Out of The Woods (COMPLETED)

The final chapter

I stared forward in utter disbelief, she looked exactly like me. Long flowing golden hair and light green eyes that held a unique kind of warmth. It was the warmth of a mother and it filled my whole body. Suddenly I remembered being six again and falling asleep under the stars as she'd sing me songs and stroke my hair. I remember sitting beside her and patiently watching her paint, my eyes lighting up in awe at the way the colours mixed. I remembered the mundane things like her braiding my hair and making me breakfast. I didn't realize how much I missed that. She approached me slowly, unsure as to how I'd react. Tears gathered in my eyes as I threw my arms around her and chocked back my sobs. She stroked the back of my hair, tears coming down her own cheeks.

"You've been so brave my little girl, there's nothing more to fear. I will protect you and so will the king. You have the protection of the wolves. All will be solved." She let me go and gently smiled at Isaac behind me before she walked up to join the king. I stared in bewilderment as she took her rightful place beside the king and I realized something

The reason she had never come back was not because she was destroyed by a ruthless world. It was because she shared the same fate as her daughter. The king was her mate. My mother, a forest nymph, was the werewolf queen. Isaac took my hand in his, gently rubbing pattern on the palm of my hand. Even Esme and Finn stared at her in complete and utter shock.

Elder Moe glared at her, his eyes following her in a bitter rage. She smiled brightly at us all before she began to speak.

"I was thirteen when I first left the city of Arden. I had learned so much from the outside world from books and secret conversations. I fell in love with the prospect of freedom and a world much bigger than the one I knew. In Arden, you marry who you are told to. You give birth to as many children as you can and you die a blissful ignorant death. Some may be happy with this, but I was not. My spirit was not born to die in such a way. I was born with the desire to see outside the box in which we lived."

Elder moe slammed his fist down on the podium. "We gave you everything."

She smiled then, but it was a sad smile.

"Yes, you gave us everything. Everything but our freedom. Even when I had companionship and food, where the sun shined every day and everyone seemed so cheerful. My soul yearned for more knowledge. So I snuck out of Arden and arrived in the city. I was fourteen. I had enough human money to take a bus into the royal capital which was my goal. I walked the streets and fell in love with the atmosphere. I tried strange foods and saw so much more than the same open fields I'd stared at day after day. Then as I stood at a market stall to buy apples, I felt it. The unyielding gaze against my back. I turned and felt this earthshattering pressure beat down on my body. I was terrified. I didn't realize what the mate bond and even after the king was so kind and patient, I was so scared and overwhelmed that I ran. I took the bus back to the village and ran back through the trees. The elders however, had noticed I was gone."

Her eyes went cold as she spoke. "I was locked in a holding cell for three weeks, endlessly interrogated and denied of my human rights. I was fed once a day and given the minimum to survive. My act of recklessness had scared the elders and I paid for it. After weeks of crying and begging for my release, I told them nobody had seen me and that I had only walked around for a few hours. Satisfied with my answer, they finally released me. I was watched 24/7 for the next six years. I was not allowed to attend festivals or gatherings for the first two. I was denied any privacy and all my jobs were stripped off of me. I had no goal, no motivation. Nothing. I was to be married to Aurora's father and eventually, I grew to love him. I pretended to lose interest in the outside world and after years had passed and I was expecting a baby, the elders finally relented and my life went back to the way it was before. But I stumbled across a book explaining the mate bond when Aurora was six. I immediately knew that's what I had experienced. When I read that my mate would die within the first few years of meeting their mates if they are apart, I was devastated. I loved my husband but I couldn't bear the thought of killing someone who was supposed to be my soulmate. I left Arden with the intention of returning. I wanted to find a way to break the bond if my mate was still alive. Six years after meeting, I finally met him again. " her eyes found mine, glazed over with unshed tears.