"Aaaaa…." Aerys's breath felt like it was caught at the edge of her throat, pain attacking every inch of her body. She tried to clutch the blanket when she felt blood pouring heavily from her abdomen.
"If she doesn't survive, just let her die. Her life is no more valuable than the slaves. We only need this baby and will tell the entire werewolf nation that he's nothing but an illegitimate child adopted by the Velkris Clan." A man's deep voice echoed, but Aerys didn't understand what he meant.
"Aaaaaah!" Aerys screamed loudly as the pain spread through all her nerves. Sweat drenched her entire body, and the two shadowy women at her side seemed to be pulling something out of her stomach.
"Oaaaa! Oooaaa!"
A baby's cry rang sharply, and the crushing pain tormenting Aerys suddenly lifted completely, even as her consciousness grew thinner.
"Clean the baby and take him to the mansion. Throw this woman's body away."
"Yes, sir." The two women replied flatly.
After the man left, only the two women remained. They stared at Aerys, who lay there in the most miserable condition, her body drenched in blood.
Her body was emaciated, as if her blood had been completely drained. Her beautiful face looked pale, her cheeks sunken inward.
A piercing cold bit into her skin as the car door opened. Winter had arrived two weeks ago, and they were now in Frostveil Forest. Snow kept falling heavily until the roads were buried under thick layers.
"We have to burn her. I think this is far enough."
Someone's voice sounded faint in Aerys's ears. Her eyes were still half-open, her consciousness fading, but she used what little remained to memorize the faces of those who had tortured her.
Aerys didn't know them, but they clearly knew her.
Ordered by someone?
Of course. That old man had commanded them, and Aerys would never forget his face.
"Is she still alive?"
"It seems so…." The woman looked down at Aerys's body lying on the freezing pile of snow. Her shoe lightly nudged Aerys's hand without a trace of mercy.
"Her body is surprisingly strong."
"Hurry, light the fire and bring it here!"
When that command rang out louder than the others, Aerys wanted to resist. But her body refused to obey her in the slightest.
Flames began to grow in their hands. None of them hesitated. Killing instinct, hatred, orders—they never cared about what or how Aerys was at this moment.
But just as they were about to begin, a group of people suddenly arrived. There was a brief argument, and then… their bodies changed.
No longer human—what were they? Giant wolves?
Truly, Aerys's body was forced to move by her own fear. Seeing something beyond human reason felt like a scene from a fantasy novel.
By the time the fight ended, several heads had been severed from their necks and rolled near Aerys.
However, the woman could barely move. Even her breath was nearly gone from blood loss. Her consciousness kept slipping away as she stared at the vast sky above. Brief flashes of her difficult life passed through her mind—filled with pain, filled with hatred from others.
Among all those memories, why wasn't there a single sweet one?
When the fight was over, one of the wolves began to shift back into a human. His appearance was neat. An older man with thick glasses, along with a teenage boy with white hair and blue eyes.
"She can still be saved…" the man said, then brought his body closer to Aerys. "But she's dying."
"Are we taking her home, Dad?"
"A doctor does not abandon a patient. Take her…"
The man ultimately made his decision when he saw the pair of Aerys's eyes filled with a strong will to survive.
Aerys was taken to a secluded house deep within a forest, far from any crowd, though the house itself looked like an ordinary human home. Spacious rooms, beds, a kitchen, a library, and even quite a number of trophies neatly arranged in a special cabinet.
Inside a hidden room underground, Aerys's body lay on a bed with white sheets now stained red.
Her consciousness was gone, but she was still alive with a sliver of hope remaining.
Andrew looked at her flatly. There wasn't the slightest confidence that this woman would survive.
"Your only way now is to become like us. If you can endure… you can take revenge on them… the werewolves who tried to kill you."
Andrew stepped closer, his shadow falling over Aerys's face, half ruined by its pallor. The scent of death in the room was thick. He didn't need a stethoscope to know that the heart in that frail chest was beating only faintly, on the verge of stopping.
Expressionless, Andrew brought his fingers together, then with a swift motion, his sharp nail sliced open his own palm.
Thick, dark crimson blood seeped out, carrying a burning heat. Andrew gripped Aerys's jaw, forcing her mouth open, then pressed the wound against her cracked lips.
But before he could carry out his intent, something happened.
Andrew observed the wound on Aerys's abdomen. There was no instant miracle. However, the blood soaking the sheets was no longer flowing heavily. At the edges of the gaping wound, her muscle tissue twitched subtly—slow, weak, but steady. Her body was trying to stitch itself back together from within.
Heat began to creep from Aerys's pale skin, causing the remaining snow clinging to her hair to evaporate. The gene that had been dormant for two decades was finally forced awake by death, crawling to reconstruct her cells one by one at a torturous speed.
"She…" Andrew was slightly shocked. It seemed the woman he had saved was not an ordinary woman he could simply take in as part of his family.
Aerys jolted awake.
Her breath caught in her throat, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her head felt heavy, her vision still slightly blurred.
She was in a fairly spacious room, lying on a soft bed with a thick blanket. As far as she remembered, she had nearly died in that snow-covered forest. But before she could process anything—
Thump… thump… thump…
Aerys froze.
The sound was incredibly clear in her ears. Loud. Steady. As if it were right beside her. It was the sound of a heartbeat—but not hers.
Her eyes widened instantly, her body tensed. She turned left and right in panic, trying to find the source of the sound.
No one was there, yet the sound didn't disappear—instead, it grew even clearer.
"W-what is that?" Her voice was hoarse, barely audible.
"You're awake? Thank goodness…"
Aerys turned her head, startled. A man had suddenly appeared near her—she had no idea where he came from. He looked older, but his appearance was neat, with a calming face.
"Who are you? And why am I here?" Aerys asked.
"I can answer that, but now is not the right time. I will—"
"Don't come any closer!" Aerys's breath grew ragged. She was too shocked and utterly terrified. The problem was, she didn't understand the situation at all.
Her body felt very different—something had changed. So many things had changed.
"Please don't move too much. I only want to help you," Andrew said to her.
But she didn't listen. She got off the bed as quickly as possible.
"No! I can't trust anyone! What did you do to my body?!"
"I didn't do anything—"
Aerys covered both her ears. There were so many sounds flooding in—loud and overwhelming, making her terrified. Then she ran, faster than she had ever realized she could.
She ran out of the large house, which turned out to be in the middle of a forest. She stumbled and fell several times, her feet scraped raw, but she was more disturbed by the overwhelming sounds around her.
"Dad, she ran off. Aren't we going after her?" Seth asked his father, who was still standing silently, his gaze fixed ahead toward the forest where Aerys had gone.
"No need. She will come back here on her own."
"Come back?"
Andrew only smiled meaningfully.