PAIN AND HOWLS

ISABELLA'S POV

“Mommy?”

The world didn’t just stop.. it shattered into a million tiny sharp pieces that dug into my soul. 

That voice, that sweet little-boy voice I’d heard say “Mama” a thousand times just said the one thing that could completely and utterly destroy me.

“You’re my mommy.”

And he said it to her.. to Alice Morningstar, the woman whose moans were still echoing in my head! My son was clinging to her like she was his port in a storm and I was just some kind of decorative furniture.

My brain was screaming, a high-pitched white noise of pure what-the-actual-fuck.

My body moved before my mind could even catch up, I took a shaky step forward, while my hand reaching out. 

“Liam? Baby, it’s Mama…. Look at me.”

Liam flinched, he actually flinched away from me and buried his face deeper into Alice’s robe. Then, he started to cry in a scared terrified wail like I was some kind of monster coming to get him.

That was all the excuse Klaus needed, he moved faster than I’d seen him move in years, suddenly standing between me and them. 

He didn’t shove me, not exactly, but he put a hand on my shoulder and pushed me back with an impatient grunt. The force of it and the casual dismissal sent me stumbling.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re frightening him,” Klaus snapped, his voice dripping with that same infuriating annoyance from before, like I was a dog tracking mud on his clean floors.

Tears were streaming down my face now, hot and angry.

I wasn’t sad.. I was just pissed, I focused my rage past his stupid dense head and onto the real enemy.

“What did you do to him, Alice?” I snarled, my voice low and shaking, I sounded rough, even to my own ears like I’d been chewing on gravel. “Lift whatever fucked-up enchantment you’ve got on my son…. Right now.”

Alice just smirked, stroking Liam’s hair as he cried against her and she looked like she’d just won the fucking lottery.

Klaus let out a short, harsh laugh. 

“Enchantment? Don’t be foolish, Isabella, there’s no enchantment, maybe he’s just finally seeing you for who you really are.”

“Who I really am?” I choked out. “I’m his mother! I have been for five years while you were off playing Alpha of the fucking year!”

“And what a stellar job you’ve done,” Klaus said, his eyes cold and flat. “Maybe it’s time for a change, you should know, I’ve known Alice longer than I’ve even known you... She’s always been… significant.”

Significant, right, because nothing says ‘significant’ like a quick fuck in your wife’s bed.

Alice chose that moment to pour more gasoline on the inferno. 

“He just knows where real love is, Isabella, it’s not that complicated, maybe it's you who couldn't understand the meaning of love and just forcing yourself on others.”

But I was done listening to her, my eyes were locked on my little boy... my Liam, the baby I carried in me, gave birth to, and raised by pouring all my love on him, he is the only reason I'm still alive in this world.

He’d stopped sobbing and was now just sniffling, looking up at me with red-rimmed eyes that held zero recognition.. just fear and dislike.

“Liam,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Please, baby, it’s Mama, come to me….”

He shook his head, his tiny jaw set in a way that was all Klaus. 

“Go.. away.!” he said, his voice small but clear as a bell. “I don’t want to see you.”

That was it.. the kill shot.

I felt something inside me break clean in half, I looked at Klaus, at his expression of smug satisfaction and I looked at Alice preening like a vile poisonous bird.

I looked at my son, who now saw me as a stranger, more like a monster.

There was nothing left to say, nothing that would get through to them, I turned and walked out of the room. 

I walked down the stairs, each step feeling like I was dragging a mountain behind me.

I heard Klaus say something like, “...finally some peace,” before I was out of earshot.

Tears were falling freely now in a silent waterfall of grief and rage, I yanked the front door open and stepped out into the cool night air.

One of the perimeter guards saw me. 

“Luna? Is everything...” he started, concern all over his face.

I didn’t stop, I didn’t even look at him, I just walked, straight past him, my sight set on the dark tree line of the forest. 

