Chapter 20 Maren
MAREN
Maren woke to the smell of tea and woodsmoke.
She'd slept harder than expected, exhaustion overriding fear once her body finally gave up trying to stay alert. Gray light filtered through the shutters, and the storm had gentled to steady snowfall instead of supernatural fury.
Tristan stood at the small stove, his back to her as he poured hot water over tea leaves. He'd changed shirts, the torn one discarded near the hearth. His movements were careful, controlled, favoring his left side where the doppelg?nger had struck.
Maren climbed down from the loft quietly, her shadows stirring awake and spreading over the floor in lazy patterns. They seemed calmer this morning, less agitated than they'd been after the attack.
"You're up," Tristan said without turning. "Tea's almost ready."
"How long have you been awake?"
"Didn't sleep."
"Tristan."
"Someone needed to keep watch." He handed her a steaming mug, their fingers brushing briefly. "Storm's still going but it's lost the supernatural edge. Whatever was testing our wards gave up around dawn."
Maren wrapped her hands around the mug, seeking warmth. "You can't stay awake forever."
"I know,” was all he offered as he moved to the window, checking the perimeter with the same methodical attention he brought to everything. "We should wait until the storm clears completely before heading to the lake. Visibility's still poor."
She joined him at the window, watching snow fall thick and heavy. The world beyond the safe house had disappeared into white, making it feel like they were the only two people left in existence.
"I'm afraid," she said quietly. "Not of the doppelg?nger. Of what happens after."
"After we destroy the locket?"
"After people know what my bloodline created.
What I could become if I learned how to access those forbidden abilities.
" She sipped her tea, bitter and strong.
"The Pitch Sisters weren't just shadow witches.
They were executioners during the trials.
Used fear magic to control, to punish, to kill. That's why the bloodline was purged."
"You're not them."
"I carry their blood. Their magic." Her shadows curled tighter around her ankles. "That's why I live distant. Why I never let anyone close. Because if I lost control, if I became what they were—"
"You won't."
"How can you say that with such certainty? You haven’t known me long enough to think that." She wanted to say more but more than anything, she wanted to understand this pull to him.
Tristan turned to face her fully. "I know you spent two years in Hollow Oak without incident.
I know you maintained wards, kept to yourself, helped when asked.
I know your magic responds defensively, not offensively.
And I know that someone with the capacity for what you're describing wouldn't be so terrified of becoming it. "
"Fear isn't proof of goodness, just shows I’m resisting submission to what comes natural to me."
"What you think may come natural. And by choosing isolation over power is better than what most would have done.
" He set down his mug. "You could've used your bloodline's reputation to intimidate people.
Could've leveraged fear into respect. Instead you made yourself small, invisible, unthreatening.
That says more about who you are than what your ancestors did three hundred years ago. "
Maren wanted to believe him. To trust that blood didn't dictate destiny, that she could be more than the sum of her heritage. But she also needed to know why he so desperately needed to protect her.
"Why did you really leave the military?"
Tristan's expression shuttered. "That's not relevant."
"You said you lost people because you weren't fast enough. That's not the whole story and if you have to know mine to protect me, it’s only fair I get to know yours as well."
He was quiet for a long moment, jaw working. When he finally spoke, his voice came out flat, carefully controlled.
"I was on a mission overseas. Classified location, classified objective.
Standard rotation; six weeks deployed, two weeks home.
" He stared out at the snow. "I came back early.
Found my house surrounded by people I'd thought were neighbors.
Friends. They'd discovered what my wife was. Decided fear was enough reason to act."
Maren's chest tightened. "What was she?"
"Tiger shifter. Like me. We'd been careful, kept our nature hidden, never gave anyone reason to suspect." His hands clenched. "But someone found out. Maybe saw her shift, maybe just got suspicious. By the time I got home, they'd already killed her. Burned the house with her inside it."
Maren couldn’t even imagine, let alone know what to say. In the silence, Tristan continued to speak.
"The military wanted me to stay quiet. Said making noise would expose other shifters in the community, put more lives at risk.
