Bonus Chapter 7

***Poppy***

The car jolts to a stop in front of the huge manor that I’m sure is the packhouse. Thick gray clouds roll overhead, casting everything in dull, heavy light. It’s so massive it feels like it could swallow us whole, with its towering stone walls and wide staircases stretching up to heavy oak doors.
My poor heart thrums painfully. I don’t move.
Azzy kills the engine and steps out first, his boots crunching the gravel. Li follows, slamming her door so hard it rattles, making me jump on my seat. I force myself to breathe and open my door, slipping out into the chill air.
The moment my feet hit the ground, they’re there.  
A little crowd.  
Waiting.
I don’t need an introduction to two of them.
I scan their faces. Werewolves are not immortal, they grow old but not the same as humans. Or witches. That’s why I’m not surprised that the two of them look like they haven’t aged a day since that day. 
Fifteen years ago. 
The Alpha stands at the top of the steps, broad and menacing. His jaw locks tight the second his eyes land on me, and a deep, animalistic growl rips from his chest. His hand curls into a fist at his side. His icy onyx gaze slams into me, and I swear I feel it, like a slap across the face. 
Beside him, a tall woman crosses her toned arms—his sister. I remember her as well. Her red-painted lips are pressed into a thin, angry line, her brown eyes cold and cutting. Both of them stare at me after realization hitting them like a hammer.
I wince as I recall Azzy’s tone when he found out about me— *“Is she ‘Poppy’? Like Pops and Auntie Vi’s ‘Poppy’?”* 
They don’t need any confirmation like my strong mate.
Their hatred is instant and razor-sharp.
Children—little ones I don’t recognize—peek from behind the adults. Their innocent faces are wide-eyed and curious.
An adorable boy opens with a beaming smile. “Big bro! You—” 
“Inside. Now,” Azzy’s father barks at them, his voice thunderous and terrifying, snapping like a whip. 
The kids flinch, looking up, confused at the Alpha. I don’t think they get his harsh tone so often because they are frozen, scrambling to obey.
A soft-faced woman with a lighter shade of Azzy’s meadow green eyes bends low and coaxes them gently, her voice barely a whisper against the storm brewing. “It’s alright, sweethearts. Go on, now. Let the grown-ups talk. Ollie, take care of them!” They pout but obey her.
The door closes behind them with a heavy thud, leaving nothing between us but the suffocating air.
I shrink back instinctively. My hand trembles. Memories of that day flash in my mind—firm fingers digging into my arm, a voice promising death if my mother didn’t undo what she did. 
I can’t breathe.
I can’t help it. The moment Azzy’s father’s furious gaze locks onto mine again, a jolt of pure fear spikes through me. I bolt behind Li without thinking, gripping her jacket and pressing myself into her back like a coward I am. 
Oh, Spirits!
Li stiffens, but when she glances over her shoulder and sees me, her face hardens—not against me. For me.
Azzy immediately steps in front of both of us, his broad shoulders squared, a living wall between me and the people who haunt my nightmares.
No one speaks. The air tightens.
“You brought *her* here?” the Alpha spits the words like venom. He shifts his dark gaze to Azzy. “You brought the witch’s spawn into my pack?” 
Li’s mother’s voice cuts sharp almost at the same time. “You’re dragging that filth into our home? After everything she caused?”
I whimper.
Azzy growls so deep and warning that his entire body vibrates with rage. “She’s not her mother, Aunt Vi!”
“You don’t know what she could be!” Li’s mother snaps, her voice thick with disgust. “Blood doesn’t lie, Az.”
I feel Li wince. Yet, she steps forward, knocking Azzy’s arm aside like she’s ready to throw herself into the fire for us. But she still grabs his hand fiercely. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that!”
“Lily,” her mother says sharply, jaw tight. “You weren’t there! You don’t even know—”
Li snorts, tossing her head, her perfect hair wild in the wind. “I know enough. I know you’re a self-righteous bitch who chose revenge over a kid’s life!”
