Later that Evening
A car pulled through a set of iron gates, leading them into a quiet estate nestled just outside the city. Dante hadn't said a word the entire ride. Ava had pressed him, twice, and each time he said the same thing:
"You deserve answers. I'm not the one who can give them."
An older woman waited in the grand sitting room, perched in a velvet chair, a single cane resting by her side. She looked up the moment Ava came in.
"You are not entirely human" She said.
Ava stared at the woman before her, heart thudding hard in her chest.
Not entirely human.
Ava's laugh was dry, humorless. "You're joking ."
Are you referring to Dante or me, Because if it me, you are mistaken" Ava said.
"She's not,"Dante said quietly. "I didn't believe it either. But I've seen how the bond affects you. How it affects me.
"She doesn't know," Elsie murmured, more to herself than anyone else. "That's… concerning."
Ava looked down at the star-shaped glow beneath her collarbone, now faint but still there. "Now what? I'm some kind of supernatural now?"
Elsie smiled, slow and knowing. "Not what, Little one. Who.You carry the blood of something ancient. Something we haven't seen in a hundred years."
She reached for a box by her side and opened it. Inside lay a faded crest engraved into an obsidian pendant—shaped like a star, just like the mark on Ava's collarbone.
Elsie placed it in her palm. The moment the pendant touched Ava's skin, the mark flared.
Ava flinched. "What is this?"
"A sigil of the Starborn Court," Elsie said. "A now-extinct royal bloodline of witch enchantresses."
"You were born with it," Elsie said. "It's dormant in most. But yours… it's active. Awakened by the Lycan bond.
"My parents—"
"Your father, Richard Lorne, is human. We know. But your mother… there were rumors for years about her family. Her mother vanished from public life, and her grandmother before her was rumored to be involved with beings like us."
"You're saying my mother was—what? A witch?"
"Not quite," Elsie said. "She descended from a bloodline known for channeling ancient magic. Not spells, not rituals—power. The kind that doesn't need to be taught, only triggered."
Dante stepped closer to her. "The bond between us didn't create the mark, Ava. It woke it up."
"And why does any of this matter?" she whispered.
"Because that blood makes you something dangerous," Elsie said. "To the packs. To our enemies. To anyone who fears change. And if the wrong people find out…"
"They already have," Dante said darkly. "They're watching her."
Ava's head spun. Heiress. Socialite. Now… a threat?
"I didn't ask for any of this," she muttered.
Elsie's eyes softened. "No. But blood doesn't ask permission to be powerful. And yours is about to change everything."