SAD INDEED

RYAN'S POV

"Mother!!" I yelled in agony and mental confusion, as I Iooked at the lifeless body of my..... mother? My heartbeat accelerated drastically as I realized I didn't really recognize the person I was holding in my arms anymore. It was all shocking and confusing to me. Where was her 'smooth as glass' skin? How... and why? Why did my mother petrify? That phenomenon was associated with the death of.... vampires.

Oh no! Oh goddess, please! Let this not be true. A lone tear fell from my eye as I looked at my mother's petrified face.

"Traitors!" I heard someone yell from the crowd, and my heart did a flip. Traitors?

"Yes! They are traitors! The Luna is a vampire!!" Another person said, and my blood ran cold. This was the exact reality I had been shying myself away from believing, just few seconds ago. If you were me, you would, also. How would you react after finding out that your whole life was a lie? That in a world where the different supernatural races detested themselves, your mother who was supposed to be the Luna to one of the most formidable werewolf packs, turned out to be a vampire. The very great enemy of werewolves.

"Father!!" I jolted out of my thoughts and looked beside me to see my elder sister; Ralia, crying out her eyes as she held onto my father's shaking hands. "No no no, don't close your eyes. Look at me!" She pleaded, and that sight broke my heart. I really didn't want to believe that I was at the verge of losing both my parents in one day.

Just then, a couple of guards rushed towards us and hoisted my father's weak body off of the floor, while the other guards got busy evacuating the erratic pack members from the hall. How had a pack's dinner held to celebrate my 19th birthday, turned so disastrous?

I felt my mother's body being pulled out of my arms, and I looked up to see it was Philip, my potential Beta.

"Ryan, you have to go with your father. Now." He said, and I weakly nodded, remaining unmoving in my position. "Go!" He pushed me off, making me grow more conscious of myself. "I would ensure the Luna's body is safe, then come join you. Go be with the Alpha now."

I nodded in actual understanding this time, finally finding it possible to move my legs and swing them in the direction my father was taken.

We got him into a room and thankfully, the doctor showed up after some minutes. Beta Allister; Philip's father, paced around as Doctor Sinclair checked my father. Everything was going on well, until my father began to jerk uncontrollably.

"What is happening?!" I rushed to his side, taking hold of his hand almost immediately. Doctor Sinclair came and gently pushed me aside, unprofessionally stabbing a long needle into my father's shoulder. Gradually, the jerking ceased and father was stable again. Though he looked extremely weak.

"The arrowshot at his heart, was laced with a very concentrated amount of wolfsbane. This injection should be able to stabilize him, while his body tries to fight off the wolfsbane. I'm not certain about anything, but let's be hopeful. Please, it would be advisable to give the Alpha some space." Doctor Sinclair announced, and the handful of guards exited the room, almost immediately.

"I'm not leaving his side." I quipped, and he simply nodded in agreement.

"Neither am I." Beta Allister added, coming to stand beside me.

Doctor Sinclair gave another curt nod, before leaving the room and giving us some privacy. Though, privacy was the least of my worries at this point. All I needed, were answers. Truthful ones.

I thought of my mother, and my eyes stung with painful tears. It all happened in a blur, and now it was really dawning on me. She was dead. My mother was dead!

"So the rumours were true all along?" I found myself asking.

"Huh?" Beta Allister muttered, making me roll my eyes dramatically. I spared a glance at my father who just moved his eyes between his beta and I.

"Don't act like you do not know what I'm talking about. As a part of the Alpha bloodline, I am supposed to have had my first shift years ago. But here I am, still haven't shifted at the age of nineteen....." I paused and it all started to make sense to me. "When the pack members started to talk about the possibility that I wasn't a werewolf, I thought it was all just baseless rumors. Who am I?"

"Ryan, please let us...." Beta Allister was still talking when I cut him off.

"Who the fuck am I?!"

"Ryan?" He muttered in disbelief and shock of me yelling at him. I was probably going to feel sorry about it later, but not now.

"My supposed father here, is a werewolf. Clearly. But my mother turned out to be a vampire, and we all know vampires can't procreate. So who the fuck am I?"

"You're my son...." Father started to speak, but got cut short by violent coughs.

"Alan..." Beta Allister called my father, looking confused and somewhat bothered.

"Tell him...." Father sighed deeply. "Tell him everything. I don't think I have enough strength to do so."

"But...."

"Allister, do as I ask." Father tried to sound firm, sweat breaking out on his forehead. "He needs to be prepared for the uncertainties that lies ahead. I may not be here to ensure his safety."

