"This is very hard to accept... I can't..." Ava mumbled as she fought to keep her tears trapped in.
"I am so sorry, child. I am sorry I was a coward and just told him about you yesterday. I am sorry it took me seventeen years to finally do that." Sophia said, shaking her head regrettably.
"I still don't understand why you had to hide it for so long. Maybe we wouldn't have to live our lives like this if you had told him sooner..." Ava stated.
"Definitely, everything would have been different!" She added as she sniffled.
At that, Sophia let out a bitter laugh.
"You think Alpha Jenkins would welcome the news with open arms?" Sophia asked rhetorically.
"What do you mean?" Ava questioned.
"That man..." Sophia began, her voice hardening.
"He may seem noble to others, but I have seen his true nature over the years. He is cruel, cunning..."
"No..." Ava shook her head in denial.
"The way he looked at me yesterday when I told him..." Sophia shuddered.
"The rage in his eyes... If he had known when I was pregnant, he would have either exiled us or..."
"Or what, Mother?" Ava butt in impatiently.
"Or forced me to get rid of you before you were even born. That is the kind of man he is." Sophia revealed, her voice cracking.
"I doubt he has even ever remembered that night all these years... And if he did, he never showed it. He was too drunk, too lost in grief..." She added, wiping her eyes.
"I thought keeping quiet was better, safer for us both." She maintained sorrowfully.
Ava scoffed at that submission.
"Better? Better to keep me in the dark? To let me fall helplessly in love with ..." Ava snapped angrily and couldn't finish the sentence.
"That was why I begged you to stop seeing Ethan!" Sophia said gently, reaching for her daughter.
"When I saw you two getting closer, I panicked. I couldn't tell you the truth then, but I tried to protect you!" She maintained.
"Protect me?" Ava laughed harshly.
"And how has that worked out, Mother? Am I not hurt now? Finding out the man I love is my brother?" She asked, gritting her teeth.
"I'm so sorry, Ava. I never meant—" Sophia was saying but Ava didn't allow her to finish before interrupting her.
"Sorry doesn't fix this!" Ava's wolf stirred again, making her voice deeper.
"Sorry doesn't change the fact that I have been kissing my own brother!" She protested.
Without waiting for a response, Ava turned and ran to her room and locked the door.
"Ava! Please, open the door! Let me explain better." Sophia who had run after her, knocked on the door desperately.
"More so, let's talk about the way forward."
"Go away!" Ava replied, her muffled sobs coming through the door.
"Please, sweetheart..." Sophia pleaded.
"I said leave me alone!" Ava insisted.
~~~~~~~~
Hours passed, the morning sun had even come out and still, Ava wouldn't come out.
"Ava," Sophia called again, her voice urgent now.
"You need to go to work. They will punish you if you don't show up!" She reminded her daughter.
But only more sobs answered her.
"Your father... Alpha Jenkins... he was so angry yesterday. We can't draw more attention to ourselves right now!" Sophia pressed further but the sobs just grew louder.
Sophia pressed her forehead against the door, listening to her daughter's heartbreak.
Finally, with a heavy sigh, she straightened up.
"I'm going to work now." She called out.
"I will... I will figure something out about your absence." Sophia promised her.
"I need to branch at the kitchen of the Alpha manor before heading for my work." The woman decided and headed there.
Sophia arrived at the kitchen and made her way to Lady Hazel, the head cook, who was barking orders at other workers.
The woman's eyes narrowed in surprise as Sophia approached her.
"Good morning, Lady Hazel." Sophia spoke cautiously.
The head cook furrowed her eyebrows in response and Sophia continued.
"I needed to inform you that Ava won't be coming in today. She is very sick..."
At that announcement, Lady Hazel's facial expression changed instantly. Contempt crept up her face.
"Sick?" She spat the word out then let out a scoff.
"Have you forgotten your place already, Sophia? First you dare to walk into the kitchen without prior notice and now you are telling me your daughter won't come to work? What effrontery!" Lady Hazel exclaimed dramatically and scoffed again.
"My Lady, I..." Sophia tried to explain but got cut off.
"Omegas don't get the luxury of being sick." Lady Hazel snapped at the woman.
Something snapped inside Sophia at those words. Years of suppressed anger bubbled to the surface.
"Really? Do Omegas not have blood flowing through our veins too?" She blurted out, her voice quiet but firm.
Lady Hazel's face hardened at that and she stepped closer, towering over Sophia.
"You dare teach me about Omegas?" She demanded furiously.
"If I can't stand up for myself, I should at least be able to stand up for Ava... For all these years of silence and submission." Sophia decided inwardly as she thought of her daughter, crying alone in her room.
With that decision, she lifted her head and looked Lady Hazel's in the eyes.
"Yes,We are all werewolves created by the Moon Goddess. Status is just a privilege some were born into. And that doesn't give you the right to treat us less of a being." She maintained firmly.
Lady Hazel reacted immediately. Sophia had barely finished her sentence when the head cook slapped her hard.
Sophia's cheek stung, but she didn't back down.
Lady Hazel raised her hand again, but this time, Sophia caught her wrist mid-air, staring back at the woman.
"How dare you?" Lady Hazel hissed, trying to yank her hand free. When Sophia's grip didn't loosen, genuine fear flashed across the head cook's face.
"You... you can't disrespect me like this..." The head cook muttered in shock at what Sophia was about to do to her.
Sophia smirked as she raised her hand to strike the woman.