TM [Complete ✔️]

3. Hidden Truths

Zane's P.O.V

The crisp wind of an early October morning blew past me as I walked, Beyla strapped in the car seat I was carrying.

My thoughts were a jumbled mess, passing and coming back, retreating and shoving themselves right at the front until I could no longer ignore them.

Preferably, I would've stayed inside a while longer. My wolf side was the one that needed to connect with nature, and frankly, he'd only lifted his head once - to look at his pup - for the past three weeks, so he was very much gone, thus my need for fresh air, training, and runs.

Not that I'd do those even if he was here.

However, with my screaming thoughts and my Alpha and Luna's decreasing schedule after the funeral, they had too much time to fuss over me, when all I wanted was for them to go away.

So, escaping them even for one morning seemed good enough. Now, as I slowly made my way towards my mother's cottage to figure out what she has been keeping to herself, however, I was starting to doubt which of them I preferred to socialize with.

I inhaled sharply, my lungs burning, forcing myself to keep walking. I couldn't avoid the truth forever, nor could I place blame on my mother and keep her from her only grandpup until I knew she was actually to blame.

Though with the sinking feeling in my gut getting stronger the closer I become to her cottage, I highly doubted I'd walk out of there in a good relationship with her.

When I arrived, the action taking me way longer than normal, I shifted Beyla's car seat to my other arm and knocked.

I listened as my mother shuffled around, knocking a few things and spewing some colorful words along the way before she pushed the door open, her sleepy eyes snapping open at the sight of me.

As quickly as she could, she masked her surprise and did her best to make sure her gaze didn't stay on my pup for too long, perhaps afraid I'd change my mind and leave.

"Zane? What are you doing here this early, honey?" She asked, stepping away from the door. "Come on in, don't stand there, it's cold for Beyla!" I nodded, brushing past her to set the car seat on the sofa.

My mother hovered above me with teary eyes, watching me spread a blanket and resting the sleepy pup on it.

"She's so beautiful!" She whispered as if more to herself than to me.

"She is," I replied awkwardly, not knowing where to start.

I hated that the woman that raised me and my mate, the one that had done everything in her power to protect us and give us a good life, was now keeping secrets. It would have made everything that much easier if she could hold me through death too, but as I'd come to realize, easy only existed long enough to make you comfortable with it.

Her secrets could be small but they were secrets non the less.

I always thought we were close, that she told me everything as I did her, that we trusted each other, so I couldn't help but feel a little betrayed at first, too.

"Zane?" My mother waved a hand in front of my face, her previously teary gaze now filled with concern.

"Sorry," I muttered, rubbing my hand over my daughter's leggings. She was the only one that kept me going lately, and although she was only three weeks old, she's already saved a life - mine.

"It's okay, don't worry about it," Mom waved her hand, "I asked if I could get you anything. Breakfast, perhaps?" I quickly shook my head.

"You can get me answers, Mom." I finally held her gaze instead of dropping it.

"Answers?" She questioned, though she knew what I meant, or feared it, if her fiddling fingers were anything to go by.

"There's something you were keeping from Rose and me, speak!" I demanded, ignoring the bitter coating on my tongue from the once beautiful name that now brought only memories of what, of who, I lost.

My mother sighed, tracing the soft lines of Beyla's ears, then her few tufts of hair.

When she looked back at me, her eyes were filled with guilt.

"Zane, I never meant to hide it from the both of you," she mumbled, "I just, I just saw how happy you were when you told me you were expecting and didn't want you to have to shoulder the burden." She pursed her lips tighter, refusing to say more.

Cold sweat washed over me as my eyes immediately raked over to my sleeping pup, my fingers shakily reaching out to touch her.

She was safe. She was right there, sleeping mere inches away from me.

She was alive.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, hating who I'd become.

Before, I was alive, I was joking with everyone, loved hanging out and big crowds, now, I was barely surviving, my heart racing and my breath stolen by almost anything that set off my anxiety.

When Rosie died, she took a lot more than her calming presence with her.

She took every good thing about me and left a rotten shell of a man worthy of nothing.

Piecing myself back together, for now, I asked, "What do you know?" Mom flinched from my cold voice. I couldn't find it in me to care.

"When Esteban started getting aggressive with Aria, I was the only one who knew, or at least she hoped I was. I'd find her, sometimes, sobbing in her pups' rooms while they were at school as I was going to his office. One day, she finally let me see the bruises, and even though I was her best friend, it took a while. By the time I knew," she shook her head.

"By the time you knew, what?'' I urged her, my stomach tightening into a knot.

"Zane," my mother started, forcing me to cut her off.

"What, Mom? By the time you knew, what?" She sighed once more, tears gathering in her eyes.

"By the time I knew, he'd already started losing it. Esteban thought the only way to repair his pack and keep its member safe was if he," she gulped, eyeing me wearily, "was if he traded Rose off to some Alpha for more lands and, well, money."

Red swirled in my vision and I had to grip the couch to keep myself still.

Of course, I knew of this but it didn't make it hard to hear every time, especially now that she was gone and I could no longer hold her through both of our fury.

"Zane, if you want me to stop-"

"No." I cut her off, wanting to get all of this over with already.

"Okay." She nodded.

"Well, Aria held off for as long as possible, keeping her daughter safe despite what it cost her. But she also wasn't stupid and she could see her mate's mind was deteriorating with each attack, so when she wasn't taking care of Knox and Rose, and getting beaten up or healing her wounds, she was researching."

"What?"

"Rose's powers."

"And did she find anything?" It took a bit of time before my mother finally nodded.

