What in the world was the matter with me?

My head span. What was so special about my blood that Drake managed to grow his fang back? Something he shouldn't have been able to do for years, decades even.

I had no idea what to think and I hated it. But what I hated the most was the look of helplessness in Ezra's eyes.

At least I didn't hurt anyone, Vlad had said. But I couldn't help but worry. What if I did so in the future? What if I harmed someone? I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.

Ezra and I were on our way to his home. We'd left the pack house shortly after our fruitless discussion ended. Vlad had no idea what to make of me and what I could do, and Sam was still working on Noah.

Noah. I had mixed feelings about him. On one hand, he had attacked us that night and I was still wary of him. But on the other hand, I felt sorry for him. He seemed like he was fighting something inside of him, something that pulled him to a dark place where sane thoughts were scarce.

I really wanted to help him. Maybe he had tried to attack us because he didn't know any better, because those were his orders when he didn't have the presence of mind to think for himself.

Or maybe I was being naive, trying to help someone who would jump at the opportunity to rip into my neck. I shivered, remembering the way his gaze snapped so often to my neck, his eyes full of a hungry gleam. Or the way he gulped down my scent and inched closer while we talked.

"I want you to meet someone," Ezra said, pulling me out of my head.

"Sure. Who?" I asked with a small smile as we made our way through a heavily wooded area. Through the darkness, I spied the light of a few scattered cabins. Thanks to the full moon and the star studded sky, I could see my way clearly enough to not end up with my face in the dirt.

"My mom."

My heart squeezed. I leaned into his side, tightening my arm around his waist. "Thank you. I would love to."

The cover of trees broke to reveal a small clearing. A two-story house stood in the middle of it. The only light poured from the windows, soft beams cutting through the night.

Ezra and I walked up the front porch steps, and my heart almost stopped. Two men stood at the door, melting into the shadows. I hadn't noticed them. A squeal might have made it past my lips. I put my hand on my racing heart.

"They're guards," Ezra mumbled, nodding at the two men, his eyes entertained.

"I didn't see them." I smiled at the two men. They bowed their heads, amusement clear on their faces.

Inside, the house was deathly quiet. The couch and the armchairs in the living room were a soft peach color. The wooden table and the brown plush carpet should've lent it a cozy vibe.

But the house felt... cold. Void. It almost mimicked the cold fireplace in the living room. There was potential for warmth, but no one had lit up a fire in it for a long, long time.

French doors looked over the back of the house. Another door opened to the kitchen. Ezra and I made our way upstairs, through the hallway, where two people stood at the end of it on either side of a door. A man and a woman, both fit and alert.

"Good evening, sir," they both said, bowing their heads. They cast curious glances at me.

I gave them a smile and replied since my mate thought that a simple nod was a perfectly polite response. "Good evening," I said.

We pushed inside the room. I blinked to get used to the darkness. A single beam of silver light stole through the window. Artificial lights blinked on the screen of a machine in the corner of the room, from which a beeping sound emanated. As we got closer, I could see it was a heart monitor, standing next to an IV drip. Both were connected to the person sleeping in the middle of the grand bed.

Ezra turned on the bedside lamp, and the woman on the bed came into focus.

I found myself stepping closer. The woman's ethereal beauty snatched my breath away.

Long, white blond hair spilled on the pillow around her. Her skin, thin and stretching over sharp cheekbones, looked abnormally pale. It almost blended into the white sheets around her. Her collar bones stuck out painfully against her skin, and her left arm over the comforter looked as frail as a twig.

Despite her condition, she looked like an angel. Light reflected off her skin and she almost glowed.

"This is my mom," Ezra said. He pulled a chair from the seating arrangement next to the dark fireplace and set it on his mother's side. The other side of the bed looked roughly made, as if someone slept in it only recently. The thought of his father coming to bed every night to his still mate squeezed my throat and blurred my eyes.

Ezra sat down and patted his lap. I sat sideways on his lap and threw my arm around his neck, my fingers playing with his hair. He gazed down at his mother, his eyes full of crushing grief. I blinked hard.

