Trembling, I sat up, panic rising. This was no hospital. The door creaked open, and two women entered, their robes patterned like the forest outside. Their eyes brimmed with disbelief.
“She’s awake,” one whispered.
“Our princess is awake,” the other said, clutching her chest.
“Princess?” I rasped. “What are you talking about? Who are you?”
Before they could answer, heavy footsteps echoed in the corridor. A man and woman burst in, their commanding presence shifting the air. Relief and sorrow mingled in their expressions.
“My daughter,” the man said, kneeling beside me. His piercing blue eyes locked onto mine. “You’re finally home.”
“Home?” I shook my head, backing away. “No. This isn’t real. I don’t know you.”
The woman stepped forward, tears streaming down her face. Her hair shimmered in the light as she reached for me. “My daughter, it’s us. Your parents. We’ve searched for you for so long.”
The word "parents" hit me like a blow. My parents were dead. I’d buried them years ago. “No,” I stammered. “This is a sick joke. My parents—my real parents—are gone.”
The man placed a hand over his heart. “We are your real parents, Calla. You were taken from us as a baby. The human world isn’t your home. This is.”
A cold shiver ran down my spine. “What do you mean? Where is this?”
“This,” the woman said gently, “is the werewolf realm. Your true world. You are the daughter of Alpha Garett and Luna Selina, the rightful heiress of the pack.”
Werewolves. Heiress. Pack. Their words clawed at my mind, impossible to grasp.
“This doesn’t make sense,” I whispered, clutching the sheets like they were my last link to sanity. “I’m not a werewolf. I’m human.”
Luna Selina’s expression softened as she knelt beside me. “No, my darling. You were taken to the human world in a desperate act. An omega—Hera’s mother—exchanged you for her own child. She believed her daughter would have a better life here in the werewolf realm, with parents like us—an Alpha and a Luna. We had no idea the switch had happened until many years later.”
Her voice wavered, grief clouding her eyes. “For most of her life, we believed Hera was our daughter. But on the night of her first transformation, everything changed. When a werewolf shifts for the first time, their true rank is revealed. Hera transformed into her wolf, and we saw she was an omega. It was impossible for her to be our blood.”