CHAPTER 3: UNRAVELING

Aurora’s POV

By the fourth day, I was breaking, and the worst part was, I did not know if it was my wolf or my heart.

I woke up drenched in sweat, my sheets tangled around my legs like they were trying to trap me. 

Fever burned through my body, making my skin feel too tight, too small for what was clawing underneath. 

My wolf was trying to get out, pushing against my ribs, scraping at my insides with a desperation I had never felt before. 

I stumbled to the bathroom and gripped the sink, forcing myself to look in the mirror. My eyes flashed silver and stayed that way, flickering like a broken light that would not turn off.

I was running out of the herbal supplement. Only three left in the bottle. My hands shook as I splashed cold water on my face, trying to calm the fire under my skin. 

That was when I heard voices downstairs, muffled through the floor but clear enough for my wolf hearing to catch every word.

"She is showing signs." My mother's voice, tight with panic. "We need to tell her."

"Tell her what?" Vincent's voice was harder than I had ever heard it. "That you have been poisoning her for nineteen years?"

I froze, water dripping down my face. Poisoning?

"I was protecting her!" My mother's voice cracked. "If they find out what she is—"

A door slammed and the conversation ended. I gripped the sink harder, my world tilting sideways. What was I?

I dragged myself to campus, trying to act normal despite the fever making my vision blur at the edges. 

Lucas found me at my locker before I had even opened it, appearing out of nowhere like he had been waiting.

"You look like hell, Canadian." His usual grin was absent, replaced by something that looked almost like worry.

"Thanks. Exactly what I needed to hear." I fumbled with my combination lock, my fingers not working properly.

Lucas reached out and touched my forehead, his hand cool against my burning skin. "You are burning up. Let me drive you home."

I pulled away. "I am fine."

"Stubborn and beautiful. My favorite combination." 

But his eyes showed genuine concern, searching my face like he was trying to solve a puzzle. 

He took my bag from my shoulder without asking and walked me to class, staying close enough that I could feel the heat from his body. 

Other she-wolves glared as we passed, their expressions a mix of jealousy and disbelief. Lucas Pierce did not do caring.

Between classes, he cornered me in an empty hallway. "Have dinner with me tonight. Not The Den. Somewhere quiet. Just us."

I was exhausted, my wolf thrashing inside me, my body betraying me with every breath. "Why are you doing this?"

Lucas stepped closer, his voice dropping. "Because you are real. Every other wolf here either fears me or wants something from me. You just exist. I like it."

I saw honesty in his eyes for the first time, vulnerability hiding behind his usual confidence. Against my better judgment, against every warning in my head, I heard myself say, "Fine. One dinner."

His grin was victorious, lighting up his entire face. "I will pick you up at seven."

As he walked away, I caught movement across the quad. Logan stood there watching us, he looked so furious, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

I stormed home early, my body shaking with fever and rage and confusion. I found my mother in the kitchen and did not bother with pleasantries. 

"What did you mean, you were protecting me? Protecting me from what?"

Her face crumbled. "Aurora, please—"

"Tell me the truth. Now." My voice came out harsh, but I was done with secrets.

Elena's hands trembled as she gripped the edge of the counter. "Sit down. Please."

"I don't want to sit down!" I slammed my palm against the granite. 

"You've been lying to me my entire life. Vincent said you poisoned me. He said nineteen years. What does that mean?"

She flinched like I had struck her. Tears filled her eyes and spilled over, but I refused to feel sorry for her. Not yet. Not until I understood.

"You are a Silver Wolf," she whispered.

The words hung in the air between us. I waited for them to make sense, but they did not. "What does that mean?"

Elena sank into a chair, her face pale. "It means you are rare, Aurora. So rare that most wolves think your kind is extinct. Silver Wolves are powerful beyond measure. Your bloodline strengthens any pack you join. Your children would be Alphas, every single one of them. Your blood is worth more than gold in our world."

My legs felt weak. I pulled out a chair and sat across from her. "If I'm so powerful, then why have I always been weak? Why couldn't I shift like everyone else?"

"Because I made you that way." Her voice broke on the words. "I gave you wolfsbane from the time you were two years old. Diluted, just enough to suppress your wolf, to hide your scent, to make you seem ordinary. I told you they were herbal supplements for your health and you trusted me."

Horror crawled up my spine. "You poisoned me?"

"I protected you!" She reached across the table but I pulled my hands back. 

"Aurora, please understand. Your grandmother was a Silver Wolf. I watched three Alphas wage war over her when I was sixteen years old. They tore each other apart, burned our territory, killed innocent wolves who got in their way. And when it was over and one of them claimed her, she was so broken she could barely speak. He used her like breeding stock, forced her to have child after child until her body gave out. She died when I was nineteen."

The pain in her voice was real, and it made my chest ache. But it did not erase what she had done.

