Few days before my son’s birthday, he died. It was all because Eddy Winslow, my Alpha and Elric’s father forced my sick son to participate in the competition. His motive was a playful bet he made with his omega mistress, Trista.
Elric wanted to get his father's attention and care like before, so he agreed to it. My son fought against much stronger contestants, twice his age, so he got injured. His fever made his condition worse and he got knocked unconscious.
During that chaos, Eddy was flirting with his favorite omega instead.
My uncle who was Elric’s doctor called from the hospital, telling me that he didn’t have much time.
I rushed into the ICU ward, determined to be with Elric in his final time.
“If I win, Dad promised he’d take care of us more, Mom.”
“I just want us to be like before. Dad was so much happier back then.”
Just when I was preparing for my son's funeral, I decided to close all of my social media account to tone down all news about my husband and his mistress’ activities. However, something caught my eye. It was a post from Trista’s InstaPic account, appearing on my feed.
Trista was basking in a breathtaking view from the top of a tall building in the pack’s Central Metro. Eddy was there, mingling with her and other business owners.
Beneath the pictures was a caption: [It was a fun experience! I learned a lot from these awesome people!]
I scoffed.
My Son died because these two was making a silly bet. Now, they were having the time of their life without taking responsibility?
I had enough. I would never forgive them!
***
My uncle called me around the early evening with a devastating news….
“Uncle Davon, be honest with me. Can you, or can you not save Elric?” My voice trembled with frustration.
“It’s tough, Sal.” My uncle’s sigh crackled over the phone, heavy with concern. “Miracles are a long shot right now. The medical team found Elric two hours after the hunt ended.
“When we found him, he was on the brink—severely dehydrated, barely conscious. He must have been pushing himself too hard with that fever. We’re doing everything in our power, but it’s critical.”
Tears threatened to fell from my eyes, I ended the call with heavy heart.
“I see. Thank you, Uncle. I’ll come to the hospital soon.”
Anger bubbling up from within me. I immediately went upstairs, towards my husband’s study.
“Mrs. Winslow--” My husband’s personal butler stopped me by the door.
“Move, Gareth,” I said, summoning every ounce of calm I could muster.
My wolf surged within me, my jaw tightening as an animalistic snarl rumbled in my throat. I stood my ground, my gaze locking onto my husband’s private butler secretary and bodyguard with an unyielding intensity.
Normally, he would try to dissuade me from entering my husband’s study, but this time, he hesitated, then stepped aside, recognizing the power and resolve in my eyes.
A cough, raw and insistent, clawed its way up my throat, finally breaking free in a fit of harsh bursts.
“Thank you…” I muttered, taking a deep breath to steady myself, the wild energy still coursing through my veins.
Then, I shoved the door open. My anger peaked, causing it to slam against the wall with a resounding crash.
“Eddy, are you out of your mind?!” I shouted, my voice raw and unrestrained.
My husband stood with his back to the door, his hands lingering on his favored omega's thighs as she sat provocatively on his study desk.
Trista glanced at me sideways, her casual demeanor only fanning the flames of my rage. But what truly shocked me was Eddy’s reaction—
He didn’t even flinch!
“You sent Elric into a hunt!” I yelled again, my voice cracking as a couple of coughs escaped. Finally, Eddy pulled away from Trista, but only slightly.
Something inside me snapped. Ignoring the tightness in my chest and my usual submissive nature, I rushed forward, undeterred by the potential consequences. “Don’t you realize your son has a high fever since last night?!”
“Behave yourself, Salvia,” Eddy said calmly.
A surge of alpha aura ghosted over my shoulders, weighing me down and pushing me effortlessly to my knees. Eddy was using his absolute alpha command. Despite my resistance, I lowered myself until my forehead touched the floor.
“No need to exaggerate.” He stepped closer, squatting low in front of me. “That kid is fine. He’s an alpha and he’s my son. He’s just pretending to be sick. He’ll be alright joining some simple exercise.”
