Chapter 216: Look Who I Found
"She’s a semi-Nexus?" Kira asked, following close behind Braxton.
He was leading her down the brightly lit, heavily secured corridor of his private wing, straight toward the room where their mother was staying, and with every step Kira’s heart pounded harder against her ribs, so hard she half feared it might snap one of them.
What if she doesn’t like me?
It was the thought she could not shake. She had stalled this reunion since yesterday morning, inventing one reason after another, trying to gather her courage, trying to prepare her mind for whatever might happen when she finally laid eyes on her own mother.
For a girl who had been hated and rejected her whole life by the very people meant to love and protect her, she did not know what to expect. She had no idea what a normal mother’s reaction was supposed to look like.
Braxton nodded before he answered. "Yes. A semi-Nexus. Growing up, Father used to tell me that semi-Nexuses are the ones who give birth to true Nexuses. I didn’t inherit those powers myself. Father always said my twin must have been the one to carry them." He glanced back at her. "He was right, it seems."
"How did you know you hadn’t inherited them?" Kira asked.
"There are always telltale signs when we’re young," Braxton said. "For one, a Nexus doesn’t wait until eighteen to shift, the way the rest of us do. A true Nexus can shift even as a baby. The power runs too strong to be contained."
Kira opened her mouth to tell him that she hadn’t shifted at all, not once in her whole life. In fact, she had spent her entire existence being mocked as a wolfless runt, not until two nights before. But the words died as understanding bloomed in her instead.
She slowed, her brow furrowing. "When I first came to Dravengard," she said slowly, "the doctor examined me. And she found something. I’d been poisoned my whole life. I was being fed with aconite extract and fadevine to suppress my wolf, and keep it from ever surfacing."
She looked up at her brother. "I never understood why anyone would bother. But now... now I’m starting to. Someone knew exactly what I was. And they wanted to keep it buried."
Braxton nodded grimly. "Whoever it was must have discovered the truth about you early. And spent years hiding it."
Kira’s brows knitted together in confusion. "But why?" she asked.
Braxton stopped and turned to face her fully.
"Because you, my dear sister," he said, "are the real thing. Do you have any idea how few people truly understand the full extent of what a Nexus can do?"
Kira didn’t understand it herself. But she knew that whoever had tried to suppress her powers wasn’t trying to protect her. They must have done it for something else.
She shrugged. "I tried to read about it after a kind couple told me about it in Snow Crest, but I couldn’t find a single book that explained any of it properly. Just vague mentions, here and there."
"That’s by design," Braxton said, turning to keep walking. "Those texts are mostly classified. There’s too much fear of the wrong hands getting hold of that kind of knowledge. But Father told me everything I needed to know."
His voice softened. "Especially after the fire at the old Moonfang packhouse. The one that happened when we were eight years old. The one that swallowed everyone inside."
Kira nodded slowly. "Yes. I remember the fire. I found out about it recently."
"Father and Claudia both thought you’d died in it," Braxton went on. "For years, Claudia had been quietly circling Moonfang, watching and waiting for any chance to snatch you away and bring you home to us. But the opportunity never came."
"She could never get close enough. And then the fire happened, and Rolf announced to everyone that it had claimed the lives of all inside. Including his daughter from his first wife." He paused.
"That was why we believed you were gone. Claudia never laid eyes on you again after that night. We mourned you for years."
Kira’s brows knit together, and she began to get clarity. Perhaps that was why so many of Moonfang’s people had thought that she wasn’t truly Rolf’s daughter. Because the daughter had supposedly died in a fire. He did all that just to claim the pack as his.
"But Father never stopped believing you were alive," Braxton said, pulling her gently out of her thoughts. "Somewhere deep down, he was certain of it. So he made sure I knew everything I’d need. Every detail and every sign. Everything I’d need to recognise you if I ever found you."
They reached a door, and Braxton pressed a code into the keypad beside it. It beeped its approval and clicked open.
He turned, expecting Kira to follow, and found her frozen instead. She stood a few paces back, her face flushed, her feet rooted to the floor, making no move at all toward the open door.
His brows drew together. "What’s the matter?"
Kira took a deep, shaking breath. "Do you think," she asked quietly, "that she’ll like me?"
Braxton stared at her as though she’d just asked him whether the sky was blue. "Of course she will. Kira, she’s our mother."
But here’s the truth. You’re not capable of being loved. No one loves you, and no one ever will. You’re weak. You’re pathetic. You’re a runt.
Rolf’s voice slithered up out of the past, and Kira blinked hard against it.
Braxton crossed to her at once, towering over her smaller frame, and placed his large hands on her shoulders, his hazel eyes searching her face. And somehow, as if he could read the cruel words echoing in her head, he spoke directly to them.
"Listen to me," he said, his voice low and gentle. "And listen very carefully, Kira. This is your home now, and these are your people. The days of being the hated and rejected one are over. From this moment on, there is only going to be love, acceptance, and protection. No one here would ever dare to hate you. And our mother..."
His expression gentled. "She has been dying to meet you. Truly dying for it."
Kira blinked up at him. "She has?"
"Of course she has," Braxton said, and a warm smile spread across his face. "Come on."
He took her hand in his, firmly, and led her through the doorway into the room beyond. By the window, with her back turned to them, a woman sat very still, gazing out at the morning light.
"Mother," Braxton called gently. "Look who I found."
