CHAPTER 56: NOW, SHE KNOWS.

Bella lay awake, staring at the cracked ceiling of her dorm room. The darkness pressed in around her, broken only by a thin line of moonlight, cutting across her room from the window.

She turned again, pressing her face into her pillow, as if suffocating herself with it would quiet her thoughts. It didn’t. The memories only came louder and clearer.

The dormitory was silent. A kind of silence that weighed down on her chest, making her heartbeat sound louder than it should. She kept tossing and turning, trying to find a position that would trick her body into sleep. It didn’t work. Her mind refused to shut off.

Instead, it drifted back to Brookside High. She remembered Mira and Liam, all the things they did to her.

She gritted her teeth, blinking up at the moonlight again.

Her chest ached. No matter how much time passed, that betrayal still sat in her bones, sour and sharp.

And then Whitethorn. A chance to start over. A place where no one knew her name, where the whispers of Brookside couldn’t reach.

But she hadn’t been here a term before betrayal found her again.

Elara. Her roommate. Fighting her because of a boy, just out of spite.

Betrayed at Brookside. Betrayed at Whitethorn.

Everywhere she went, it was the same. People smiled to her face but sharpened their knives to stab behind her back.

Her throat tightened, and this time, she couldn’t hold back the whisper that slipped out, broken and filled with raw pain:

"Why does everyone hate me? What is so bad about me that I carry bad luck wherever I go?"

Her thoughts drifted back to Whitethorn, to the boys. Luca, Killian, Cassian and Rafe.

Images from the past few days flickered in her head no matter how tightly she squeezed her eyes: Luca’s jaw snapping into a wolf’s muzzle, Killian’s claws ripping through his skin... And the way they’d all looked at her, as if to say ’You’re part of this too. You’re one with us.’

Her fingers clenched the blanket. She hated that she couldn’t stop replaying it. That she couldn’t stop asking herself the same questions over and over again.

"Who Am I? What exactly is wrong with me?"

Because something was definitely wrong. It had to be. No normal girl would have experienced life in their 17 years of existence the way she had. There was nothing normal about her life. Everything that happened to her, everything she did, everyone she met, even the dreams she had. The kind of punishments she had to face...

And now, tomorrow—no, today—at dawn, she’d be escorted to the treeline like some criminal. Exiled. Abandoned. Expected to survive in that forest alone for three days.

Her chest tightened. She didn’t even know what waited for her in there. Monsters? Spirits? Her death? No one had told her what to expect, not even once. Everyone said it was tradition, punishment, exile.

Bella turned onto her side, biting back the frustration swelling in her throat. She wanted to scream. Or cry. Or maybe punch the wall until her hands bled. Anything to stop this restless storm inside her.

Instead, her voice cracked into the stillness, a whisper meant only for the shadows:

"Is this how I die?"

The words trembled in the air before dissolving into silence, the room couldn’t give her an answer.

Her eyes burned, but she refused to let the tears fall. She’d cried enough since coming here. Too much, probably. And what good had it done? Nothing.

She thought of her family. Her mum she hadn’t been able to communicate with since that evening her phone went off. Aunty Angela, her wicked father...

Would they even know that she was being cast out? That she’d be exiled to a thick abandoned forest? Her father would definitely be relieved, she clenched her jaw.

He’ll be glad the curse was finally being dragged away from his name. And would probably rejoice if she doesn’t make it back.

The thought stung so sharply she had to press her fist against her mouth to keep from sobbing.

She rolled onto her back again, staring at the moonlight.

"Why me?" she whispered bitterly. "What did I do to deserve this life?"

Over and over, Bella asked herself the same questions.

"Maybe I am indeed cursed like everyone says."

The thought made her chest tighten. Cursed to be humiliated, abandoned, thrown away. And in a few hours, she’d be marched to the edge of the forest like something rotten. Too rotten to be amongst the normal people.

Bella curled her knees to her chest. She told herself she didn’t care. That she’d gotten used to the pain by now. But her throat burned anyway.

