Silver Blood

28

"Catherine?" Isabella squeaks, suddenly aware of her surroundings, Isabella scoots as far away from her as she can but she looks first to the corner of the room where the babies are still asleep in their cots 

"I haven't gone near them, I promise. I knew you wouldn't want me to" Catherine explains even though her eyes show pleading for Isabella to let her go near them

"Well forgive me if I don't believe you" Isabella spits the dream still fresh in her mind, it all felt so real, how could Catherine allow her husband to do that?

Isabella stumbles her way to the babies and checks them over to ensure that they are in fact okay, she sighs with relief and turns to face Catherine but doesn't move, she is in full mama bear mode.

"We need to talk Isabella, this has been a long time coming and I knew we couldn't have a frank discussion with Hunter here" Catherine explains lowering herself into the chair Hunter had sat in hours earlier, Isabella couldn't help but notice how weary she looked but she refused to feel sorry for her

"So you watched and waited for him to leave?" Isabella asked shaking slightly, she had been in such a bubble of newborns and pure love with Hunter that she hadn't considered for a moment that she could be in danger, how could she be so stupid?

"I am sorry for deceiving you, really, I am," Catherine says shaking her head, it sounds sincere, "I think it may be best if the babies go to the nursery so that you don't have to fear me being near them"

"Yeah so Dominic can kidnap and kill them" Isabella spits feeling anger like she never has flow through her bones

"Kill them? Never, how could you ever say such a thing? They are my family" Catherine splitters with tears in her eyes "Not to mention, Dominic isn't here, he doesn't even know I am"

"What time is it?" Isabella asked, if it was really true Catherine would've had to have sneaked out away from Dominic

"3am... Please speak to me Isabella, I understand you have no reason to trust me but I want to tell you everything I know" Catherine says, Isabella's eyes flick up to Catherine's eyebrows remembering what Jackson noted, she almost smiles that there is no flickering of any eyebrows.

-

Once the twins have been removed from the room, Isabella found herself sitting on another chair on the opposite side of the bed, even if she had given Catherine the right to have a discussion with her did not mean she trusted her at all. Anyone that could harm a child was an animal.

"I don't even know where to start if I am honest," Catherine says with a slightly nervous laugh

"How about we start with the second child that killed my mother that your mate.... oh my god" Isabella stops, she starts to retch as she realises something that she had been too blinded to realise before, if Dominic had in fact fathered the second child that her mother had given birth too, her and Hunter would share a sibling.

"Clearly you know some of the story and I know what you're thinking, Dominic has done some abhorrent things but actually one thing that he didn't do was father that child" Catherine explains, this causes Isabella's stomach to settle slightly but if not Dominic then who?

Sensing the question, Catherine starts to speak again "It was Dominic's Beta, he is no longer alive but he is the one who... did that, frankly we didn't know who the father was going to be at first, there was just so many options of disgusting men who had, had their way but of course fathers sense their child when they are born from scent as you will, know now"

Isabella starts to feel violently sick again, her poor mother, the mother she would never get to know was violently raped time and time again by different men until she got pregnant with a child she knew she would never be able to keep or save, there would be no way to have a second escape attempt like they had, had with me. In truth, I had somehow been the lucky one.

"What happened to the man who helped them the first time?" Isabella asks, she owed that man her life and she didn't even know his name

"Ash was his name, he was a tall man who was a great fighter but he had an incredibly soft heart, could never harm someone which is why he worked in the dungeons rather than going out with the warriors to fight real wolves as he didn't want to harm them. Little did he know that working in the dungeons would be his demise... he was placed in the dungeon that he had been in charge of keep secure, I don't know the exact details - I didn't want to know but there were rumours of torture, starvation of not letting the poor man sleep until he went completely insane" Catherine and Isabella shiver as the enormity of the words sink in

"How could someone be so cruel?" Isabella questions, it was a direct question but Catherine starts to answer anyway

"I do not know how we got to this place Isabella, truly, I do not. Dominic wasn't like this when we met, he was kind and smart and he was the man I fell in love with... somewhere along the way we lost that and he became obsessed. Dominic had a woman in his ear" 

Isabella gasps

"Oh dear, things aren't always as they seem, the man who fathered that child had a mate, Dominic was the king and had a mate but still had his... side piece" she spits out remembering the women who clearly plagued her life "Her name was Daphne and she was a witch, where the hell he found her I do not know"

"A WITCH?" Isabella exclaims

"Yes Isabella, a witch. Surely you know they exist although of course incredibly rare?" Catherine questions and continues with Isabella nods slowly "Well she suddenly found herself her all the time, Dominic was spending more time with her than me, she started to feed things into his ear and I am not excusing what he has done, he still made those choices but I have since heard that she was very persuasive" a look of pain crosses Catherine's face

"Yeah I bet she was" Isabella mutters rolling her eyes in disgust

"Who knows but what I do know is that she started to tell him about this... breed of werewolves that were unaffected by silver, as you know of course that is our greatest weakness, she told him not only that they existed but that there were talks of them rising up against the monarchy because they were stronger than us, they could do things that we simply couldn't," Catherine says, the information is already filling up Isabella's head

"Such as?" Isabella asks, she hadn't noticed anything different about herself other than being unaffected by silver

"I don't know the full list and it probably isn't true but there were things about them being able to use compulsion, even more, effective than the Alpha's command, faster wolves and other things that seemed to bring the fear of god into Dominic"

"I've shifted once when I was 13, clearly I am not that powerful if I can't even shift" Isabella laughs humourlessly 

"You're more powerful than you know Isabella, I know nothing of your previous life but I see a sadness in your eyes that is starting to fade when you have recovered from your previous life I think you will start to explore what you are capable of, your spark has been dampened but can never be put out unless you let it" Catherine says reaching her hand out to Isabella but being unable to reach

"So what happened?" Isabella asks ignoring the kind words

"It always felt like a slow decline into madness but really when I look back it seemed almost overnight that Dominic was being told about these people to him hunting them down, there were signs that could be seen before someone was tested with silver to completely confirm the diagnosis if you will"

"Such as?" Isabella asks impatiently 

"When shifted the wolf form often takes on the shade of white with specks of silver, extremely rare of course but most people don't question it. Dominic sent his most trusted people out to the packs saying they were inspecting for the king, they would go on runs with the pack ad see if anyone had this telltale fur. At first, Dominic would torture and kill these people and then it turned into taking their blood to examine it to see if there was anyone way Dominic to become immune to the effects of silver and then finally he decided after he found the young girl... your mother that he wanted to see what two people with this condition would do if they created a child together, he had never found someone with complete immunity but then..." Catherine explains

"I came along" Isabella finishes