my son has your eyes

*CHAPTER 4: MY SON HAS YOUR EYES*

The mask hit the wooden floor with a soft clack.

Silence.

For five years I had hidden behind white cloth. No one had seen my face since I left Blood Moon in the rain. Now everyone was staring.

Elder Marga was the first to cry. She fell to her knees.

"Goddess..." she whispered. "Ani... you are alive... Elara's daughter is alive..."

Luna Rhea ran forward and grabbed my hands. Her eyes were full of tears. "Ani, my child... We thought you died. Kade sent warriors to find you for weeks after you left. The Black Forest... they said no one could survive..."

I didn't look at them. I was looking at Kade.

He hadn't moved. He was still sitting on my healing table, his bare chest still marked with the black curse, his hand still holding my mask.

His golden eyes were fixed on my face.

"Ani," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

Not Ghost Healer. Ani.

Five years ago he said that name with disgust. Now he said it like a prayer.

"You lived," he said.

I pulled my hands away from Luna Rhea. "Don't act surprised, Alpha. You told me I was nothing. Nothing survives."

He flinched. The word hit him like I wanted it to.

Then Leo's little voice cut through everything again.

"Mama?"

All three of them turned.

Leo was standing in the doorway of the back room, holding his little wooden wolf, his white hair messy, his golden eyes wide and confused.

Luna Rhea gasped so loud it hurt.

"Golden eyes..." she whispered. "Kade... his eyes..."

Elder Marga's mouth fell open. "A white pup... five years old..."

Kade stood up. He shouldn't have been able to stand — the curse should have kept him down — but the soul-binding was giving him my strength. He stood, tall and shaking, and walked toward Leo.

I stepped in front of my son instantly.

"Don't come near him," I hissed, my own wolf rising. Lyra was growling inside me, protective.

Kade stopped. He looked down at me, then at Leo peeking from behind my legs.

"Is he..." Kade's voice broke. For the first time in his life, the Alpha of Blood Moon sounded scared. "Ani... is he mine?"

Leo tilted his head. "Are you the sad wolf, mister?"

Kade dropped to one knee, so he was at Leo's height. His huge, scarred body trembling.

"What is your name, little one?" he asked, his voice softer than I had ever heard it.

"Leo," Leo said proudly. "Mama says I'm brave like a lion. And my wolf is going to be white like Mama's!"

White like Mama's.

Kade closed his eyes. A single tear ran down his scarred cheek. An Alpha does not cry. But he did.

"Five years," he whispered. "He is five. You left in March. We... that night before the ceremony... at the river... we—"

"Don't," I snapped. "Don't you dare say it in front of him."

That night. The night before my birthday. Before I knew he was my mate. Kade was drunk after a border fight. I found him by the river. He was hurt, and I healed him. He kissed me. I thought he liked me. I thought...

I got pregnant that night. I didn't know until I was already deep in the Black Forest, dying.

Kade looked up at me, his golden eyes wet. "You were carrying my pup and you left? Alone?"

"You rejected me!" I shouted, tears finally breaking. "You called me nothing! Unworthy of being a mother to your pups! What was I supposed to do? Come back and beg?"

Luna Rhea started crying behind us. Elder Marga was chanting a prayer.

Kade stood up slowly and reached for me. "Ani, I was twenty-three and stupid and—"

The soul-binding chose that moment to snap fully into place.

White light exploded between our chests. The ritual was complete. My soul was now tied to his. His curse was pulled into me, and my heat was pulled into him.

Heat rushed through me like fire. My knees buckled. My scent — vanilla, moonflower, snow — flooded the entire clinic, sweet and desperate.

My first heat. And it was happening now. In front of everyone.

Kade inhaled and his entire body went rigid. His eyes turned pure black. His black wolf roared inside him so loud the windows shook.

_MATE IN HEAT!_

"Oh Goddess," Elder Marga whispered, grabbing Luna Rhea. "She is in heat... First heat... For him..."

Kade growled, a deep, possessive, guttural sound that made Leo whimper and hide behind me.

"Everyone out," Kade ordered, his voice not human anymore. It was pure Alpha wolf.

Jax grabbed Elder Marga and Luna Rhea and pulled them out, closing the door.

Now it was just us. Me, shaking with heat on the floor, Leo scared behind me, and Kade, his curse almost gone, his wolf fully awake and obsessed, staring at me like he wanted to devour me.

"Ani..." he rasped, falling to his knees in front of me, his forehead touching mine. His scent — pine, smoke, Alpha — wrapped around me and made my heat worse. "Your scent... it's killing me... I've waited five years..."

I pushed him weakly. "Don't... touch me..."

He didn't. He grabbed my hands and placed them on his own chest, over his heart where my light was still fighting his curse.

"You are burning," he whispered. "Only I can calm you. Your wolf wants me. Just like mine has wanted you every single day since you left."

Leo tugged my sleeve. "Mama, why are you hot?"

I looked at my son, then at Kade, so close his lips almost brushed mine.

And then the clinic door banged open again.

A tall man in a white cloak walked in, his face hidden, his aura stronger than even Kade's. He looked at me on the floor in heat, at Kade kneeling over me, at Leo.

And he laughed.

"So this is where the last white wolf heir has been hiding. Hello, little sister."

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