“This is the new home I chose for my baby,” she simpered, a venomous sweetness coating her words. “We’ve already spoken to the cemetery manager. The inscription on the stone spoke of a mother’s love for her daughter—it is fitting for my beloved Angel. Besides, I’ll give the daughter some money. I’m sure she won’t mind. Why are you so worked up? You look terrifying.”
Her words made my blood boil. Without a second thought, I lunged forward and yanked the shovel from one of the wolfmen’s hands, fury fueling my strength as I began to undo the damage they had wrought.
“Niana, stop this madness!” Trent’s voice cut through the air like a whip as he snatched the shovel away from me.
“Trent, how could you let this happen? How could you stand by and let them defile this grave?” I screamed, my voice cracking under the weight of my anguish.
But I didn’t stop. I dropped to my knees and started clawing at the freshly turned earth with my bare hands, desperate to reach my mother’s urn, to put right the wrong they had done.
Winona’s calm facade began to crumble as she saw me walking closer to the urn. “Stop her!” she shrieked; her voice laced with panic. “My baby has suffered enough. I won’t allow him to be disturbed again!”
At her command, the wolfmen seized me, their grip like iron as they held me back, preventing me from reaching my goal.
“Let me go!” I thrashed against them, my voice hoarse from screaming, but their hold was unyielding.
Trent stepped closer and his face twisted with anger. “Niana, Winona is already heartbroken over her dog’s death. And here you are, digging up its grave, making everything worse. You’ve gone too far. Apologize to her, now!”
“Never!” I spat, the word bursting from me with all the venom I felt. Winona had dug up my mother’s grave—my mother, who had been nothing but good and kind.
I wanted to tear Winona apart for what she had done, to make her pay for every moment of agony she had caused.
But Winona, ever the manipulator, saw an opportunity in my defiance. She turned to Trent and said, “Trent, you always said Niana was a good person, but look at her now. She’s completely lost it. She’s acting like a rogue. If you really marry her, you’ll be the laughingstock of the pack and the neighboring packs as well.”