I heard him call after me once but then he fell silent. What was he gonna do, tackle the Luna? Yeah, right.

The second the shadows of the trees swallowed me, the pressure I’d been holding back exploded. 

It’s this thing that happens when I get too emotional... too sad, or too, too angry, my wolf, she doesn’t like to be caged.

She fights to get out. 

My skin started to feel too tight, like I was wearing a suit two sizes too small, a low growl rumbled in my chest, but it wasn’t mine. 

It was hers.

“Not now,” 

I gasped, digging my nails into my palms, fighting the shift. I didn’t want to lose control but the images flashed behind my eyes. Klaus’s annoyed face...

Alice’s smirk and my son’s terrified tears. Go away.

The pain was too much for me, I fell to my knees as the change took over me. It wasn’t a graceful shift... It was violent and painful. 

I heard fabric tear and rip as my body contorted, bones snapping and reforming.

It hurt like a bitch but the physical pain was nothing compared to the hole in my chest.

A second later, I was on four paws with a thick grey coat where my skin had been.

I threw my head back and let out a howl that tore from the deepest, most broken part of me.

It was a challenge.. a big, “Fuck you!” to the moon goddess for letting this happen..!

My wolf took over then and we ran... we ran until our lungs burned and our muscles screamed.

We snapped at low-hanging branches and chased shadows in a rage-filled rampage against a world that had suddenly stopped making sense.

The first rays of dawn were cutting through the trees when I finally stumbled back into my own skin.

I was back to my human state, naked, shivering and standing in Mira’s tiny vegetable garden. 

Scraps of my torn clothes were tied haphazardly around me, doing a piss-poor job of covering anything.

I probably looked like an extra from a zombie movie.

I didn’t even have to knock, the front door of her little two-step cottage flew open and Mira stood there, her hair a mess with her eyes wide with sleep and immediate alarm.

“Bella? Holy shit!” she gasped. 

Her eyes did a quick scan of the state of me, the torn cloth, the dirt, the scratches, the pure devastation on my face and her expression hardened into fury. 

“Did that bastard lay a hand on you?! What exactly happened to you?”

She didn’t wait for an answer, she just grabbed my arm, pulled me inside and sat me down on her couch, wrapping a thick, crocheted blanket around my shoulders.

I opened my mouth to speak but all that came out was a choked sob. I cried into that blanket for a solid five minutes while Mira just sat next to me, rubbing my back and muttering creative threats against Klaus’s family line.

When I finally could breathe again, the words tumbled out and I told her everything. 

Mira listened, her face getting darker and angrier with every word and when I finished, she was quiet for a moment then she slammed her fist on the coffee table, making me jump.

“Oh, hell no, this isn't right, something strange is happening, Bella, you shouldn't let this slide. That bitch has brought warfare to your doorstep and you are gonna fight back, you’re gonna get your boy back.”

“How, Mira?” I whispered, fresh tears welling up. “You didn’t see him, only if you've seen his face you would've understood how terrified he was even to look at me, will you believe me if I say that he is afraid of me and even told me to go away?” 

“That says everything,” she said, pointing a finger at me. “After listening to you, I only have one suspicion from the rumors I happened to hear before, it must be dark magic.”

“Dark magic?”

“Yes, no other way apart from it, either Klaus is the biggest idiot alive, thinking with his dick instead of his brain, or… he’s in on it, and honestly, I don’t know which is worse.”

She leaned in closer, and her voice dangerously dropped. 

“There have always been whispers about Alice Morningstar. Whispers about her past, about how she gets what she wants, most importantly all those whispers are about Dark magic. My cousin, Selene, over in the Midnight Fang pack? She knows more about this. You need to rest.. then we’re going to see her.”

“Your cousin?” I asked, feeling a tiny, fragile spark of something that wasn’t despair... it was for a purpose.

“Yeah, first rule of warfare, Bella,” Mira said, her eyes glinting. “Know your enemy…”