangle us in a web of betrayal and power struggles; all she saw was a wounded pup in need of help.
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Back then, I resented him. My mother had been everything to me, but now her time. and energy were consumed by this stranger. The sight of her growing more exhausted each day, her face lined with worry, only made me despise him more.
‘Mother, he’s nothing but a burden. He couldn’t speak, and was too fragile to even feed himself.‘ I complained. But my mother would sit beside him for hours, and nursing him back to health. I would watch from the doorway, feeling neglected and angry, hating the boy who had taken my mother’s attention away.
But over time, something shifted. As Talon began to recover, he would look at me, his once hollow eyes now alive with mischief. He’d make faces at me, trying to draw a smile from my sullen face. I would try to resist, holding back my laughter, but eventually, I couldn‘ t. Slowly, the boy I once saw as a rival became something more–an ally, a companion.
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Five months passed before Talon could walk again. He was still weak, but his strength returned little by little, his wolf healing him under my mother’s watchful care. He would help around the house, fetching water, chopping wood, and doing anything he could to repay her. And when he wasn’t working, he‘ d play with me, chasing me through the woods or teaching me little tricks of the wolf senses I was just starting to develop.
Those were good days. I remember feeling happiness then, a rare feeling in a world where danger lurked around every corner. But my mother wasn‘ t happy. She knew something I didn‘ t–that Talon didn’t belong here. He was destined for
something greater, and she wouldn’t let him waste his life in our small, quiet world.
When Talon was strong enough, my mother asked him to leave. She told him that he had a future beyond our little tribe and that he needed to return to his pack. Talon had resisted at first, begging her to
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Five months passed before Talon could walk again. He was still weak, but his strength returned little by little, his wolf healing him under my mother’s watchful care. He would help around the house, fetching water, chopping wood, and doing anything he could to repay her. And when he wasn’t working, he’d play with me, chasing me through the woods or teaching me little tricks of the wolf senses I was just starting to develop.
Those were good days. I remember feeling happiness then, a rare feeling in a world where danger lurked around every corner. But my mother wasn’t happy. She knew something I didn’t that Talon didn’t belong here. He was destined for something greater, and she wouldn‘ t let him waste his life in our small, quiet world.
When Talon was strong enough, my mother asked him to leave. She told him that he had a future beyond our little tribe and that he needed to return to his pack. Talon had resisted at first, begging her to
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let him stay, but my mother was firm. She knew he had to go.
Before he left, Talon knelt before her, tears in his eyes. I promised to repay you and to be there when you ever needed me for anything. I will never forget how you saved my life, Samantha.‘
Years later, he kept that promise. After rising to power within his pack, Talon found us. He pulled us from the shadows of one city to another. He had kept his promise.
But that was the moment everything changed for me. Watching him embrace my mother, and seeing the depth of his loyalty, I felt something stir inside me. It was more than admiration, more than friendship. It was fate.
Staring at Talon, I had one thought,
‘He’s the one for me.”
But now, standing alone in the woods, I questioned that certainty. My mother had
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warned me about the dangers of power and politics, and yet I had been drawn to Talon, just as she had been drawn to helping him all those years ago.
My mother had once dreamed of a quiet life, far from the violence of pack politics. She had told me stories of wanting to be a pup combat trainer, to help young mothers and children who had no one else. Instead, she‘ d sacrificed herself for me, for Talon, and for a pack that never gave her the peace she deserved.
She had spoken of the forest spirits, the ancient wolves whose power ran through the trees and streams of these woods. I needed that power now, to feel her presence again, and to find a way forward.
I stepped deeper into the forest, feeling the pull of something ancient and powerful. The wolves of my mother’s stories were here, their presence woven into the land itself. I needed their strength now, more
than ever.
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Because this time, I wasn‘ t saving Talon. I was saving myself.