"She's beautiful," I whispered. "What's her name?"

"Wren," he said.

"Wren, like the bird?"

"Like the bird."

"It's a beautiful name."

Ezra looked at the empty spot next to her, a hopelessness I didn't want to be in his eyes.

"I don't know how he does it," Ezra said. "My father. I don't know how he didn't lose it."

His throat bobbed down with a hard gulp. There was a stab of sharp pain in my heart. I frowned. It was mine, but it was also... something else. I frowned and looked at Ezra. No. I couldn't possibly be feeling his emotions.

Something stirred in my chest, just like earlier when we were in the pack house and before that at class. I rubbed the spot. It wasn't painful, simply uncomfortable, like something was twisting and swirling inside.

I looked at Wren. She was sleeping peacefully. Too peacefully. If I didn't notice the rise and fall of her chest, I would have thought she was no longer of this world. Her lips looked as pale as her skin.

"What happened?" I asked. I had an idea. But Ezra looked like he needed to talk about it, and if all I could do to alleviate his pain was to listen, then I would.

"Silver." His jaw clenched. "She was injured in battle with silver. To top it off, a bastard injected her with more silver. It was a miracle she survived in the first place. She had lost too much blood by the time a healer got to her. But it wasn't like they could do anything. No one can heal a silver wound."

He stared into the distance, his expression haunted by memories of a past that didn't feel too far away. I kissed his cheek and smiled at him.

I wanted to say it was going to be okay. I wanted to reassure him and tell him that she would wake up one day. But I couldn't. There was nothing I could do about it. So I just smiled at him, hoping for a wind that would chase away the heavy clouds of pain and heartache hovering over this place.

Because it wasn't just the house.

I had noticed it when we entered the pack land. It was a beautiful place, a place I was more than happy to be able to call home.

But there was something off about it. As if people's smiles hid a deep agony. The pain of eight years ago still lingered in their hearts, the wounds still fresh.

Ezra's eyes held a look of defeat. He'd lost hope that his mother might wake up. And I hated it. He deserved to be happy. They all did. If only I could help them. I curled my hand into a fist. I would give anything away to help them.

I looked at the fireplace. "Can we light up the fireplace?"

Ezra raised his brow. "We could. But you know we don't feel the cold like you do."

"I know. I just think she'd appreciate it? The room would be cozier." I looked away. Maybe it was presumptuous of me to intervene. After all, I didn't know her at all. For all I knew, maybe Wren hated fireplaces.

Ezra kissed my temple. "Thank you. I'll light up the fireplace."

I sat down in his chair while he went about it. A few minutes later, flames crackled in the hearth. The glow from the fire and its warmth made the room feel less dreary.

"You're right," Ezra said, coming to stand next to me, his hand on my shoulder. "It feels better."

I smiled at him. His eyes glazed over. Mind linking. After a moment, he sighed. "I have to go to the pack house for a while. Do you think you can stay here alone?"

"Of course. Go do what you have to do. I'll just keep Wren company."

He smiled and leaned down to kiss me. "I'll send Haley over. You can stay here or go downstairs if you want."

"Okay. Be safe."

He nuzzled my hair and left, reluctance written all over his face. He exchanged a few quiet words with the guard, but the door closed, blocking their conversation.

I fiddled with my hands and bit my lip. Would it be okay?

After another moment's hesitation, I reached over and took Wren's hand in mine. It felt as though it would disintegrate into dust with the gentlest pressure, but her skin was as warm as mine. That, in itself, wasn't good. Werewolves usually ran on a higher body temperature.

I rubbed my thumb over her bony knuckles. There was something missing in her. She was alive and breathing, but her... presence felt so weak.

"Hello, Wren," I said with a soft voice. "I'm Orla, Ezra's mate."

I had heard somewhere that a person in coma could hear other people when they talked to them. I had no idea whether that was true or not. But as I talked to her, with her hand in mine, it felt right.

