My Werewolf Parents Pretended To Die To Make Me Suffer

Introduction Seven years ago, my real family faked their own deaths in a disaster at Red Moon Canyon, all for the sake of the son they'd adopted. They left my older sister behind to pose as the only survivor, watch me, and force me to atone. She once stood in the bell room and told me, "Your scent will foul the path the dead take through the Moon Gate." More than a month later, she found me by the Western Sea, barely alive, and fell to her knees begging me to come home. I turned her own words back on her. This time, she didn't argue. She pulled out her enforcer's silver chain, bound our parents, and dragged them out of my sickroom. She finally understood. This wasn't about punishing them. It was about giving me back the last freedom I had left. As I carried the last crate of wine down into the cellar, its iron edge sliced my right hand open. Blood dripped from my fingertips, but I didn't feel a thing. Faint silver lines were creeping up from my wrist, like a cold snake had slid under my skin. Tucked inside my robe was the note Maeve Doyle had given me, written on feather paper. It said the silver poisoning had already damaged my wolf and that I had to stop working at the border silver mine right away. But after today, I'd finally have the last bag of moongold I needed to rebuild the Stoneclaw ancestral home. It was the only thing my sister, Leah Hall, had ever said would make her smile at me again. "Ronan, they still need a platter of roast venison upstairs," the steward called from the stairs. "Don't keep the Hall family's guests waiting." It took a moment to sink in. Then I looked up. "Hall?" The steward gave me a strange look, like he couldn't see why a porter would care about his masters' last name. "It's the Stoneclaw Alpha's Winter Solstice feast. The young master is getting his sword tonight too, so every dish has to go out on time." My head started to pound. Seven years ago, Leah, my parents, and their adopted son, Kane Hall, were on their way to pick me up when their carriage went over the edge into Red Moon Canyon. The wolf lamps for my parents and Kane all went dark. Only Leah crawled out alive. She told me I was the one who had killed them, all because of what I'd said. When I learned the truth about my birth family on a call, the first thing I said was that they should send Kane away. Kane was so scared he slit his wrist with a silver blade and triggered his moon madness. My parents were racing back to save him when their carriage crashed into the canyon. So I spent seven years paying for it. Every day I worked down in the mines, exposed to silver dust, and handed every scrap of moongold to Leah so she could buy back the ancestral home other packs had taken over after the disaster. And now here I was, standing in the cellar of that same home, the one that was supposed to be in ruins. I didn't ask the steward anything. I picked up the roast venison and took the servants' passage upstairs. The closer I got to the banquet hall, the stronger the familiar scents became. My father, Aldric Hall, smelled like cedar and cold iron. My mother, Maria Hall, carried the dry, bitter smell of herbs. Kane always smelled like white flowers, way too sweet. For years, those scents had come to me only in dreams. Now they were right there, sharp and real. I looked in through the half-open servants' door. Kane was kneeling before the oath fire in a white formal suit. My father held a long silver-black sword in both hands. My mother fastened the gold pack crest to Kane's shoulder, marking him as the heir. Leah stood behind him. My sister, who was always so cold and hard, was looking at him with a tenderness I'd never seen. "This sword is called Everoath." She took it from my father and hung it at Kane's waist herself. "The moongold used to forge it came from every bit of pay Ronan has handed over these past seven years. We almost lost you because of him, so consider this sword his way of making amends." Kane ran his hand over the hilt, and his eyes welled up. "I don't care about any of this. I just want the four of us to be a family forever." My mother hugged him, and my father pulled them both into his arms. The oath fire flickered and threw their shadows onto the wall. They really did look like a family that had never lost anyone. Near the end of the feast, my mother glanced at the cake. "It's Ronan's birthday today too." She kept her voice low. "It's been seven years. Maybe we could let him come back." Kane's fingers twitched, and his glass