And then—

A sound.

Faint, drifting and too soft to be noticed at first.

It was a tune, low and melodic, threading its way through the quiet night.

Bella stilled, her head snapping toward the window. Her ears strained.

No... it couldn’t be.

But it was.

Her pulse stuttered. She knew that song. She’d heard it before, on her first week here, in that strange dream where she’d heard Rafe singing.

The voice kept calling to her from the dark, humming the same haunting melody.

Her breath came quicker.

Careful not to wake Elara or Corrine, Bella slid her feet to the floor, wincing as the boards creaked. The sound was clearer now, threading its way through the walls like it was meant for her alone.

The song pulled at her chest like an invisible string, tugging her toward the door.

Curiosity always beat fear for her.

She pulled on her cloak, cinched it tight, and slipped silently out of the room.

The melody grew stronger as she padded barefoot down the corridor and slipped out into the cold night. It guided her across the courtyard, until she reached the backyard of the dormitory.

And there—leaning against the shadows of an oak tree—was Rafe.

His voice stopped the moment she stepped into the moonlight, but the look in his eyes told her he’d been waiting for her all along.

And from behind him, emerging like shadows coming to life, Luca, Killian, and Cassian followed.

Bella’s breath hitched.

"You..."

"We had to see you," Luca said quietly, his voice steady but urgent.

Bella’s breath fogged in the cold air as she stared at them, at the four of them standing in the yard. The girls’ dormitory. By this time of the night.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered, looking all around her shoulders, scared for their own safety.

Luca stepped closer. "I just told you Bella, we had to see you"

"Yes, you said that. But do you know dangerous it is for you to be here? You’re on room arrest for god’s sake. You’re still serving punishment for a crime commited and you thought it wise to come to the girls’ dormitory by this time of the night? What’s so special that it couldn’t wait? Why put yourselves in danger? Do you have any idea what Maren would do this time if you’re caught?!" She ranted on and on.

"Jesus, relax Bella. You—" Cassian pointed at her, "—would get us caught with the way you’re going."

"I ask again, what are you doing here? The four of you. What are you doing here!"

"Because you deserve the truth before they throw you out into the forest."

Her stomach clenched. The truth. She almost laughed.

What even counted as truth anymore? The strangeness of this school? The even stranger rules they had? Or the night she saw them shift—bone, muscle, fur ripping through their skin as they fought that... that thing, that demon that had wanted her blood?

Killian’s eyes, dark and steady, flicked over her face. "You’ve already guessed, haven’t you? You’ve seen too much we can’t keep it away from you anymore. You know what we are."

Bella’s mouth went dry. The memory rose again, sharp and vivid. The four boys shifting into wolves circling her, their eyes glowing with the same light she saw flicker now in their human gazes.

She’d shoved it down, locked it up, been trying desperately to convince herself that she had imagined it these past few days. But she hadn’t.

Her hands curled into fists at her sides. "You are Werewolves."

They all nodded in agreement, staring at her.

"It’s not just us," Luca said, his voice quiet, steady. "Whitethorn isn’t what it pretends to be. This isn’t just some elite academy. It’s a sanctuary for wolves. For our kind. And now—for you."

Her pulse jumped at the last word. "For me?"

Rafe’s voice came softer, careful, like the song he had used to draw her here. "Bella, I know you think something is wrong with you because of everything that has been happening, but I want you—we want you to understand that you’re not cursed. You’re not broken. You are The one last surviving Moonblood."

The word landed on her mind. This same name that had been repeated over and over.

Moonblood.

Her lips parted. "Moon...blood."

She rolled it over her tongue. But as she spoke it, it sounded both foreign and familiar. Like she’d known it in another life.

Luca nodded once. "Yes, Bella. Like he said, yours is the rarest bloodline of wolves. Born under a blood moon. Your power lies dormant now, but when it wakes—" His eyes shone with fierceness, "it could level kingdoms."