"So you decided to do the same thing to me?" I asked quietly. "You took away my wolf, made me think I was defective, let me believe for twenty-one years that something was wrong with me?"

"I gave you a normal life!" Her voice rose, desperate. "Do you know what would have happened if anyone knew what you were? Alphas would have come for you the moment you turned eighteen. They would have fought over you, claimed you by force, used you for your bloodline and nothing else. You would never have had a choice, never had freedom, never been anything more than a prize to be won."

"So instead I got to be the weakest wolf in my pack!" My voice cracked. "I got to be pitied and overlooked. I got to think I was broken! Do you know what that does to a person, Mom? Do you know what it's like to hate yourself because you think you're not good enough, not strong enough, not whole?"

"I know." Tears streamed down her face. "I know and I'm sorry, but I would do it again. I would do anything to keep you safe."

"Safe?" I laughed bitterly. "I'm not safe. You brought me here to Seattle, to a pack full of unmated wolves, and you stopped giving me the wolfsbane. Why? If you were so desperate to protect me, why did you stop?"

Elena looked away. "Because Vincent promised he could protect you. Shadowpine is one of the strongest packs in the region. No Alpha would dare challenge Vincent for claiming rights."

"Does he know?" I gripped the edge of the table. "Does Vincent know what I am?"

"Yes." She met my eyes. "That's why he agreed to bond with me. He knew the risks and he promised to keep you safe. This pack is strong enough to fight off challengers."

My stomach twisted. "And the twins?"

Elena hesitated, and that pause told me everything I needed to know. "Not yet. But Logan, he suspects. I can see it in the way he watches you."

"Is that why he hates me? Because he can sense what I am?"

"I don't know." She reached for my hand again and this time I let her take it. Her fingers were cold and shaking. 

"Aurora, I never meant to hurt you. Every decision I made was because I love you. I watched my mother die because of what she was and I swore I would never let that happen to you. Even if it meant you would hate me."

I looked at her, really looked at her. I saw the guilt carved into the lines around her eyes, the fear that had been living in her chest for decades, the love that had twisted itself into control. She had caged me to save me and destroyed me in the process.

"I don't hate you," I said quietly. "But I don't know if I can forgive you either. Not yet."

She nodded, tears still falling. "I understand."

I stood up, my whole body trembling. "I need to go."

"Where?"

"I don't know." I backed toward the door. "I just need to think. I need to figure out who I am without your lies covering everything."

"Aurora, please be careful—"

"I'm done being careful!" The words exploded out of me. "I'm done being weak and small and hidden. You took my wolf from me for nineteen years and I will never get that time back. So now I'm going to find her and you're going to let me."

I walked out before she could respond, before the guilt could make me stay, before I could see her break completely. The forest called to me and this time I did not fight it. This time I ran toward the truth instead of away from it.

The wolfsbane was wearing off and she wanted out, she needed out after nineteen years of being caged. Pain ripped through my body, bones cracking and reforming in ways they never had before. I had never fully shifted, it had always been suppressed, always been held back.

The shift tore through me and suddenly I was running on four legs instead of two. I was massive, my fur silver-white and shimmering in the fading light, power radiating from every muscle. I ran faster than I had ever moved. 

I did not notice I was being followed. I ran for an hour until exhaustion finally hit and I collapsed by a stream. The shift back hurt less, leaving me naked and gasping on the cold ground. I heard movement behind me and panic seized my chest.

A shirt dropped beside me, Logan's scent all over it. I spun around and found him in human form, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. He had been watching the entire time.

I clutched the shirt to my chest. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." 

Silence stretched between us. His eyes were molten gold, his wolf close to the surface, barely contained.

"Silver Wolf." He said it like a statement of fact. "That is what you are."

"Are you going to tell everyone?" I forced myself to meet his eyes.

Logan pushed off the tree and approached slowly. "I should. You are a threat to pack stability. Every unmated Alpha in the region will come for you."

I stood despite my nakedness and vulnerability, refusing to cower. "Then tell them."

He stopped inches away, his jaw clenched so hard I thought it might break. "Put the shirt on."

"Why do you care?"

Logan's control cracked. He grabbed my face and pulled me close, his hands hot against my skin. "Because you are making me lose my goddamn mind."

Our lips were almost touching. My breath caught in my throat. Then he released me abruptly and stepped back as if I had electrocuted him.

"Get dressed. Go home. And end whatever is starting with Lucas. Before I do." He shifted into a massive black wolf and disappeared into the forest, leaving me alone and trembling.

I put on his shirt that went all the way to my knee. It smelled like him, distractingly so. I walked home in a daze, my mind unable to process everything that had happened. 

My phone buzzed. Lucas. "Picking you up in 20 minutes. Wear something pretty."

I was wearing Logan's shirt and smelling like him, and about to have dinner with his twin. My wolf was purring for the first time in my life. Everything was about to explode.