“My mother,” I whispered again, staring into the fire.

Leon squatted by my side with furrowed brows. "What---what do you mean? Ivy--what was it you saw?”

I was shivering, and the fire could not warm me after the cold which had settled in my bones. “She’s alive. I saw her I saw. She was chained… in a dungeon. His dungeon.”

Leon’s jaw clenched. “Damien’s.”

I believed she was killed when rogues attacked our old pack, I said, and my voice broke. “But she did not die. All this time he has had her…

There was a crackle of silence. Damien was standing behind us, quite still, looking at me with an odd expression. Not anger. Not hatred.

It had been fright.

I looked at him, and something primitive moved in my blood - hot, bright, fierce.

I said, “You lied to me.” Always you have known what I am.

He curled his lip. you do not know what you are talking about.

“I do. I saw her, Damien. “I do. I saw her, Damien. And I saw what you’re afraid of. My blood isn’t just omega.”

I was on my feet tottering. Leon stepped to my assistance, whereupon I advanced a step.

I am a curer. A White Fang descendant. The bloodline your father attempted to delete during the War of the Thirteen Packs.

Damien made no answer.

Say it, I cried, growing angry. “You had known what I was when we met.”

His eyebrows grew dark. I did know what you might be. But you were infirm. Unawakened. Useless.”

I jerked, I was frightened, I retorted. But I am not any more.

A burst of golden light flickered across my skin, like lightning trapped beneath the surface. Leon’s eyes widened, but he didn’t move away. He stood with me.

Damien came out, gnashing his teeth. “You’re dangerous. You believe your bloodline makes you strong? You never know what you are fooling with. That magic ruined a whole packs.”.

And still you would not kill my mother, I hissed. “Why?”

And his silence was reply enough.

I puzzled it out. “You needed her. You couldn't control her, and you could not kill her. So you put her in jail. You wished I never should have wakened up.”

His hand fell into mine, Leon. His was a soft, deadly voice. “You stop threatening her.”

Damien sneered. You believe that this is finished, Leon? The goddess says she belongs to me. Fated. Marked. You are only a second chance.

“And you are just a first mistake, Leon growled."

Then, before Damien could have answered, one of his warriors came running up, out of breath and dizzy.

My King--there is there is--there is--there is--trouble at the border. Rogues. And…” He hesitated.

“What?” Damien snapped.

Word has it that the Alpha Elders are meeting. Some one has spoken of the returning of the healer.

Damien became a little pale.

I was breathing deeply and my chest was rising and falling. And the fire in my rear rose, in response to the storm in me. My babe awoke,--more powerfully than ever. Attached now to something larger than myself.

Looking between them I said, “I will go and find my mother."

Leon looked towards me. I will go with you.

I nodded.

The voice of Damien was like a whip. “You won’t survive a day in my territory.”

I said, “I survived your rejection.” I have come out of your dungeon. I outlived you. I believe I shall be all right.”

He muttered something in his throat, and made no attempt to prevent me.

He couldn’t.

Not anymore.

Some hours later that night

The pack of Leon was quick. Already he had sent messengers forward to gather allies -wolves of the old type who had served in the former war, who were devoted to the White Fang bloodline. We rode for hours until the forest thinned into rocky hills, and the crimson towers of the Crimson Moon Pack appeared on the horizon like a scar in the land.

We stopped just short of the ridge.

Below us, the dungeons stretched like a wound across the earth — a fortress buried in rock and shadow.

My mum was present.

Somewhere in that maze of stone and chains.

And I was coming for her.

Leon touched me on the shoulder. We enter at daybreak. Quiet. Fast.”

I nodded.

But I was about to reply, when a saucy shriek arose up the canyon, sharp and raw, and edged with pain.

My blood turned to ice.

It was her.

My mother