Caras pov
I sat in the corner of the room, staring at the dim light filtering through the window. My mind was numb, my body exhausted. I had no strength left, not after everything that had happened. Brian had rejected me again for the second time, and this time, it felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest. I couldn’t shake the feeling of his lips on mine, the heat of his touch. But then… he pulled away. Again.
The bond between us, the connection that pulled me to him, was still there, taunting me with something I could never have.
The silence in the room felt suffocating. I hadn’t moved for hours, still wearing the same clothes from when I returned. I didn’t even have the energy to cry anymore. I just sat there, empty, broken.
Then, a soft knock came at the door.
I didn’t respond. I didn’t have it in me to move, let alone open the door. A moment passed before the door slowly creaked open, and I heard soft footsteps approaching. I didn’t look up to see who had entered, still wallowing in my misery, until the person stood directly in front of me.
Debby.
She stood there for a moment, her expression hesitant, as if she wasn’t sure what to say or do. For a brief second, I thought she might turn around and leave, but instead, she slowly walked toward me. Her eyes flickered with something I couldn’t quite place, maybe pity, maybe concern. Maybe both.
She was the person who had almost become my friend, or at least, I thought she was. Until I realised that she wasn’t telling me the truths, I knew she was hiding something from me. I saw it that day in her eyes. She didn’t say everything she wanted to say, and it made me doubt the things she had told me.
“I can’t trust anyone, except myself,” the words of the mystery woman in my dreams echoed in my mind. Ever since the night I escaped Brian’s pack, she hadn’t visited me again.
I tried to maintain my anger, to tell myself not to trust her. I didn’t know who to trust anymore.
Alpha Black, who I once thought of as a benefactor, had only wanted to take advantage of me, to sell me off to God knows who. Alexander, whom I had taken as a good friend, had betrayed me. He had stabbed me in the back. Even my mate, the one who was supposed to bring me joy, had caused me so much pain.
“I’m alone,” I realised.
“Cara…” Debby whispered softly, kneeling beside me. “I’m sorry.”
Her voice was gentle, but the weight of her words hit me hard. I hadn’t realised how much I needed someone to say that. I tried to hold it together, but the second she reached out to me, I broke. Completely. My tears came fast, uncontrollable, and I found myself clinging to her as if she were my only lifeline.
“I’m so sorry,” she repeated, her arms wrapping around me as I sobbed into her shoulder. “I heard what happened from Garreth. About your escape, the kidnapping… all of it.”
Her words were soft, but I couldn’t let her believe that. The truth was far from what Garreth had told her.
I pulled back slightly after a long time, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. “I wasn’t kidnapped,” I managed to whisper, my voice barely steady. “I went with them… willingly.”
Debby’s brows furrowed in confusion. “What?”
“They accepted me,” I explained, my voice breaking. “It was a risk for them to take me in, but they did. They didn’t hurt me. They didn’t force me. I chose to go with them.”
Debby blinked in surprise, her eyes searching mine as if trying to make sense of what I was saying. “But… your hair,” she said after a moment, her gaze shifting to the strands of white now framing my face. “How did it happen?”
I hesitated, running my fingers through the locks. “It wasn’t like this before,” I said softly. “The night I escaped… something happened. I don’t know what, but when I woke up four days later, my hair turned white.”
Debby’s eyes widened. “Four days? Cara, were you unconscious for four days?”
I nodded.
A look of deep concern and guilt crossed her face. She seemed lost in thought for a moment.
“You could’ve died, Cara,” she said, her voice full of alarm. “Your powers… you used too much of them. You must have pushed your body to the limit. That’s why you were out for so long. Your body couldn’t handle the strain.”
Her words sent a wave of fear through me. I hadn’t even realised how close I had come to dying. I had only wanted to escape, to get away from everything. But now… now it felt like I had incurred another set of problems.
“Having white hair after you woke l up can only mean one thing, your bloodline has stirred. You pushed it to the limit, stretched it to the point that it won’t go back to its dormant nature,” she said, her voice filled with fear.
“What do you mean, Debby?” I asked, confused. My tears had dried, and my grief was now replaced by fear, fear of the unknown.
Debby’s gaze softened as she reached out, brushing a stray tear from my cheek. “It could be your bloodline. You have a special bloodline, the pure bloodline,” she said, confusing me even more.
Seeing my puzzled expression, she continued, “I mentioned earlier that you’re a Cupbearer. But what I didn’t tell you is that there are two bloodlines within the Cupbearer hierarchy.”
She twirled a lock of my white hair as if entranced by it. “There are the normal Cupbearers. They have powers, but their abilities are limited. They’re versatile in healing, but that’s where it ends. Everyone has a basic element attributed to them that they control, so they’re not much more powerful than a regular werewolf. Being a normal cupbearer is nothing special because the acts of healing every cupbearer posses weakens their wolf and removes that ferociousness in them, making them weaker”.
I widened my eyes, silently urging her to continue.
“But then, there are the pure Bloods. They’re always the leaders of the Cupbearers.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re overpowered. Instead of having only one element, have the four of them, and instead of controlling the Elements, they can make the four Elements, and they have a frightening degree of mastery over each of them. They’re so strong that they can battle even the most powerful Alphas.”
“But you said the act of healing weakens their wolf, right? Aren’t they affected by that?” I asked, barely able to contain my fast beating heart from jumping out from my mouth.
Yes, they are, but like I said, their affinity in healing is even the strongest aspect of them. It makes them reduce the control it has on their wolf, therefore bypassing the curse. there are some rumours that they can even attach amputated limbs and cure any incurable sickness just with a drop of their blood” she said her thoughts somewhere else, causing her to miss my gasp and surprise
I gasped in shock. “Reattach amputated limbs? Mend broken bones and diseases?” My mind raced back to the night I had healed Garreth’s severed hand.
Debbys coughing brought me back from my wild thoughts and assumptions. ” There are some rumours that what brought about the great valley that divided the great woods from the west, was the fight between the first Cupbearer, and the first king of alphas” she said, her voice low, almost as if she didn’t want to say it out loud.
Her words echoed in my mind, but instead of giving me answers, they only raised more questions. My bloodline, pureblood, the Cupbearer’s separating into two groups… my powers. I didn’t understand any of it. All I knew was that something inside me was changing , changing me at a fast pace that I couldn’t control.
I pulled away from her slightly, my heart racing with doubt. A new thought crept into my mind, a suspicion I had tried to push away but couldn’t ignore any longer. Debby… I wasn’t sure if I could trust her. She had been there from the start, guiding me, comforting me, but now, something about her felt off. It was stronger than ever before.
I looked at her, my chest tight with confusion. “Debby…” I began, my voice shaking. “Please tell me, who really are you?”