Chapter 15

Sophia

Fury is an emotion that's not uncommon to me. But this time it takes a different form.

My body feels cold as ice inside.

"You refuse to help my mother?" I stare at him as if the words don't make sense to me. "She's dying."

"Your mother turned her back on our pack," Cyrus tells me arrogantly. "She knew the consequences for her actions."

"She fell in love." My voice is quiet as if I don't quite trust myself to speak louder.

"She already had a mate appointed for her." Cyrus sounds dismissive. "She knew the rules. She was the Silver Wolf. She had a duty…"

"So, she was a broodmare in your eyes." I meet my grandfather's eyes, disgust filling my heart.

His expression tightens. "She was my daughter. I was doing what was best for her, what has been done for all the Silver Wolves before her. You may not understand, since you are but a child, but the Silver Wolf is a rare breed. They have to be maintained. They have to birth one single child. It is important to vet who the sire of that child will be…"

I smile now, coldly. "So, a broodmare as I said, then. Isn't that what is done to horses? Pick a stud. Let it fuck the mare, regardless of her wishes. Dogs are also bred that way. My mother's purpose in life was to let herself get impregnated by any male you saw fit to breed to her. Her feelings, her desires were irrelevant."

Cyrus studies me, his expression growing cool. "It seems you have inherited your mother's willfulness. No mind. Once you adapt to your new life here, you will soon realize that I know what is best for you. I'll be more stern with your upbringing, considering the dirty blood that now taints my bloodline."

"My upbringing?" I stare at him. "Am I missing something here? I came here to get the cure to save my mother. I'm not here to stay."

Cyrus blinks, looking genuinely surprised. "What do you mean? Of course you're going to stay. You're the Silver Wolf. You need to be taught about your heritage and we need to find you a suitable mate."

"I already have a fated mate." I point toward Alex, who is growling under his breath at this moment.

My grandfather looks amused. "That pup? No, Kian would be a much better mate for you. The two of you will produce a strong child…"

"I wouldn't touch Kian with a ten-foot pole," I say, pleasantly. "No offense, Kian. I'm sure you're a lovely person."

Kian lowers his head, looking awkward.

My grandfather looks irritated. "Children shouldn't be making such decisions. Keon was already chosen to be the mate for the next Silver Wolf. Your current mate is not up to the standards…"

"What part of fated mate do you not understand?" I stare at him. "The fates have decreed that we are meant for each other so who are you to interfere in that?"

"I am your grandfather!" Cyrus thunders. "I do not recognize this union. We will send your mate back. And I will have the bond between the two of you broken…"

"Try it," Alex snarls. "We'll see what happens. The only way you are separating my mate and I will be over my dead body."

Cyrus narrows his eyes. "Don't think that cannot be arranged."

I step in front of Alex, my blood boiling now. "How dare you threaten my mate? My bond with Alex is not under discussion."

My grandfather gives me a haughty look. "It is only the Central Alliance who can train the Silver Wolf to reach her full potential. If you stay here, you will become strong—stronger than you can even imagine. I will train you myself. However, in exchange, you will have to give up every relationship outside of the Central Alliance."

"Let me make this clear, Alpha Cyrus," I take a step toward this man, who disgusts me to the very core. "I am not here to continue the line of the Silver Wolf. If you had cared so much about continuing that bloodline, that ‘special breed' as you put it, you would have come for me the minute I was born."

I see the anger in his eyes, but I'm not done.

"It's evident to me that you have no intention of giving me the cure. I was warned that this would happen. Of course, had I known that the man who had turned his back on my mother when she had been tortured for three decades, was the leader of the Central Alliance, I would never have made the effort to travel here."

"Grace chose…"

"My mother did not choose to be tortured!" I spit out. "She did not choose to be shackled to a wall like an animal. She did not choose to be starved and beaten for decades. She did not choose to have her mate killed and her child stolen from her. She would've stayed within the safety of your pack had you allowed her to love the man she wanted. She's not at death's door because of her choices. If she's there, it's because of you. Because you wanted to control her every action. Because you wanted to break her till she opened her legs for the man you chose, till she drew the exact number of breaths you wanted her to breathe."

Alpha Cyrus' face contorts in anger, but I refuse to back down. "Your only daughter is dying. Do you want to know the state she was in when I found her? Her bones were poking out of her flesh. When I managed to shift her back after sharing my life force with her, she was a shell of herself. She had retreated to somewhere deep inside her mind to protect herself. I don't know what kind of person my mother was. I never met her. But those who knew her told me she used to laugh, that she was filled with life and joy. That she was precious. And I know she didn't deserve the treatment she received. She didn't deserve to be discarded by the Central Alliance simply because she refused to live in the cage they had built for her."

My grandfather opens his mouth in fury, and I hold up my hand. "Don't bother explaining why you think she deserves all this suffering. All I know is that I am grateful to her for not giving birth to me in this place."

