CHAPTER 7

“Your death.”

For a moment, I couldn't speak. I stared at him, waiting for him to tell me he was exaggerating or trying to frighten me into behaving. But he didn't, his face remained serious, and the look in his eyes made my stomach tighten.

I had spent years being treated like I was nobody. In my old pack, I was the weak one, the girl nobody thought was worth protecting. Aiden had made me feel unwanted, Seraphina had maltreated me, token everything I ever loved and the worst of all betrayed me, Vera had spent years making my life miserable. Now I was standing in a strange pack, listening to a man who claimed to be my uncle tell me that my own people might want me dead.

“What did I do to deserve that?” My voice came out quieter than I intended. “I've never had any power. My wolf has barely been able to make herself heard. Why would anyone be afraid of me?”

Marcus's expression softened slightly, but I noticed the way his fingers tightened around the edge of the desk.

“Because what you carry isn't something that can be measured by the strength you have today.”

“Then explain it to me!” I snapped, taking a step towards him. “You keep talking about my bloodline as if I'm supposed to know what that means. You tell me my father spent years protecting me, but nobody protected me when I needed it. Where were you when my family fell apart?”

The question struck harder than I expected. My anger had come from somewhere deeper than the fear I was trying to hide. I had spent so long wishing someone would notice how badly I was hurting that now, standing in front of someone who might actually know my family, I didn't know whether to demand answers or turn away before he could disappoint me too.

Marcus lowered his eyes briefly “I wasn't there,” he admitted. “And I have lived with that failure for longer than you can imagine.”

His answer caught me off guard; I had expected excuses, perhaps another warning about the dangers of asking too many questions. Instead, there was regret in his voice, and for the first time, I wondered whether the man standing before me carried his own share of the pain.

“Why weren't you there?” I asked.

He looked at me again. “That is one of the things I intend to explain, but not everything can be told in one conversation Amelia. Some truths require you to understand what they mean before you can survive what follows.”

I wanted to argue, but a sudden warmth spread through my lower abdomen.

It was faint, almost like a small wave of heat passing through me, but it was familiar, I had felt something similar when I was with the Moon Goddess. My hand moved instinctively to my stomach, and the memory of her words came rushing back.

You are carrying a life.

The thought made my chest ache; I hadn't had enough time to understand what the Goddess had told me, let alone decide what kind of mother I would become. I was still trying to understand why my mate had rejected me, why my sister had betrayed me, and why I had been given another chance at life.

Yet there was someone else to think about now, someone who had no idea how cruel the world could be.

I pressed my palm more firmly against my stomach.

Are you all right? I asked my wolf silently.

For a moment, there was no response. Then I felt her stir, not with the familiar weakness I had grown used to, but with a quiet alertness that made me straighten.

The little one is here, she whispered.

I glanced at Marcus, wondering whether he had noticed the change in my expression. He was watching me carefully.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing.” I lowered my hand too quickly.

His eyes narrowed. “Amelia.”

“I said am fine.”

He didn't look convinced, but before he could question me further, my gaze fell to the silver mark on my wrist. It had faded slightly, though it hadn't disappeared completely. The shape of it looked different in the light, and suddenly I remembered something I had almost forgotten.

The necklace, the one I had made for Aiden.

I could still picture it lying on the desk after I had left it behind, I had never imagined that something so ordinary could become tangled in so many unanswered questions.

Then there was the similar necklace I had later found in my room.

At the time, I had thought the confusion surrounding it was simply another cruel trick meant to turn everyone against me. But what if there was something about the design that I had never understood?

“Marcus,” I said slowly, “do you know anything about a silver necklace?”

His expression changed, it was only a brief movement, a slight tightening around his eyes, but I saw it.

“What kind of necklace?”

I described the one I had carved for Aiden, including the symbol I had placed on it without knowing its significance. I explained how another necklace with a similar design had appeared in my room, and how the confusion surrounding it had made everything worse.

By the time I finished, the color had drained slightly from his face.

“Where did you see that symbol?” he asked.

“On the necklace. I made it myself. Why?”

