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“Start at the beginning,” Rylan suggested, looking from me to the human Estella and back again.
“Something terrible happened to Estella that split her human and wolf halves apart.” It was the easiest way to explain it, though I didn’t have all the details on how or why it had happened just the vague answers the Moon Spirit had told me.
“Spirits.” Deacon cursed, looking a little queasy. The thought of being separate from my wolf was enough to make me feel icky too.
“I was a sacrifice.” Estella spoke softly as she stared at her plate that was piled high with food. “That’s why the Moon Spirit kept me in the Between and promised that my wolf and I would be reunited one day.”
“I can’t even imagine how painful that was.” Rylan sympathized.
“Being in the Between was easy. It was the separation that nearly killed us both.” The wolf Estella rose to a sitting position and rested her head in the human Estella’s lap, giving her comfort the only way she could.
Human Estella ran her hand over her wolf’s head, scratching her behind the ears absently as she seemed to relive something terrible from her past.
“You’re here now,” I reminded her, placing my hand on her shoulder.
“I know. I was kept alive for a purpose, and I intend to do whatever I have to help you defeat my sister.”
“Wait, sister?”
“My sister is Tamra, and almost a century ago, she tried to kill me.”
Chapter Seven
Rylan
Deacon and I sat there stunned. Unsurprisingly, Pearl didn’t react to Estella’s revelation, which meant that she knew or suspected something like this.
“You knew about this?” I asked incredulously.
“Sort of. She didn’t belong in that place, and I knew she’d be able to help us. I’m not sure how. Gut feeling I guess.”
My brain seemed to be short circuiting because I was having a hard time grasping the news. Estella was my aunt’s sister. How come I didn’t know that she had a sister?
“We’re related, then,” I whispered, having mixed feelings about it.
“I suppose I’m your aunt too,” she replied sheepishly.
Estella looked the same age as everyone else sitting at the table. If her and Pearl’s story was true, that meant that she had been in limbo for a century or more judging by how old my aunt looked. Never aging. Staying the way, she’d been when her and her wolf had been ripped apart.
“I never knew.” I wondered what Ledger would think of this.
“That’s why I needed your help to get her back.” Pearl placed her hand on my arm. It was a comforting gesture. “You’re her family.”
“I needed a family member that’s an alpha to call me back. I waited so long.” Estella looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“It also helped that you are the alpha,” Pearl added.
“I’m honored to have helped you return,” I said, meaning every word. “Excuse me for a moment.”
I pushed my chair back and rushed out of the kitchen, down the hallway to the room Pearl and I slept in. My mind reeled over the fact that I had another family besides my uncle’s. Unbidden, my thoughts turned to the past and how different my life would have been if there was someone else to take me in.
Everything that I thought I knew about my past was now in question. The power my aunt had wielded at the Gala was unheard of, but it also made so many things make sense. My wolf encouraged this train of thought, even revealing that some of my actions were made against my will.
I would never betray Pearl and her family, but I was forced to. My aunt had manipulated my memories and my actions. I hadn’t wanted to leave the pack and travel around, learning to be a beta, but there was an unconscious urge that forced me to go.
Sitting on the bed, I grabbed my head, squeezing my skull and trying to figure out how much of my life had been my aunt’s manipulation. It made me question everything. My feelings and confidence took a hit.
“Hey, man.”
