SUSANNAH.TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO.“Do you know how you got that scar on your neck?” I whispered, lifting my eyes to Nathaniel as I made him a cup of coffee. The stove flames cracked in the silence of the room before I spoke. He was only just sitting in that chair, staring blankly around the chamber walls.Then his eyes met mine, just as he shook his head. “No” There was a crack in his voice and a faded smile that crept to my lips as I remembered that day.“I used to take you out in the sun, you would cry every afternoon if I ever forgot so one day, I was cradling you in my arms. I just needed you to stay still for a moment,” I scoffed. “So I placed you in the wooden bassinet for just a second while I went to attend to something inside.”“And before I knew it, you’d rolled out of it and fallen to the ground. You scratched the side of your neck against the floor but the thing is you didn’t even cry. I think that was the moment I knew you were very strong and Gerald could tell too because
SUSANNAH.TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO."I don't understand..." My moist eyes fell on Nathaniel as my heart leaped into the back of my throat. My mind was racing with everything he’d just said and I could barely even believe his words.But I could see it in his eyes how sure and certain he was of what he said, no matter how outrageous it did sound. I hadn’t seen my son in four months, you know how it ended the last time but here he somehow was, back on my doorstep, delivering the absolute worst of news.A tear dropped from my eyes and a sniffle went up my nose. I turned around while Nathaniel walked in. “I don’t understand” My hands swept through my hair. “I thought…I thought being a Hybrid would mean that you’re stronger. I mean I thought it makes you stronger” I muttered.“But you’re basically saying that my body isn’t strong enough to house a second child and see her to delivery?” I stared in astonishment back at him and Nathaniel pushed a hard lump down his throat.“I’ve come to learn t
SUSANNAH.TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO.Months later, Nathaniel was standing was standing right opposite me and I broke the idea to him. His jaw was agape but I could barely tell what he was thinking.“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” I questioned, eyes bright on the pinnacle of a solution but Nathaniel heaved a sigh. “It’s way too risky, mum. You can’t do that. You can’t suppress your Witch side just like that” He said.“You can, there’s a reason the spell is in this book, a reason it exists. I’m tired, I’m just done. I don’t want to be a Hybrid anymore, sometimes I just want to be a werewolf like Gerald. Like everyone else, I’m tired of being different and the good thing is, killing one side would also free you”“Think about it, the Witches would no longer be after you, after any of us. We could be a family, Nathaniel. You, me and Eliana. She won’t have to go through what I went through because she would be normal too and if normal means just a werewolf, I would take it in this instance” I ar
ELIANA.THE PRESENT DAY. My eyes fluttered open to the fluorescent lights and it took a while for me to adjust to it but when I did, the first person I saw was Denver. He took a seat right next to me on my bed, running his hands through my hair.His eyes met my half-open ones as I struggled to sit up. Looking around, he wasn't the only person there. My Nana was too and my Dad. And there was something intense about the searing silence around us."What happened?" My head rang with a migraine as I sat up. Denver caressed my face. "You're okay" He whispered. The hairs across my arm remained stiff and my memory was a blur. But that was seconds before it hit me."Nathaniel" I muttered, looking over my shoulders. "Where is he?" His last words flooded back to me and my stomach tied into a knot. "I remember" I whispered to Denver. "It's him. He's Boy—all this time, it has been him" I said and he hefted out something in his hands.It was my Mother's journal and it was open."It opened, Eliana"
ELIANA.“Eliana!” Denver called as I brushed past his shoulders. For a moment, his hands slipped through mine but he was unable to grasp me backward. Something about my last words has struck him like a blow. He was riled up while I, on the other hand was manic.Everything had come down to this—the moment I realized my mother had indeed found a way to break the Hybrid Curse and even though I knew the risks, I was still willing to take them. Because just like her, I think I don’t want to be a Hybrid anymore and I don’t want Elijah nor the baby when she’s grown to have to face these difficult choices.Having to constantly look over your shoulders, spending your whole life waiting for the next shoe to drop because as long as you’re this, there’s always going to be something and I was just done. But most of all, I sought a way to protect my kids.No one would understand that, I resolved. Not even Denver.“Are you out of your mind?!” His voice broke, echoing through the halls as he paced ri
ELIANA."He's gone!" I burst through the doors, grasping the attention of both my Grandmother and my Dad. The latter especially who had an arch between his brows as he turned around.I clenched my fist with an unwavering amount of anxiety and panic and Denver sauntered in right next to me. "Nathaniel seems to have escaped his dungeon" He reiterated and the guards by command stepped forward."He's not in here, the windows were left open with fur laying all around and bloody paw prints on the floor" I told my Dad. "He may have left the Pack—" "Well, he's not going anywhere far" He seemed confident as he stood up from his chair. His Beta Phil mounted a stance next to him."Relax, when he was unconscious, it was your Grandmother's idea to put a tracker on him" Dad said and I let out a sigh, partially from relief. "You put a tracker on him?" I asked as Phil reached for a phone laying on the table. My Dad collected it before inching closer to Denver and I."I mean your brother has been missi
ELIANA.My husband and I strutted into the woods that evening. The sun had almost disappeared from the skies, leaving a gloomy dark atmosphere hanging around us. I kicked my limbs forward, clinging to the earth with my hands and moving further in the direction of Nathaniel’s scent.There was a faint presence in the air that belonged to him. The tracker had led us here but a smudge of his blood enabled me to do a locator spell that pinpointed exactly where he was. And when we had gotten closer to the edge of the hills, Denver and I finally came to a halt.I breathed out through my snout and mouth, throwing a look over my silver fur back to him. We looked around, everywhere seemed empty and lonely but undoubtedly, this was where the scent had led us.We communicated with our eyes when suddenly, there was a snap sound from a distance, like a twig broken by someone’s foot. I faced my back against Denver’s as we navigated our surroundings. My claws shot into the ground as I glistened my f
ELIANA.Walking back into my room felt strange.I couldn’t help the million thoughts that raced through my mind. I closed the door behind me as a gust of wind blew into my face. I stuck my fingers into my hair, sniffling my nose as well and then my eyes met Denver for a second. I retired to the edge of the bed where I sat.I hadn’t felt this dispirited and just down in a really long time. Was the weight of a decision I was still yet to make or was it finding out Nathaniel was with the Witches—that my own brother sided against me.I couldn’t even blame him. You know it felt like I shouldn’t have been mad. Aurora was right, Nate had been running his entire life, he was only trying to save himself and besides we’d just met. But he was taken away before we even had any chance at rekindling whatever sibling bond we shared. He still thought I was the reason for our mother’s death.That she chose me or whatever the full-blood Witches had brainwashed him into believing. But none of that was t