What My Mother Left Behind
1461 Words
Anaya stared at the man who had just called himself her father.
For years, she had believed her father was dead. Roman had confirmed it. Her mother had never spoken about him, and every question had been met with silence.
“You knew where I was all this time?” Anaya asked.
Her father looked away. “I knew you were alive.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Before he could answer, Roman stepped forward. “Anaya, listen to him.”
She turned on Roman. “Why? So he can give me another lie?”
Her father finally met her eyes. “Because the truth is worse than you think.”
He told her their family carried the blood of the first werewolves, the original Alpha bloodline. That blood had been feared for generations because it could command other werewolves.
“The Blood Council wants you,” he said. “They believe you are the last person who can awaken the full power of that blood.”
Anaya looked at the crescent mark on her wrist. It was glowing again.
A growl came from outside.
Then another.
The building shook as wolves surrounded it.
Roman moved closer. “Stay behind me.”
“No.”
The word left Anaya's mouth before she could stop it.
Every wolf outside became silent.
Her father stared at her.
“They heard you,” he whispered.
Anaya's pulse raced. She hadn't shouted. She hadn't even meant to command them.
“That is what you inherited,” her father said. “The first bloodline doesn't always need words.”
A wolf slammed against the entrance.
Roman's men rushed toward the doors, but another impact sent them stumbling backward.
“Why are they here?” Anaya demanded.
Her father answered quietly. “Because they know about the child.”
Anaya froze.
Roman's expression changed.
“They know I'm pregnant?”
“They know the child carries both bloodlines,” her father said. “Yours and Roman's. If the child survives, those bloodlines could unite.”
“And what happens then?”
“The person who controls your child could control every Alpha in this region.”
Anaya felt sick.
For the first time, she understood why everyone had lied to her.
She wasn't being protected because she was weak.
She was being hidden because everyone wanted what was inside her blood.
Roman reached for her hand, but she pulled away.
“You rejected me,” she said. “You lied about my father. You knew my mother. You knew what I was.”
“I knew some of it,” Roman said.
“You knew enough.”
His jaw tightened. “My father ordered me to stay away from you. He said if I refused, he would have you killed.”
Anaya stared at him.
“And you believed him?”
“I was young. I was afraid. I thought rejecting you would keep you alive.”
“It didn't,” she said. “It only made me face all of this alone.”
Her father lowered his head.
“I made mistakes too.”
Anaya turned toward him. “What did you do?”
He hesitated.
Then he said, “Your mother was killed because she refused to hand you over to the Blood Council.”
Anaya's breath caught.
“I took you away after that. I thought distance would protect you. But Roman's father found us.”
“And then?”
“He threatened your life.”
The words landed heavily.
Her father admitted he had been forced to choose between protecting Anaya and revealing where she was.
“I told them where you were,” he said.
Silence filled the room.
Anaya's eyes hardened.
“You gave me to them.”
“I thought I was saving you.”
“You all keep saying that.”
A violent crash came from the hallway.
The lights went out.
Roman grabbed Anaya's arm.
Her father shouted, “Don't move!”
Footsteps approached from the darkness.
Slow.
Calm.
Unhurried.
Then a woman's voice came through the hallway.
“Your father told them where you were.”
Anaya's stomach dropped.
The woman stepped into the emergency light, smiling.
“And now the Alpha King wants his heir back.”
Anaya's fingers curled into fists.
“Alpha King?” she repeated. “Who is he?”
Her father went pale.
“You know him,” Anaya said.
Roman didn't answer.
Her father stepped between her and the doorway. “The Alpha King isn't coming for you because he wants to hurt you. He wants what your blood represents.”
“That's supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
A second crash shook the floor.
Roman checked his phone. “The signal is gone.”
Anaya looked at him. “So we're trapped.”
“For now.”
Her father pulled a pendant from his coat.
“This belonged to your mother.”
Anaya stared at it.
“She gave it to me the night we separated. She told me that if you discovered the truth, I should give it to you.”
Anaya took the pendant with trembling fingers.
The same crescent shape was carved into it.
“What does it open?”
Her father looked toward the woman in the hallway.
“A place your mother hid from the Blood Council.”
The woman smiled.
“Too late.”
The woman lifted one hand.
The emergency lights flickered, and every light in the hallway came back at once.
Anaya's breath caught.
There were people standing behind her.
Not wolves.
People.
Dozens of them.
They wore black coats, and each one had the same crescent symbol stitched across the chest.
Roman immediately stepped in front of Anaya.
“Blood Council.”
The woman smiled. “Finally.”
Roman's father had warned him about them for years, but he had never expected them to come this close to Anaya.
Her father grabbed her shoulder. “You have to leave.”
“Leave where?”
“Anywhere they can't follow.”
The woman laughed. “There is nowhere left for her to run.”
Anaya looked at the pendant in her hand.
Suddenly, it grew warm.
Then it pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
A low sound came from beneath the floor.
Everyone froze.
Her father stared at the pendant.
“What?”
He looked terrified.
“Your mother didn't hide something.”
Anaya's voice shook. “Then what did she hide?”
He swallowed.
“She hid someone.”
The floor beneath them cracked.
Roman grabbed Anaya and pulled her backward as a hidden section of the room opened.
Cold air rushed upward.
A staircase appeared beneath the floor.
At the bottom stood an old iron door.
And carved into it was the same crescent symbol.
Anaya stared.
“How did you know this was here?”
Her father didn't answer.
The Blood Council woman suddenly stopped smiling.
“Open it.”
Roman turned toward her.
“Why?”
“Because the truth is behind that door.”
Anaya looked at her father.
He was shaking.
“You've been here before,” Anaya whispered.
Her father's silence confirmed it.
He stepped toward the staircase.
“I came here once.”
“What did you see?”
His eyes filled with fear.
“Your mother.”
Anaya's heart stopped.
“That’s impossible. You said she was dead.”
“She is.”
“Then how can she be behind that door?”
Her father looked at the iron door.
“Because I never said she was alone when she died.”
A loud knock came from the other side.
Everyone froze.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Anaya felt the baby move.
Roman stared at her.
Then the knock came again.
This time, a voice followed.
A woman's voice.
Weak.
Familiar.
“Anaya?”
Anaya's blood ran cold.
She knew that voice.
It was the voice she had heard every night in the oldest memories she could barely remember.
Her mother's voice.
Her father stepped backward.
“No.”
The woman from the Blood Council smiled.
“Open the door, Anaya.”
Roman grabbed her hand.
“Don't.”
But Anaya was already moving toward it.
The pendant in her palm began to glow.
The iron door unlocked by itself.
Anaya stopped breathing.
Roman's grip tightened around her fingers.
Her father whispered her name, but she barely heard him.
The voice came again, clearer this time.
“Anaya, if you open this door, you will learn why Roman rejected you—and why your child was never supposed to be born in peace.”
And from the darkness beyond it, her mother's voice whispered one final warning.
“Don't trust Roman.”
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