Her mother flinches like Li slapped her.
“You watch your mouth!” the Alpha growls at Li.
Li sneers. “Or what? You’ll threaten me, too? Like you threatened her?”
Azzy’s mother steps forward, trying to calm down everyone, but no one listens. On the contrary, the Alpha quickly places her behind him protectively with his big arm as if someone would attack her at any moment.
“You want to know the best part, Mother?” Li says sweetly, mockingly. “She’s not just a random girl. She’s our mate.”
I can see Azzy’s muscles getting even more tense. I try to convince myself that it’s because of the cruel way Li told them and not because of the reality of it.
I fail.
The silence that follows is brutal.  
Azzy’s father looks like he’s been physically punched.  
Li’s mother’s face twists into horror.
I can’t see Azzy’s mother, she’s too short, she’s hidden behind the mountain that is the Alpha’s body.
“Our *what*?” Azzy’s father roars with his damn deep voice.
“Our mate,” Li repeats, slower this time, savoring it like sweet on her tongue as her head turns to her mother. “You know, like the one you got from the Moon Goddess even though you didn’t deserve it? Yeah. Surprise.”
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. 
I close my eyes, and suddenly, I feel strong arms wrapping around me. Looking up, I spot Azzy eyes staring at me with worry. "You okay there, sunshine?"
I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. I can’t speak. I hide my face on him. His body anchors me, even though I feel like the ground is falling away beneath me.
“You’re fated to *that*?” I hear Azzy’s father ask, and I turn my head on his way. He’s stepped down one stair. 
Azrael’s growl deepens, and I whimper in his arms, feeling his distress. “Say that again and see how fast I break your jaw.”
Li’s mother glares at her. “You’re a fool, Lily. Of course this is a fucking trick.”
“Takes one to know one, right, Violet?” Li smirks, but I can feel her rage in the way her arm is trembling around me. 
“She’s dangerous. She’s a witch!” Li’s mother hisses. “Honey, you think you’re safe with her? You think she won’t destroy you like her mother tried to destroy us?”
Azzy throws me into Li’s arms and steps forward, his deep Alpha voice deadly. “Poppy’s nothing like her mother!”
Azzy’s mother tries to step forward, but the other Alpha doesn’t let her.
“You’re blinded by her,” Li’s mother snaps, shaking her head. 
Li’s laughter is sharp enough to slice skin. She throws her arms out. “That’s rich coming from you.”
“Don’t talk to your mother like that,” Azzy’s father snaps.
“She’s not acting like a mother, Uncle Ethan!” Li fires back. “She’s acting like a fucking executioner.”
My throat burns with unshed tears. I want to disappear. I don’t belong here. I knew I didn’t. We shouldn’t have come here!
Azzy’s fists clench so tight I hear the leather of his jacket creak. He glances at me—just once—and it’s enough. His whole face shifts, hardens into something lethal.
“You made Poppy a villain for surviving,” he snarls at both of them. “You made Li run. You made Poppy afraid to live.”
The Alpha steps down one more stair. His voice is pure fury. “Her mother cursed me—cursed my baby sister—”
“And she’s dead, Pops!” Azzy cuts him off. “She’s gone! Poppy isn’t her. She never was!” Azzy moves closer to both Li’s mother and his father now, his chest heaving. “If Lily isn’t wanted here... if Poppy isn’t welcome here... then I’m not welcome here either.”
The finality in his voice drops like a guillotine.
Without the Alpha’s broad body hiding her, Azzy’s mother finally comes into view. Small, blonde, and almost fragile-looking next to the towering wolves around her. She speaks softly, but firmly. “Enough. All of you.”
The air around her hums with an energy that’s unmistakable. 
Power. 
Not the violent kind. 
The quiet, certain kind that doesn’t need to roar to be heard.
For a second, the world holds its breath.
