Chapter 5: Echoes From The Past

ZARA'S POV

ONE YEAR LATER

The first thing I feel is a tiny hand shaking me, followed by a persistent voice.

“Mommy, wake up!” Selene’s sweet but insistent tone pulls me from sleep.

Before I can respond, another voice joins in- this one more commanding, like his father.

“Mommy, it is morning. You said we can’t be late for school.” Silas, always the serious one, tugs at the blanket.

I groan, pulling the covers over my head. “Just five more minutes, please.”

“Nope!” Selene giggles, and I feel a pair of small hands pulling at the blanket. “The sun is awake, so you have to be, too!”

Reluctantly, I open my eyes, to meet with two identical sets of bright, curious faces. Silas and Selene, my children, stand beside the bed, their messy curls framing their angelic features.

Angelic now, but I know this peace won’t last long.

“All right, all right,” I say, sitting up. “I am up. Happy now?”

Selene squeals in triumph, throwing her arms around me while Silas just smirks, crossing his arms like he planned this ambush.

It hurts how much he looks like his father.

Even after all these years

I climb off the bed and shuffle to the kitchen while they chatter, their voices blending into a comforting background noise and as I prepare breakfast, my thoughts wander, as they always do when I am alone with them.

It has been almost six years now. Six years since I left the pack, since I left… him.

And the realization that I was pregnant came just a month after his rejection.

I had been terrified, panicked even and for a fleeting moment, I considered going back… begging for his help. But the memory of his cold, detached eyes stopped me.

I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

The Moon Goddess must have been watching over me, because not long after, I stumbled into a human town and met Abigail Whitmore.

An elder in their council

She had taken one look at me and pitied me and then gave me a job at her bakery, an apartment to live in, and most importantly, a chance to start over.

“Mommy!” Selene’s voice snaps me back to the present.

“Hmm?”

“Someone important is coming today,” she says like it is just normal talk, her spoon paused halfway to her mouth.

“What do you mean?”

Silas answers before she can. “She is right. Someone is coming. He is very… big.”

I freeze, my heart skipping a beat. “What kind of ‘big’?”

“I don’t know,” Selene says, shrugging. “But it’s important. Really important.”

This isn’t the first time they have said things like this and I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me.

For years now, I have noticed little… oddities about them. Selene seems to know things before they happen, like what someone will say or do. Silas, on the other hand, predicts events—small things, like a storm coming or a visitor arriving.

Their… talent unsettles me, it reminds me of the bloodline they come from and my wolf shifts uneasily, her instincts sharpening.

This is all Ryland's fault.

If he wasn't such a bastard, he would have been here to help me understand.

“Eat your breakfast,” I say, trying to sound calm. “You.are going to need your energy for school.”

After breakfast, Mrs. Whitmore stops by. “Zara, love, I need your help today. It is going to be a busy one at the bakery. Can you come in early and stay late?”

“I can, but I need to drop the kids off at school first,” I reply.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” she says, waving a hand. “I will call the bus station and have them pick the children up from the bakery. I know the driver- he owes me a favor.”

I glance at the twins. Selene is beaming, while Silas looks like he already knew this would happen. Of course he did.

“Thank you, Mrs. Whitmore,” I say, grateful as always for her kindness.

By mid-morning, we are already at the bakery with the smell of fresh bread and pastries filling the air as I knead dough in the back.

The twins are at their usual spot near the counter, coloring and chatting.

“Do you think the important person will like cookies or muffins?” Selene asks her brother.

“Cookies,” Silas replies with certainty. “Everyone likes cookies.”

I smile faintly at their conversation but can’t shake the unease in my chest. My wolf is restless, pacing in my mind.

The last time she behaved like this, I got rejected publicly

The sound of the door opening snaps me to attention and my wolf freezes, her instincts going into overdrive.

Something is wrong.

Very wrong.

I step out from the kitchen just in time to hear Selene’s voice. “Are you the important person?”

My heart stops as I round the corner because standing just inside the door is Ryland.

The air seems to leave the room as I take him in.

He is taller than I remember, his broad shoulders filling the doorway and his dark eyes- so much like Silas’s- can the room before landing on the twins.

Silas and Selene stare back at him, their curiosity unfiltered. “Who are you?” Silas asks bluntly.

Ryland doesn’t answer. His gaze shifts to me, and in that moment, everything shatters.

His expression is unreadable, but his eyes… They tell me everything. He knows.

“Mommy, who is he?” Selene asks, tugging at my apron.

I can’t speak. My throat is dry, my heart pounding as Ryland takes a hesitant step forward.

“Zara…” His voice is hoarse, like he has been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

I shake my head, backing away. I need to protect my children, but how can I when their father is standing right here?

Ryland looks at me, then at the twins, and I see the moment it all clicks for him. The recognition, the guilt, the pain—it is all there, written on his face.

I grip the counter behind me, trying to steady myself, but the world is spinning.

“Zara…” he whispers again, his voice breaking.

And in that moment, I know everything is about to change.