I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I walked behind Ellen, each heavy thud echoing louder than my footsteps on the cold tiles. It wasn't the kind of normal heartbeat I got whenever I was nervous or tired; it was deeper, heavier, almost anxious, as if it wanted to jump right out of my chest and run ahead of me. I didn't know what exactly was causing it.
Fear, curiosity, or the constant worry gnawing at me knowing the cause of why my wolf disappeared.
Ellen didn't say a word as she walked, her steps sure and steady like. I had so many questions, questions that piled up in my mind until they felt like they would suffocate me.
But I bit them back, following quietly. As much as her silence made me a bit anxious, a small part of me still held on to hope that maybe, just maybe, she knew something that could help me. Something that could explain why my wolf had suddenly gone silent.
Why, ever since the Blood Moon night, nothing about me felt right anymore.
I didn't know where we were going, and Ellen didn't bother explaining. The only thing fueling my steps was the idea that maybe she or Alexander might be able to help with the issue of my wolf. I still couldn't understand why she disappeared.
A wolf doesn't just vanish. A wolf doesn't go quiet like that. The emptiness hurt more than any physical pain I had ever felt. It felt like walking around with a missing limb reaching for something that should be there but wasn't.
Being a wolf without a mate isn't has half bad as being a werewolf without a wolf.
As we moved deeper into the mansion, the air grew colder. Then suddenly, we reached a section I recognized instantly.
The ancient wing. The part of the mansion that I'd come across the day I got lost. I can still remember the unsettling feeling it gave me made me that day and it was the first time I had met Kael.
The cold air from the place, hit me like a sudden wave, and I immediately wrapped my arms around myself, trying to preserve whatever warmth my body had left. The air here wasn't like the normal chill of a winter morning. It was different... heavy, sharp, carrying the weight of things that had long been forgotten. Things that probably should stay forgotten.
The torchlights hanging along the corridor flickered brightened the hallway but it somehow still felt dark and eerie.
We walked through the place I had wandered to that day. I looked at the painting that I had tried to wipe but it was still the same as I left it, untouched.
We kept walking until we reached a wooden door.
The torch that was beside the door, she lifted it off its bracket, and continued walking as if everything was normal. As if this place wasn't suffocating. As if the air wasn't thick with a strange presence.
"I thought this place is forbidden," I finally blurted out. My voice sounded small, even to my own ears. The pressure in my chest was tightening, making my breaths feel shallow.
"It's forbidden?" she repeated, throwing a quick glance at me with raised eyebrows. Then she let out a small amused chuckle. "You're so clueless."
I blinked. The words didn't really mean much to me because it was something I knew.
I didn't care because I didn't want to get too involved in Alexander's affairs since I'm not staying here for too long and I'm his guest.
But I couldn't help but be curious. I sometimes wondered where he was always off to when he isn't in the pack and what exactly was happening that I didn't know?
Ellen didn't look back, she just kept walking, completely unfazed by my mind which was in disarray.
We stopped in front of a large wooden door with carvings etched deeply into its surface. It looked old but wasn't as old as the ones
I'd just added by.
Ellen pushed it open without hesitation. The hinges groaned loudly, releasing a draft of cold, stale air that made goosebumps crawl over my skin.
The room inside was swallowed in darkness at first, but once Ellen stepped in and lifted her torch, the room was filed with soft glow of the light.
I stepped in right behind her, and the moment my foot touched the ground inside, something washed over me, a strange kind of energy I couldn't identify. Not threatening… not welcoming either. Just there. Thick. Present. Like the room itself was alive and breathing.
I froze for a moment, letting my eyes take everything in. The room wasn't large, but it felt full. Not full in the sense of clutter, but full of history, power, and secrets.
Two tall shelves stood on opposite ends. One was stacked with books, so many that the wood bent slightly under their weight. The books varied in size and age, some looked new, while others were torn and faded
The second shelf held nothing but bottles. Hundreds of bottles. Different shapes, sizes, and colors. Some held liquids that glowed faintly under the torchlight. Others held powders or herbs. Some were empty but stained, as though something potent once lived inside them.
A large wooden table sat in the center, completely disorganized. Papers were scattered across it, some folded, others crumpled. A few books lay open, their pages marked with ink or scribbles. Leaves, petals, and crushed herbs were scattered beside bottles left uncorked.
"What is this place?" I finally asked, unable to keep the awe and confusion from my voice.
"A workshop," Ellen answered casually.
A workshop? This looked more like a magical laboratory.
"Sit," she instructed, pointing at the lone chair beside the cluttered table.
I sat down slowly, the wood creaking beneath me. Ellen walked to the bookshelf filled with books and began scanning the spines as if searching for something specific. Her focus was sharp, unwavering.
"What are we doing here?" I asked again, unable to stop myself.
She didn't even glance at me this time. She just kept flipping through the pages of a book she grabbed, her eyes darting across the lines. After a moment, she lifted her head.
"Was there anything special that happened on the day of the Blood Moon?" she asked.
Special? My mind immediately jumped to the only thing that felt "special", if special even applied to the horror of that night.
"You must have been attacked or injured by the Red Wolves that day," she continued, leaning slightly on the table. "But was there anything unusual apart from losing your wolf after the attack?"
"I don't think so," I replied, trying to think harder. The images of that night came back slowly, uncomfortably. I remembered the fear choking me as those creatures attacked. I remembered the sound of shattering glass. The dizziness. The pain.
Then a memory hit me.
"Shards of glass injured me that day," I began slowly, feeling the scene replay in my mind. "And I was strangled on the neck… but the pain disappeared after a few hours. Completely. I forgot about the injuries. The next day, they were gone. Like they never happened and I didn't even tender to the wounds."
My hand drifted to my neck on instinct.
As soon as my fingers brushed the skin, the memory hit sudden and harsh. I felt the the choking, the panic. I gasped softly, my breath caught for a moment.
When I opened my eyes again, the memory was gone.
"That seems interesting," Ellen murmured, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. She moved toward the shelf of bottles.
My curiosity spiked. "Are you a witch?" I asked before I could stop myself.
Ellen paused, put the bottle back, and pulled a wooden chair to sit directly across from me. Her eyes studied me carefully, like she could see right into the questions forming in my mind.
"You seem interested in knowing me," she said with a faint smirk.
"I'm just curious. I've never met a witch before," I admitted.
She clicked her tongue. "Too bad I'm not the first."
She leaned back and crossed her legs over the second chair beside me.
"Ask," she said. "I'll let you. I want to ask you something too. Truce."
I hesitated but finally spoke. "Then did you learn how to cast spells?"
"Only witches can cast spells," she replied. "I'm not a witch. But I can make potions."
She explained calmly, "Being a witch isn't easy. It takes years of training for a werewolf like me to make potions, but I was born to a witch mother. My sister is a witch. I took after my father who is a werewolf."
Everything she said made sense, because it was impossible to be born a hybrid. No creature had ever come into the world carrying the full traits of two different species. A child always took after one parent completely, with no trace of the other parent's nature showing in them. That was the law of our world, the rule everyone believed could never be broken.
And that was exactly why Alexander was so feared...why he was the most powerful and formidable Alpha to ever exist. He was the only one who had broken that rule, the only hybrid ever known, a living impossibility.
Ellen leaned forward.
"My turn now."
I lifted my head cautiously as she bent closer, lowering her voice.
"Do you like Alexander?"
"What!" I exclaimed, eyes wide.
Do I like Alexander?