Chapter 11: The Dead Return

Evelyn POV

I was able to see Kieran through the window. He was standing out there in the cold like a statue. His eyes were wide. His mouth was open. He had something behind him that he was gazing at as though it were a ghost.

A voice outside said, "Alpha Marcus, open the door of that house straight away or we shall shoot you and your momeases. It was the voice of a man who was robust and confident of himself. It was the voice of one of those who were dead and yet had somehow returned to life.

My heart began to beat so quickly it seemed to blow out. Alpha Marcus. The man who had been murdered. Of that man whose death had ruined my life. The fellow whose murder I had been accused of.

Serena's face went pale. Even she looked shocked. "Father?" she said. "But you were--"

"Dead?" One of the men passed through the front door. He was similar to Kieran, only older. His hair was gray. His face was scarred. But it was like Kieran whose eyes were silver in color. It was Alpha Marcus.

He wasn't dead. He was alive.

I embraced Adrian and Damien more closely. And this was even worse than anything that Serena could have done to us. This was a betrayal that went right to my heart and it broke something inside my heart so deep that I did not believe it could break anymore.

You are an alive one, Kieran said in the doorway. His voice was as though very distant. It is you who have been alive.

"Yes," Alpha Marcus said. He entered the room as though it was his. Like he owned all of us. "I've been alive. I've been watching. I have been waiting till the right time to come back.

"But the poison," I said. My voice was small and feeble. The reason we all expected you to be poisoned. We all thought you were dead."

Alpha Marcus looked at me. His eyes were cold. "The poison was real," he said. "But it wasn't meant to kill me. It was meant to weaken me. This was supposed to cause me to fade away a bit so that my son could be taught to be a real Alpha.

Kieran stepped forward. What are you talking about, father? What is this?"

This is a trial, Alpha Marcus, this is a trial, said. He pointed to Serena and Victor and all the soldiers in the room. This is a trial to whether you are strong enough to have what your title says. It is a test to determine whether or not you can guard that which is important to you.

"You're insane," I said. "You're all insane. This isn't a test. This is evil."

Alpha Marcus turned to me. "You," he said. The woman who broke my family. The woman who made my son weak with her softness. The woman who allowed herself to be accused of my death without putting up a fight.

"She was innocent," Kieran said. His voice was high and furious now. "She didn't kill you. Serena lied. Serena framed her."

"I know," Alpha Marcus said. "I was there when it happened. I saw my own daughter put a frame on an innocent woman. And I did nothing to stop it."

Serena's eyes went wide. "Father, no. I did it for you. I did it to make you proud. I did it to make Kieran strong."

You did it because you are weak, Alpha Marcus said. He did not even look at his daughter. You did it because you could not possibly win the love of Kieran using your own strength. And weakness I cannot abide in my family.

He approached me and the boys. I supported myself, with Adrian and Damien in my arms. Kieran was about to come forward to our side, but Alpha Marcus raised his hand.

Give me a glimpse of the kids, he said. It wasn't a request. It was a command.

"No," I said. "You can't have them. You can't have Adrian. You can't have Damien."

Alpha Marcus said, Adrian is my grandson. He carries Kieran's blood and the blood of my family. He belongs to us."

"Adrian belongs to me," I said. "Adrian is my son. I gave birth to him. I raised him. He is not some possession. He is not a kind of a tool of your family.

Alpha Marcus smiled. It was a smile without warmth in it. You are yet to figure out how our world works, do you? Children are not personalities in our world. They are bloodlines. They are power. They are the new generation of our packs.

Kieran was moving behind Alpha Marcus and his mother came forward. She was wearing all black. Her hair was drawn away. And she did not look anything like the kind mother whom I had seen in old pictures.

"Hello, Evelyn," she said. Her voice was cold and sharp. And now it is nice to see you at last in person. My son denied you due to lack of knowledge of your weakness. But I understand it now. I can see it clearly."

"You're not real," I said to her. "I watched them bury you. I went to your funeral."

"An empty grave," she said. A meaningless ritual of a woman who had to vanish. I was too risky to remain with Kieran. I was too strong. I would have engulfed him with my authority. So I had to leave. I must have left him to grow up without me.

Kieran was shaking. The entire body was trembling as though he were about to burst. "Mother," he said. "Why? Why would you do this?"

"Because I love you," she said. I love you so much that I was ready to sacrifice everything. I was ready to vanish out of your life so that you could make an Alpha this pack had to be.

Damien pulled on my hand. There was something he was trying to tell me. I looked down at him. His eyes were straining towards the window behind us. There was someone there. Someone I couldn't quite see.

I stared at the mother of Alpha Marcus and Kieran. And they stood in between us and the sole door. The windows were blocked by soldiers. There was nowhere to run.

"So what now?" I asked. "Are you going to kill us all?"

"No," Alpha Marcus said. "Killing is too simple. Too quick. I have even better than that in mind.

He snapped his fingers. Two combatants seized me by the back. Adrian and Damien were hauled away by them. I resisted them to the best of my abilities. I screamed and kicked and tore their faces with my nails.

"Let them go!" Kieran roared. He transformed himself into a wolf yet he was wounded and feeble. He lunged at the soldiers.

But more soldiers appeared. They rolled Kieran and restrained him. He could not fight them all even in wolf shape. There were too many. The room had too much power.

Adrian was crying. Towards one of the back rooms Damien was being swept away. I was so firmly clenched I could not move.

So what becomes of those who go against the natural order? Alpha Marcus said. This is what they do to who makes attempts at being equal to Alpha blood.

The window behind us broke out into the air. Glass exploded everywhere. A character passed through the window as a bullet. It was a wolf. A giant, mighty wolf, of silver fur and the blazing wrath eyes.

It assailed the men who had me in their grasp. It tore and clawed and struggled as though it were endeavouring to redeem the world.

I had gaped when the wolf returned to his human shape.

It was my father. Richard Carter standing there, transformed. He was a werewolf. He had always been a werewolf. And he was fighting to save us.

"Run!" he shouted at me. "Take the boys and run!"

But Alpha Marcus smiled. Did you actually suppose that I am not aware of you, Richard? And did you think I did not know you were coming? Did you imagine you were going to halt what I have already set in motion?

He lifted his hand and shook his fingers once more. More soldiers were coming in every direction. More people. More power. More impossibility.

And in the midst of them all I beheld something which made my blood freeze. I had seen Adrian being carried away. It was not the face of Adrian I saw. It was someone else's face. One, who had the appearance of Adrian, but was not Adrian.

Someone else's child. Someone else's son.

"Where is my Adrian?" I screamed. "Where is my baby?"

Alpha Marcus smiled his dreadful smile. "Gone," he said simply. Your son is already taken. Hours ago. It is taking him to the place where he will make himself the strongest werewolf in this world. And there is nothing you can do about it.