I give the man before me a cold look. "And don't worry, I won't ask you for help. I am the Silver Wolf, after all. I will find another way to save my mother, even if it means sharing half my life force with her. You see."

I'm standing inches from him now, my eyes flashing with hatred. "Even if she dies. Even if I fail, and she dies, she'll do so knowing that her daughter did her very best to save her. But she'll also die, knowing that her father, the one who held her in his hands as a child, turned his back on her because of his ego. I wonder, grandfather, how many times my mother hoped you would come for her? I wonder how many times she cried herself to sleep waiting for you, thinking that you would save her simply because she was your daughter and not the Silver Wolf. She'll die knowing you never came, that you never looked at her and saw your child. You only saw the Silver Wolf."

Kian steps forward, his voice hard. "You're crossing a line here, Queen, Sophia…"

"I don't believe I was talking to you," I retort. "I was talking to my mother's father. I was reminding my grandfather that he doesn't deserve the title of either father or grandfather. My only intention in coming here was so that I could get the cure, and perhaps give my mother a better life than the one she's lived so far. But I will not beg. He doesn't deserve it. I will keep looking for ways to save her. You can keep your worthless pride and shove it up your ass, Alpha Cyrus."

Furious at my insult, Kian rushes toward me. However, before either Alex and I can react, Logan stops his attack with one hand. He flips the man's wrist and tosses him on the ground before stepping on his throat. "Don't attack her. I don't like it."

He begins to press down on his throat, and no matter how hard Kian tries, he can't escape his hold.

"Logan, stop!" I order. But the mercenary doesn't seem to have any intention of listening to me.

"He was going to hurt you." His voice is hard. "He cannot be allowed to live."

Alex grabs him by the back of his shirt and pulls him off Kian. My mate then proceeds to look down at the man on the ground. "You're lucky all he did was throw you to the ground. I would have ripped your head off. Attack my mate again and you will be nothing but a corpse."

He crouches down and grabbing a fistful of Kian's hair, he slams his head back into the marble two times, causing the marble to crack.

"Enough!" Cyrus raises his voice and soldiers come pouring in from every direction. Alex releases Kian, scoffing. "Didn't even put a fight. This is the man you want to replace me with? Sophia will eat him alive."

Despite the situation, my lips twitch in amusement at my mate's scathing reply.

"How dare you come in here and harm my people!" Cyrus explodes.

"Let's get one thing straight." I point toward Kian, who is being held up by two of the soldiers. "Your man tried to attack me. Did you expect my mate not to defend me?"

"You were insulting me," Cyrus says, furiously. "Nobody has ever talked to me in that manner."

"Get used to it then," I shoot back, rudely. "You don't deserve my respect. You are a terrible father. My mother will die knowing that. She will die, knowing that she had no value in her father's eyes as his child. I think you can bear to hear a few insults. We are done here."

Turning around, I begin to walk out the same way we came in and I hear my grandfather declare, "You have revealed your identity to the alliances. They will stop at nothing to get their hands on you. You are not making the right choice. There's still time to change…"

I whirl around to glare at him. "You're right. There are going to be many people gunning for me. But unlike you lot, I'm not a coward. I have responsibilities toward my mother and toward the South Alliance. And don't pretend to worry about me. My mother was tortured for years and you never lifted a finger to help her. You don't have to be concerned that I will be waiting for your handouts, either."

However, my grandfather doesn't have any plans of letting me go.

"Capture her!" he roars.

Without missing a beat, I gesture with my hands, letting my magic flow out of me. All the soldiers drop unconscious on the ground.

My grandfather's face turns white as a sheet.

"I have not been sitting on my hands doing nothing this whole time," I sneer at him. "And another thing, I don't know why you are so desperate to let my mother die, but I do wonder if part of the reason is that you can't bear to see the state she has been reduced to because of your desire for control. Maybe I should've brought her here and shown you. Even if she wakes up, she will never know how to laugh again. I don't think she will be able to smile again. And you did this. You let the world do this to her. I hope you remember that."

I begin walking away, Alex and Logan right behind me. My voice is harsh, my heart a block of ice. "You may have turned your back on your daughter, but I've not turned my back on my mother."

He doesn't stop us, and I take the opportunity to hurry away from this place. The audacity of this man. He really thought he could convince me—no, order me, to leave my mate and become his prisoner.

"Sophia."

Over the rage bubbling within me, I hear someone call for me.

"Sophia, stop." Alex's hand wraps around my wrist and he pulls me to a stop, forcing me to face him. "Calm down."

I glower at him. "Calm down? Did you not hear what he said? He said my mother deserved it. She deserved all that happened to her, simply because she refused to stay here as his puppet. This is the Central Alliance. All this beauty and talk about living in harmony with nature is bullshit! It's just to cover how heartless they really are! I have to find a way to save my mother, Alex. No matter the cost to me." I pull my hand away from his. "And if you try to get in my way, you won't like it."

