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“Magdalena Olsen. Her maiden name was Marcovici.”
“Wait, was she Timotei’s daughter? And her mother’s name, Gheorghita?”
Rene tried to remember the names of her ancestors, and was grateful to her own memory that she actually listened when her mother was talking about her family in the old country. But, those names sounded so strange, so foreign that she was barely able to remember any.
“Yes, I think so,” Rene nodded, those names sounding somewhat familiar.
Jesse turned pale as a sheet. Hyde pressed his palm against his lips, as if trying to prevent himself from talking. It was obvious that this new piece of information wasn’t something they expected to hear.
“What’s going on?” Rene was growing increasingly nervous.
“This might sound crazy and all, but your grandfather belonged to Culore’s clan, the man who is trying to kill me and my son,” Hyde started slowly.
Silence filled every crevice of the room, threatening to tear them apart. It was too much to take in all at once. It sounded too unbelievable to be true. Was it mere coincidence? Or maybe fate playing with them, because she’d grown bored of other mortals?
“That… can’t be true,” Rene shook her head in disbelief. “That’s ridiculous.”
Her mind was filled with thousands of questions, none of them having a satisfactory answer.
“Do you know what happened to your grandfather?” he suddenly asked, sounding a little calmer.
At first, Rene didn’t know. She only remembered bits and pieces her mother told her, and that was never in a sequential order, which made it difficult for her to piece together the entire story, from beginning to end.
“My mother said he went fishing one day, like he usually did. It was a cloudy day, with promise of rain. She told me that she urged him not to go. She said she felt a heavy pressure on her heart, like a premonition of something bad that was going to happen. He usually went for a few hours, but the whole day passed, and he still hadn’t returned home. My grandmother and she got worried, so they went out to search for him. A few others joined in, but they never found any sign of him.”
“He just disappeared?” Hyde asked.
“They never found his body,” Rene continued, “only his fishing rod, and a bucket with some fish. Someone suggested that he must have fallen into the river and drowned.”
“Was he a good swimmer?”
“He was, but the water was cold, freezing in January. So, he probably tried to swim to the shore, but the current probably dragged him further and further downstream. His body was never recovered. They simply stopped looking for him after a while, and no one questioned his accidental death.”
Rene had never told this to anyone. She never met her grandfather, but she felt like she knew who he was and he didn’t sound like an evil man. She couldn’t imagine her mother loving him as she did if he was.
“I remember your grandfather,” Hyde continued. “He was a good man. He didn’t belong in Culore’s evil clan.”
“Do you think they did something to him?” Rene suddenly asked.
“Possibly,” Hyde nodded. “Quite possibly. He’s notorious for getting rid of those who oppose him. Many of our clan members died at his hand.”
He went silent for a moment, as if to give respect to all those he knew, all those who died as a result of Culore’s greed and thirst for power.
“So, what does all this mean?”
“It doesn’t change anything,” Jesse interrupted, sounding a little angry. “The past should be left in the past. Clan rules don’t apply to us any longer.”
“I have nothing to do with the clan my grandfather may or may not have belonged to,” Rene defended herself. “I’m not one of you.”
She was sure she wasn’t a bear shifter.
“You’re not. Your blood is too diluted, seeing your mother married a commoner. If she had stayed in the old country and married someone your grandfather probably already had picked out, then it would be different.”
“Can we just forget about this then?” she asked again.
She gazed at Hyde pleadingly. Jesse was standing there, not knowing what to do.
“I’m not your enemy…” she whispered, on the verge of tears.