My chest tightened again, literally tightened, but this time that energy wasn't trying to break out. It swirled gently, soothing the bleakness I felt when I looked at Wren. I closed my eyes. I could almost feel a stream of pure, cool water flowing from my veins to Wren through our hands. I smiled to myself. What a silly thought. Still, it made me feel light.

Opening my eyes, I spoke to Wren. "You have a lovely son. I think you'll be proud to see how he grew up in the last eight years." I sighed. "They miss you, you know. Everyone misses you. Everyone in the pack."

As the fireplace crackled, I talked to her about everything and nothing. Caressing her hand and her hair. Until a knock interrupted our one-sided conversation.

"I guess this is good night." I tucked her hand where it had been and leaned over, kissing her forehead. "I'll make Ezra bring me here more often. I hope you don't mind my company. Get well soon."

I gave Wren one last glance before heading to the door, turning off the light on my way out.

"Haley is here, your highness," the female guard said as I closed the door behind me.

My eyes widened and I waved both hands. "Oh, no! Please, just call me Orla."

She blinked. She towered over me, as tall as the man next to her who was biting back a smile.

"I'm not sure how his highness Ezra will like it," she replied, her lips curving slightly.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Haley and Blake are waiting for you downstairs. If you need anything, you can call one of the guards," she said with a kind smile.

"Thank you."

I padded down the stairs. Haley and Blake were in the living room.

"Hey, found this one on my way here!" Haley said from a plush chair, pointing towards Blake. He smiled slightly and looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. I sat next to Blake on the couch and bumped his shoulder with mine.

"You okay there?" I said, dipping my head to catch his eyes.

"Yeah. Just a little tired."

"I noticed too." Haley's eyes whirled with amber. "Maybe it's because of the full moon."

"I really don't know." He smiled tightly. "He's been on edge all day. My wolf."

I put my hand on his back and patted a little. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

He nodded, edging closer to me.

"So, where were you and Ezra? You guys were gone all day." Haley wiggled her eyebrows. "I mean, it's alright as long as I get to name the first baby."

"Oh God..." I groaned, hiding my face in Blake's shoulder, who let out a small laugh.

"It's not funny," I hissed, slapping his arm.

He shrugged. "I think it is."

I huffed. "I'm going to have my revenge on you guys. Just wait until you find your mates."

It just made Haley and Blake more amused. At least he was laughing.

"Oh, by the way," I said. "Do you know where Drake and that other vampire are?"

I had wanted to ask Ezra earlier but never got the chance.

"They were both banished," Haley replied. "Drake was banished to some uninhabited island in Siberia. And James somewhere else. I don't know where exactly."

"But won't they be able to get back if they want to? To go somewhere where there are people? I mean, vampires are like crazy fast."

Haley and Blake chuckled. "They won't be able to," Haley answered with a smirk. "We can make sure they don't get out of a certain zone with the help of magic."

"Ah." I nodded. "Magic is pretty useful."

"That, it is." Haley held her palm open. Muttering something under her breath, her eyes glowed. Then a tiny ball of light sprang to life over her palm. It floated right above her skin, getting bigger until it was the size of a baseball. She snapped her fingers, and the ball split into little butterfly-shaped thingies that fluttered in the air.

One landed on my knee. A white glowing energy shaped like a butterfly. It felt warm through the fabric of my pants. Haley snapped her fingers again, and all the butterflies faded into nothing.

My jaw must've hit my lap. I stared at Haley with wide eyes. "Wow... that was so..."

Haley grinned.

"That was a neat trick." Blake smiled, wiping sweat off his forehead.

"What else can you do with it?" I asked, perching at the edge of my seat.

"A lot. I mean, some tricks like this one are the basics of what we learn at first. But it can be used for actual useful stuff, like the trick Hayden did in the woods the other day. The shield."

"Oh, that blue thing," I said, making Haley chuckle.

"Blue thing?" Blake asked, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt.

"It's a protective shield. It can protect you from others, from being attacked, but it takes a lot of energy and concentration to keep up. Hayden takes it up a notch and makes it so that he's invisible and protected at the same time."

"But you guys could see him. He said only humans can't normally see him."