The sound of that only increased my annoyance. How could he casually say that, after I had just lost my mother?

"You're not going any-fucking-where! I want the truth, and I want it now!" I gritted out. The entire place fell silent for a couple of minutes, until Beta Allister broke it.

"You're Ryan Baxter. Son of Alpha Alan Baxter and Luna Evelyn Baxter."

He paused and seemed to gauge my reaction, which was just plain. I wasn't sure what to make of his statement yet. Thankfully, he continued speaking.

"Your mother hadn't always been that way. A vampire." He sighed.

"Then what happened to her? How...."

"She was dying." He cut me off, completely stealing my attention.

"What?"

"She was dying, Ryan." He repeated. "Just when she became pregnant with you, there had been a rogue attack against our pack, and she was unfortunately exposed to so much wolfsbane. It affected her health and caused some pregnancy complications. Pre-eclampsia and all...." He trailed off.

"Day by day, her health got worse, and your father was desperate to save his mate. He consulted several wolf doctors from other packs, but there was nothing that could be done. He was eventually going to lose your mom..... and you." I felt my heartbeat decelerating gradually, as I became more invested in this story. "Well, all hopes were lost until he got in touch with an old friend from the silver heights pack, who suggested turning your mother."

"Turning her. To a vampire." I muttered in realization.

"Yes." He heaved a sigh. "It was..."

"But that means I would have died. She had to die, before she could transition into vampirism. I would have died within...."

"Yes, and your father discarded the idea!" He rushed out.

"He did?" I asked in further confusion.

"Yes, but changed his mind when he returned home after their meeting. He returned to the castle to meet the whole place in commotion. Apparently, your mother had another crisis and collapsed. And there was tendency she was not going to make it."

"So....?" I urged on, wanting to know the whole story at once, if possible.

"So he decided to take the chance and save your mother. Moreover, if he let her die, you were still going to die as well. Why not save her at least?"

Even if I wanted to feel hurt, I couldn't help but agree with him. He was right. Why let us both die, when he could save one of us. But then...

"But the supernatural kingdoms had just been divided at that time. Harbouring a vampire , witch, or fae, was a punishable offense. It's worse that the Alpha himself, was an active accomplice to this. Changing a werewolf to a vampire!"

"He loved your mother, and would do anything to save her life. Even if it meant turning her into an enemy of our kind." Beta Allister shot back, and I found myself going mute. I wouldn't actually deny that over the years, the love between my parents were very clear for all to see. And now for a moment, I wondered how he was going to cope with her loss. How Ralia and I were going to cope. She had always been our mother, and this new information I just found about her, didn't change that.

"So, what happened eventually?"

"He enlisted Magnus's help."

"I assume that Magnus is the old friend from the silver heights pack?"

"Yes." He nodded. "We were able to get some vampire blood as soon as we could, and fed it to your mother while she was still unconscious. The plan had been for her to have the blood in her system, incase she didn't make it through the night." He sighed. "The next morning, your father woke up to find her already awake. At first, he was elated to see that she made it through the night, until she started behaving extremely conscious."

When he said that, my brain did the calculation.

"She had died in the night, and woken up as a vampire." I whispered, to which he nodded in agreement.

"She was transitioning, and extremely thirsty for blood. Your father offered she completed her transition by feeding on him, and she had almost drained him out. He would have let her, if not for my timely intervention." He muttered. "That same day, she had jumped on one of the maids, and killed her in the process of feeding."

"Oh no." I whispered.

"Things were beginning to get out of hand, so we had to lock her up, while trying to keep the new situation under wraps. We definitely couldn't let anyone know that the Luna was now a vampire. It would have caused quite the uproar."

"All that had taken place today, is enough to show that it would have been more than an uproar. They killed her." I whispered in disbelief.

"They did, Ryan. And that is why we have to ensure you're safe. Everyone automatically thinks you're a vampire, and unfit to be within this territory, talk more of being Alpha after your father. Especially since you haven't had your first shift yet."

"Are you saying...." I trailed off as a fearful thought crossed my mind.

"Those who killed your parents are rebels. The cold moon pack is the strongest pack in the werewolf kingdom, after the Alpha king's pack of course. There are greedy and power thirsty people who do not want your family in the Alpha position."

"B..but... but I thought they killed my mother because she was a vampire?" I feared I was going to start having heart palpitations. This was too many uneventful situations for one day. And I just realized it was my birthday.

I lost my mother on my birthday, and it seemed to be that my life was on the line too.