Ashes and Scales: Remember Us, Mate

Chapter 6: The Severance Mark

MAIA

My father and I froze, staring at each other with pale faces, until I found my voice and asked if what we were seeing was what I thought it was. Father said yes, letting go of the bandage, and suggested that it could be why the woman tried to rip Keir's heart out; she was his mate, but how? Wolves did not mate with humans.

How did he get mated to one, and if the woman who did this to him was so disgusted with it, why didn’t she go on and finish what she started? Why would she let him live and not expose him? I asked my father, my heart racing, and he said he had no idea. He speculated that she may have not despised humans like us, but been offended or confused about being mated to him.

He slumped into the chair, defeated, while I returned my gaze to Keir, feeling something stir in my stomach and a flurry of emotions rush through me: disbelief, shock, fear, jealousy, and a slew of others I could not name or comprehend.

"When his father was killed, he was waiting for me," my father suddenly said, jolting me out of my daze. "I had car problems that day, so we carpooled to work. The day had been long, and Lorcan and I were finishing up our shift at the workshop when I received a call requesting that I finish the custom metal frames I had been working on for a client.

They were almost done, but I still had a few finishing touches to add, and I had promised myself that I would do it the next day because they were not due to be shipped out until the afternoon.

However, I was informed that unforeseen circumstances necessitated an earlier delivery. I had already pulled overtime and Lorcan and I were packing up to leave. I wasn’t even supposed to still be in the workshop as I had decided to pull that overtime to make things easier for me the next day.

We had a rule that required us to complete the items we needed to ship out the next day, a day earlier, so I should have finished the frames by then.

Because of this, I could not say no, and my boss was ruthless; he was not afraid to fire someone because he knew he paid significantly more than the going rate at the time, and I needed the job. I had you and put down a deposit on a house. I did not have time to mess around.

So I told Lorcan he could leave and I would catch a ride home, but he said he would stay. He helped me finish, and by the time we were done, it was almost dark. We were leaving the building and heading for his car when I realized I had left my car keys on my desk. I never put them back inside the house when my car didn’t start that morning. I just went to his house and tried to catch him before he left. I needed them because I did not have a spare and wanted to inspect the vehicle at night.

I dashed back inside to retrieve them while he lit a cigarette and stood next to his car. "When I walked out of that building," my father paused, his voice almost shaking. “I heard it—a guttural gasp, one of those sounds you can never forget. And when I looked up, I saw Lorcan with Dimitrius' hand inside his chest." He paused once more, his jaw clenched tightly as if forcing the words out would tear something inside him and tears pooled in my eyes.

“I couldn’t move. Lorcan looked right at me like he wanted me to help. But it was too late. Dimitrius ripped his heart out, and I witnessed it, Maia. His heart... ripped out... and he collapsed, and just like that it was over," my father choked, and the horror of it sank into my chest, making me feel cold. It was the first time I heard the story—heard what exactly happened that day?

"And then," he continued, his voice becoming quieter as if ashamed, "this woman... whom I later learned was Selena, Dimitrius' daughter... she walked up to him while his body was still twitching on the ground and spat in his face like he was nothing."

The tears that pooled in my eyes fell, and my father was quiet for a moment before he whispered that he just continued to stand there, that he couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything. "For what seemed like an eternity, all I could do was watch before my body summoned the strength to move and I ran to him. By that point, his body was cold and I didn’t know what to do. I shut his eyes, took off his wedding ring and his jewelry to give to his wife and kid, and ran. I had to get out of there before someone saw me crying over a human. If they had seen, it would’ve meant my death too.” He continued, and I felt my stomach twist as I imagined my father running from that scene, from his best friend, like a fugitive, afraid of mourning someone he cared for.

“I couldn’t even take his car,” he said bitterly. “I ran all the way home, feeling like I’d vomit my insides. It felt like someone had ripped out my own heart, leaving a huge, gaping hole in its place.

He then looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes. “Lorcan didn’t deserve what he got,” he said, his voice breaking. “He was a good man. He grew up rough, Maia. Raised by a father who drank his life away, troubled and violent. Lorcan had to fend for himself from a young age, which is why he could not even properly disguise himself. That’s why my father figured out what he was. That’s how we became friends. After he was discovered by my father, and my father assured him he wouldn’t hurt him, he started coming around to our place to eat, sometimes to sleep. He didn’t have anywhere else to go. He never met his mother; she was a woman his father had a one-night stand with during one of his drunken outbursts, after which she returned to leave a baby on his doorstep.

We became close, almost like brothers, but I could not protect him, even though he would have been home already if it had not been for me working late and then forgetting my car keys. She wouldn’t have seen him,” he said, and I got off the bed and walked over to him, and hugged him. I told him it wasn’t his fault. He had no idea that was going to happen.

"When I kneeled next to him that day," he said, drawing back from the hug and looking at Keir, "I thought I saw something on his chest. There was a line that was strikingly similar to the severance mark. But there was a hole in his chest, right where the mark would’ve been, and I couldn’t make it out clearly. I thought I was seeing things wrong because if I was correct and it was the severance mark, it would have meant Selena was his mate, which would explain how she could have smelled his true scent. And it was not possible." He continued, and my eyes widened at the realization. My father continued to explain that he had been plagued by this doubt for years, but he never shared it with Keir's mother because he was unsure of how to explain it, given that wolves had never mated with humans.

“And now... seeing the mark on Keir... it means that I did see the mark on his father’s chest. Keir's father must also have been mated with a werewolf. But how could this have happened?"