The Alpha stiffens. Li’s mother presses her red-painted lips together.
Then Azzy’s mother walks down the steps slowly. Each one feels like a shift in the earth. Her hands are calmly clasped in front of her floral skirt, and her golden hair dances slightly in the wind.
“It is *not* Poppy’s fault what her mother did,” she says, her voice so calm and sure it’s almost unnerving. 
I feel my eyes sting. Like... I need to hear that. From any of them.
The blond woman goes on, “And in this pack, where I am the Luna, I will not allow anyone to hold it against her.”
My heart stutters. She’s looking at me now—really looking—and I feel seen for the first time in what feels like forever. Azzy told me she’s also a witch, and witches always stick together, but I’ve never had that experience before. 
Something about her... Something about what my mother told me when I was a kid...
Right after she broke the Alpha’s curse that prevented him from finding his fated mate...
But Mother didn’t make sense that day...
She stops right in front of me. So close I can see the faint lines around her eyes—eyes so much like Azzy’s. But so soft. So calm... so...
My mind recalls my mother’s voice that day — *“Don’t worry, Pumpkin. When the time comes, the last soul they’d suspect will slither to your aid. And oh—” A wide grin splits mommy’s face. “—how I’ll cackle at fate’s delicious joke. I’ll drink their shock like wine, even if I’m just bones in the dirt.”*
More memories come flooding back, but Azzy’s mother’s voice drags me out of my mind.
“Poppy—” She turns to face the rest, her back straight. “is more than welcome here,” she says clearly as if daring anyone to argue. “Especially after all the trauma she has survived.” 
Azzy squeezes my hand, grounding me. Li leans slightly, her head above mine, the gesture so protective that it makes me breathe easier.
Li’s mother starts, her voice shaking. “But Allie—” 
“No.” Azzy’s mother lifts her hand gently. “Lily and you have differences you need to resolve, yes. But that has *nothing* to do with her mates, and you know it, Vi.”
Her tone is soft, but the finality in it is undeniable. She looks directly at Li’s mother, and something shifts. Li’s mother’s face crumples slightly, her mouth trembling as her gorgeous chestnut eyes well with tears.
Li’s jaw tightens above my head.
Azzy’s mother turns back toward Li, her voice kind but unwavering. “Lily, you are—and always will be—welcome here. I can’t believe I have to remind you, but this is your home!”
Li laughs bitterly, dragging her hand roughly through her hair. “Yeah? Great welcome committee,” she snaps. “A growl and a death glare. Just what every girl hopes for after not seeing her mother in two years.”
“No, Lily, please—” Her mother tries to reach for her.
But Li pulls back sharply, lifting her chin high. “Don’t,” she says coldly. “You already said enough.”
Azzy’s mother places a steadying hand lightly on Li’s trembling shoulder. “They were worried about you,” she says gently. “Especially your mother, Lily.”
Li stares ahead, refusing to melt, refusing to let them see how deeply it hurts her. 
But I know it. 
I was there every time Li cried.
Azzy’s mother sighs softly, a touch of sadness bleeding into her wise voice. Then she turns to Azzy.
“You need to understand,” she says to him, “this is a hard moment for everyone here, buddy. Wounds that never fully healed... memories that never softened.” Her eyes shine with pride now. “But you defended your mates with honor, Az. I’m so proud of you.”
I look up and spot Azzy’s throat bobbing, and for a moment, my Alpha’s mask cracks. He nods once, sharp, overwhelmed. His love for his mom is clear in the way he looks at her.
The Alpha grunts from the steps. A noise that somehow says more than words.  
Azzy turns just his head, locking eyes with his father.  
No words pass between them—none needed.  
Yet, I think they’re talking through mindlink.
Finally, Azzy lifts his chin and asks, his voice low but resonant across the courtyard, “Are we welcome here?”
Azzy watches them, his chest rising and falling like he’s barely holding it together. Sadness starts to adorn my handsome mate’s face.