clinked sharply against the table. Leah put a hand on his shoulder right away. "We agreed on ten winters. Ronan doesn't come home until he truly accepts that Kane is Stoneclaw's heir. Not one winter less." "But he's your own brother." "That's exactly why I can't let him turn into a vicious wolf." Standing outside the door, I slowly crushed the note in my fist. Silver poisoning crawls through your wolf and into your heart. Maeve said I might not make it to the next Winter Solstice. But right then, I didn't feel sad about that anymore. I handed the roast venison to a passing servant and went back out through the cellar. Solstice snow landed on my face, and my right hand still couldn't feel the cold. The bag of moongold I'd been saving for Leah suddenly felt heavy and ridiculous against my chest. They weren't dead. They'd been living comfortably on money that had cost me seven years of my life, waiting for me to atone for a crime I never committed.It took me a long time to dig half a pouch of wolfsbane out from the bottom of the wooden chest in the workers' lodging house. The leaves had gone black and smelled like moldy bitter almonds. I soaked them in cold water anyway, then drank the water in one gulp. Usually, I only drank it to ease the headaches when work in the silver mine left me too exhausted to shift. Tonight, it didn't help at all. I curled up on the little bed under the sloped attic roof. Every time I closed my eyes, the scene in the banquet hall played out all over again. My father holding the sword. My mother holding Kane. And Leah, saying not one winter less. Then someone shoved the downstairs door open. Leah's boots came up the stairs, every step carrying the chill of the winter night. Her eyes went cold when she pushed open the attic door and saw me lying there. "Get up." I didn't move. I honestly didn't have the strength. She crossed to the bed in three strides, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and dragged me off it. "Today's the day we lost Mom, Dad, and Kane. I spent the whole day keeping watch at Red Moon Canyon, and you're up here sleeping?" I could still smell the wine from the solstice feast on her. I didn't call her on it. Leah dragged me all the way down to the little chapel. Three wolf lamps stood in the middle of it. Their wicks stayed dark even though the three people they stood for weren't dead at all. A ring of silver sand was spread in front of the lamps, and a death bell no bigger than my palm hung beside them. I knelt down on my own. As the silver sand bit into my knees, I smelled burning skin. Leah tossed the bell hammer down in front of me. "720 strikes. With every one, you say, 'I killed them.'" I picked up the hammer but didn't strike. "Leah, every year you say you're going to the canyon to keep watch over their graves. Why have you never let me come with you?" She paused for a second. "You think you deserve to?" Her answer came fast. "Your scent will foul the path the dead take through the Moon Gate." I gave a small laugh and finally struck the first note. The dull clang of bronze bounced around the little chapel. "I killed them." The second strike. The third. By the 100th strike, the silver sand was soaked with my blood. At the 300th strike, my right hand started shaking uncontrollably. Before the 301st strike could land, I heard wings beating against the window. A white-breasted wolf bird came crashing in through the window and landed on Leah's shoulder. A soft voice came from its beak, and her face changed instantly. It was Kane's voice. "Leah, I can smell Ronan again. I can't sleep." Leah looked at me. I saw her reach out like she meant to help me up, but in the end, all she did was tighten the silver cord around my knees. "I'll be right back. Keep going." The door closed. I kept striking the bell alone. At the 500th strike, I finally threw up. There was no food in my stomach, only bitter wolfsbane water. It splashed onto an herb pouch by the wall. The pouch, embroidered with white flowers, was a gift Kane had given Leah last year. When Leah came back and saw the soiled pouch, the last trace of hesitation left her face. "You hate him that much?" She grabbed my hand and used it to slam the hammer against the bronze bell. Once, twice. Every strike rattled my skull. "Finish the rest," Leah said. "Skip a single one and you're not leaving this room tonight." My right hand gradually went numb as I held the hammer, so she closed her own hand tightly over mine. We were holding on to something together, like when we were kids. Back then, she