Chapter 4: The Truth About My Mother

"Your mother didn't just die. She was murdered because of what she could do."

I sat up so fast the blanket fell off my shoulders. Morning light was already cutting through the gaps in the tent, and the old woman was sitting across from me like she'd been waiting there for hours, maybe all night. My heart was already pounding before she said another word.

"I thought we were doing this later," I said.

"You didn't sleep much. I could hear you tossing from outside." She said it plainly, not unkind, just honest. "I'm Renata. I led what's left of this camp for almost twenty years. And I owe your mother more than I can ever repay her for, so I'm not going to make you wait any longer than I have to."

I pulled my knees up to my chest, still wrapped in Marisol's borrowed cloak, and waited. Part of me wanted to stop her before she said another word. The other part of me had been waiting my whole life for someone to tell me the truth.

"Your mother's name was Adira," Renata said. "She was the strongest Aurelian I ever knew. Stronger than me. Maybe stronger than anyone since the bloodline was hunted three hundred years ago."

"Why would anyone want to kill someone that strong. Wouldn't that make her valuable."

"Valuable is exactly the problem," Renata said. "A power like that doesn't stay hidden forever. Kingdoms feared what she could become if she ever united what was left of us. So they made sure that never happened."

"Who did it," I asked. My voice came out sharper than I meant it to.

Renata's face didn't change, but something behind her eyes hardened. "A council. Made up of alphas from five kingdoms, working together, hiding behind treaties and peace talks while they hunted every Aurelian family they could find. Damian's father sat on that council."

The air left my lungs like I'd been hit.

"Damian's father," I repeated.

"Yes."

"Does Damian know."

"I don't know what Damian knows," Renata said. "But I know his kingdom built half its power on the deals made after our people were wiped out. Land. Alliances. Resources that used to belong to Aurelian families before they were killed for them."

I felt sick. All those years standing beside Damian, thinking I understood him, thinking I knew what his family stood for, and this whole time there was blood underneath the crown I used to think was beautiful. I'd stood in that castle and admired the paintings, the old portraits of past kings, never once wondering whose land had paid for any of it.

"So when he rejected me," I said slowly, "he had no idea he was rejecting the daughter of the woman his father helped kill."

"No," Renata said. "None of them did. Your grandmother made sure of that. She changed your name, hid your mother's death, buried every trace of what you really were so deep that even you didn't know."

"Why didn't she just tell me the truth."

"Because the truth would have gotten you killed the moment anyone outside this camp learned it," Renata said. "You have to understand, child. What you are isn't just rare. It's dangerous to the people in power. An Aurelian who fully wakes up isn't just a strong wolf. You could unite the bloodlines that are still hidden across this continent. You could challenge kings."

I let that sit for a moment, the weight of it pressing down on my chest. Somewhere outside the tent I could hear the camp waking up, voices low, footsteps moving between the fires, life carrying on around me while my entire understanding of who I was fell apart piece by piece.

"I don't want to challenge anyone," I said quietly. "I just want to understand what happened to me last night."

"I know," Renata said, her voice softening slightly. "But wanting something and having a choice about it are two very different things. The moment you shifted in that hall, word started spreading. By tonight, every kingdom within three days travel will know an Aurelian is alive again."

"So they'll come looking for me."

"Some will want to kill you before you become a threat," Renata said. "Some will want to control you, marry you off, use your bloodline for their own gain. And a few, a very few, will want to help you finish what your mother started."

"What did my mother start."

Renata was quiet for a long moment, like she was deciding how much to say.

"Your mother believed the Aurelians shouldn't stay hidden forever," she finally said. "She wanted to reunite our people. Rebuild what the council destroyed. She had allies. Powerful ones. That's exactly why they had to stop her before she got too far."

Kael appeared at the tent entrance just then, ducking his head in. "Renata. We have a problem."

Renata's expression sharpened instantly. "What kind of problem."

"Scouts spotted riders three miles out. Moving fast. Wearing Kade colors."

My stomach dropped. Damian's men.

"How many," Renata asked.

"Enough," Kael said. "They're not just searching. They're tracking something specific. I think they picked up her scent from the forest."

Every eye in the tent turned to me.

"They found me," I whispered.

Renata stood up fast for someone her age, her calm from a moment ago completely gone. "Pack only what you can carry. We move the camp now."

"Wait," I said, standing too fast, my legs still weak from the night before. "If it's Damian's men, maybe I should talk to them. Maybe I can explain—"

"Explain what," Renata snapped, sharper than she'd been all morning. "That you're the daughter of the woman his father had murdered. That you're exactly the kind of threat his family has spent decades trying to erase. Child, if those riders reach you, you will not get the chance to explain anything."

Kael was already moving, shouting orders to the camp outside, tents coming down fast around us, wolves grabbing weapons and supplies with the kind of speed that told me this wasn't the first time they'd had to run.

"How close are they," I asked.

"Close enough that we don't have time to argue about it," Kael said, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward the tent flap. "Move."

Outside, the camp was already half broken down, fires stomped out, people disappearing into the trees in small groups. Marisol appeared beside me, shoving a bag into my hands.

"This way," she said. "Stay close to me."

We ran. My legs still ached from the shift and the miles we'd covered the night before, but fear pushed me faster than exhaustion could slow me down. Branches tore at my arms as we cut through the thickest part of the forest, and behind me I could hear the rest of the camp scattering in different directions, splitting up to make themselves harder to track.

"Why are we splitting up," I asked, breathless, trying to keep pace with Marisol.

"Because thirty of us moving together leaves a trail even a blind man could follow," she said. "Smaller groups are harder to catch. Renata knows what she's doing."

Behind us, faint over the trees, I heard something that made my blood turn cold.

Horns. Kade horns, the same sound that used to mean safety, used to mean home, now meaning exactly the opposite.

"They're closer than the scouts said," Kael shouted from somewhere ahead of me.

I risked one glance back through the trees and caught a flash of movement in the distance, dark shapes moving fast between the trunks, closing the gap faster than should have been possible.

Then I heard a voice carry over the horns, a voice I knew better than my own.

"Elena!"

I froze mid step.

It was Damian.