“I know you’ve suffered a lot, but that doesn’t mean it’ll set things straight,” Maya said, her wrinkled face showing the weight of her exhaustion and stress. “It doesn’t matter, Priya. When you’re in a place where you have to fight, death is unavoidable. Did you think you’d get the Alpha position peacefully?”
How could she not be tired? Everything was taking its toll on her mind; she didn’t even want to count it all. Finding Priya had been her first priority, but back then, she hadn’t thought deeply about what she’d do next or how things would work out.
Now, when she did think about it, it seemed like a far-fetched dream. It was as if she’d only dreamed about the starting point-finding Priya-and then never dreamed beyond that. And now she was suffering in her success: the attack, Priya’s curse, the pack’s new Alpha, and this building mystery. Everything was crushing her.
She didn’t even know how to mend her relationship with Elk. He’d said he forgave her, but since that day, she hadn’t been able to talk to him privately. It felt like he was avoiding her, which she understood-things don’t heal overnight. But still, the issues were piling up, one against another, and she felt she’d be crushed under the burden.
“Maya, you know what?” Priya spoke, snapping Maya out of her thoughts. “My whole life, I never wanted to think about my parents. I thought they left me because they didn’t want me.”
Maya looked at Priya with a serious expression, urging her to continue.
“Every day, I lived with this grief that my own parents had abandoned me at an orphanage,” Priya went on, her voice quivering. “But then I got Mother Mary. She always treated me like her own child. Now think how I feel, knowing my parents died long ago, that they didn’t leave me by choice. It’s just because of circumstances that I had to be raised as something I wasn’t. How can I lose you too?”
Maya’s heart clenched. She reached out, taking Priya’s hands in hers, feeling the tremble in her niece’s fingers. “Oh, Priya,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “I’m not going anywhere if I can help it. But you need to understand, our lives, they’re not like others’. We don’t get to choose our battles.”
Priya pulled her hands away, wrapping her arms around herself. “But that’s just it, isn’t it? We never get to choose. Not our nature, not our enemies, not even who lives or dies. It’s all decided for us, by fate or curse or whatever you want to call it.”
She stood up abruptly, pacing in front of the bench. The moon cast long shadows of her movements, making her look like a restless spirit. “And now there’s this building that no one can see except Priyank. What if it’s part of the curse?” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
Maya watched her, her heart aching. She saw so much of her sister in Priya – the same fierce determination, the same struggle against a destiny that seemed set in stone. “We don’t know that,” she said softly. “But whatever it is, we’ll face it together. That’s one choice we do get to make.”
Priya stopped pacing, her eyes glinting with unshed tears in the moonlight. “But for how long, Maya? How long before something tears us apart too? First my parents, then this curse, and now you’re talking about sacrifice like it’s inevitable.”
“Because sometimes it is,” Maya said, her voice firm but gentle. “Your mother, she sacrificed everything for love. For the pack. And I…” She paused, swallowing hard. “I would do the same. Not because fate decrees it, but because I choose to. Because you, Levi, and Rish are worth it.”
Priya shook her head, but there was less defiance now, more despair. “It’s not fair,” she whispered, sinking back onto the bench. “None of it’s fair.”
Maya put an arm around her, pulling her close. Priya rested her head on Maya’s shoulder, and for a moment, they just breathed together, the night air filling their lungs with the scent of earth and flowers.
“You’re right, it’s not fair,” Maya murmured into Priya’s hair. “But we’re werewolves. We’re pack. We endure. We fight. Not because we have to, but because it’s who we are.”
Finally, Priya spoke, her voice quiet but steady. “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself, Maya. I won’t. And why are you so sure that you have to sacrifice?”
“Because,” Maya began, her voice wavering, “your mother sacrificed everything for me. Then I had to sacrifice my own mate, my own life, because I needed to find you. I had to atone for the mistake I made by leaving you in a place I couldn’t find. And I’m not saying I’m getting killed, it’s just… everyone has to fight their own battles.” She gently brushed Priya’s hair, the gesture soothing both of them.
“That doesn’t matter, Maya,” Priya insisted, pulling away to look her aunt in the eyes. “Nobody’s going to do anything like that. What if I don’t even want this Alpha position? Maybe I can just live peacefully within the pack?”
Maya smiled, but it was a sad, knowing smile. “If it were that easy, the Moon Goddess wouldn’t have led us to find you. How can anyone else hold the position when the true heir is you?” she reasoned gently.
Priya shook her head, frustration clear in her voice. “They can, if I don’t want it. I lived a normal life in the human world. I have no greed for the Alpha position.”
“What about avenging your parents’ death?” Maya asked quietly.
The question hung in the air, heavy and sharp. Priya flinched as if Maya had struck her.
“That’s not fair,” she whispered, voice trembling with a mix of anger and grief. “You can’t use them to… to make me do this.”
Maya sighed, the sound weary and old. She didn’t move from the bench, didn’t try to reach for Priya. “I’m not trying to manipulate you. But you need to face the truth. Your parents didn’t just die, Priya. They were murdered.”
Priya whirled around, tears streaking her cheeks. “You think I don’t know that? That’s all I can think about! Every time I close my eyes, I feel like my whole body dying thinking about this.”
Her voice broke. She pressed a hand to her mouth, stifling a sob. Maya ached to comfort her, but she knew Priya needed to get this out.
“But revenge?” Priya continued, dropping her hand. “Is that what they would have wanted? To see me become… become some kind of killer? To fight and claw my way to power just to strike back?”
Maya stood then, her movements slow, deliberate. She approached Priya like she would a wounded animal. “Your parents wanted you safe, above all else. But they also believed in justice. In protecting our kind from those who would harm us.”
“I can fight it, without becoming the Alpha.”
She reached out, tentatively touching Priya’s arm. When she didn’t pull away, Maya continued, “Being Alpha isn’t about revenge, or power for its own sake. It’s about safeguarding our pack.”