He didn't answer immediately instead, he walked towards the desk and opened the drawer where he had kept the old family album. He searched beneath a stack of papers before pulling out a small sheet covered in faded writing.

Then he turned it towards me, drawn in dark ink, was the same symbol I had carved into the necklace.

I stared at it, unable to understand how something I had created without any special knowledge could appear on a document belonging to my family.

“Where did you get that?” I whispered.

“It belonged to your father.”

I looked up sharply “My father?”

Marcus nodded “He kept records of certain things connected to your family. I didn't understand all of them, and he never explained everything to me. But I recognized that symbol the moment you described it.”

I stepped closer to the desk, studying the drawing. The symbol was more detailed than the one on my necklace, with several fine lines surrounding its centre. I had copied only part of it without realizing what it was.

“Does it have anything to do with my bloodline?”

“Probably.”

The answer came so quickly that I looked at him in surprise.

“Then tell me what it means.”

Marcus took a slow breath “I believe the symbol is connected to the power your family carried. But I won't pretend to know everything about it, your father was careful about what he shared, even with me.”

That answer frustrated me, but at least it was honest. I glanced down at my wrist again. “Why is it appearing on my skin?”

Marcus's face grew serious.

“I don't know for certain. But if your mark is reacting to that symbol, then something in you may be awakening.”

The words should have excited me. Instead, fear settled deep in my chest.

I didn't want to become powerful just to prove that Aiden had been wrong about me. I didn't want to become someone other packs feared, I just wanted answers. I wanted to understand why my family had been destroyed and why a woman who now called herself my stepmother had appeared in a photograph with my parents long before she married my father.

And I wanted to know whether the child I carried would inherit whatever it was that had made my family so dangerous.

“Marcus,” I said, my voice trembling despite my efforts to control it, “if my bloodline is so powerful, could it affect my child too?”

He looked at me, or the first time, His eyes dropped briefly to my stomach before returning to my face.

“Your child?”

I froze, I didn’t mean to tell him, the words had escaped before I could stop them, and now I couldn't take them back.

I swallowed, trying to steady my voice. “I just found out too.”

Marcus remained silent for several seconds; the surprise on his face slowly gave way to something I couldn't quite identify.

“When exactly?”

“When I met with the moon goddess.”

“You’ve seen the moon goddess?”

“Yes that’s was when I was given the second chance”

He turned away, running a hand over his face. Whatever he was thinking, he didn't seem prepared for this revelation. When he finally looked at me again, his expression was different, not frightened exactly, but deeply troubled.

“Does anyone else know?”

“No.”

“Keep it that way for now.”

My stomach tightened “Why? Is my baby in danger too?”

“I'm not saying that” His voice softened when he saw my expression. “But until we understand what is happening to you, I don't want anyone making assumptions about your child or your bloodline.”

I wanted to believe that for once, someone was trying to protect me rather than control me. But I had learned the hard way that a person's words could sound comforting while their intentions remained hidden.

Whatever happened next, I couldn't afford to be careless anymore, because I wasn't just fighting for myself now. I was fighting for the life growing inside me.

Marcus returned the paper to the drawer, but before he could close it, I noticed something written at the bottom. The writing was faint, almost erased by time, yet one sentence remained clear enough for me to read.

If the mark awakens, the heir must never return to the place where it began.

“What does that mean?”

He followed my gaze, and the moment he saw the sentence, his expression changed completely.

“Where did you say you found that necklace?”

I stared at him, confused by the sudden urgency in his voice.

“I told you, I made it for Aiden.”

“Before or after you found the second one?”

“Before” I frowned. “Why does that matter?”

Marcus slowly closed the drawer “because the symbol on your necklace isn't just a family mark, Amelia.”

He paused, and I watched the muscles in his jaw tighten.

“It's a warning.”

My blood ran cold “A warning about what?”

“About what happens when someone discovers the truth about your birth.”

Before I could demand an explanation, he suddenly looked toward the window.

“Get away from the window!” he shouted.

I barely had time to react before a sharp crack shattered the silence, and the glass behind me exploded inward.