CORA'S POV:-

After buying flowers for my mother, I walked straight towards the house my mother lived in. It used to be my home. But not in the last six years. I never knew why my mother would do something like that. I mean, I never did anything to trouble her. I never once disrespected her. I always listened to her. I obeyed everything she told me. Then I told myself that my mother might have a reason why she gave me to Alpha as his slave.

I opened the door quietly and stepped into the house. It was more like a cabin. I placed flowers and a ring I bought for my mother on the table and walked towards her bedroom. To my surprise, she was not in her bedroom.

I looked around all over the house, but she was nowhere to be found. I started to get worried. It was not that late but my mother hardly left the house after sunset. I went towards the basement to see if she was there. But the basement was also empty. Then I saw a bunch of flower petals on the floor. It was more like a trail. I followed the trail, thinking I might be able to find my mother. The trail took me towards the back door of the cabin. I peeked my head out and found that trail leading towards the forest. I gulped hard as I was afraid of the dark. But I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to see with my own eyes that my mother was fine.

Taking a deep breath, I started following the trail of the flower petals. I made sure my steps were quiet, I didn't want anyone to know that I was there. For some reason, I had a feeling like something was wrong. My eyes widened as I found my mom in the middle of the forest. She was sitting by the bonfire. Its flames were different from the normal flames. Normally bonfire lights were orange and yellow. That bonfire's flames were ice blue. As if it was not fire but ice. She had three deer heads in front of her. She was roasting a deer on another bonfire that was lit up about five feet away.

It looked like she was preparing a surprise meal for me. A smile broke on my face. Knowing that my mother was preparing a meal for me. It was not like I hadn't eaten anything in ages that she cooked for me. She brought food from home once or sometimes twice a week. But it surely had been a very long time since she and I sat under the roof that I called home and ate together. "I was just being overly dramatic. She is just preparing food for me. I should go back home. If she saw me, she would be sad. Because her surprise would be ruined." I thought to myself while smiling widely. I just didn't want to ruin her day as well.

As I was turning around, my eyes caught the sight of something that was definitely not part of preparing a treat for your daughter. It was a spell circle. It was about a ten feet radius spell circle. It had a big hexagram in it. I saw six hearts of different animals in each triangle the star had. And in the centre of the star, there were two bonfires. One was normal and the other stinked like magic. My eyes also popped out of their sockets as I saw my mother in a spell circle. My mother was a born wolf. It was almost impossible for a wolf to perform magical rituals like that. For some reason, I was unable to shake that fearful feeling inside my chest.

Instead of going back, I decided to hide behind the rock that was a bit far from the spell circle. It was perfectly the safe distance from the spell circle and a perfect lookout point. The rock had a bunch of dandelions on it. Even if my mom looked my way, it would be impossible for her to see me. Well, unless she used her wolf. Which would have spotted me right away. My mom looked cautious while she was performing the ritual. As if she was a thief or a criminal, commiting a sin. It was a little disturbing why she hadn't spotted me while she was looking around after every three to five minutes to make sure she was all alone.

She applied the blood she had in a bowl on her face. Then she covered her face with the flower petals. "I know I made a mistake by trusting him. All this long, I have been hiding her from him. All this long, I have kept her wolf sleeping. But now I can see it clearly. I know what you have been doing all this long. You were just closing your circle around me so that you could snatch her away from me. I was just too blind to see that. But not anymore." My mother yelled loudly as she started pouring a potion in a pot she placed on top of the blue fire. For some reason, I had this feeling that she was talking about me.

I knew that my mother had been doing everything she could to keep me safe. It never occurred to me that she was practically hiding me from someone. It made sense why she would give me up to the Alpha of the pack as the slave. No one would come looking for me at the Alpha's mansion. "virtutes latent in umbris. Deprecor te ut mihi vires iterum dones. Oro te ut mea potestas iterum sit. Iterum a te peto auxilium. quaeso! iterum da mihi fortitudinem tuam." My started chanting loudly as she started cooking something in the pot. I couldn't help but gulp hard. I didn't understand a thing that she said but I had this gut feeling that she was not doing anything right.