"There wasn't a lot to go on, especially when she had to be secretive about it. If there was something else her daughter could do, if she possessed more power than Esteban knew, nothing would've stopped him from selling her off. She searched for months, and your dad and I helped, until one day she finally came across a book located in the library of a pack rivaling with ours. I don't know what she did to get it, or how she hid it from her mate, but I've always assumed she sold information to them in exchange for the book. We were attacked that very same month - the worst of them all."

I nodded, my mind flashing with the images of Aunt Aria calling Rosie to her the last time we saw each other. I was absolutely certain she'd go to Hell and back for her daughter, so the fact that it was only information the other pack demanded was a relief.

"Luckily, because of the chaos the attack brought, Esteban didn't notice the book, though his patience was slipping and both the beatings and his desires to send off Rose were becoming worse. Aria didn't have much time and she knew it, so she spent any time he wasn't around reading through that book, and she only shared what she knew with me, making me promise that if she didn't get to see Rose grow up and warn her herself, I'd be the one to do it."

"Yet you didn't," I remarked dryly.

"I was going to." She looked up just as the first tear rolled down her cheek.

It scared me how little my mother's tears bothered me, making me wonder if one day my daughter's wouldn't either. If I was truly the heartless monster past the point of repair that I believed myself to be.

"Well, now you don't get to, so there's that." I choked on my words, sealing my mouth shut and ignoring the burn in my throat.

"Do you want to hear the rest?" There was hope in her voice that I wouldn't, that I'd let her take the secret to her grave. Yet she wasn't that lucky.

"Yes." She brushed the tears away from her cheeks and continued.

"Well, Rose didn't have other special abilities besides healing," I stiffened, preparing for the 'but', "but her pups would."

My wide eyes snapped to hers, then to Beyla, then to her again.

"And you didn't bother to tell us?" I shouted, frantic.

No, no, absolutely not. No more special abilities. No more death!

I couldn't...

I couldn't lose my baby too. I couldn't keep her safe with how weak I'd become.

What if I became just like Esteban and gave her away?

Spiders crawled up my spine, my disgust for myself mounting.

"Zane!" My mother shouted, only then making me notice my crying pup as she rocked it in her arms. "Keep your voice down, you're scaring her!" She cooed softly.

I noticed the way she glanced at me, ready for when I'd demand my pup back, from when I'd snatch her away as I did at the funeral. I also noticed how loved Beyla was by my mother, noticed the way she looked at her as she rocked her tiny body. But I also noticed she took use of me being in my head to take the pup right before she told me her hidden truths and if I weren't so afraid of doing something to hurt my daughter, I would have taken her back.

Something, however, told me my mother was more skilled in raising pups than I was.

"Talk or I leave!" I demanded, making Mom nod.

"There weren't almost any healer pregnancies documented. Most of the previous healers were males, and those that weren't barely made it to a very old age, usually exploited for their abilities before wolves began to show them respect in the later times. But, those that survived long enough to have pups and raise them, reported their pups being special."

I lay back against the couch, my head dangling from the cushions as I stared at the ceiling.

Why couldn't life just be simple for once?

"It took many healer pregnancies before the doctors realized what was causing the females' deaths was healing throughout them, therefore some were not allowed to get pregnant or have mates at all. There aren't many records, as you can tell, but they all report the same things. Aria narrowed the list down to things multiple reports stated and it appears that there are different abilities for the different genders." I blew out a harsh breath, my brain hurting already. Yet I listened anyway.

"If you remember, when you told me you were expecting, I asked Rose if she was experiencing weird dreams. At the time, she said 'no' but judging by the look on your face, that changed."

"She predicted her death." I shut my eyes tightly, though it did nothing to prevent me from hearing my mother's sharp gasp and sending it straight to the bleeding wound where my heart used to take place.

"Um, it was said expecting mothers often predicted the future while pregnant, yet it was based on feeling as if they knew something would happen but had no idea what or when. It is said that it was the pups sending the dreams to their mothers and that they gain a stronger connection to the Goddess for their mothers' loyalty and help in keeping her creations, her children, alive. They have so far all been blessed with luck and long lives."

All I could hope was that she was right about that part as a small bit of hope bloomed in my chest. Maybe I wouldn't lose her...

"Up until they gain their wolves, boys excess in training, almost always taking up the Alpha rank as wolves naturally seem drawn to their aura. The girls tend to be at one with nature, feeling the calmest there and being attracted to herbs that have been proven helpful, as well as getting blessed by the moon. They are exceptionally beautiful and get stronger under the moonlight. They tend to, more often than not, be able to tell when a wolf is suffering, whether from an illness or mentally, and can read and pick up emotions clearly from a young age."

I looked at my little bean that was currently wide-eyed and looking around the room with her fist in her mouth and wondered how someone so tiny could already hold such power. And worse, how I could protect someone so tiny from such a large world full of those greedy for what she had.

"Zane, Aria did what she had to do to ensure Rose wasn't turned into a breeding machine for power-hungry Alphas but she was a good mother!" Mother pleaded, mistaking my anger.

"Oh, she was," I mumbled darkly, "you on the other hand..."

Without another word, I took back my daughter and her blanket and car seat and rushed out the door to the sound of her yelling my name.

She could've called a long time ago. She could've called to warn my mate a very long time ago. A time that could've saved our pup from great danger if anyone learned what I just did.

I didn't even want to think about what my little girl could be used for in the wrong wolf's hands.

Now, now was months, perhaps even years, too late.

Way, way too late.

A/N

Hi, Treasures! Make sure you join my F-a-c-e-b-o-o-k group Teddy's Treasures for extra content and discussions! Did Zaria have the right not to tell Zane and Rose about their pup's abilities? Does Zane have the right to be mad at his mother?