46
Mother?” I echo.
Confusion barrels through me. A freight train smashing through my body and mind, demolishing what remains.
Mother…
That’s not possible. Sinclair is the son of Queen Sybil Severi. He… he’s…
A liar , my bones shriek. Ever since he bit me, he’s been nothing but a liar and a traitor.
Yet, even as I think it, it doesn’t feel fair. He protected me. He cared for me. I glance at him—the boy who almost became my fiancé—and he frowns in response.
“You couldn’t know yet.” He approaches slowly. Warily. The wolves part for him without hesitation. “I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know everything , but… she said you weren’t ready for it.”
“ She being his mother,” the woman says, making her way toward us in a cotton sweater and jeans.
The modern clothes oppose the crown and the regal way she carries herself.
It almost paints a less dangerous picture until she licks her fangs.
“Hello, Vanessa, darling. My name is Cora Severi. It is so lovely to see you again.”
No.
Cora Severi.
Oh god, no .
I swallow a wave of sick. The blood traitor.
Calix’s mother. I glance at Calix with wide eyes.
His arms fall limp, and without him to keep her standing, Portia collapses in the mud and blood.
Carnage splatters her hands and soils her gauzy white dress as she sits in it, shaking.
Calix doesn’t notice her terror. He doesn’t notice anything else but the woman—Cora, his mother.
“Mom?” he asks, his voice breaking on the word, betraying almost two decades of pain and trauma.
Cora laughs, however, a bark so devoid of humor—of emotion—it sounds entirely inhuman. “No.” She glances at Queen Sybil and says, “Do you want to tell them, Sister? Or shall I?”
“No,” Sybil spits. “You are dead. I left you to die .”
Sin snaps his head toward her, and a growl reverberates through him.
Cora grins at this, a sign of his obvious loyalty and unwavering obedience, and my heart sinks. Oh, Sin. I want to throttle him. I want to hurt him.
“You left me, yes, but I did not die. Do you think your betrayal was unexpected? You’ve been lusting after my crown from the moment you realized what being younger meant for you.
Sybil the Spare.” Cora’s eyes darken. “I knew when I found a small glimmer of happiness that you would steal it from me.”
Sybil’s lip curls back, revealing two sharp fangs dripping with blood. “You stole it from yourself. You killed your lover.”
“I couldn’t give a fuck about my human lover.
He was nothing to me,” Cora snarls. Lie , I think as hot magma engulfs my heart.
She’s lying. But her eyes are hollow, totally void of any regret or grief.
Her nostrils flare. “You cast me out, assuming you could force me to become a Lone Wolf, but I did not.” Cora raises her hands as if she’s conducting a great symphony, and her strange pack rises.
Now that the battle has diminished, I see more of their transformation incongruities.
Mismatched limbs. Crooked fingers instead of claws.
Shriveled, gnarled spines. They’re… morphed.
Caught between man and monster. “I merely created a family who would not abandon me.”
I gasp.
The Bitten humans— Celeste .
Cora did it. She bit them. She bit all of them. My eyes flick from the pack of wolves back to Cora’s venomous scowl, and suddenly the lack of humanity makes sense. She sacrificed her soul .
“Sin,” I whisper, the words spilling from numb lips, “what have you done?”
Instead of answering, he extends an anguished hand toward me, fear washing over him. True, palpable terror at his own actions. But Cora strolls over to us and swats away that hand, pulling him toward her. “ Son ,” she says. “You did it.”
The melodic adoration is a lie, however, even if her words are not. I can feel it.
She cups his face and presses a maternal kiss to his cheeks. “I am so proud of you.”
“It… it wasn’t meant to be this way,” he repeats, ripping himself from her grasp. He stumbles back to my side, and Cora tracks the movement. Our closeness. Her gaze narrows, and she licks her lips before forcing another grin.
“They did not surrender,” Cora says simply. “That was their choice.”
Sybil shoves past the strange wolves, hurling one away from her with remarkable strength while the rest remain frozen in silent observation.
Cora commands them not to attack, even as her sister walks up with her claws drawn, sliding in front of Sin as if to protect him.
“There was no way for you to know,” Sybil says, colder than ever before.
“There was no way for you to know about the babies.”
The babies.