I smelled mischief and darkness around me as I watched her. "Posteritas deae Dianae me adiuvisti. Iterum volo eandem potestatem. sic ego tam lupum eius necare possum. Mihi necesse est illum lupum necare. oro, dono tibi lupum ex posteris deae Dianae hoc tempore mercedem." She added in the same tone as she used before. It almost sounded as if she was pleading to someone. As if she was begging. I felt my heart being squeezed after seeing her like that. I had no idea what she was saying. But I thought she was trying to do something to protect me from whatever danger that was coming my way. She kept stirring the potion in the pot while she screamed at the sky.

"I made a mistake. I should never have trusted you. All this long, I kept Cora's wolf asleep inside her. All these years, I have been feeding her all kinds of magical potions so her wolf would never wake up. It is the time when I have done something I should have done a long time ago. I should have done it when she was born." My eyes widened in horror as she yelled at the moon loudly. Tears welled up in my eyes as I heard her words. In fact, my brain kept repeating her words inside my head. I felt a lump in my throat when I realised what she did. I couldn't believe it. It was her all along.

I couldn't believe my ears. My chest burned with this rage inside me when her words finally started to make sense. All these years, I was miserable. All these years, the pack outcasted me because I wasn't like them. Because I was different. I told my mother every time my classmates used to bully me because I never had my wolf. I showed her every single bruise and wound on my body those wolves gave me just because I was weak and I couldn't fight them. "I made her wolf sleep. And made sure her wolf would never wake up. I couldn't afford Cora to get her powers." My throat started to burn as well. All I heard was pure hatred in her voice for me.

I was breathing heavily as my tears flowed nonstop. "cum potentiae magicae obscuri, ultimum deae Dianae lupum decendentem occidam. nulla itaque impedimenta inter me ac libertatem meam relicta sunt. o dea Hala, magorum magorum regina, da robur et pro te accipias meum donum. abneptis lupum deae Artemis, dea luporum." My mother roared loudly at the sky as she added blood to the pot. I couldn't stop crying. I stood up and ran in the other direction. My whole body started to ache as I ran deeper into the woods. All the miserable moments, all those times when I should be a proud student at the werewolf academy, I just lived like a failure. I was not sure why my own mother would do that to me. I was not sure if she was that afraid of me.

I tripped over something and fell on the ground. My face hit the ground hard. I could feel something oozing from my mouth and my nostrils. While my eyes didn't stop shedding tears. I wiped my face and looked at my hands that were drenched with my own blood. I turned my face towards the sky and screamed at the top of my lungs. Because of the selfish decision my mother made for me without asking for my consent, I was worried if Alpha Alvin would ever let me be with Roden. He was my mate. I knew he would never lie to me. And I loved him too. But I could lose my mate just because of what my mother did to me.

Suddenly, I fell on the ground again as if someone pushed me. But there was no one around me. I cried in pain as all my bones started to break on their own one by one. My muscles started burning and my bones were readjusting themselves. I couldn't do anything but cry in pain. I was not sure if the pain all over my body was more painful or the way this truth was hurting me was more painful. My body started to get covered by the white fur. I slowly closed my eyes as I started to get tired. After a busy day at the mansion and that pain, it was taking all the strength I had.

I was sure I was just dying. Because it looked that way. I closed my eyes and accepted my destiny. "It would be better if I just died. My misery will end here. No one will ever get hurt because of me. And I won't have to live a life without Roden." I thought as I closed my eyes and let that pain kill me once and for all. The darkness engulfed me in its arms as if she was my mother. With a smile on my face, I let my soul drive away from my body.

It felt like a few minutes. I felt like I was in a different place. A few minutes ago, it was dark. Suddenly, I felt like a bright light was focused on my face. "What is this? Am I dead already? Is this the light everyone talks about? The bright light that leads everyone to heaven." I thought as I tried to open my eyes.

I slowly opened my eyes. But I had to shut my eyes again. The light was almost blinding. It took me about three minutes to finally be able to adjust my eyes. I looked around and found myself lying in an unfamiliar forest. I shivered as a chilly breeze hit my naked body. I sat up and looked at my body. I screamed loudly at the top of my lungs. I was naked but my whole body was covered with someone's blood. Shreds of muscles and bones and scattered all over the place. I could taste this usual metallic taste inside my mouth. I started breathing heavily and my chest started to hurt. I was not sure if dead people could have panic attacks. Because I was having one and I knew it.