The. Mate Who Marked Me

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: What He Never Told Me

WREN'S POV

My heart started pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. "W-what is it?"

Silas hesitated longer than I'd ever seen him hesitate about anything, his weathered hands twisting together in his lap like he was trying to find the right shape for words he'd been avoiding for years.

"Your father," he said finally, "wasn't a werewolf."

I stared at him, waiting for the rest of it, but he seemed to be searching for a way to say it that wouldn't break something between us.

"Then what was he?"

Silas's throat worked before the word finally came out. "Vampire."

It didn't feel real, hearing it said out loud like that, plain and final.

The air seemed to leave the room entirely.

A vampire. No. That wasn't possible. My mother had been a werewolf, born and raised in Ravenhollow same as her mother before her. I'd spent my entire life waiting for my wolf to surface, certain it was only a matter of time, certain the Moon Goddess simply had her own timeline for me.

But it had never come. Not once. Not even a flicker.

I stared at my grandfather, shaking my head slowly, like I could physically reject what he was saying if I just refused hard enough. "That can't be true."

He sighed, the sound heavy with years of carrying something alone. "I wish it wasn't, kid. But your mother came home pregnant, and she never once told us who your father was. Not your grandmother, not me, not anyone. I only found out the truth much later, and by then there wasn't anything to be done about it except protect you the best I could." He met my eyes, and for the first time in my life I saw real fear behind his. "He wasn't just any vampire, Wren."

My throat felt tight. "Then who was he?"

Silas's expression darkened, the firelight carving deep shadows across his face. "One of the most dangerous vampires still living. If your vampire blood ever wakes up inside you, if it ever surfaces enough for him to sense it..."

The hair on my arms stood on end.

"He'll come looking for you."

A cold that had nothing to do with my rain soaked clothes settled into my bones.

Before I could even begin to process what that meant, something slammed against the cabin door hard enough to rattle the hinges. A deep, inhuman growl rolled through the room, low and deliberate, the kind of sound that didn't belong to any wolf I'd ever heard.

My blood went to ice.

Silas was on his feet instantly, shotgun back in his hands, moving toward the door with a speed that belied his age. I followed close behind, my heart hammering, half expecting to see something monstrous waiting on the porch when he threw the door open.

There was nothing there.

No footprints in the mud. No broken branches. No scent I could pick up over the rain. Just the empty dark stretching out toward the tree line, and the unmistakable feeling of being watched from somewhere just beyond the reach of the porch light.

Silas stood in the doorway a long time before finally closing it and sliding the bolt into place, his jaw tight, his eyes scanning the dark one more time before he turned back to me.

Neither of us said anything else that night.

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

The arrow left the bowstring and struck the target dead center, the thud satisfying in a way that had become the only steady thing in my life since that night.

I lowered the bow, breathing hard, sweat cooling against my skin despite the chill in the morning air.

"You're getting better," Silas said, stepping up beside me, arms crossed, watching the target the same way he'd watched every shot I'd taken for the past eight months.

"Not enough." I reached for another arrow, my fingers finding the fletching automatically. "I need to be stronger. If I'm ever going to shift, I have to push harder than this."

Silas exhaled through his nose. "Wren."

I ignored the warning in his tone, drawing the string back and releasing. This one landed just off center. Not good enough. Never quite good enough.

I reached for another arrow, but his voice stopped me before I could nock it.

"There's something you should know."

I lowered the bow slowly, turning to face him, my stomach already twisting in anticipation of bad news. Six months of watching him carry something heavy behind his eyes had taught me to recognize the particular weight of what came before it.

"Grandpa?"

He exhaled hard. "Ravenhollow was invaded."

The bow slipped straight out of my fingers, hitting the dirt with a dull thud. "What?"

My mind raced, snapping through every possibility at once. Ravenhollow. My home. My mother, who'd stayed behind despite everything, who'd sent word twice a month like clockwork since the night I fled.

Silas's expression was grim in a way I'd rarely seen. "Kade's pack attacked. They've taken the territory."

I shook my head, refusing it instinctively. "That's not, Julian is Alpha. He would have-"

"He ran." Silas's voice cut sharp through my denial. "The coward fled the moment things turned dangerous."

My breath caught somewhere in my chest. Julian ran. Left his own pack behind the second things got difficult, the same way he'd left me standing broken in a hallway eight months ago.

I clenched my fists at my sides. "What about my mother?"

Silas didn't answer right away, and the silence stretched long enough that dread started curling low in my stomach.

"Grandpa?"

He finally met my eyes, and the sorrow written across his face told me everything before he even said the words. "Your mother is gone, Wren."

The ground seemed to tilt beneath me.

"No." I took a step back, shaking my head hard enough that my vision blurred. "No, that's not, I talked to her two weeks ago. She was fine. She was..." My voice cracked apart entirely.

Silas reached for my shoulder, but I shrugged him off, my chest rising and falling too fast, too shallow.

"This is a mistake," I whispered, more to myself than to him. "She's fine. She has to be fine. I need to call her, I need to-"

"Wren." His voice was firm, grounding, the only thing keeping me from spiraling completely.

I turned away from him, arms wrapped tight around myself, my whole body trembling.

Julian abandoned them. The pack fell. My mother was gone.

Somewhere underneath the grief, something else was building, sharp edged and dark, a feeling I didn't fully recognize until it had already taken hold.

Rage.

I lifted my head, and when I spoke again my voice didn't shake at all. "Who did this?"

Silas's jaw hardened.

"Alpha Kade."

The name sent something cold curling down my spine.

I'd never heard of him before that night in the rain, but the whispers that had reached us over the following months painted a clear enough picture. Ruthless. Merciless. A monster who devoured weaker packs the way other Alphas collected territory disputes.

But why would a man like that bother with Ravenhollow at all?

I clenched my fists. "He took my mother." My voice hardened with every word. "And Julian, the Alpha who was supposed to protect her, ran like a coward instead of standing his ground."

I was done being the wolfless girl everyone pitied.

Done waiting for a shift that was never coming.

Done letting other people decide what happened to me next.

I turned to Silas, something fierce and unshakable settling into my chest. "I'm going after him."

His eyes darkened. "Wren."

"No." My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I didn't take it back. "I won't sit here and grieve while the man responsible walks around untouched. I spent eighteen years waiting for a wolf that never came. I spent six more months training because I thought I needed to prove something. I'm done proving myself to people who already decided I wasn't enough."

I bent down and retrieved my bow from the dirt, gripping it tight enough that my knuckles went pale.

"He took everything. I'm going to make him answer for it."

Silas studied me for a long, silent moment, something unreadable moving behind his eyes. Then, slowly, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small silver necklace.

My breath caught.

I knew that necklace. I'd watched my mother wear it every single day of my life.

Shaking, I reached out and closed my fingers around the cold metal, the weight of it settling into my palm like something sacred.

Silas sighed, the sound heavier than anything he'd said all morning. "If you're really going to do this, there's something you need to hear first."

I frowned. "What?"

He hesitated, studying my face like he was trying to memorize it.

"You need to be ready for whatever you find there. I don't want to lose you too."

My knees nearly gave out beneath the weight of that. "I'll be careful. I promise."

"I want you to come home alive," he said again, quieter this time. "Always make sure of that first."

I nodded, my throat too tight to answer properly.

Silas held my gaze a moment longer before continuing. "Alpha Kade didn't take Ravenhollow just for territory, Wren."

My stomach twisted. "Then why?"

His expression darkened further, something like fear flickering behind the fierceness. "Only Alpha Kade knows the

real reason."

A chill ran down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold morning air.