Author’s POV:
"You cannot do this to me. I can expect this from Helanie, but you? You’re the great daughter," Emma was yapping, while Charlotte was crying and shaking her head.
"That is why you have to give me something. You have to give me your life. People are ready to die for their children. Why won’t you, too, mother? Why won’t you?"
As Charlotte yelled, she swung her arm, and her mother’s throat was slit. The look on Emma’s face when she watched her daughter come at her, stabbing her repeatedly was sadly the look she used to give Helanie.
As she fell onto the ground and her daughter came on top of her, stabbing her with both hands and crying,
"You must die. You must die for me, mother." Charlotte was repeating herself.
And Emma, she began to feel regret over all the words she had ever said to Helanie. Every time she had told Helanie that she was the worst daughter and her daughter was the perfect one.
And then, with that, Emma started to lose her life. But it wasn’t over for her. Charlotte stepped back as she watched the Zharns arrive.
"Please, be nice to her. Please," Charlotte whimpered, stepping back.
Emma’s eyes moved to the side and she saw the deadly creatures. She began to whimper and try to move, but she could not. She was losing blood. And then she began to feel their bite on her skin, while her daughter stood there and watched her mother get eaten alive.
And then, when Emma started to raise her hand to request her daughter one last time, Charlotte turned around and left her there to die.
Charlotte was breathing heavily as she ran out of the woods, falling and tripping, getting caught by the tree branches. She managed to enter the car and told the driver to turn around and go back home. All the way back, she was crying hysterically.
She then texted Darcy,
"I have done it. I have done what you asked me to do."
She sat back and began to cry.
"Is it really worth it?" her wolf asked, feeling unsure if Charlotte could be trusted.
"What do you mean? It is. We will get to be with Maximus, finally," Charlotte let out a cry.
Charlotte stared at her, confused.
"My mother is dead. Her daughter killed her. I don’t think we get to judge her," she said, trying to remind Darcy that they were the ones at fault. Her mother had done nothing wrong by wanting to stay alive.
"Anyway, you have done it. So congratulations. You will feel the mate bond with my son this full moon," Darcy said. Charlotte began to nod again.
"I hope it was worth it," Charlotte said.
"It is. Trust me. Now I have to go. I have some other woman to visit," Darcy said, smiling. "But remember, you have to come to the well tonight, just to give your blood. Or you can just give it to me right now. I just have to spill your blood. The blood of a woman that my son is going to be mated to. One who has killed someone she loved as a sacrifice."
Darcy took the blood from Charlotte’s palm. Charlotte barely hissed at the open wound. The pain in her heart for losing her mother was far worse than the slight cut.
As Darcy began to leave, Charlotte remembered how this all started. One day, Darcy had approached her and told her that she could make her son feel the mate bond with her son. But they had to follow a ritual. There had to be four women who would each choose to sacrifice something they loved. Then they would spill the blood from the same hand they used to kill their loved one into the well. Only then would they be mated to the brothers.
However, if even one of them refused, the rest of the sacrifices would go in vain.
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