Chapter 8 The Hidden Power!

Valeria's POV

A blinding light forced my eyelids open. Where was I? Is this the so-called afterlife that humans speak of?

I didn't know, but it seemed like an immense forest, strangely a bit eerie.

I looked down where my bleeding wounds should have been, but there was only healthy skin on my belly, and the bond with my wolf was also gone, leaving only a strange sensation inside me.

Something wasn't right, but there was nothing I could do except look for a way out, so I did. I walked and walked aimlessly among the trees and the endless forest.

"Valeria?" – Suddenly, a female voice from nowhere stopped me in my tracks.

As I turned around, I found myself facing a woman with a stunned and horrified expression. "Do you know me? Where are we?" I dared to ask despite my fear of the unknown.

"No, no, it can't be, little one, you... you are dying," she stated, just by looking at me, with evident concern.

I didn't know what to say to that, honestly, all of this seemed too unreal to me.

"Vale, I am... I. am your mother, at least, a part of my power that remained sealed in your inner world. We are here."

"My mother?" I took a step back as she approached, and I wanted to ask her so many questions and make so many accusations, but my throat tightened into a knot, and my eyes just reddened.

I didn't even know if I should believe her, but seeing how much I resembled her, I was sure she wasn't lying.

"I know you have many things to ask me and to accuse me of, but I can swear to you that if I had had a choice, I would never have abandoned you, my daughter."

"There is no time, if we don't do something, you will die. I will not allow that."

And then, I heard the most absurd and incredible things I never thought I'd hear, as she took my hand and we hurried off somewhere.

"So, you mean to tell me that I am a descendant of the Ravager pack? That I carry that immense power within me, yet you sealed it to protect me so that I wouldn't be hunted and killed like you?"

"When I found myself cornered and desperate, I knew that if I didn't separate from you, I would drag you to death as well."

"I sought out Ruffin and left you in his care, you would grow up as a normal girl and no one would suspect that you were from the ancient pack," she continued to look at me with tearful eyes full of remorse, and I no longer knew what to believe.

Especially when I thought about Ruffin, my dear adoptive father, who also couldn't protect me to the end and dead for me.

"Do you know how my life has been? Do you even imagine that I am dying because I was escaping from being a slave? If I had known about that power, if you had given me the chance to defend myself, I wouldn't have... 'fallen so low in my life'..."

"Nothing I say will make you understand the weight of my decision, Valeria. My daughter, I hope that in the future, you never have to choose to save your baby."

"If you so desire the opportunity for power, I will give it to you, and only you will know what you are willing to sacrifice for it," she said as we reached the edge of the forest, where a veil of thick white fog prevented me from seeing beyond, but I could feel it.

Something slept among the shadows, something was waiting to awaken and be freed. Next to me, my mother began to recite an ancient spell, and the fog gradually thinned.

"What is that?" I took a step back, terrified, my whole-body trembling.

In front of me, a huge wild fire wolf slept. Its hot aura made my breath come out as steam, and I shivered with fear.

"Don't show fear, Valeria, that you see there, is your power. It is your inner fire wolf inherited from our clan, and you must master it if you want to have the power you desire, because the moment it senses your weakness, it will destroy you completely," my mother warned me.

"How... how can I master something like that?" My legs were shaking, and I didn't see myself capable of facing something like that.

It wasn't even awake, and I already felt defeated.

"A man with the cold winter magic inside him would have been ideal, but we ourselves exterminated them with our arrogance, enslaving their pack, so you will have to find a substitute."

"A powerful Alpha to help you calm the inner fire and face it, to show it that you are the one in control, which is why I also sealed the power in you."

"Daughter, if you don't manage to control your inheritance, your fire magic will consume you. Valeria, in the end, you will die as well, like many of us."

"Did you manage to control it?" I looked at her hopefully, but she shook her head.

"I never found an Alpha powerful enough."

"I also left you and used myself to distract our pursuers because I was dying. In the end, fate would have separated me from you anyway."

"Valeria, you must be brave. I will give you my final gift, the knowledge I inherited from my mother. You must continue on your own from now on, but if you dare to awaken this power, you only have one option: tame it or you will die." With tears falling from our eyes, my mother hugged me and pressed her forehead against mine, leaving me all her wisdom and memories.

Despite all the times I missed her and thought she had abandoned me and didn't love me, seeing her suffering, I hugged her back, grateful to fate for at least letting me say a final goodbye.

*****

I opened my eyes to reality, processing all the extra information now in my head and the agonizing pain in my abdomen, which indicated that I had survived but was severely injured.

I found myself lying on a hard, moving surface, perhaps a cart, and could only see the night sky passing before my blurred eyes.

With unbearable pain in my body and dizziness that made me want to vomit everything, I fainted again and fell into unconsciousness.