Chapter 32: Samantha

Third POV

Ysabella could not stop shaking.

Even as she held Tori in her arms, feeling the warmth of her friend's body, the solid reality of her shoulders, the familiar scent of lavender that had always clung to her, she could not believe this was real.

For three years she had mourned. For three years she had carried the guilt of surviving while Tori and Samantha had supposedly died in the frozen forest. And now here Tori was, alive, breathing, crying into her shoulder.

"I thought you were dead," Ysabella whispered, her voice breaking. "I thought both of you were dead. I mourned you. I lit candles for you."

"I know." Tori pulled back, her face wet with tears, her smile trembling. "I wanted to tell you. So many times, I wanted to send word. But we could not risk it. If the king had found out we were alive, if he had found out about her..."

She trailed off, shaking her head.

Ysabella gripped her hands. "Tell me everything. How is this possible? How are you alive? The king said he could not feel the mate bond anymore. He said she was gone."

Tori led her to a small wooden table near the fire. They sat facing each other, their knees almost touching. The woman with the grey eyes, the one who had opened the door, moved quietly in the background, pouring tea into clay cups. She set one before each of them and then retreated to the window, watching the snow fall in silence.

"Hecate," Ysabella said slowly, testing the name on her tongue. "You know her, don't you? You know who she really is."

Tori's eyes shone. "She is Samantha, Ysa. Hecate is Samantha."

Even though she had suspected, even though the pieces had been clicking together in her mind since she saw the envelope, hearing it spoken aloud made Ysabella's head spin. She pressed her hand to her chest, feeling her heart race.

"How?" she managed. "How is that possible? Samantha had no wolf. She was wolfless. That was why everyone mocked her, why Finnick rejected her, why she was sent here as a soother in the first place."

Tori took a long breath, steeling herself. "She awakened her wolf the night we fled the castle. We were in the forest, running from the king's guards, from the rogues, from everything. I thought we were going to die. The cold was killing us, and we had no food, no shelter, no hope. And then something inside her just... broke open."

She stared into the fire, her voice dropping to a hush.

"Her wolf did not come gently. It came like a storm. Like something that had been caged for far too long and was finally free. Samantha collapsed in the snow, and I thought she was having a seizure. Her body convulsed. Her eyes rolled back. And then she screamed. Not in pain. In power."

Ysabella leaned forward, transfixed.

"When she stood up," Tori continued, "she was different. Her eyes were darker. Her scent had changed. And she had magic. Real magic. She did not learn it from anyone. It was inside her all along, waiting for her wolf to wake up and unlock it."

"But that does not make sense," Ysabella said. "Wolfless people do not suddenly awaken their wolves as adults. It is unheard of."

"It is unheard of because it has never happened before." Tori's voice was firm. "But Samantha is not ordinary. She never was. The Moon Goddess had a plan for her, but the curse on the king's bloodline interfered. His darkness suppressed her wolf, kept it dormant. The moment she left his side, the moment she was far enough from his influence, her wolf finally broke free."

Ysabella sat back, her mind reeling. "So all this time, when everyone called her worthless, when they said the Goddess had abandoned her..."

"The Goddess was waiting for the right moment. For Samantha to prove she was worthy of the power she would receive." Tori reached across the table and took Ysabella's hand. "She is stronger than any of us knew. Stronger than she knew herself."

"But why come back as Hecate? Why hide her face, her scent, her identity?"

Tori's expression grew dark. "Because Maddox broke her heart. He used her. He lied to her. He made her believe he loved her, and all along she was nothing but a cure for his curse. When she heard him say those words to Odette, something inside her died. She could not face him again as Samantha. She would not give him the chance to hurt her again."

"So she built a new identity. New face. New name." Ysabella shook her head in wonder. "That is why I did not recognize her. That is why the king does not know."

"He suspects something," Tori said. "He feels the pull. The mate bond does not lie, even when the people do. He is drawn to her because his wolf knows. But his mind cannot accept what his heart already understands."

Ysabella thought of the way Maddox looked at Hecate. The way his eyes followed her across the room. The way he had kissed her in the studio, desperate and hungry, as if he could not help himself.

"So the attraction," Ysabella said slowly. "It is real. It is the mate bond."

"It is torture," Tori said quietly. "For both of them. She cannot stay away from him, and he cannot stay away from her. But she is not ready to forgive him. And he does not even know he needs to ask for forgiveness."

Ysabella pulled the sealed envelope from her bag and handed it to Tori. "She asked me to deliver this. She said it was confidential."

Tori broke the seal and unfolded the letter. Her eyes moved across the page, her expression shifting as she read. When she finished, she let out a heavy sigh.

"She is struggling," Tori said. "She thought she could return to the castle, heal Odette, and leave without ever revealing herself. But the bond is stronger than she anticipated. She is losing the battle against her own heart."

Ysabella remembered what she had walked in on. The way Hecate's legs were wrapped around Maddox's waist. The sounds they had made. The way neither of them had seemed to care about anything except each other.

"It is worse than you think," Ysabella admitted. "I saw them together this afternoon. They were... they were intimate. In the studio."

Tori closed her eyes. "I was afraid of that."

Ysabella leaned forward, her voice urgent. "Why does she not just reject him? Break the bond officially and be done with it? She has power now. She has her wolf. She could walk away forever."

"It is not that simple." Tori set the letter down and folded her hands on the table. "The king's curse is like a web. Everyone close to him gets caught in it. If Samantha rejects him before the curse is broken, she will be affected too. The dark magic will latch onto her. It could kill her, or worse."

"Worse than death?"

Tori's gaze was hollow. "The curse could pass to her son."

Ysabella went very still. "Son?"

Tori turned and nodded to the grey eyed woman by the window. The woman disappeared into the back room and returned a moment later, holding the hand of a small child.

The boy was maybe three years old, the same age as Aileen. He had dark hair that curled at the edges and large golden eyes that stared at Ysabella with curious intensity. He held a wooden toy in one hand, a carved wolf, and he clutched the woman's skirt with the other.

"This is Isaac," Tori said softly. "Samantha did not know she was pregnant when she fled the castle that night. She discovered it weeks later, in the Midnight Pack. Isaac is Maddox's son."

Ysabella's breath caught in her throat. She looked at the boy, really looked at him, and suddenly she could see it. The shape of his eyes. The set of his jaw. The way he held himself, straight backed and unafraid, even in a room full of strangers.

"He is the spitting image of his father," Ysabella whispered.

Tori nodded. "That is why she is terrified. If Maddox discovers he has an heir, a son born of his blood and his true mate, he could take Isaac from her. He could use the boy to control her, or worse, the curse could claim him too."