Daughter Dearest...Why Is There A Werewolf In Your Bed...?

“Ah, nice comeback, but I just want to take this little prize back with me,” he motioned toward me as he said this.

“And do you think I’m going to idly stand by and let you take her?” My mother’s voice was full of venom.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye and noticed that the skin on her back crawled. I had only heard of the reason she wore that dress, I had never actually seen my mother pissed off enough to make her wings come out involuntarily.

Her face was blank of emotion, except her eyes held such a degree of rage and loathing that I had to look back at Cian as he looked me over. My mother moved in front of me slightly.

“Oh, come now. You know what kind of connection I have to her now. I’m just checking on my little investment and I wanted to try an experiment.”

My mother tensed slightly and her skin crawled faster.

“Calm down, Winry, it won’t hurt her for long,” he chuckled. Cian broke a branch off of a nearby tree and pointed the sharper edge toward me. My mother moved further in front of me, keeping her gaze on the branch.

Cian scoffed and then pushed the branch into his own arm. A thin line of blood trickled from the self-inflicted wound, but Cian kept his eyes on me. I held that stare until I felt a sharp pinch in the middle of my left forearm.

I quickly looked down and hissed in pain, my mother looked at me for a moment and then followed my gaze to the newly formed wound on my arm appeared. She looked back to Cian as he swiped the branch off of his arm, leaving a slight gash in it’s wake.

It appeared on my arm as well.

“Well, now that I have my conclusion, I will take my leave,” he smirked before turning around and dissolving into the shadows.

It was a while before my mother took her eyes off the spot he disappeared. When she finally did, she quickly took my arm and began to heal it. I stared at her until she looked up from the glow that spread from her fingertips to the quickly healing cut on my forearm. My mother blew a few stray strands of hair from her face in slight annoyance.

“What?” she sighed as she redirected her eyes back to my arm.

“Nothing.” My mother shot me a look that told me she didn’t buy it. She let go of my arm and I looked at it for a second before my mother’s attention snapped towards the trees where Cian disappeared and I listened.

There was a faint rustling of leaves, but I could tell that it wasn’t from the wind. Silver flashed through the leaves, this time more spots in the darkness than before. My mother moved completely in front of me this time, her wings spread wide to hide me from their view.

We knew what they were. The rebel werewolves were finally making their move.

And my mother was the first on their shit list. That was easy to tell, all of the eyes narrowed as soon as her wings had appeared. They advanced quickly, but that wasn’t the disturbing part. It was the fact that I couldn’t hear their footsteps at all. No snapping twigs, no rustling of leaves that was too conspicuous.

Then I heard it. Their feral growls. The sound of pure rage and hatred sunk into my bones and brought fear to the surface of my skin. My mother tilted her head back slightly.

“When I tell you to, I want you to call out your wings and flee.”

I looked at her, frozen in fear.

“I...I can’t do that!” I stared at the back of her head.

“Don’t worry, your mother is tougher than she lets on.” I could almost see the cocky smile on her face. The growls worsened.

“But...”

“Now!”

I turned and began to run in the opposite direction, I heard their steps at this point. I didn’t want to look back, but when I heard my mother scream I turned.

I called out my wings like she told me, but one of them pounced on me before I had the chance. I fell forward and slid on my side into a tree. My stomach slammed into the trunk and knocked the wind out of me, but I turned and sat with my back against it.

A beast came at me and pinned me there by my shoulders, all I could do was look at it with wide eyes as it stretched its mouth over my neck.

It was soon thrown into another tree and knocked unconscious as a few loose leaves fell onto its body. My mother hugged me tight and wrapped her wings around me, trying to lift me, carry me to safety. She screamed in pain and I saw a hole appear in one of her silver wings. Then everything went white.