Estella’s POV
I couldn’t breathe.
For years, I had accepted I was weak, wolfless, worthless. Everyone had said it to my face—and I had believed it. Yet now, I found out that wasn’t the truth at all. My struggles, my torment, my inability to shift… it had all been my mother’s doing in the name of protection—a protection I didn’t even know I needed.
She had deliberately kept me from my wolf, from ever feeling whole, to keep me safe from a danger she thought was too grave to even speak about. I had been safe, but at what cost?
Conflicting emotions twisted inside me. I hated her for leaving me in the dark, for forcing me into a half-life. But she also sacrificed everything for me—her future, her magic, possibly even her life. Why had she done that?
The questions swirled faster than I cou
