Chapter 4 Blood Ties

My knees felt weak. The world swirled, and I grasped my grandmother's arm, bracing myself against the weight of what I was witnessing.

The wolf-my mother, if it was possible-stands at the edge of the darkness, her golden eyes riveted on me. There was a flash of something familiar in them, something beyond instinct and wrath. But it vanished as fast as it emerged, leaving only a cold, predatory gaze.

The wolf's deep snarl reverberated through the trees as we hobbled back to the house, my heart pounding. A roar tore through the night as we got closer to the door, sending shivers down my spine.

My grandmother shut the blinds and locked the door once we entered. My head racing, I sank against the wall and struggled to catch my breath.

My grandmother grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back."Inside. Now."

My Mother. All these years, and she's been-what? Living like a wolf in the woods?

I gazed at my grandmother, questions racing through my thoughts. "Is that... really her?" She did not meet my gaze. Instead, she looked out the window, her face veiled in shadow. "

I couldn't take my eyes off the wolf, but my legs finally obeyed. Yes. Or... what's left of her."

"Left of her?" I whispered, feeling a wave of nausea roll over me. "What happened to her? How did this-"

She interrupted me with a weary sigh, finally sinking down at the kitchen table, the weight of her secrets clear on her face. "The curse consumes, Mia. It takes everything-your humanity, your memories, even your own thoughts. The wolf you saw tonight, it's only a shell. Whatever was human... is gone."

I sank into a chair across from her, every word dropping heavily into the pit of my stomach. "So that's my future too? I'm going to turn into... that?"

Her face softened, but her eyes were filled with a sadness I couldn't ignore. "Not if we stop it. The curse doesn't have to run its full course... but it's always there, waiting, but it's fiercest at the full moon.

Her comments lingered in the air, but they did nothing but raise more questions in my mind. I had assumed that my mother had simply... left me. You resist the urges. To think she'd been out there all these years, somewhere between human and wolf, lost to the darkness-my hands shook as I gripped the edge of the table.

"How did it start for her?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "Did she... did she feel the same things I'm feeling?"

My grandmother nodded, her gaze faraway. "Your mother was the same. She felt the pull, fought it with everything she had. But the curse is clever, Mia. It plays on your weaknesses, your fears. Thinking she could control it, she started spending nights in the woods.

However, it required a bit more of her each time. She took my hand in hers as she reached across the table. "Just as I'm telling you now, I attempted to warn her. But she couldn't resist."

I pulled my hand back, frustration bubbling up. "So what am I supposed to do? Just pretend like nothing's happening? Because this... thing inside me, it doesn't feel like something I can ignore."

She leaned forward, her face full of a fierce, protective resolve. "You have to try. Do you understand? You must stay away from the forest, away from anything that awakens the curse."

I wanted to trust her, to think it could be so simple. However, the pull I sensed-the murmur in the back of my mind-was stronger than anything I had ever encountered. I felt as though I had been starving all my life, and after tasting it, I was unsure of how to stop. An awkward silence was broken by a knock at the door. My own heartbeat accelerated, and my grandmother's tensed up.

Neither of us made a move.

The knock returned, this time with greater volume and force. At last, my grandmother got up and walked up to the door, peering through the tiny window.

"It's that boy," she murmured softly, with a hint of suspicion in her voice. "Elias." My heart raced as I got up from my chair.I said previously.

My grandmother hesitated, but she finally unlocked the door, allowing Elias to step inside. His face was tense, his dark eyes scanning the room, taking in my grandmother and me.

"I saw her," I said before he could even speak. "I saw my mother in the woods."

Elias didn't flinch, but his expression darkened. "I thought as much." He turned to my grandmother, a hint of apology in his voice. "I had hoped we had more time."

"Time for what?" I demanded, looking between the two of them. "Why didn't you tell me what I was dealing with? What did my mother turn into?"

Elias hesitated, glancing at my grandmother before he spoke. "Because knowledge can make the curse stronger. Fear feeds it. You need to feel it for yourself before we explain what's really happening."

My frustration boiled over. "So I'm just supposed to accept that my mother's some... some cursed wolf running wild in the woods, and I'm next?"

Elias placed a hand on my shoulder, his expression grave but sympathetic. "You don't have to end up like her, Mia. That's why I'm here. To help you control it, to keep it from consuming you."

"But how?" I whispered, feeling a spark of hope but also a deep skepticism. "How are you going to put an end to this? "First, you must comprehend the curse's mechanism," he stated in a steady, composed tone. "It goes beyond bloodlines. You are bound by the curse to the forest, to something old and... perilous. It thrives on your loneliness, wrath, and dread. It gets stronger the more you give in to those feelings. Trying to take in all he was saying me,

I took a deep, trembling breath.

"So I'll be alright if I just keep my cool?" With a sinister sparkle in his eyes, he stated, "It's more than that." "Control is what the curse seeks." It will push and test you. It will cause you to doubt everything, including your recollections, your intuition, and even the individuals in your immediate vicinity. You'll need to be stronger than it."

My grandmother looked between us, her face pale but determined. "There are ways to keep it at bay. Rituals, However, you must promise us, Mia-you must promise that you will fight it. Despite a knot of doubt forming in my chest, I nodded.

I muttered, "I swear," the words almost escaping my lips. Something went between us, an unsaid agreement, as Elias gazed at me.

Perhaps more than anybody else, he understood what I was going through. Even though I really wanted to trust him, I couldn't get rid of the sensation that he was keeping something from me.

Then he spoke, as though he could read my mind.harms, things that can weaken its hold. "There's something else you should know, Mia. The curse... it's not just a danger to you."

I frowned, a chill creeping over me. "What do you mean?"

He looked away, his jaw clenched. "If the curse takes full control, it won't stop at you. It will spread, pulling others in, until the forest is all it knows."

"What are you saying?" My voice shook, my heart racing as I tried to grasp the implications of his words.

He hesitated, his gaze dark and troubled. "If you can't control it, Mia... you could be the start of something far worse. Something that puts everyone in this town in danger."

The weight of his words settled over me like a storm cloud. I felt the darkness creeping closer, the whispers growing louder. This wasn't just about me or my family-this curse had the power to consume everything and everyone around me.

And as I met Elias's gaze, I could see the grim truth in his eyes.

He wasn't just here to protect me. He was here to make sure, if I lost control, he'd be ready to stop me-by any means necessary.