Simple exercise? The seasonal hunting event was far from that! If it were simple, why would two pack council members and three representative judges from neighboring packs must attend this “simple” event?
I gritted my teeth. How did things turn out like this?
Desperately, I tried to lift my head. Beyond Eddy’s sandals, my eyes landed on Trista’s mocking thin smile. The sight of her curved lips stirred my frustration even more.
I had tried to keep myself silent, letting them do as they pleased in hopes that Elric would continue to receive Eddy’s financial support for his education, health, and more things for his future.
I thought things would be alright since the general public would only see my family's facade, that I had "accepted" Trista’s presence in my household.
But now… now Elric was fighting for his life in a small hospital near the hunting grounds. If it weren’t for Uncle Devon being one of the paramedics in charge at the event—
I would have lost my son without ever knowing how, when, or why.
Footsteps approached, and Trista pulled Eddy up, wrapping her hands around him.
“Salvia, don’t blame Ed!” she drawled. “I was just teasing when we talked about El’s strength, you know. I told Ed that he’d be able to compete against the top five hunters from last season. That’s why Ed sent him into the hunting fest!” Isn’t that right, Ed?”
‘El’? ‘El’ she said?
Eddy chuckled, moving his arm to wrap it around Trista’s waist. I noticed his black bead and small fangs bracelet slide down his arm—that ’oh so precious bracelet’ he had worn since rekindling with Trista—hanging loosely from his pajama robe’s sleeve.
As he chuckled, Eddy responded to Trista, “I've told you, Trista. A pampered kid like him wouldn't even stand a chance against the top ten, but you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Ed!” Trista cooed, leaning into him. “How could you doubt your own pup’s abilities? Just wait and see! I will win this bet! El definitely belongs in the top five hunters this season!”
‘Win this bet’? My son was in critical condition in a hospital bed—And they were treating this like some game?
“Enough!” I screamed, my voice raw and echoing through the clearing. Summoning every ounce of strength left in me, I pushed myself up, my eyes locking onto Eddy’s with a ferocity that could cut steel.
“Cough! Cough!”
My body rebelled against Eddy’s overwhelming absolute alpha command, the strain nearly unbearable. I doubled over, a violent coughing fit wracking my frame. As the spasms subsided, I wiped my mouth, my hand coming away smeared with blood.
“Stop pretending with those annoying coughs of yours!” Eddy snapped, his voice dripping with disdain. He raised his hand, ready to strike, but Trista stepped in, her touch stopping him cold.
Eddy regarded his favored omega with a calm nod before turning back to me, his eyes glinting with menace. “You’re lucky. Normally, I wouldn’t spare a wolf who dared challenge me with such disrespect.”
I wiped the blood and saliva from my mouth, my gaze unwavering. Clenching my fists, I stood tall, my body trembling but my spirit unbroken. I faced Eddy and Trista with a quiet, defiant composure, fighting through the dizziness that threatened to pull me under.
I clung to this marriage for Elric's sake, clinging to the hope that somehow, despite the mess, a semblance of peace might find its way to him.
But now, with my son lying in a hospital bed, his father refusing to believe in the severity of his condition, I felt the weight of my decision.
There was this strong devastating regret and guilt telling me that I was too late.
Keeping this marriage seemed pointless if it wouldn’t make things better for Elric. Not in the past, not now, not ever.
The conviction in my heart grew stronger.
With steely resolve keeping tears at the dam of my emotions, I met Eddy's gaze and said with equal coldness, “Call your lawyer. We’re getting a divorce.”
Eddy whom was caressing Trista’s hair instantly snapped his attention to me. His eyes widened with a hint of resistance. “What nonsense are you--”
“You heard me right, Eddy. I wanted a divorce.”
Scoffing, Eddy let go of Trista in his arm. “Forget it, you’re not in your right mind.” He looked at his watch before walking towards me and said, “You just need some time to calm down, Sal. Don’t be ridiculous." With that he proceeded to go past me and left with Gareth.