"He made it that way. He made it so that he was invisible to humans. If he wanted to, he could have made it so that he was invisible to all creatures, humans or not," she said before pausing in thought. "Now that you mentioned it, I wonder if it would have worked on you..."

"You think that if he made a shield to be invisible to all creatures, it wouldn't work on her?" Blake asked, wiping some perspiration from his forehead then from his neck.

Was he hot?

"At this point, I wouldn't rule it out," Haley said.

I sighed. I didn't know how I felt about that. Being able to do things a human normally shouldn't be able to. Normally. But how is normal defined anyways? Who had the right to judge if something or someone was normal or not?

It was sort of ironic, since I was never considered normal, even when I had lived among humans. At the orphanage and school, kids used to look at my mismatched eyes like I was a weird creature. After the incident, it got even worse. I was the little mentally ill orphan girl in town who killed her adoptive father, because I was jealous of the attention he gave his unborn son.

Normal? No, I was never really normal.

Blake huffed loudly, snapping me out of my musings. He shifted uncomfortably next to me on the couch. Sweat glimmered on his face and flattened his hair to his forehead. That was odd. The weather was actually growing colder as the night deepened.

"Blake?" I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. I sucked in a sharp breath. His body was burning! "Blake, are you okay?"

I felt the weird energy in my chest stir again, reaching out to Blake through my hand. I shook my head at the odd sensation and focused on Blake. Breathing heavily, he closed his eyes and tugged at the collar of his top.

"I-I don't know." His voice sounded like he hadn't drank in days. "I feel- I feel hot..."

His loud panting filled the living room. He opened his eyes and I gasped. His eyes looked like blue neon lights.

"Your eyes," I said. Haley rushed over and crouched next to him.

"Blake-"

Blake's grunt of pain cut her off. He fell forward, his knees and hands on the floor. Low growls gurgled out of his chest. He clutched the carpet tight between his fingers. Fingers which were turning into claws.

"Oh my God," I whispered, my hands hovering over him. Fur pricked at the back of his neck. "What's happening?"

I knelt next to Blake and put my hand on his back. I was hit by the sudden urge to touch him, so I did.

"I don't know, but I called Ezra. He looks like he's..." Haley shook her head, muttering under her breath.

Blake's growls turned louder. He turned his head to me, his eyes glowing brighter through his bangs. His face was scrunched up in pain, and it tore my heart apart.

The door slammed open. One of the guards who'd been posted outside barged in. He took the scene in one sweep and walked towards me, helping me up and gently pushing me away from Blake. Blake grunted and curled on the ground, his heavy breathing like shards of glass to my heart. Poor Blake.

"What's wrong?" I asked. I wanted to touch Blake again. I had to touch him.

I tried walking past the guard, but he stepped between me and Blake again. "He won't hurt me," I told him.

The guard gave me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I can't let you near him. His highness' orders."

I groaned and tugged at my hair, the urge to be near Blake so strong.

Luckily, Ezra stepped through the front door right then, wearing only a pair of shorts. His frantic eyes landed on me first, then he took in Blake and Haley on the ground next to him.

"Are you okay?" He asked me.

"Yes. But Blake! Blake isn't!"

Ezra dropped on the ground next to Blake. The guard didn't try to stop me when I joined them. I touched Blake's cheek and almost pulled my hand back. His skin felt like molten lava. Blake looked at me, his eyes desperate.

Ezra's eyes glowed a pale brown. He frowned.

Ezra's father, Zyron, walked in, followed by Ashley and Zach.

"What's going on?" Zyron asked, crouching next to us.

Ezra's frown cleared up. His eyes, shining with wonder, met mine. "He's shifting."

--- ---- ---

Hey guys! I hope you're doing well!

Did you like the chapter? If you did, don't forget to vote and comment. I appreciate it.

Also, I posted a new story yesterday. It's a romance story called Homeless. It's completed, so I'll be posting several chapters per day as I edit them. I hope you check it out. If you liked A Silent Heart, give Homeless a shot.

Thank you all for reading!

Much love <3 <3 <3

M.B.