6

"Selena! You better tell me what’s going on! These… these are all props you set up, right?"

Ryker's voice was shrill, raw with shock and panic. He advanced on me, step by step, his eyes wide with fear. "You're still lying to me! You did all this to scare me, to make me feel sorry for you, to make me feel guilty! It’s all… it’s all fake, isn’t it? Answer me!"

I didn't have the heart, or the energy, to deal with his frantic accusations.

The moment I saw Mom’s ashes scattered so horribly on the ground, my whole world just… fell apart.

I dropped to my knees on the cold stone floor. My hands were shaking so badly, but I carefully, so carefully, scooped the dust-stained ashes back onto that tattered piece of animal hide.

Every handful felt like I was scooping up Mom’s soul.

Every handful was like another cut to my already shredded heart.

I picked up the hide painting I’d secretly carved.

On it, Ryker and I stood side-by-side. I’d once imagined the most wonderful future for us.

But now, this hide, like my shattered dreams, was filthy.

Ryker was still screaming in my ear:

"Answer me! Selena! Stop putting on an act! Your mother was… she was perfectly fine before you and I mated! How could she… how could she suddenly get so sick in just a few months, and even… even turn to ash? I don’t believe it! I absolutely don’t believe your crap! Stop pretending!"

He stubbornly repeated his own thoughts, trying to convince himself it was all a lie.

But his obviously flustered movements had already betrayed what he truly felt.

Meanwhile, Brynn, who’d been so smug, now looked a bit lost, her expression completely unnatural.

She tried to sound calm, but her voice lacked any real confidence.

"Ryker… sir… don’t believe her. She’s definitely trying to scam you one last time, that’s why… why she cooked up these scary props… What awful luck! She’s not even afraid of karma! Wolves from those tiny fringe packs, they’ll stoop to anything to get what they want!"

"Selena, stop playing these games! The ‘Moonstone’ is back with you, and Ryker has seen your true colors! It’s over between you two! If you keep this act up, aren’t you afraid your wicked curses will actually come true on your mother?" Brynn threatened, her voice all bluster.

I had no interest in her nasty attacks or her lame excuses.

I just wanted to quickly gather the last traces of my mother left in this world, to keep them from being defiled any further.

I never thought that vicious woman wouldn’t leave me alone, wouldn’t leave my poor mother alone.

She suddenly rushed over, lifted her foot, and kicked hard at the small pile of ashes I’d just gathered!

"If you're going to act, at least make it convincing! What normal werewolf uses a raggedy old piece of hide for ashes? Even if it's a prop, put some effort in, will you? How pathetic! I’m embarrassed for you!" Brynn shrieked, her face twisted with malicious glee.

The ashes were cruelly scattered again, floating in the air before settling humbly back onto the ground.

It was like all my strength had been sucked out. I couldn't hold myself up anymore and collapsed onto the floor.

I looked at the scattered ashes, at Brynn’s face, contorted with jealousy, and at Ryker’s shocked, confused expression. Suddenly, I laughed.

A bitter, hopeless laugh.

"An urn…" I whispered, my voice barely audible. "In the Howling Moon Pack, a simple stone urn costs three hundred silver wolf coins."

I slowly raised my head, looking numbly at Ryker, whose pupils were constricting wildly in disbelief. I explained, miserably:

"My mother… so I could safely deliver the ‘Moonstone’ to you, she sold off the last of our Creek Pack’s winter furs. She even… even pawned the Moon petal grass amulet she’d worn her whole life to a traveling merchant… She also humbled herself to borrow over three hundred silver wolf coins from the leaders of other small fringe packs, just to scrape together enough for safe passage to the Howling Moon Pack and… the ‘tribute’."

"After she gave you the ‘Moonstone,’ her health just collapsed. I knelt before you, begged you for just a little ‘Silver-leaf Herb’ to save my mother. But you were convinced I was lying. You took away the child in my womb, took away my right to be a mother. I didn't even have time to gather herbs for her; I was stuck doing the lowest, dirtiest jobs in the Wolf Fort, just to get a few common herbs to ease her pain. And you accused me of giving you the cold shoulder because I wasn’t getting your so-called ‘favor,’ trying to force your hand."

"You never listened to my pleas. Even… even when my mother was dying, her only wish was to see you one last time, to ask you herself to take care of me. But you cruelly refused even that small request, just blocked my messages…"

"Yes, I admit it, I’m useless! I can’t even afford a decent urn for my mother to rest in peace! I can only use this tattered hide to hold her ashes! Are you… are you satisfied now? Seeing me like this, so wretched, seeing my mother unable to rest even in death, does it… does it make you feel good?"

My words were so helpless.

I bowed my head and laughed silently, a laugh filled with blood and tears.

My gaze fell on the hide I’d carved with our "first meeting." It was now covered in… my mother’s ashes.