“Ed! Wait up!” Trista looked at me with a scowl before she ran after him.
Alone, I let my tears fell down my cheeks.
“Cough! Cough!”
Ugh… coughs and sobs combo wasn’t the nicest to have....
Last year, a week after Elric’s 11th birthday, he stopped Eddy at his office—right before his father leave with Trista.
“Dad, can’t you see? She’s trying to poison Mom!” Elric’s voice rang from Eddy’s study.
Instinct took over as I rushed in. I saw his small stature facing Eddy and Trista, fist clenched in fury. Rage was leaking out from his body as he waited Eddy reading the document on his desk.
I moved to shield my only son with my body. My heart pounded in my chest, and my eyes darted to Eddy, wary of his next move. Trista, beside his chair was initially smiling but soon her face paled.
“E-eddy! I didn’t know about this!” Trista’s voice cracked with anguish, her tears falling freely. “Eddy, I swear, I didn’t know the candles I bought was made with wolfsbane!”
“Lies!” Elric's puppy growl echoed through the room, his voice tinged with the raw power of his wolf form.
My concern deepened as I noticed Elric’s partial transformation. His young body had never been able to handle the strain, and I feared he’d be bedridden for days again if he fully shifted.
The tension in Eddy’s study was palpable, as my husband stepped forward.
Eddy stood up, holding a protective stance shielding Trista as if to anticipate Elric's advance. "If she says she didn’t know, then she didn’t know. What proof do you have to say otherwise, Son?"
"But, Dad!” Elric protested.
Eddy placed down the document from his desk. “I applaud you for looking for scientific evidence through hospital lab test.” He looked at Elric coldly. “But that document doesn’t say anything that Trista know about the substance.”
Eddy then called for his assitant, “Gareth, tell the servants to get rid of all scented candle in the house.”
“Sir.” Gareth bowed and took his mobile phone to contact the head servant.
“Meeting is about to start, let’s go, Trista,” Eddy said simply and left the room with just the two of us.
Elric wept that day, tears of frustration and self-blame coursing down his cheeks.
But even in that moment, as I looked back, I saw a strength in him that I had overlooked—his resolve shining through despite the trembling of his shoulders, despite the tears that marked his face. He had stood tall, like the silent warrior hero in his favorite cartoon, defending his pack until the bitter end.
*
But now...
As I stood by Elric’s hospital bed, my heart ached with a pain that words couldn’t capture.
My strong, brave son was laying motionless. The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound in the sterile room, each beep a painful reminder of how close I had come to losing him.
His hand, connected to the IV, seemed so still, so lifeless. But then, a flicker—a slight movement of his fingers, as if he sensed my desperate plea for him to wake.
Elric had stirred earlier, just for a moment, opening his eyes before slipping back into the depths of unconsciousness. I clung to that moment, praying to the Goddess that he would find his way back to us once more.
Thank the Moon Goddess, She listened to my wishes…
"Hey, Elric. How are you feeling?" I asked softly as I took his hand in my palm, my heart aching at the sight of him so vulnerable.
Groggily, he shifted on his elevated hospital bed, lifting the hand connected to the IV. "Terrible," he chuckled, a spark of humor flickering in his eyes despite his condition.
I smiled, taking his hand in mine, but my expression faltered as I felt the fever burning on his skin. Before I could say anything, Elric spoke up.
"Why weren’t you at the Central Hospital, Mom?" he sighed, his voice tinged with exasperation yet weak. "You know you needed the inhibitor to stabilize your scent gland."
I smiled again, touched by his concern. Despite his own struggles, Elric's strength and care for me shone through.
Just as Elric had said, my scent gland was severely damaged. Around the fifth year of Trista’s frequent visits to the Winslow manor, I began to develop prolonged flu-like symptoms that wouldn’t go away.
It was Elric who insisted that I see a doctor, his concern outweighing his young age.
