CHAPTER 6

“Amelia Bennett, you've finally returned.”

I stared at the man standing behind the woman, trying to understand what he meant. Returned? I had never been to this place before. At least, not that I could remember, so how can I return to a place that I’ve never been to?

He was older than the woman, perhaps in his late forties, with a few strands of grey hair in his dark hair; he had a muscular figure, and an intimidating look with dark brown eyes. His clothes were simple, but there was something about the way he stood that made the woman move aside without being asked. He looked at me for a long moment, and I noticed that his expression changed when his eyes settled on my face.

He looked almost relieved “Who are you?” I asked.

He was quiet for a moment before speaking; “my name is Marcus Bennett.”

I searched his face, hoping that something would come back to me, some childhood memory or a familiar voice. Nothing did. I knew I had relatives I barely heard about, but no one had ever told me about an uncle who lived in another pack.

“Because you bear my surname doesn’t automatically make you my uncle”

Marcus studied me for a moment. Instead of getting offended, he gave a small nod, as if he had expected me to say that.

“You're right,” he said. “You shouldn't believe everything a stranger tells you, especially after everything you've been through.”

His response caught me off guard. I had expected him to get angry or remind me of his position, but he simply turned towards the woman.

“Bring it.”

She nodded and left.

Marcus walked towards the desk near the window. I watched him open one of its drawers and remove a small, brown leather album. The edges looked worn, and the pages had probably been turned countless times over the years.

He returned and placed it in front of me.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Something you deserve to see.”

I hesitated before opening it. The first few pages contained photographs of people I didn't recognize, some standing in front of buildings while others posed in groups. I was about to close it when a photograph on the next page caught my attention.

My fingers stopped moving. It was a picture of a man standing beside a woman, the man had dark hair and a familiar shape to his face. The woman beside him had a gentle smile, her hand resting on his arm.

“Dad?” The word escaped my lips before I could stop it.

My chest tightened as I stared at the photograph, I had never seen that picture in any of my family album. Yet there was no mistaking him, the woman beside him was my mother.

They looked happy, not like the distant figures I remembered from the few stories I'd heard, but like two people who had believed they had a whole life ahead of them.

I touched the edge of the photograph “Where did you get this?”

“It was taken years ago,” Marcus replied quietly “Before everything fell apart.”

I looked up at him. “How well did you know them?”

“They were my family, Amelia. Your father was my brother.”

The words settled between us, but my attention had already returned to the photograph. There were other people standing behind my parents. A few faces were unfamiliar, but one of them made my stomach tighten.

A woman stood near the far end of the group, half turned towards the camera.

I leaned closer, moving the album nearer to the light, examining the woman's face. Her hair was styled differently, and she looked younger, but I knew that expression. I had seen it countless times whenever she looked at me with that cold, disapproving stare.

Vera!

My stepmother?

I stared at the picture, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. Why was she there? Why had she never mentioned knowing my parents? And why had nobody ever told me that she had been part of their lives before she married into my family?

“Do you know that woman?” I asked, pointing at the photograph.

Marcus followed my finger, for the first time since he had entered the room, his expression changed in a way I couldn't understand. His eyes remained on the picture, and the silence that followed was long enough to make me uneasy.

“You recognize her from anywhere?” he asked.

“Of course I recognize her, she has lived with me for years now; she's my stepmother.”

Marcus slowly raised his eyes to mine “Vera is your stepmother?”

I nodded, confused by the question.

He looked back at the photograph, his jaw tightening. Then he closed the album carefully, as though he suddenly regretted showing it to me.

“What is going on?”

Marcus was about to answer when I opened the album again, unable to stop thinking about the woman in the photograph.

“Why was she with my parents?” I asked. “Did they know her before she married my father?”

Marcus didn't answer immediately. He took the album from me and stared at the photograph for a long moment.

“Some things about your family are better left unsaid until you understand what you're dealing with.”

I pulled my hand away from the album. “That's what everyone keeps saying, nobody wants to tell me anything, yet somehow everyone expects me to accept whatever I'm told.”

“Because the truth isn't always as simple as you think, Amelia.”

“Then let me decide whether I can handle it.”

His expression hardened “you think you want answers, but you don't understand what those answers could cost you. Your father spent years trying to protect you from things you were too young to understand.”

My heart pounded at the mention of my father. “Protect me from what exactly?”

Marcus closed the album, giving me a frustrated look.

“Your bloodline”

I stared at him, waiting for him to explain, but he said nothing more. The words alone were enough to make the room feel different.

“What does my bloodline have to do with anything?”

“Your family carried a power that other Alphas feared. If it awakens in you without control, it could destroy far more than your old pack.”

I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it, but the seriousness in his eyes stopped me. I had spent my whole life being treated like a weak, unwanted girl. Now my uncle was telling me that something inside me could threaten many packs.

Before I could ask another question, a strange warmth spread across my wrist.

The silver mark beneath my skin had appeared again, brighter than before. It pulsed once, and my wolf stirred inside me with an intensity I had never felt from her.

*He knows,* she whispered.

I froze. *Knows what?*

Marcus noticed the mark, whatever he saw in my expression made him step closer.

“Amelia, listen to me carefully. Whatever happens, you must not let anyone from your old pack discover that you are alive or your power has begun to awaken.”

“Why?”

He looked directly into my eyes.

“Because if they find out you're alive, they won't come to bring you home.”

A chill ran through me.

“Then what will they come for?”

Marcus's silence lasted only a second, but it was enough.

“Your death.”