Sin tenses beside me. And Calix—his chest heaves. His knuckles crack, but he resists the change, his eyes rapt on Cora’s and Sybil’s faces.
Cora raises a brow. “You think I would not know my own child from the other? You think I would disregard my own blood and bone like you have done?” Cora steps up to Sybil—they’re the same height.
The same shade of pale rage. Neither backs down, and it’s like standing in the midst of a minefield, waiting for the impending explosion.
Because it is going to come. This isn’t over.
The battle… the ambush… It wasn’t the end.
I want to take Sin’s hand; I need his reassurance the way I need air, but…
he’s not my Sin anymore. He can’t reassure me now.
“What are you talking about?” Calix turns to his cousin, stricken. Shaking his head as if to clear it. “What does my mother—what does she mean? What the fuck is going on here?”
Cora glances behind Sybil, in time to see Calix storm past the wolves.
Portia stays crouching in the mud, and Lyra joins her there.
Evie remains compelled outside the circle.
The wolves don’t care about the girls, though.
They watch Calix, their necks craning to follow his stiff movements.
Cora glowers at him, even as Sin reaches out to his cousin. “Calix—”
Calix snaps his arm away from the prince’s grasp. And then—his gaze collides with mine. It softens. “You weren’t involved?” he asks. I manage to shake my head, and he looks to Evie next. “You?” he asks her, and she blinks tearfully.
“I didn’t… I didn’t want to,” she sputters.
I’ve never heard Evie sound so undone before.
“Cora snatched me on the beach. She brought me back to a dark cave, and she—she compelled me.” Evie’s red-hot eyes flick to mine, and fresh tears spill down her cheeks.
“I couldn’t say anything. But…” She shivers against the compulsion now.
“She promised. She promised they wouldn’t be hurt . ”
Calix curses.
“I swore to save those who surrendered,” Cora says, shrugging and gesturing to the few survivors, “and I have kept my word, have I not?”
Evie snarls, and I—I can’t stay silent another second. “They died. They all died .”
Cora pivots slowly, tilting her head as she studies me intently.
Her eyes rove from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, and something— hungry shifts within them.
I’ve seen the same look in Sybil’s eyes a million times.
“And yet… you remain alive.” She waves a magnanimous hand. “A gift from yours truly.”
The hair on my neck lifts, despite how Sin laces his fingers through mine and squeezes. I can’t look at him. I never want to look at him again. How could he be so stupid ?
As if sharing the same thought, Calix glares between his aunt and cousin. “Explain yourselves,” he growls.
The wolf nearest him moves closer, hackles raised. Their back left leg is missing.
Cora glides forward to pat his cheek. “I would watch your tone if I were you.”
“I’m terrified,” he deadpans, and I can practically see his defenses rising. Sin’s betrayal—and Cora’s and Sybil’s—surprised him, but he won’t let them have the upper hand again. He won’t let them see his hurt.
Her nails curl into his cheek. “You think you’re so brave, don’t you, Calix?
So strong . You’re a general. A Protector.
You fought for a queen who refused to acknowledge your existence.
You defended a prince who has everything you’ve ever wanted.
” Her eyes flick to me with a knowing gleam, but that—that isn’t possible.
She can’t know. She returns her attention to Calix, who looks as if he’s turned to stone.
“You’ve poured every bit of your soul into this court, and how did they repay you?
Oh wait—they didn’t want you either.” Blood wells beneath her fingers now, but Calix refuses to flinch.
To blink. She smiles—sharp and white and cruel. “You are so like your father.”
Then she shoves his face away, and he yields a single step. “You’ll die like him too,” she says flatly. At the agitated look on Sin’s face, however, she sighs. “But for my son’s sake, I’ll indulge you.”
We all wait on bated breath as she straightens her crown, smooths her hair.
“For fuck’s sake, Mother,” Sin snaps.
“ Your mother,” she says to Calix without missing a beat, “switched our babies upon the birth of Sinclair. As per our bargain, I brought him to Castle Severi on the morning of his delivery, and Sybil took him in. She saw the deep red of his eyes and immediately realized his strength would be a threat to her and her rule.” She clasps her hands behind her back, nudging aside Katerina’s body to stroll around the circle.
“All the while, she was nursing her own son. A boy born frail and feeble, months premature, with the yellow eyes of a Beta.”