Silence prevailed over the room after my father’s question, and we were still sitting there, staring at Keir, when the door opened, startling both of us. It was Dr. Baker. He thought we were gone, so my father got up, apologizing, and I got up as well. We left the room, and as we walked down the passage, I asked him what we were going to do.

"Are you going to tell his mother?" I asked, just imagining how Mrs. C would freak out hearing this. Despite the fact that Keir had survived, I was freaking out. However, before my father could respond, a thought struck me and stopped me in my tracks.

“Dad, what does this even mean for Keir now? Is it even over? I mean, I know the woman rejected him, but she saw his face. She knows who he is now. What if she comes after him again? What if she let him go so she could find out where the rest of his family is? What if someone is watching us right now?”

An icy chill crept up my spine, and my father hugged me, reminding me that it could have been someone who did not dislike humans but simply did not want to be mated with one. Someone who shared our confusion.

“If we start with what ifs, we’ll drive ourselves crazy, and we can’t afford to be crazy right now? We need to be sane and strong for Keir and his mother. They need us."

……

AUTHOR’S POV

Keir's eyes fluttered open, the scent of the hospital room permeating his senses as the bright lights above cut through his drowsiness.

His entire body shook with fear as a flood of memories hit him—the woman, the sensation he felt looking at her, the bone-chilling growl that vibrated on her chest as she flung him across the room, and the pain.

He gasped, sitting up too quickly, his heart thudding wildly in his chest, and then the scream came. A raw scream of pain erupted from his throat before he even realized what was happening.

The door flew open, and Ethan dashed inside, his face tight with concern. "Keir! It’s alright. It’s alright!” He quickly moved to his side, gently pushing him back against the pillow. “You’re safe. It’s okay. You’re safe.” But Keir couldn’t hear him. His mind was overflowing with memories and horror.

His hands flew to his chest, trembling as they hovered above his heart. He pressed down gently, as if afraid to confirm his worst fear—that it was gone, ripped out of him by the woman, like his father. The nightmare flashed before his eyes: the feeling of cold fingers reaching into his body, the searing pain, the emptiness.

Ethan’s voice broke through the haze again. “Keir, you’re alright. You’re recovering really well. You’re here. Your heart is safe!” He kept his hands on Keir’s shoulders. But was drowning in the flood of emotions that swept through him.

He couldn’t shake the terror, the feeling that death had come for him. He had been so sure that he was going to die. The fear of never seeing his mother again, never hearing her voice, never feeling her embrace—it crashed over him with terrifying clarity, and he broke down.

His mother warned him: she never wanted him to come work here. She wanted him to work in Timbercross, where he would be safe, but he was more interested in making money. He was chasing materialistic things that nearly cost him his life and wounded his mother. She would not have survived his death.

Ethan’s eyes flickered toward Keir’s chest, still trying to calm him down. When he treated him, he saw the mark—the carving etched deep into Keir's skin. A mark he shouldn’t have had. A mark that didn’t belong to a human.

As a doctor with over five years of experience at this hospital, he made it his mission to learn everything he could about werewolves. He knew their biology, rituals, and symbols, and the mark on Keir's chest was unmistakable. It was a severance mark, carved into the flesh by a werewolf’s claws. It symbolized a connection severed violently. But how?

Ethan's mind churned with questions, his confusion growing as he thought about it. Keir was a human. And if there had ever been any doubt, this attack had erased it. How was he mated with a wolf? That question raised another question: how was he healing so quickly?

Ethan knew Keir was human the first time they met. In their village, the same one from which Lukas came, they could easily distinguish between humans and wolves thanks to pearl-like stones created for their great elders by an ancient and powerful witch.

These mystical stones were imbued with enchantments that heightened the natural scent of humans, making it impossible for wolves to detect their human scents. Wolves could distinguish humans by their weak scents. Their scent was ten times weaker than that of wolves. So, with their scents enhanced by magic, they could blend right in.

This was the reason their village, one of the oldest, flourished over the years. Crafted from a unique blend of moonstone, quartz, and a drop of the witch's own blood, these stones not only functioned as a disguise but also could discern whether the person beside them was a wolf or not. When he stood next to Keir on their first meeting, the stone subtly changed its color to white.

The stone's original color was red, but when it came into contact with werewolves, it turned black, and when it came into contact with a human, it turned white. And he had observed it more than three times when next to Keir to make sure and it never lied.

•••

"I have to go home," Keir said, and Ethan told him he was still weak and needed to rest, and that a man named Zale had come with his daughter earlier, and they promised to return with his mother. At that, Keir realized his mother knew and Ethan gave him some medication to calm him and for the pain and urged him to relax.

As he lay back, Ethan asked him what happened. He asked why the woman attacked him, and Keir said he didn’t know. He said maybe he looked at her the wrong way or she didn’t like him. Ethan didn’t press. He also didn’t know how Keir disguised himself. Everyone had their own; his village had the stones, while others had perfumes and other things. It was forbidden to share because one could never know who they were telling.

“I’m sure they’ll get here soon. Just lay back and relax. You are okay,” Ethan said, placing a reassuring hand on Keir’s shoulder.

"Thank you. Thank you for everything," Keir said, and Ethan nodded, withdrawing his arm. However, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye as his sleeve jacket settled back into place after riding up while he extended his arm.

His hand moved to his wrist, and he pulled his sleeve up, but his breath caught and he froze at what he saw. The stone in his bracelet wasn't white anymore—it was gray.

“What the hell?” He whispered, his expression paling, and Keir looked up at him, his own face paling at the expression in Ethan's eyes.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”