So I walked away. Couldn't stomach protecting people who thought fear justified murder.
" He turned to face her. "That's why I'm here.
Why I took this job. Because Hollow Oak is supposed to be better than that.
Supposed to be a place where people like us don't have to hide. "
"But they're trying to do the same thing to me. Drive me out or worse because they're afraid."
"Yeah. And I won't let them." His ice-blue eyes caught hers steadily. "I failed her. I won't fail you."
The words were heavy with promise and pain. Maren understood now why he'd been so fierce at the town meeting, why he'd put himself in the midst of violence without hesitation. He wasn't just protecting her, he was refusing to let history repeat itself.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "For what happened to your wife. For what fear did to someone you loved."
"Don't be sorry. Just don't let them win." He moved away from the window, creating space. "That thing wearing your face wants you destroyed. Whoever activated the locket wants you gone. The town wants you exiled. From everything.”
“I could run, leave Hollow Oak in peace,” she said almost under her breath. She’d wanted to since the beginning…
“No,” Tristan said quickly. He cleared his throat, almost as if he had surprised himself at his own response.
“That’s not an option and I think you know that.
You heard the doppelg?nger. Here’s just the start.
There going to places you haven’t been yet, but it knows you.
And it will show up to those places as you.
It’ll be like it here here, only in places with no council and you won’t even know until it’s too late. ”
She felt defeated in that moment knowing he was right. Instead of defending her choice, she looked back out the window and let the silence of the unknown settle around her.
Snow continued falling outside, piling higher against the walls. The safe house felt smaller with each passing hour, intimate in a way that should've been uncomfortable, especially after their last conversation. Instead it felt almost peaceful, like they'd found shelter from more than just weather.
"Can I ask a question?" Maren said.
"Depends on the question."
"Why haven't you tried to claim another mate? It's been three years. Shifters can bond again, can't they?"
Tristan's expression went carefully blank. "Some can. Some don't."
"Which are you?"
"The kind who doesn't think about it." He moved to check the wards again, his apparent restless energy needing an outlet.
Maren wanted to ask if he'd felt anything when they'd created the joint warding circle, when their magic had wound together so perfectly it felt like breathing. But his posture screamed boundaries, and she respected that even as curiosity gnawed at her.
"We should eat something," she said instead. "If we're searching the lake today, we'll need energy."
They prepared a simple meal in silence of bread, cheese, and dried meat. The domesticity of it felt strange after days of fear and violence. Like playing house in the middle of a war.
"Tell me about the lake," Tristan said as they ate. "Where would your mother have hidden the locket?"
"Somewhere she thought I'd eventually figure out.
She knew she was dying, knew I'd inherit whatever secrets she carried.
" Maren traced patterns in crumbs on the table.
"She kept talking about water that remembers, about shadows that sleep beneath the surface.
At the time I thought it was fever dreams."
"But now?"
Maren thought for a moment. "Now I think she was trying to tell me exactly where to look without saying it outright.
" Maren met his gaze. "There's a place on the lake's north shore where the water never freezes completely.
Local legend says it's because something old sleeps there, something that predates the Veil. "
"That's where we start."
"It's also exposed. No cover. If the doppelg?nger attacks while we're searching then there’s nowhere to hide."
"We don't have time to wait for perfect conditions. Emmett gave me three days. We're down to one."
Maren nodded slowly. She knew that they to find the locket, destroy it, end the doppelg?nger, and somehow prove to the Council that she wasn't the threat everyone believed her to be in one day.
Simple.
"When the storm clears, we go," she said.
"When the storm clears," Tristan agreed.
They finished eating and cleaned up, falling into an easy rhythm that spoke of too many days spent in close quarters. Maren found herself watching him move through the space, cataloguing small things about him that would poke through when he didn’t think she was looking.
He'd lost someone to fear and spent three years carrying that failure. Now he was determined not to repeat it, even if it meant standing alone against an entire town.
They waited for weather to break and prepared for a fight that would determine whether Maren Pitch survived to see another winter in Hollow Oak. Or if the doppelg?nger wearing her face would take her place permanently.