was teaching me how to hold a wooden sword. Now she was guiding my hand, strike by strike, as I declared myself guilty. By the 720th strike, I couldn't even keep my eyes open. Leah caught me. She said my name, picked me up, and started to carry me out. But a second wolf bird landed right in front of her. Kane was crying, his voice even quieter than before. "Leah, my wrist is bleeding again." Leah froze. She set me back down beside the silver sand and covered me with her cloak. "I'll be right back." This time, she still hadn't come back by morning.The one who dragged me out of the bell room was Maeve. She'd only come by to collect next month's rent. When she opened the door, she found the silver sand soaked in blood and my knees mangled beyond recognition. "She just left you here alone?" Maeve didn't wait for an answer. She pulled off the silver cord and wrapped my legs in her own shawl. She was a human witch and wasn't as strong as a werewolf, so she went outside and called over two drivers who were delivering medicine. Together, they took me to the healers' hall. When I woke up, she was feeding me warm broth from a wooden spoon, one sip at a time. "Don't rush. Swallow slowly." I suddenly remembered finding out, all those years ago, that the Hall family was my real family. I'd tried to imagine what my mother would be like. The mother I'd pictured was exactly like this. Maeve saw my tears. She didn't ask any questions. She just wiped them away with a clean cloth. Gideon Mercer, the old wolf healer, gave his verdict that afternoon. He put my hand in warm water and asked what I felt. "Nothing," I said. Then he set a piece of ice in my palm. "How about now?" "Still nothing." Gideon let out a long sigh. "The silver poisoning has spread throughout your wolf. You're still drinking wolfsbane, aren't you?" "It's the only thing that helps when my head hurts." "It isn't a treatment. It only forces your wolf to settle down for a while. Your body is too weak to flush out the silver dust now. If you keep suppressing your wolf, the silver has nowhere left to go but your heart." Maeve spoke up from beside the bed. "How long does he have?" Gideon didn't look at me. "Two full moons. Maybe less." Maeve pressed a hand over her mouth. But I just took the last bag of moongold out of my robe and put it in her hand. "Put this toward the rent and the medicine for now." "Ronan, I don't want this." "I still owe you." "You don't owe anybody anything." With that, Maeve pushed the moongold back into my hand. I didn't have the strength to argue, so I kept it for now. When it started getting dark, I turned down the offer to stay and headed for the edge of the territory to find a cheap carriage ride. I ended up on the wrong road. Up ahead, Moonwell Square was blazing with light, and Kane stood in the middle of the scent ring. It was the last ritual before an heir accepted his sword. He had to prove he could stay in control when exposed to different scents. I meant to leave right away. But Kane looked up, straight at the spot where I was standing. His eyes flashed gold. Claws shot out of his fingertips, and with one swipe he smashed the oath-fire bowl in front of him. But it wasn't just fire that flew out of the bowl. There was a big handful of silver powder too. Kane fell onto the silver powder and raked his own shoulder with his claws, leaving several bloody gashes. "He's here!" he screamed. "Ronan came to steal my sword!" The crowd erupted into chaos. My mother rushed into the scent ring first and threw her cloak over Kane. My father and Leah pushed through the crowd toward me. Their faces looked exactly the way they had at the Solstice feast. It was the first time I'd ever stood in front of them and gotten a clear look at my father alive. He didn't ask why I was there. He just punched me in the stomach. I doubled over and spat out a mouthful of blood. Leah already had hold of my arm. "You had the nerve to follow me?" she asked. "I was just passing by." "Moon madness nearly consumed Kane, and you're telling me you were just passing by?" I glanced at the silver powder on the ground. It had only landed around the oath-fire bowl, so neatly it was like someone had planted it there ahead of time. "You can check the bowl," I said. "There shouldn't be any silver powder at a scent trial." My father didn't even turn around. "Too scared to own up, so now you're getting paranoid?" Kane was trembling in my mother's arms. "Father, don't be too hard on him. He just wants to come home." My father's expression darkened at that. "Put him