To avoid media attention, I sought out a specialist I trusted—Uncle Devon, my father’s younger brother. Through months of various tests, we discovered that my scent gland was severely damaged, causing unending respiratory issues that left me weak and vulnerable.
The next thing I knew, Elric had secretly taken one of Trista’s scented candles from my room. To my surprise, he had handed it over to Uncle Devon’s lab team for testing. For a boy almost reaching ten, his resourcefulness and determination genuinely astonished me.
The results were shocking.
The candle contained a subtle yet potent blend of chemicals designed to damage scent glands. It was a weapon disguised in the most innocuous form, a sinister plot hidden in plain sight.
The results were shocking: the candle contained potent wolfsbane essence.
Backed with the data, Elric confronted his father and Trista, revealing that the candles were harmful to werewolves and that my coughing was caused by them.
Trista denied knowing that actual wolfsbane was inside the candles. Meanwhile, Eddy, ever her biggest supporter, believed her without question. He simply suggested that discarding the candles from the manor would solve everything.
But no, simple treatment wouldn’t work on me. I had to take anti-inflamatory inhibitor designed for damaged scent glands.
“Cough!”
A few coughs suddenly escaped my tightly sealed lips, breaking the tense silence that had filled the hospital room.
“Mom!” Elric interjected. Despite weakness, his voice laced with worry.
After the small coughs subsided, I managed a weak smile. “I’m alright, El.”
I took a deep breath, setting my hair aside as I gazed at my twelve-year-old son lying on the hospital bed. Gently, I pushed him back to bed and adjusted his blanket.
“You’re right. I do need my treatment. But I needed to see for myself that you’re alright first, sweetheart.”
I leaned in closer, my tone becoming more serious. “Why did you go to the hunt, El? Your fever spiked again last night.”
Elric averted his gaze, his index finger nervously rubbing his left knuckle. ““If I win, Dad promised he’d take care of us more, Mom.” he muttered, almost to himself.
He then looked up at me, his eyes filled with a mix of determination and worry. “You’re sick, Mom. I might not understand everything, but Grandpa Devon showed me the numbers for your treatment!”
He scratched his cheek, a gesture he’d had since he was much younger, a sign of his frustration.
“And, Dad promised he’d stop wearing that bracelet if I made it to the top five.” He lifted his head, his sincerity piercing through his youth. “I just want us to be like before. Dad was so much happier back then, before insomnia turned his eyes into panda circles like now.”
I chuckled through the haze of my tears, a bittersweet release as they finally broke free. In that moment, I saw how Elric had been my constant shadow ever since Eddy had started drifting away. I had noticed the countless hours he spent with his notes and Uncle Devon—
but I hadn’t fully grasped the depth of his dedication.
I had been so consumed with making sure Eddy would at least continue to provided for Elric. I was so wrapped up in my own loneliness and struggle, that I failed to see the quiet sacrifices Elric was making.
Now, as I felt my son’s hand envelop mine, his voice was a gentle balm to my aching heart. “Mom, don’t cry,” he said softly, and I saw a tear slip down his cheek.
I wiped his tears away, my own voice trembling with regret. “I’m so sorry, Elric.” I paused, searching for the right words. “I should’ve listened to you better.”
“It’s okay, Mom!” Elric said, his tone surprisingly cheerful as he dabbed at his own tears. “What matters is that you’re listening to me now. And, by the way, you did listened to me before!”
His eyebrows perked up with a spark of excitement. “Oh, I know! Let’s go visit Grandma and Grandpa after this, Mom.” He leaned back into the elevated bed with a hopeful grin.
“It’s been ages since we last went to Duskhowl.”
There was a gentle light of acceptance in his eyes, a calmness that was almost unsettling. It was as if he had made peace with everything…
In a way that I wasn’t quite ready for.
I couldn’t find the words to respond, so I just nodded and told him to rest. “You recover first, alright, El? We’ll talk about it afterwards.”
