REVEALED IDENTITY

The morning light filtered weakly through the curtains, casting pale stripes across the kitchen table where Marie sat. Her eyes were hollow from another sleepless night.

She hadn’t seen Alina come down yet.

Until...SLAM.

The kitchen door burst open.

Alina stormed in, barefoot, her hair disheveled, eyes bloodshot and wild. Her voice sliced through the silence.

“I want the truth.”

Marie looked up slowly. “Alina... what are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about.” Her voice shook with a mixture of rage and fear. “The dreams, The woods. The man with glowing eyes, The dirt on my feet when I wake up. This is not some random nightmare anymore. Something’s happening to me and I know you’re hiding something.”

Marie stood, defensive. “You’re tired. You’ve been under a lot of stress lately ”

“Stop it!” Alina yelled, slamming her palm on the table. “No more lies! No more excuses! I deserve to know who I am.”

Marie froze.

That sentence who I am cut her deeper than Alina knew.

“You’ve always controlled my life,” Alina continued, her voice cracking. “You never let me go anywhere. You kept me from friends, You treat the woods like it’s cursed. And every time I asked about my father, you brushed it off like he didn’t matter, But he does matter. Because whatever I’m feeling, whatever this thing is inside me it started with him.”

Marie’s face crumpled, guilt pooling in her eyes like water behind a dam.

Alina stepped forward, her voice softer now. “I’m begging you, Mom. Please, Tell me who my father is. Tell me what I am.”

A heavy silence fell.

Marie sat back down slowly, her hands shaking.

“I was hoping this day wouldn’t come,” she whispered. “But I suppose it was foolish to think the past could stay buried forever.”

Alina stood there, breathless.

Marie swallowed hard. “Your father’s name was Jade. I met him almost twenty years ago… in the same woods you keep dreaming about.”

Alina’s heart thumped violently. “He’s the man from my dreams?”

Marie hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. Because he’s not just in your memories, Alina. He’s a part of your blood.”

“What does that mean?”

Marie looked her daughter in the eyes, and for the first time, the fear she had buried for years spilled out.

“He wasn’t human.”

Alina blinked. “What?”

“Your father was a wolf,” Marie said quietly. “Not just a man who acted like a beast. He was one. Born into a cursed bloodline hunted by others like him, and feared by those who weren’t.”

Alina staggered back, her legs nearly giving out. “You’re joking.”

“I wish I was.”

“But that’s not real. That’s... fantasy.”

“It’s your reality,” Marie said, tears rolling freely down her cheeks now. “And mine. When I found out I was pregnant, he begged me to end it. Not because he didn’t love me, but because he knew what it would mean for the child. For you. That you would be hunted. That others would sense your blood... your power.”

“No this is insane,” Alina whispered. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I wanted to protect you!” Marie cried. “I ran, Alina! I ran to a place I thought he’d never find us. A place the other wolves were afraid of. And I kept you locked away, hoping it would never awaken in you. But now it has, I can feel it.”

Alina backed into the wall, her mind spinning.

“That man in my dream he’s not my father,” she said slowly. “He’s someone else. Someone I don’t know.”

Marie’s breath caught. “Then it’s already begun.”

Alina looked up sharply. “What has?”

Marie hesitated. “If the others know you exist… they’ll come for you. And not all of them will want to protect you.”

Alina stared blankly at the window. The trees outside seemed darker now, looming like guardians to a world she had never truly seen.

Her life, everything she thought she knew was a lie. And the strangest part?

A small, growing part of her didn’t feel afraid. It felt alive. Alina’s voice was quiet this time, shaky but sharp like a blade.

“So tell me, Mom…”

She stepped forward, her eyes never leaving her mother’s tear-streaked face.

"Where is my dad?”

Marie froze.

The silence between them thickened. A silence that stretched back eighteen years.

“I deserve to know,” Alina said, her voice rising. “You can’t keep protecting me from shadows I don’t even understand. If he’s alive, I have the right to know him. If he’s dead, I have the right to mourn him.”

Marie’s shoulders sagged. Her mug slipped from her hand, shattering on the kitchen floor. She didn’t flinch.

She finally lifted her eyes, hollow and haunted.

“Your father’s name was Jade,” she said slowly. “He wasn’t like the others. He was... broken, Hunted and Angry. But when he loved me, it was real.”

Alina swallowed the knot in her throat. “So what happened?”

Marie shook her head. “I told him I was keeping the baby. That I wasn’t going to run from it, even if it meant danger. He said he’d protect us, He promised.”

She paused.

“But something changed the night you were born. I saw a part of him I’d never seen before. He... shifted, Not just into the wolf, but into something darker. Something savage.”

Marie’s hands trembled.

“He locked the doors and said I couldn’t leave. That we were his now. That the world outside would rip us apart if we stepped foot beyond the woods.”

Alina gasped. “He held you captive?”

Marie nodded slowly, blinking back the memory.

“I waited until he was gone hunting, protecting, I don’t even know. I grabbed you, wrapped you in a blanket, and I ran. I didn’t look back.”

Alina’s breath hitched. “So where is he now?”

Marie looked down at the shattered pieces of ceramic at her feet, then met her daughter’s eyes with a chilling honesty.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Alina pressed. “You think he’s still out there?”

“I... I’ve heard whispers,” Marie said shakily. “Things in the woods. A howl in the distance. I used to think it was him watching us. But now... I don’t know if it’s him, or something worse.”

Alina’s mind swirled. “Why didn’t he come for us?”

Marie bit her bottom lip. “Maybe he thought we were safer without him. Or maybe he’s been trying and something or someone has kept him away.”

“Someone like... the man from my dreams?” Alina whispered.

Marie looked up, startled.

“You saw him again?”

“Yes. And it’s not just a dream, Mom. I can feel him. Watching, Following and Protecting me, I think but it’s not Jade. It’s someone else. Someone who knows exactly what I am.”