They Faked her Death For Months, When I Truly Died, They Went Mad Chapter 09
My biological parents lost more than a daughter.Â
The night the blood bond was cut, Mom’s wolf could barelyÂ
shift again. Every full moon, she curled up outside my doorÂ
and howled, saying she could smell me but couldn’t find me anywhere.Â
Dad was publicly questioned by the Evershade council of elders.Â
An Alpha who could ignore his own daughter’s cries for helpÂ
why should this Pack trust his judgment?”Â
He lost part of his Alpha authority and eventually handedÂ
administration to the Beta council himself.Â
They moved all of Selene’s things out of Ashborne Manor,Â
rearranged my room, and covered the walls with photos ofÂ
me from my childhood onward.Â
That was when Mom realized the photos she’d kept barely had me in them.Â
Dad combed through the family devices and couldn’t find aÂ
single complete video of my birthdays.Â
All they could find were glimpses of me at the edge of theÂ
frame, handing gifts to Ilyra and Selene, carrying cakes,Â
adjusting the lighting.Â
After that, Mom set an extra place at the dinner table every day,Â
Dad kept my PackLink account and sent a message every morning and evening.Â
“Rhoslyn, Dad went to the river today.”Â
The rescue team is still looking.”Â
“Your room is ready.”Â
Come home. If you come back, Dad will give up everything.”Â
Every message sat with a gray undelivered mark.Â
Dren, Wilder, and Mistral were never friends again.Â
They met occasionally at the riverside memorial, but no oneÂ
wanted to speak first. Because looking at each other madeÂ
them remember who had planned the fake deaths, who hadÂ
gone along, and who had passed the phone to someone elseÂ
when I was really begging for help.Â
The packs in the south had once treated me as a joke,Â
someone whose emotions had spiraled out of control.Â
Later, a memorial went up beside Ravenwater Bridge. ItÂ
didn’t say “daughter of the Ashborne family.” It didn’t sayÂ
childhood friend of anyone.”Â
It only said:Â
Rhoslyn. She called out to everyone, and no one believed her.”Â
The vision began to dissolve here.Â
The witch’s voice came out of the mist.Â
“They’re still looking for you. If you want, I can let the southÂ
know you’re alive.”Â
“You want me to go back?”Â
“I’m only asking what you choose.”Â
I shook my head without hesitation.Â
“I’m not going back.”Â
The woman in the mist seemed to smile.Â
Good.”Â
“Why good?”Â
She didn’t answer.Â
The witch’s real purpose was still hidden behind that mist.Â
She simply changed the subject.Â
Someone asked me to pass on a message. Morrath had noÂ
part in the fake deaths and took none of Cael’s gift cards.Â
After the bus went into the river, he searched with the rescueÂ
team for seven days himself.”Â
He said: live well. Don’t look back.”Â
The mind link severed.Â
I stood in the corridor of the Frostmere Healing Center for aÂ
long time without moving.Â
A month later, Dad was discharged, and Mom could completeÂ
her rehab exercises on her own.Â
The first complete sentence she said was, “Rhoslyn, you’ve lost weight.”Â
I smiled and denied it.Â
She didn’t believe me and reached out to touch my cheekbone.Â
“Liar.”Â
I took her hand.Â
Make me rosemary beef stew when we get home. I’ll fatten fight back up.”Â
Dad stood beside us in silence for a long time.Â
“Dad will make it for you.”Â
At the end of spring, Mom finally left the Healing Center.Â
pushed her wheelchair down the tree–lined path whereÂ
white magnolias were blooming. Dad walked ahead, turningÂ
back every few steps to make sure we were still there.Â
Mom suddenly stopped me.Â
Rhoslyn, I had a long dream while I was asleep.”Â
I dreamed you were alone in a very cold place. There wereÂ
lots of people around, but not one of them was good to you.”Â
Her eyes were full of heartache.Â
“Was it really that hard?”Â
I crouched down to look her in the eye.Â
“It was just a dream.”Â
“And I’m awake now.”Â
She touched my head.Â
“It won’t be like that again.”Â
Years later, I became Alpha of Frostmere Pack and brokeredÂ
new alliances between several northern packs that had been fighting for years.Â
Some people called me the ice queen with no heart. WhetherÂ
It was a rogue invasion, an elder’s questioning, or a full–moonÂ
riot, my wolf stayed completely clear–headed, and no oneÂ
dared meet my eyes for long.Â
Only I knew that steadiness wasn’t something I was born with.Â
It was what I’d learned, in my most painful moments, byÂ
refusing to let anyone see me fall apart.Â
On the day of the northern alliance oath, I saw Selena in theÂ
shadow of the white birch forest in the distance.Â
She didn’t come closer. She only smiled at me across the crowd.Â
I started after her, but the figure was already gone.Â
No one ever knew what she’d wanted from me, or whetherÂ
those five years in the south were ever meant to be anything more than a deal.Â
The ceremony went on.Â
Pack representatives and approved guests from the southÂ
filed into the ceremony area one by one.Â
At the very end of the crowd, Oren suddenly looked up.Â
A few years had passed. He was much thinner, with theÂ
shadow of long–term insomnia still in his eyes. Wilder andÂ
Mistral stood farther off, a visible distance between them. MyÂ
biological parents and Cael were in the delegation too, butÂ
none of them dared cross the northern guards.Â
Oren stared at me, like he’d finally met an impossible miracle.Â
“Rhoslyn!”Â
At that moment, Mom’s wolf let out a desperate howl, andÂ
Dad stumbled forward a step.Â
They finally knew I was alive.Â
But their voices were quickly swallowed by the northernÂ
wolves‘ cheers for their new Alpha,Â
I heard them.Â
I just didn’t look back.Â
END