Despite his weakened state, Elric nodded with a determined smile.
“Yeah!”
The moment I woke up, I saw Uncle Devon instead of Finn, the usual nurse he hired to take care of me at home. Uncle Devon stayed a bit longer in his guest room after hooking the IV into my vein.
My heart dropped the moment I could truly recognize his expression. The crease of his brows, the sad curve of his moustache.
Moreover, he was supposed to be at the hospital monitoring Elric instead of being here, in his house.
“Uncle…” I shook my head, not wanting my biggest fear to come true.
Uncle Devon took my other hand. His cold palm was a soothing build up to the news I knew he was about to say.
“I’m sorry, Sal. Elric is gone.”
I hung my head low as I clutched weakly on his hand. He then pulled me into an embrace and hug me tight. I cried even more and clutched on his shirt.
“I’m so sorry, Sal. I know this is an incredibly painful time, and I’m here to support you through it.”
*
Alone, puffy-eyed, and numb to it all, I faced the heart-wrenching task of handling Elric’s cremation on my own.
The last thing I wanted was for the media to catch wind of this and drag me into a mess with Eddy or Trista—or worse, both. So, I pleaded with Uncle Devon to keep everything under wraps, promising I could manage with the last of my parents' inheritance.
After some persuasion, Uncle Devon agreed, on the condition that he hire me a professional chauffeur, Ridley, until the whole cremation process was complete.
It took five long days to arrange Elric's funeral since my body didn't exactly work like how I wanted it to ever since my scent gland got damaged.
Throughout those days, Eddy never once checked on me. Not that I expected him to. With his stubborn insistence that Elric was still alive the last time I met him, I wanted nothing more than to stay as far away from him as possible. So, I didn’t bother reaching out.
Just as I was about to delete all my social media accounts and tune out any news about Eddy, something caught my eye. A four-slide post from TrisGlam, Trista’s InstaPic account, appeared on my feed.
Trista was basking in a breathtaking view from the top of a tall building in the pack’s Central Metro.
In the first slide, it was a selfie of her, sporting a stunning pearl necklace—definitely not her usual style, but it looked pretty decent on her. As I swiped through, my heart clenched when I saw Eddy in one of the pictures. He stood a little distance away from Trista, chatting with a few people near a barbecue grill.
Beneath the pictures was a caption: [It was a fun experience! I learned a lot from these awesome people!]
I heaved a sigh before deactivating my account.
Once I had my son’s ashes temporarily stored in my room at Uncle Devon’s, I headed to the Winslow manor to pack up most of my things.
Hours passed, and I heard hurried footsteps racing past my door—a clear sign that Eddy had returned to the main manor.
Ignoring the small commotion outside, I continued packing. Just as I was about to close my suitcase, I hesitated, glancing at the blue case of documents I had prepared the day before.
However, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind me.
Eddy entered our bedroom, his expression as monotonous as ever. Yet, I sensed his surprise at the awkward silence that enveloped us as he stood by the door.
I closed my suitcase and pulled it down from the bed.
At that moment, I caught a whiff of wild cherries—Trista’s scent—lingering on Eddy. I shifted my gaze to him, my eyes landing on a small pure white box in his hand and the black bead and fang bracelet hanging loosely on his wrist.
At that moment, I remembered the first time Elric questioned Eddy’s bracelet. It was years ago, during a time of our family picnic in celebration to Elric’s Elementary Academy Graduation…
“Mom, since when did Dad start wearing that weird bracelet?” Elric asked with a frown, hinting his annoyance.
Eddy had just hurriedly excusing himself for some urgent matter, leaving us to picnic alone. As I watched his figure retreating into the distance, I began to pay more attention to the bracelet for the first time.
It hung loosely on his wrist, the black beads and fang glinting in the sunlight.
“Where are you going?”
A voice broke my daydream. I turned around, looking at the source of the voice.
It was Eddy, he had was already standing by the bedroom’s door.
