AUTHOR'S POV
A subtle shift swirled like whirlwind in Alva as she stilled. Barely there, but real. She kept her fractured composure to herself, not for everyone to see. However, Diana noticed the pause that should never existed. The slight flicker and sideway glances that Alva never did. "... you've always been perceptive", Alva said carefully.
The patio, despite out in the open, seemed to tighten around them. "Don't deny now", Diana uttered, unflinching. "Tamara", she called her. It has been years since Alva last heard that name. Hearing it once again revived the pain of loss, and the rage that burned it just to feel numb. It was like a key opening locked doors. Alva then crumbled, with her bloody hand twitching on her side. "You loved Viktor too much, that you cursed him... Every man in their bloodline falls in love, and then you make sure the imprint breaks them apart".
"I never thought you'd flipped that side of the coin.", Alva said, coldly. Not denying it at all. "But it's not Viktor... It was Karin".
Diana furrowed her brows, unsure if being tricked. "Ka-Karin?", Diana stuttered if she heard it right.
"I thought Karin would fight off the power of the imprint. In the end, she just couldn't, like anybody else. One look, led to one touch... then, they were inseparable", Alva took a long pause. Controlled. Lips twitching, not wanting to feel how it did before. Underneath that strained struggle, something was burning. A past that was rising which she have caged for so long. "When Vik came knocking at my door asking for power, he thought he was making a bargain... Of course, he wasn't", she scoffed. "Viktor and Karin Lockwood, they both deserved it", those names tasted bitter, trying to steady her breaths. "I loved Karin." she said without hesitations and narrowing eyes. Thus, no amount of softness went with it. "I loved her more than anything in this world. She told me she would fight it", Alva went on, her gaze distant now, not seeing Diana... but somewhere far older. "When the imprint came, everything about us was gone. She... lied".
Diana wrinkled her forehead, clenching her jaw. "It wasn't betrayal. It was not a choice--"
"It is!", Alva cut her in. Flat and final. "She chose him. Instinct over truth.", her eyes darkened, with her hands slowly turning to a fist. "Over me", those words were heavy, as if they still have control over her.
Diana's chest tightened. It felt like she heard herself in Alva's words. It dawned on her the idea of how she's forged that way. She mirrored Alva, curated every bit of her in her way of thinking. Suddenly, she became a stranger to herself. "And me? Is Scott imprinting on me part of your plan too?", Diana wondered if she's also a target of Alva's plans. The blast of her radius. The cherry on top.
"It was a surprise, really. But a total inconvenience for me.", Alva admitted, without hiding her lack of affection. Just annoyance in being rushed to her plans after Scott imprinted on Diana.
It was the most honest and clear answer Diana ever got from Alva. She gave her answers that landed like stone dropped into water. No ripples. No resistance. But Diana still felt it, the lack. The cold distance that was always been there. "You think he'll kill me?".
"Oh I know he will. Nothing will ever stop him", Alva answered as it was designed to be that way. Calm and certain. "But, I'll make sure he doesn't get that chance... not just yet".
Diana's blood ran cold. She's being used for some bigger purpose. Kept alive for now until her she have served what she is intended for. Just like Calvin. And now that Calvin is one barricade out of Alva's path, Diana realized that she's nearing the finish line on the race for life Alva staged. Alva leaned forward, arms crossed and a smile across her face. "Are you done? Because there's someone who I'd like you to meet".
"What do you want from me?", Diana breathlessly asked, backing away, until her legs hit the marble balustrade.
"Come on, Diana", Alva straightened up, and raised a brow. "You still haven't learned a slightest idea about yourself. The Luna of Scott Lockwood. Daughter of Daniel and Alva Woodsworth… And your blood?", she prodded. "Follow me if you want to unravel your life's mysteries", Alva turned back to the hallway, going in the house. Leaving Diana alone in the patio.
Diana glanced out in the open.
