The Human Among Wolves Chapter 164

Aurora

“So…” she began, finally lifting her cup, though she still didn’t drink from it. Her fingers were wrapped tightly around the ceramic, like she needed the heat to steady herself. “Who told you where I am?”

Her eyes stayed on mine as she asked it. Careful. Guarded. Like she was bracing for an answer she might not like.

I hesitated, my thoughts tripping over each other as I tried to figure out where to even begin. There were too many pieces, too many steps that had led us here, and saying any of it out loud suddenly felt heavier than I expected.

“Searaphina,” I said at last.

The name felt strange in my mouth in this place, like it didn’t quite belong here yet.

“She helped me. She’s the one who told me where your coven was.”

She nodded once, slowly, as if that part made sense to her.

I took a small breath and kept going, my hands still twisting together in my lap.

“When we got there, you weren’t there anymore. The leader—she told us you’d left. And she told us where to find you.”

My voice softened without me meaning it to, the words slowing as I reached the end. “So we came here."

I trailed off, unsure what else to say. The room seemed to hold its breath with me, the fire crackling faintly in the background, the steam from the tea drifting up between us.

She didn’t speak right away. She just looked at me, like she was trying to match the girl sitting on her couch with something she’d been carrying in her head for a long time.

“Searaphina told me everything,” I said quietly. “About the kidnapping. About you being returned…”

My voice faded at the end, and I watched her closely. She didn’t react right away. She just stared at me, her expression shifting, like she was sorting through a thousand thoughts at once, trying to decide which one was safe enough to say out loud.

Then her shoulders sank a little, and she looked down at the tea in her hands.

“So you know,” she said softly. “You know why I stopped looking for you.”

Her voice cracked on the last word. Barely. But I heard it.

I swallowed, my chest tightening.

“When they returned me,” she went on, her voice dropping even lower, “I didn’t remember what happened to me. Not where I was kept. Not how long I was gone. Nothing.” She shook her head slowly, like she still couldn’t believe that part herself. “But I never stopped looking for you, Aurenya. Never.”

She finally looked up at me then, and there was something raw in her eyes. Something tired.

“Not when everyone kept telling me you were probably dead,” she continued. “Not when they said I needed to accept it and move on.” Her fingers tightened around the cup. “Not even when I couldn’t find you with a blood spell.”

The room felt smaller after that. Quieter.

I sat there, barely breathing, letting her words settle into me. Every sentence landed heavy, pressing into places I didn’t know were still open.

She hadn’t stopped looking.

Even when the magic failed her. Even when everyone else had given up.

I didn’t know what to say yet. I wasn’t sure there were words big enough for what sat between us now.

So I stayed quiet—and let her speak.

“Then Theron heard I was back,” she said quietly. “He came to me, trying to find out where I had been. Who took me."

Her fingers tightened slightly around the cup as she spoke, knuckles paling.

“But I couldn’t tell him,” she went on. “I couldn’t tell him that I didn’t remember anything. That there were years of my life just… gone.” She swallowed hard. “I couldn’t tell him that I had given birth to a baby. That I never even got the chance to tell him about her. And that she was gone.”

Her voice wavered then, the pain slipping through no matter how hard she tried to keep it contained.

“So I pushed him away,” she said. “I made him stop asking. I made him leave.” She let out a shaky breath. “After some time, he did. He stopped trying. And eventually… he got married.”

The words hung in the air between us.

“I loved him,” she added softly. “I love him.” Her eyes dropped to the tea again. “But it’s better this way.”

Something in my chest ached at that. Deep and dull.

“Do you know who took you?” I asked gently.

She shook her head without hesitation. “No.”

I closed my eyes.

My heart started pounding, loud and uneven, like it was warning me. I stood there in that moment, caught between fear and truth. I knew what telling her would do. I knew it could break something open that she had spent years trying to survive without.

But she deserved to know.

I opened my eyes and looked at her.

“I know,” I said.

She froze.

The cup hovered halfway to her lips, her hand trembling so badly the tea rippled inside it. For a second, I thought she might drop it.

Slowly, she lowered it back to the table.

“What do you mean… you know?” she whispered.

Her voice was shaking now.

“He is—” I started, my voice catching slightly.

“Zorath Duskbane,” Zayn interrupted sharply, his tone hard and unflinching. “My father.”

I froze for a moment, letting the name roll over me. It sounded like something out of a story, a name that carried weight before it was even spoken. There was a bite to it, a darkness that clung to the edges of the syllables. Duskbane. The very sound of it made the air feel heavier, like the shadows had grown a little thicker around us.

By the look on her face, she recognized the name. Her voice trembled as she whispered, “No… that can’t be. He wouldn’t.”

She shook her head slightly, eyes searching Zayn’s. “He and Theron were friends. He wouldn’t do something like that… would he?”