in the moon cage." The moon cage hung over the edge of Red Moon Canyon, iron bars on every side and silver spikes covering the floor. Werewolves who'd committed crimes punishable by death but hadn't been tried yet were locked inside until the moon set. When they shoved me in, my right palm came down on a silver spike. Leah stood at the edge of the canyon. "You're here tonight just so you can come to your senses. Once Kane is safe, I'll send someone to let you out." "Will you?" Her lips moved, but she didn't answer. She left with my father. The wind picked up, and the moon cage swung back and forth, slamming into the canyon wall. Before long, my right hand couldn't even grip the silver spikes, so I hung on to the iron bars with my left. Sometime after midnight, one of the ropes holding the cage finally snapped. The cage dropped hard. My left hand slipped loose, little by little, and the wind at the bottom of the canyon sounded like it was already calling for me. Just as the second rope started to give, Maeve's voice came from above. "He's here! Bring the winch over!" One after another, the border patrol's torches flared to life. Someone was shouting that nobody could use the moon cage without the court's approval. Someone else smashed the lock and lifted me, shaking, off the silver spikes. Maeve pressed her palm to my forehead. She didn't ask if I'd crossed someone again. She just told the patrol, "Hurry. He's still alive."I stayed at the apothecary for six days. The ropes on the moon cage had wrenched my left shoulder, and my right hand had lost all feeling. Gideon wanted me to stay, but I went back to the lodging house anyway. It wasn't because it felt like home. I'd come for the things still in the attic: two old garments, a ledger of all my wages, and a drawing of a family of five I'd made in secret as a kid. I wanted to burn all of it. When I pushed the door open, Leah was sitting beside the little bed in the attic. She looked grim, with deep shadows under her eyes. I had no idea how long she'd been waiting. "Six days," she said. "I figured you'd hold out longer this time." "What?" "Your little disappearing act." She stood up. "You thought if you ran off for a few days, I'd search everywhere for you? You'd come crawling back on your own anyway." I held up my right arm. It dropped back to my side like a dead branch that didn't belong to me. "The ropes on the moon cage snapped. After the patrol got me out, I was at the healers' hall the whole time." Her gaze settled on my hand. "Dad said he'd send someone to open the cage." "He didn't. Neither did you." She opened her mouth but didn't argue. The silence didn't last long, though. Leah straightened up and spoke to me in the voice she used to enforce pack law. "Dad was careless about the moon cage, I'll admit that. But Kane's moon madness is real, and every time you show up, he gets hurt." "So?" She took a deep breath. "You already know Mom, Dad, and Kane didn't die. What happened at Red Moon Canyon seven years ago was a punishment. It was just to make you remember that your blood doesn't give you the right to make Kane hand over everything." She said seven years like it was seven days. "You still haven't fully learned that lesson, but Mom and Dad are willing to give you a chance. Come back to the Stoneclaw ancestral home with me today and apologize to Kane in the Moonwell court. As long as you promise to stop fighting to be named heir, you can wear the Hall name token again." All of a sudden, I felt so tired. "I can promise that." Leah's expression softened a little. "I won't ask you to send Kane away again. I don't want the sword, the pack lands, or the name." "Then come with me." "But I'm never apologizing." Her face tightened all over again. "Ronan, don't make me use force." "You don't need to send him away. I'm the one who should leave." Leah looked at me like she didn't understand a word. She took out a pale silver blood-oath cord and wrapped it around my wrist. The Hall blood in me made it tighten at once, until I couldn't pull free. "You're so sick you don't even know what you're saying. Come home first. Once the apology ceremony is over, I'll have a healer treat you." "Leah, that's not my home." "You're Hall blood. Of course it's your home." She put me in the carriage. The wheels crunched over the snow, carrying me toward the ancestral home I'd spent seven years paying for, the one that had never belonged to me. They hadn't died at Red Moon Canyon seven years ago. What died there was the last of my trust in my own flesh and blood.