The cabin air, once so heavy with the weight of Nox’s revelations, now feels oddly light, almost hollow. After what felt like an eternity of chilling truths and a fucked up revelation of the actual reality we have on our hands, I decide I’ve had enough. My mind is a spiraling mess, and all I crave is the solitary quiet of my own cabin. I push myself away from the wall I've been leaning on, the movement slow and deliberate, a clear signal that the conversation, for now, is over. Silas just nods, his expression grim but understanding. Nox, however, watches me with that same puppy-eyed intensity, a silent plea in his gaze.I step out into the cold night air, letting the damp chill burn my lungs. It’s a welcome sensation, a sharp sting that, paradoxically, calms the frantic thrumming in my mind. The rain has lessened to a soft drizzle, settling like a fine mist on my skin. I hug myself, walking quickly, the familiar path to the mountain trail that leads to my cabin a dark ribbon wind
She's right to be angry. She’s right to hurt. Heck, she's right to never want to have anything to do with me...ever.But I am desperate, desperate, for her to see that I’m just as much a victim in my mother and Zara’s twisted game as she was. I fear that if I can’t get her to understand, if I can’t strip away every last vestige of their lies, I’ll lose her forever. The thought sends a cold dread through me, chilling me to the bone. "We've damn right lost everything. We're not about to throw her into the equation of everything we've lost too. Tell her about the poison. Tell her you haven't touched Zara in months," Cyan presses.I take a shaky breath, forcing myself to speak, to push past the suffocating shame that has been my constant companion for months. “There’s more,” I say, my voice barely a whisper after a prolonged moment of suffocating silence. It’s the hardest truth to tell, the one I haven’t even confessed to Silas, a secret festering in the dark corners of my soul. But
“—have rejected you…”Nox’s last word hangs in the air, a raw, ragged wound, ripped open anew. The pain of it is a sharp, agonizing stab to my heart, mirrored by the desolation in his eyes. He is a shell, a hollowed-out version of the powerful Alpha he once was, his face a canvas of betrayal and self-loathing. His confession—the horrifying truth of his mother’s deceit, her calculated murder of his father, the insidious manipulation that led to my public humiliation and his downfall—crashes over me in relentless waves. It's too much. Everything is too much.My mind is a chaotic whirlwind, a thousand fragmented thoughts colliding and exploding. His mother. Selene. A murderer. She killed Nox’s father. And then she lied to Nox, created a monstrous curse, all to keep him from me. To keep him from his true mate. The truth, raw and brutal, twists my heart. If she hadn’t intervened, if she hadn’t woven her insidious web of lies, Nox would have never rejected me. He would have chosen me
The cabin air, thick with the scent of rain and damp wood, feels charged, heavy with the weight of our new, grim understanding. Tamsin and Silas are talking in hushed tones, their voices a low murmur, discussing strategies, the best way to alert the council, to gather irrefutable evidence. But their words barely register. My mind is a roaring storm, a thousand scattered thoughts finally coalescing into one unbearable truth.I can’t sit still. The revelation of my mother’s betrayal, Zara’s complicity, Lior’s true nature – it’s a coiled serpent in my gut, twisting, burning. Somehow, even though I had known about this for a while, turning it in my mind again is making me run mad, especially when I'm thinking to all the things my mother made me do and I did blindly.I begin pacing, my footsteps heavy on the wooden floor, the confined space of Silas’s cabin feeling increasingly claustrophobic.“Calm down, Nox,” Silas says, his voice a steadying presence, but I barely hear him. Cyan is
Silas’s words, "shit’s about to get really dirty, love," echo in the small cabin, but they sound distant, muffled by the roar in my ears. It’s all making sense now. The pieces of the puzzle, disjointed and confusing for months, are snapping into place with brutal clarity. My entire life to this point, the pain, the rejection, the agonizing confusion, the poisoning—it all played out exactly as they orchestrated it. My mother. Zara. Lior. And this fucking Vince I've heard about more times than I need to, today.I was a puppet. A fucking puppet.The realization hits me with such force, such a dizzying mix of humiliation and pure, unadulterated rage, that I can’t help it. A burst of wild, hysterical laughter rips from my throat, startlingly loud in the quiet cabin. It’s not amusement. It’s the desperate, deranged sound of a man confronting the full, horrifying truth of his own utter foolishness.Tamsin, who had been watching me with a mixture of apprehension and pity, visibly flinches
The rain has settled into a steady drumming against the cabin roof by the time we reach Silas’s place. The scent of damp earth and growing things is strong here, mixed with the faint, comforting aroma of herbs and aged wood that always clings to Silas. His cabin, unlike mine, feels lived-in, cozy, a true haven. Nox follows me closely, his presence a warm weight at my back, but he keeps his distance, waiting for me to lead.I push open the wooden door, and Silas, perched on a stool, meticulously grinding herbs with a mortar and pestle, looks up. His eyes, usually sharp and knowing, widen in surprise, then soften with a mixture of relief and something else—disappointment, perhaps. “Tamsin,” he breathes, setting down his tools with a gentle clatter. “Well, I’ll be damned. You’re really back.” He stands, his gaze sweeping over me, then lingering on Nox, who has positioned himself just inside the doorway, like a protective shadow.“Silas,” I say, a small, weary smile touching my lips.