BETA TIM’S POV An egg? Her story was beginning to make sense to me until she got to the part of the egg been placed in alpha Fred’s belongings. What baffled me was not how an egg could stay for hundreds of years without hatching, but that Mildrid and her cohorts have outlived the egg. Mildrid may be over half a thousand years old and I... I... did that with her... I felt like convulsing and bringing out every one of my intestines. They must all be properly cleaned before they are placed back into me. Even my flesh should be ripped off for a new one to grow in its stead. I had always known this part of our history but I never fully believed in it. How would I have ever believed a tale that speaks of the moon goddess coming to live among humans? Moreover, the story was never completed then as no one could tell what became of the witches of the dark wind. I cannot believe that all along I have been dealing with the leader of the witches of the dark wind, Mildrid. Back to the egg, what does it have to do with our history, or is she here to finally hatch it and give her the stone amulet? Does this mean that the plot of Mildrid and I are finally going to be futile? Just when our plan was about to be hatched, the old lady comes along to hatch some age-long egg. This is ridiculous and unbelievable. Alpha Fred could not conceal his astonishment and so he exclaimed. “I have the egg?” It’s been over centuries, the old lady said so herself. If she had truly made do with her egg, keeping it herself would have been the best choice than leaving it with the alpha. How does she expect the alpha to still have the egg after two decades? She made the wrong choice, and I believe that by now she is regretting it. And how does Scarlet come into this, she wasn’t even conceived when all of this transpired with alpha Fred. Or is she going to be entrusted with the task of looking for the age-long egg? I don’t know how else to describe this, but it is ridiculous. I felt that by now the old lady would realize the mistake that she had made and turn around, but instead, she continued and her next words got me startled. “You had the egg, Fred, until it got to beta Tim and finally consumed by ma Patricia, and then Scarlet was conceived. To my utmost dismay, when she was born, she was frail just as her egg and so, I could not entrust the stone amulet to her yet. It would be useless to her weak self until she had her wolf” Scar... Scarlet is the egg, she is the egg of the moon goddess? Now it is beginning to make more sense to me. I remember the egg. A golden egg that I found hidden inside of the alpha’s room a month before Scarlet was conceived. On that day I had shown the egg to the alpha because I thought that it must be the egg of a goose and that the alpha was keeping it for a specific purpose but he asked me to take it away and maybe leave it in the kitchen. However, I could not do that as I was already attached to the egg and so I took it home with me waiting to see if the rare and precious goose would be hatched. Now I recall that after about a week, I found Patricia eating an egg that she refused to share with me or even her sons on the excuse that it was a rare and delicious egg that she had found. Oh yes, it was after that I did not see my precious egg again. So it was consumed by Patricia and it led to Scarlet being conceived. Oh no, I actually fathered an egg of the moon goddess and I treated her like trash. I know that the alphas were cursed, but who had cursed me this way? “But I had my wolf at sixteen, nothing happened. You never gave me the amulet” Scarlet said. “Yes and that was because I could not come to look for you in Diamond Cut Pack. You were easy prey to the witches, and they must never know that you were already hatched or your true identity so I had to stay away from you even at that time. However, I had hoped that you would run away from the mansion once you get your wolf. I had thought that you would soon get tired of the torture and come to the woods where I waited joyfully to receive you but you never did. At that point when you were going to be given up to a ruthless alpha as a wife, I hoped you will finally see a reason to run away, but you never did. Deep within you, you could not stop loving those that were supposed to be your family even when such gesture was never reciprocated” the old lady explained. “I... I... could not run away, I never thought of it” Scarlet replied. My heart bled as I listened to the words coming from her. All along I have considered her to be the weakling among us, not knowing that she was the strongest. We did so much wrong to her, but not even for once did she think of leaving us. She wanted us even when we despised her. She would not shed the blood of her brothers even when all they wanted was to bring her head home. And she took her little sister with her before attacking us. She wanted to shield her little sister from harm even when we had given her no reason to. “Yes, you never did. And then was Violet at Black Moon Pack but still, you remained put. At a point, I was worried that you were going to choose death over living” the old lady responded. The witch knew about this all along. She knew who Scarlet was and what she stands for and only used me to get to her. All along I felt I was working and doing all I could for the goodwill of my people, not knowing that I was leading them to their doom. I can't take this any longer. She has to explain why she used me against my own. She must tell me why she felt I was an easy prey against my people.Everything, every single thing was planned by the witch. Even the power she had given me, she does not require Dawn’s blood to do so. All she wanted was for me to kill my last-born child with my hands. She wanted to revive the sacrifices of old. She had promised that she was fighting for me, fighting for us. She said she wanted to see that my goodwill to the Pack was appreciated and fully rewarded whereas all along she was fighting for herself, hoping to win a battle that was lost centuries ago. Having made up my mind to go hard on her, I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Mildrid... do you mind explaining to me all that I have just heard? Tell me why you would turn me into a pawn against my people and household” She did not say anything but took her face away. She hasn’t seen enough of me yet. At this moment I am ready for even death but that would be after I have made her regret ever using me to her advantage. I was going to scream at her again when I felt a heaviness on my cheek. It was as if an iron has been used to hit me but when I opened my eyes, I discovered that Mildrid had slapped me. I could feel the effect of the slap on the gums of my teeth and I don’t think I still have any teeth left in my mouth. I felt the metallic taste of blood, and I tried not to spit it out. As I opened my mouth to speak, the blood dripped out from a corner of my mouth and I said pointing to her. “You...” However, she was quick to shun me. “You dare not talk to me in such manner ever again” she warned and just to show me how serious she was, another slap landed on my face, this one, no less painful than the first. All along, I thought I got this all sorted out, but this is my fate, one that I cannot run away from.