Chapter Ninteen- The Woman Who Ran

Seren's POV

Everyone was frozen.

I knelt on the hearth stone, clutching her locket, and my own. I stared down at her, noting how much smaller she was than I'd pictured. All those nights in Davan's flat she'd been tall, soft and golden with her apology of an attitude. But now she was scarred on the left side of her brow, and had instinctively reached for her knife.

She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

"Rysen!" I croaked. "Drop it!"

"We don't know Seren-"

"Drop it!"

He hesitated, before lowering his blade. "Out. All of you. Keep an eye on the treeline." With a reluctant nod from Dren, they exited and the door slammed shut behind them, sending a flurry of snow inside.

It was a sudden silence, apart from the occasional crackle of the fire and the whine of wind outside.

Isolde didn't move from her spot on the bed. Her palms were facing upwards, showing she wouldn't touch me. "I won't touch you unless you tell me to. I have imagined this so many times, and every time I do something wrong."

"What do you do wrong?"

"I either run or cry too much or say silly things like how tall you are."

A wet, ugly laugh erupted from my lips. "I am not tall."

"No. No I’m not. I’m tiny. Just look at me. I’m so small." She pressed the back of her wrist to her mouth. "Gods Seren, look at you."

I stood without realising. My legs moved of their own accord, and soon I was stood in front of her, both of us unsure of what to do with our hands.

"You can touch me."

Her hand hovered before my cheek, shaking slightly. Her thumb rested on the streak of tears beneath my eye. Her skin was rough but warm with the scent of smoke and sweet herbs. I realised where I recognised the scent from. The blanket I’d been wrapped in at the foundling house. Something I had slept on for nineteen years without knowing what it was.

"You left me."

"I did."

"In a house full of strangers."

"Yes."

"Why?" My voice cracked with emotion, years of emotion. "Why would you leave me? Why wasn’t I good enough?"

She pulled her hand away and placed it on her chest as if I had burnt her. Her face twisted in pain. Instead of trying to explain however, she simply said, "Because you were everything."

Rysen shuffled by the door, but I ignored him.

"Sit down." She said. "You shouldn’t be standing. I can tell you’re holding yourself differently. Oh Gods." Her eyes darted to my stomach and widen. They soften before filling with emotion. "You’re having two."

"How do you know?"

"Because I was." She looked me in the eyes. "Thorne never knew. No one did. I was bonded to a council approved mate at nineteen, and the night before I was meant to go through with it, I felt two heartbeats in my chest. I knew why I was chosen.

---

Eventually, she told me everything. Like I had with Caelum, she spoke in short bursts, her hands wrapped tightly around her tea. I sat on the bed beside her, wrapped in Rysen’s cloak, with the quilt draped across my knees, and listened to her tell me about how I began.

The Varn line carried the white wolf, but it had been quietly bred out of the North. It only awoke in a twin bond. Isolde was the last girl born with the trait, and had hidden it her whole life. Thorne however, had always suspected.

"He loved me." She said, staring into the fire. "He wasn’t always the man he is today. As children he would carry me on his back across the whole forest. He carved our initials into that wall. Part of him still feels like he’s protecting something."

"He isn’t."

"No. He’s collecting." She frowned. "At some point love became possession. He didn’t realise where he had crossed the line. He set me up with my council mate. A cruel old Alpha. Famous for his temper. He would have buried me in his territory and taken whatever happened. When I found out I was pregnant, I knew my child would be born into a cage."

"So you ran."

"Yes. Eight months pregnant. In the snow. In a borrowed coat. I made it this far." Her lip quivered. "And here you are. You screamed as you were born, pale as the snow outside the door. I knew I could either keep you and watch Thorne burn the world to find you, or give you away to somewhere he would never look.

"A foundling house."

"A place for unwanted children." Her voice cracked. "I thought he’d never look there. He’d search every grand house in the North. Not somewhere with broken windows and cold porridge. I knew I couldn’t take you both. Your sister was stillborn.

It was dead quiet.

"Sister."

"It was the second heartbeat." Her eyes closed. "She was too small. She didn’t breathe. I held her until the fire died out and buried her in the pines. I carried you to the foundling house. Isa, I didn’t choose. I lost one of you and did the only thing I knew to do to keep the other.

I covered my mouth.

I’m not sure how long I cried. Rysen came over and knelt in front of me. Isolde took my hands. No one spoke. The fire died out and someone fed it. I no longer felt angry, because there was no villain. The only person who deserved to be called a villain wasn’t there.

"Two." I whispered. "Two. I’m having two. And no one is taking them."

"No one will." She said fiercely. And for the first time I saw the Alpha’s daughter. "Whilst I still breathe."

---

Later, once the fire was calming and Rysen had gone to check the perimeter, Isolde got up and opened a small iron box on the shelf above the fire. She took out a flat copper coin the size of my palm, covered in wax. The scale and uneven pan was stamped onto it.

"This is the original rejection." She said, handing it to me. "It was filed eighteen years ago in the Northern registry. Under my seal. This key will open the vault. Thorne doesn’t know about it. Nor does Marcus. The clerk who helped me has passed away, thinking I would get caught.

I wrapped my fingers around it.

"Thorne’s claim?"

"Is dead as soon as he reads that paper." She smiled, a small, wolfish smile. "I’ll be there with you. I’ll stand up in front of the Northern Council and say my name aloud. Let every Alpha in there know I’m alive and I personally rejected my brothers mate.

A warm feeling fluttered inside me. "You’d come out of hiding for us?"

"I’ve been hiding for nineteen years." She cupped my face. "I’m done hiding. I’d like to be seen.

I leaned into her hand. And for the first time in my life I felt safe in someone’s arms.

Maybe a minute passed.

Suddenly the door burst open and Rysen entered. Snow in his hair, pale as the snow. "Seren. Isolde. We need to go now."

"What’s wrong?" Isolde stood up instantly, holding her knife.

"Dren’s gone." He said flatly. "Along with her horse and pack. There’s a hundred torches coming up the river. Maybe more. Thorne hasn’t forgotten this place Isa." His eyes met mine and I saw something I’d never seen before, not even in the great hall. Fear.

Isolde froze.

"He wasn’t looking for you. He was waiting for someone to lead him here."