The Mute Bride

The Warning

Maureen stared at the letter, contemplating what it meant. No way, this couldn’t be happening. Could it? All these years, they had believed their daughter dead, a casualty of the m******e that had decimated their pack. If this were to be believed, then her daughter wasn’t dead, but had been kidn*pped and stolen away from everything she had known. The implications sent a tremor through her hand, giving away the distress she was feeling even though she tried to keep her voice calm. “Where did you get this?”

She looked at her mother with a pointed look, clearly telling her that she knew where she got it. Turning it over, she showed her mother the seal, tapping her index against it twice for emphasis. There was no denying its source or that it was real. This was happening, as weird and unreal as it may feel. “But that means…well, that means she was kidn*pped!”

“kidn*pped?” she questioned, her head tilting as she considered what her mother was saying. Thinking over the story her mother had shared, she mused, “Did he fake her death when he attacked your pack?” What was the point of decimating the pack if he was just going to kidnap her? Why kidnap her in the first place? What was so special about her older sister that he would go to such lengths? These were the burning questions that she wanted to ask.

“That’s the only thing that I can figure out. We thought she died with the rest of the women and children who were brutally murdered by those monsters. There was no evidence that she survived the attack, and no evidence that they were after her the whole time. We just assumed that denying his request had angered him, and he took it out on the pack to punish us,” Maureen answered thoughtfully, as if remembering the moment it was all taking place. “I can’t understand why he would be reaching out now, or even how he would have found out about you.”

“What do you mean?” Her head tilted as she posed the question through the packlink, not having thought of that. She had been so focused on whether it was true and why this was the first she heard of it that she hadn’t considered how a sister so estranged would know of her existence. “How do you think they found out where I was?”

“Not where you were, Ky, where we were.”

“What do you mean?”

“We barely escaped with our lives and have lived in isolation here ever since. No one even knows where we came from. How could they possibly have known where we are? I don’t think you should trust anything that comes from that man.”

Kylan looked down at the paper in her mother’s hand, thinking. Her mother was right; she should be careful, but how could she ignore the sister she didn’t know she had, the sister she needed to know? Taking the letter, she pointed to the part that mentioned her sister dying and wanting her near. How could she deny such a request, she tried to impart upon her mother. Besides, it wasn’t like he wanted her. Her sister was his Luna, and she was merely a beta’s youngest daughter. That’s how anyone would see it. No one knew she came from an Alpha bloodline outside of them and their Alpha’s family. The family she was marrying into. Taking Carter with her granted her some safety as the new Alpha’s mate and Luna. There would be plenty of time to go meet her sister and come back to attend her training. “I’ll take Carter with me; it’ll be okay. Everything will be fine, you’ll see. But — don’t you want to see her?”

“Well, of course I want to see her. She’s my daughter. I just want us to be careful if we’re going to go see her,” Maureen rushed to assure her daughter, her mind already spinning as she considered the trip. “We’ll have to go as soon as possible; I can be ready by morning.”

She looked up with concern, motioning for her mother to slow down a little. She needed to be here for her birthday — it was the day she would finally get her first shift. It was important for a wolf to experience their first shift with their home pack, or they could stunt their wolf. The ceremony bonded them to the pack, to their alpha and allowed any wolf powers to flow through and awaken her senses to their fullest potential. Without it, they could lose access to their wolf powers completely.

Kylan thought over everything that she had learned as she read over the letter once again. It was crucial that she be at her strongest when she went to meet her sister and her Alpha, and that could only happen once she had her wolf. The ceremony was important for any wolf, but knowing that she was actually of Alpha blood, she didn’t have the luxury of ignoring the customs. A simple beta’s daughter didn’t have to worry about cursing herself and her pack, but an Alpha’s daughter had to be careful. Alpha wolves that didn’t do the ceremony tended to go mad, feral and without any reason. They killed indiscriminately and entered a never-ending heat that nothing could sate. A barren, cursed she-wolf was useless, best to be put down. There was no way she was going to let that happen to her, to Carter.

Shaking her head, she put the letter in her pocket. Pointing to the calendar where her birthday was circled, she emphasized why she couldn’t leave that fast and watched as the realization washed over Maureen. A week and she would have her wolf.

“Fine, you’re right. We’ll wait till after your ceremony,” her mother reluctantly agreed, accepting that she couldn’t just take off sight unseen for unknown situations. The ceremony came first, but she couldn’t help the part of her that wanted to take off running for the Crescent River pack. Lisette, her beautiful Lisette, was alive. She wouldn’t rest until she held her in her arms once more. “Mommy’s coming, Lizzy” she murmured aloud.