I try to walk away, but he stops me once again.

"Is that a threat?" he asks with a frown.

"No. I'm telling you how it is. I'm done." I hold his gaze. "I'm done with everyone putting my mother last. Now your pack is safe, the South Alliance has a new leader, and Noah is missing. For now, nothing else matters. I have to save my mother. Nothing else comes before that. Not my health and not my safety."

Alex tries to reason with me, but I'm not having it. "No. If this was your mother, you would not even be standing here having this discussion with me. My mother is not someone who can be discarded. She's not someone who's going to be ignored any longer. I am going to put her first. No matter how long it takes, and even if I have to share my life force with her. If you try to stop me, Alex, you and I will have a problem."

Alex looks furious. "I cannot let you share your life force with her. The more life force you share, the more you shorten your own lifespan. Don't think Elsa didn't tell me…"

"So?" I stare at him "This is not some random woman on the street. This is the woman who gave birth to me. This is the woman who suffered for years to keep me alive. You don't get to have a say in this. Nobody gets a say in this except me. Right now, I am a daughter before I am your mate. Understand that. You don't always know what's best for me, Alex. You have no problem sacrificing everything for your pack, but when it comes to my mother, I have to sacrifice in moderation. That's not how it's going to go this time."

I walk away from him, my heart still hurting from my grandfather's words.

The image of how I found my mother still haunts me.

People treat their animals better than how she was treated. When I heard Cyrus tell me how she deserved it, I had wanted nothing more than to rip his heart out of his chest. That arrogance in his eyes, the smugness. He probably reveled in what my mother experienced. He thought it was true justice, solely because she disobeyed him.

I don't know much about my mother, but I do know she must've waited for him. She must've thought her father would come for her, that he would not abandon her. And slowly, over the years, that hope must have wilted away into nothing. What must have passed through her heart when she realized that nobody was ever coming for her? How did she feel when she finally knew that there was nobody on this planet who gave a damn about her?

"I care!" I mutter, my hands clenched into fists by my side as I walk quickly, ignoring the burning tears in my eyes. "I care, Mom. I'm going to keep fighting for you, no matter what it takes."

I exited the Silver Mist Wolf Pack territory. I don't know where I'm going, but I don't stop walking. I have to get away from this place or I'll go mad.

Alex doesn't approach me and right now, I don't care. My heart is hurting so much that feels like it will explode. This anger that fills me is on the verge of consuming me whole. I want to burn this place to the ground. I want to destroy it. The look on Kian's face as he attempted to attack me, after hearing me insult my grandfather comes back to me. He didn't bat an eye upon hearing what my mother went through. He must have known this whole time. He had only planned to lure me there.

I had been wrong when I thought that the shifters of this place, of this alliance, were different. They're just a different kind of monster.

A hand falls on my shoulder and I shove it away, ready to say something nasty to Alex, but it's not him. It's Logan.

For some reason, seeing his steady expression quiets the rage within me.

"We're going to have to find a witch if we want to leave this place," he tells me. "There's a witch coven nearby. I'm not completely certain, but I think…there should be one there. They will help us with the portal."

"How do I know you're not…"

I'm about to imply that he might betray me, but I stop myself in time. I'm just so tired.

"You need to eat and rest," Logan tells me, a knowing look in his eyes. "And stop taking your anger and hurt out on your mate. He's not to blame for this situation. The witches in the Central Alliance are more capable than you realize. They might be able to help you."

"How do you know about the witch coven?"

Logan looks off into the distance, a strange emotion flickering in his eyes. "This place is familiar to me for some reason. When we walked out of there, my feet instinctively wanted to go in the direction of the coven. My heart is associating that place with comfort. I don't know why. But I can tell you that it's a safe place."

"And what if it is not?" I ask him, my voice dull. "What if they are worse than the monsters we just left behind? What if your memory, whatever it is you think you feel, is wrong?"

Logan studies me. "Then we will find another way out. But you have not slept or eaten in days. And you are clearly very upset right now. You need a meal and you need some rest so that you can think clearly."

It's not like I know where I'm going anyway. "Fine. Lead the way."

I look over my shoulder to see Alex trailing after us, his hands in his pockets. His expression is shuttered. I can't bring myself to care. He's the one who keeps putting restrictions on me and how to save my mother. I can't do this and I can't do that .

But I'm done listening to him. I'll share more than half my life force if it means I can save her. Damn the consequences.

And once I find Noah, he will pay for his father's crimes, and his own. So will Tina.

My wolf growls in agreement. I won't be a bleeding heart anymore. I will only be taken advantage of. This world only understands violence and cruelty, so I'll burn it all down. I'll burn down this whole damn world if I have to. Everybody played a role in bringing my mother to this state.

So they will all pay.