Hope's POV.
Silence.
Heavy. Sharp. Drowning.
It presses in from every corner of the room, wrapping around me like a suffocating fog. I stare at Aarden, not blinking, not breathing. Not really existing, not in the way I was a few seconds ago.
"Your mother was a werewolf. She was one of us. A daughter of my pack."
The words echo inside me, bouncing off the walls of my mind until they don’t even sound like words anymore — just noise. A roar. An avalanche that’s taken out everything I thought I knew about myself. I open my mouth, but no sound comes out.
Across the room, Lucian stiffens. His brows pull together, eyes darting toward Emory, then back to Aarden, as if silently asking, Is this what you meant? Is this the secret you couldn’t tell us before?
Emory looks just as shocked. Her mo
