Leo’s POV

​The morning air was thick with the scent of lilies and deep sorrow. Thousands of pack members stood in the courtyard, a sea of white clothes that blurred together under the bright sun.

I looked at my fathers. They looked serious, but I felt something strange emanating from them. It made the hair on my neck stand up.

​I looked at the crowd and felt a wave of guilt. I was a liar. I wasn’t here to mourn; my mind was thousands of miles away, locked in a hotel room in Nigeria with a woman who was supposed to be a ghost. I was just counting the seconds, waiting for this memorial to end so I could run back to Scarlett. I didn’t care about speeches or ceremonies; I just wanted to feel her heart beating against mine again.

​"Let the ceremony begin," my father, Lennox, said, his voice booming through the speakers.

​The crowd went quiet. Usually, we would tell stories about how kind my mother was, but my fathers didn’t move to the front to speak. Instead, Lennox turned and looked at the large doors of the pack hall.

​"Five years ago, our light went out," he said. His voice was shaking, thick with an emotion I couldn’t understand. "And we killed the people who took her life."

​I felt a cold shiver run through me. He was talking about Scarlett’s parents. I remembered that day perfectly. I remembered how Scarlett had screamed until her voice broke. I remembered how she begged for mercy, her eyes wide with a pain no eighteen-year-old should ever have to know. I watched her whole life fall apart as she watched them die.

​"But today," my father said, with strange tears glistening in his eyes, "we fix the biggest lie ever told."

​The doors opened.

​The world seemed to stop moving. A woman walked out into the light. She wore a long white dress that moved softly in the wind, looking like an angel emerging from the shadows.

​"Mother?" Leonard gasped, the word catching in his throat.

​My eyes went wide. I shook my head, my brain refusing to accept what I was seeing. I stared at the woman walking toward us, my heart thumping against my ribs. How was this possible?

​She looked just like my mother. No—she was my mother. I could smell her scent now—the sweet, comforting mix of nutmeg and honey. It hit me hard, making my legs feel weak. Inside my head, my wolf was howling, a wild, mournful sound of recognition. He knew her blood.

​"Mother?" Liam whispered as she stopped in front of us.

​She smiled. It was that sweet, gentle smile she always had, the one that showed the deep dimples in her cheeks. "My boys..."

​I reached out slowly, my hand shaking uncontrollably. I touched her arm, half-expecting my fingers to pass through her like mist. But her skin was warm. She was really there. She was alive.

​"Mother..." I said, my voice cracking.

​She smiled at me, her eyes wet with tears. "Yes, Alpha Leo."

​"No... this isn’t real," I said, stepping back until my back hit the wall. I should have been happy. I should have been shouting with joy. But instead, I felt sick. A dark, heavy rage started to pool in my stomach. I looked at the rest of my family standing behind her—Lana, Jameson, and our fathers. "What is going on? What is this?"

​"We are sorry," Lana said, her voice filled with guilt.

​"What?" I barked at her.

​"You knew?" Liam yelled. He was getting angry.

​Jameson looked at the floor, unable to meet our eyes. "Yes, brother. Everyone in the family knew... except you three."

​Leonard let out a mean, loud laugh. "Is this a joke? Our mother is alive? Scarlett’s parents were killed because she died! They died for nothing!"

​"They didn’t die, Leonard," my father, Levi, said softly.

​Right then, the crowd let out a huge gasp. I turned back to the doors, and my breath caught in my throat.

​Two more people walked out into the light. My head started to spin as I stared at them. It was Scarlett’s father and Scarlett’s mother. The two people my brothers and I had sentenced to death by hanging—the two people we watched die with our own eyes—were now walking toward us, alive and breathing.

​"This is not real," Liam said, his voice shaking with pure horror. "What the hell is going on?"

​"Calm down, I will explain everything," Mother said. She looked at us with a worried expression, then she turned to the thousands of people watching from below. "My husbands and I are sorry for the lies. We are sorry for the pain we caused you by faking my death. But we had to do it."

​"Why?" someone from the pack shouted. The crowd started to murmur, the sound growing louder and more aggressive.

​I nodded slowly, my eyes locked on Scarlett’s father. Why? Why let your children believe you were gone? Why let a young girl believe she was an orphan?

​Father Lennox stepped forward. "This is a private matter. The truth will be shared with you by your Alphas when the time is right."

​The murmuring turned into loud talking and shouting; people were confused and angry. Father Louis stepped to the front, his voice firm. "Everyone, please go home. The ceremony is over." He then turned to us, his eyes hard. "Let’s go to the study. We will explain everything there."

​I couldn’t move. I couldn’t comprehend any of this. My brain felt like it was shutting down. Mother saw us hesitate. She reached out, her eyes pleading for a forgiveness she hadn’t earned. "Please, come. Allow me to explain why we did this."

​I glared at her. I didn’t care about the "why" right now. I was supposed to be happy—my mother was back from the grave and Scarlett’s parents were alive—but all I could feel was a burning, suffocating rage.

​Did my mother know? Did she know the torture she put Scarlett through? Scarlett had lived in hell for years. She had cried until she had no tears left, thinking her parents were dead. She was mocked, abused, and humiliated by the entire pack—all for a lie.

​The guests started shouting, "We want to know the truth!" and "You lied to us!" but my parents ignored them. They didn’t seem to care about the pack’s anger.

​"Come, sons," my father said, pointing toward the house. "We have something to tell you. Something really important."

But I couldn’t move...

Because deep down...

I already knew nothing they said could undo what we did to Scarlett.