The phone rang. On the third ring her mother picked up,"Hello."
"Mother?"
"Belinda." her mother responded coldly.
"May we talk openly?" Belinda asked.
"About?"
"Us."
"What about us?" her mother coolly replied.
"Who we are?"
"You are my daughter. I am your mother.. What else is there to know?"
"Mother, about your heritage and mine?"
" I NEVER wanted you to EVER ASK ME!! YOU SHOULD.NEVER HAVE LEFT!! I DHOULD.NEVER HAVE LET YOU LEAVE AND GP TO THAT ACURSED PLACE!! " her mother was yelling.
"You couldn't stop me from going. I am my own person and I felt compelled to go." Belinda said calmly..
"Of course you did!! How weak of you!" her mother said with bitterness in her voice. "Weak?" Belinda asked, "Weak to.doscover the truth. Who I am?"
"Who you are?? You are MY DAUGHTER!"
"I am my own person, mother."
"Your own person? Hahahaha" Belinda's mother laughed almost sarcastically, if that's ppssible. "If you were your own person you would have fought the pull there."
Belinda was baffled by her mother's apparent hatred of their family story.
"Mother, what about our heritage? Tell me. I need to know..I want to know why you never told.me? What happened to.turn you so against our heritage?"
" Our heritage is sorted. It is bloody and cruel and ..." her mother grew silent.
"And??" asked Belinda.
"And I hate it! I hate all of it! The mate bond...the destiny...the pack wars...all of it. I reject it. I rejected it for you as well.GET HOME NOW!" she was screaming over the phone.
"You cannot decide that for me, mother. My life is my life." Belinda said it calmly.
"You are weak, pathetic and an idiot. Go to you damn father! Go to my parents too! See for yourself!"
"What pack is your birth pack, mother? Do you have a wolf? "
"Ask that damn man...he will tell you ...and I have no wolf. I killed her years ago!"
Belinda gasped.
Her mother hung up. Silence.
Belinda felt the tears running down her face. Juan barged into the room.He felt her distress as her mate and came to her. "Love, what is it?"
"She killed her... she...she KILLED HER..."wearing now Belinda fell into Juan's arms. "Killed who, my love?'
"Her wolf..." she whispered.
Juan gasped and held Belinda tight. Neither spoke; both cried for the wolf murdered. After a while they both moved to the sitting room where Roberto and Rodney were waiting. Rodney took one look at Belinda's face and ran to hernsidd. "What happened?"
Belinda started crying again; Juan shook his head as if saying "not now." Rodney took the hint and backed off.
Belinda looked up at her father, "Did you ever see Mother's wolf?"
"Yes." he smiled in remembrance. She was a beautiful, large black ALPHA wolf. Fast and strong!"
Belinda cried even more. Juan shook his head and a tear ran down his face as well.
"Why do you ask?" Rodney wanted to know what this was about.
"Do you know my maternal grandparents?"
"Yes, of course I do. They still lead the mighty yet small southern Bukidnon pack, the Manobo. Again, why? What happened with your call to your Mother?"
Belinda closed her eyes to compose herself, "Take me there?"
"Yes but tell me.why first?" Rodney asked.
Roberto interjected, "Belinda, your mother told you nothing? "
"She...she rejects all of this...renounces all of this and she... she..." Belinda put her head in her hands and wept loudly.Juan stroked her back and held her close. Roberto and Rodney were at a loss. Juan looked up at the two older men and closed his eyes as if in pain, "Her mother killed her wolf."
Both older men gasped and Roberto grabbed his chest as if having a heart attack. Rodney howled in pain and grief. His own wolf was howling in anguish within him. Then there was silence. A grief stricken broken silence in the room suffocated all four of them.
"How does one kill one's wolf?...kill one's other side and still remain alive?" Roberto said in a very hushed voice.
Rodney shook his head no, "One would have to be insane and if not before certainly afterwards." Juan sat now holding Belinda on his lap, "What a monster." Belinda heard her inner voice...her wolf...speak quietly, "Oh my. oh my. How tragic. Please,please do not kill me. Do not be like that monster. Please..." Belinda replied in their shared space, "Never." Her wolf sighed and laid down grieving her mother wolf. "This is why you know nothing of being a wolf. This is why she has never had compassion even for her own pup. She killed her instincts, her heart is severed."
Belinda began to.cry all over again. Juan stood with her in his arms and walked.to the stairs, turning to the older men he said, "We will retire for the day. She needs rest. I need rest. We all.need rest."
They nodded in agreement.
Juan took Belinda up to their room. She sighed as he laid her down on the bed. "Why? Why would anyone kill half of themselves? " she mused out loud.
"I cannot tell you. I have no idea. I hate it when my wolf grows silent or is upset with me. I cannot imagine losing him." Juan said totally baffled.
Belinda sat for a.moment thinking,"I just discovered my wolf and I now cannot fathom being without her. She is me and I am her. We are one...already. I feel more complete, more fulfilled since she came forward.How hallow an existence must my mother live." It was a statement of fact, not a question.Juan agreed.
He laid down beside her and held her in his arms.
"And she experienced the mate bond. She mated with my father and still rejected it?? How? Why?"
"I think only your mother has those answers."
Meanwhile in the USA...
Anne Roberts sat staring out into the backyard from the kitchen nook. She had poured herself a coffee an hour ago and it still sat there untouched. Louisa, her youngest daughter, walked into the room."Mother?...Mother? Hello!" She bellowed that last word.
"Huh? ...oh... hello." Anne turned to see Louisa. Louisa huffed. "Why are you spacing out? Miss your precious Belinda?" There had always been a jealousy in Louisa towards Belinda. Anne turned away and stared again out the back. Louisa stomped her foot,"Mother, I am speaking to you." Anne coughed, picked up the cup of now cold coffee and turned to see what Louisa was so upset about now.
"Mother. Jim and I are going out tonight." She smiled. Anne acknowledged her and weakly smiled.back,"That's nice. Have fun." She drank the cold coffee and again stared out back. Louisa followed her mother's eyes and saw nothing worth looking at. Just the dumb, dark forest behind the trees. "Mother?" Louisa was feeling ignored again. Anne did not respond this time so Louisa just turned around and left the kitchen. Jim was waiting near the front door for her. "Let's go." he said and the two left the house.
Anne sat there until it was dark. She then stood up and walked out the back door towards the forest tree line. She stood there staring into the forest. She wondered for the first time in many decades, "Who am I?"