The scent of the trees, the air that fills in... and the unwatched space screams freedom. She held onto the top rail of the balustrade, tight enough to feel how hard it is to make a decision between leaving the mansion, or staying. She started to weigh things. Alva won't hurt her, after several times of saving her life. Most of the times, Alva contradicted the cold precision of her voice. She is Diana's safe space when everything threatens peril. Beneath the hurt from lies and deceptions, something sharpened into clarity. Something stubborn.
Diana closed her eyes, and in a moment..
Slowly, she stepped away from the balustrade. This time, what frightened her was staying and wanting to. Diana went in. In the hallway, she saw Alva waiting for her, leaning against the wall. Alva's eyes sparkled with victory, quiet and complete. "Ready?".
Diana followed Alva down the hallway. Just like always, she traced her footsteps like an obedient daughter. However, this time around, it doesn't exactly feel the same as it has been. There was silence, and a large gap between them. A certain kind of emptiness that felt cold. No servants were walking around. No guards patrolling. Just them in the house that stood familiar in shape but unfamiliar in soul.
Alva descended the stairs to the basement. Suddenly, the house changed halfway down the stairs. The warmth peeled away first. Then, the light. Diana grazed her fingers on the wall, as she hear the pounding of her heart in her ear. The last time she went down here was when she was younger. She heard loud squeals and shrills at night, and when she tried to hover around... Her mother would rebuke her with a stern look from being nosy. She never came back down ever since.
Going beyond the once restricted place felt different. It was as if it never looked like this before. Not as far as she could remember. As she go beyond the plight of stairs, the more she looses light. The stone walls swallowed the sounds. She followed the clacking of Alva's heels until they reach the end of stairs with a large steel door with no knob. Diana waited, then Alva spoke a different language. The heavy door opened slowly from the middle. The warm breeze blew from the crevice.
"Do you know that when nagualli come of age, we are forced to live in solidarity?" Alva led Diana inside a dark hall beyond the steel door. "Our powers ripen at around eight years of age. And from then on, we are forced to discover, learn, and control our magic on our own. Just imagine a wild child who can turn to a black bird and fly across the beds of endless forests, or transform to a wolf who runs free in the woods.", the halls were lighted with six torches of blue flames with Alva's flick of a hand. Alva's magic surprised Diana. Despite caught off guard, she didn't turn away.
Inside, there were three red doors. One door has a large moonstone inside of a crescent moon embedded right at the center. "Why are you telling me that now? And where are we?", Diana asked, something stuck in her nose made her sneeze. It was that stench of a Nagualli which was suddenly strong enough for her to sense.
"This is where you'll find the truth about everything. And aren't you a little interested about the back story about your Nagual mother?", Alva simpered. Diana covered her nose with her hand, as they stand before the red door with the moonstone. "Karin", the shadows in the basement now hides the light in Alva's face that she broadly show in the dark. "I saw her during one of my hunts. The only face I met after years of isolation. She smiled at me, then the next thing I knew... she was reaching...", Alva summoned her memories as plain as the day how that encounter replayed over and over again in her head. Eventually, she learned of Karin's routines. She knew when she laughs, and when she's alone. Those were the days she felt truly alive. "She told me that if she chooses who to love, she would. Not who the imprint decides. That was her promise. How rare that was for someone like me?", those words landed on her, not just a statement... but a vow. She began to build a future from then that she believed would exist. Diana listened, but couldn't really understand its relevance to her life. "Then one day, I saw her smile to Viktor. Letting him touch her in any part of her body... and worse, she touches him back. It wasn't supposed to happen", Alva darkened her eyes, wiping the already sticky blood off her hand on her beige coat.
It confused Diana. Alva's thoughts lingered in her. While Alva chose to believe its rarity, Diana is convinced with its impossibility. Love between a wolf and a Nagual is never likely to happen, like wolves and vampires. Not in any universe. And then, she decided to unmask the details. "She... didn't love you", Diana figured.
"Karin and I shared something special!", Alva growled, as she glower at Diana.
Diana flinched seeing Alva snap out of her refined and sleek character. "No.... She didn't know you at all", Diana taunted, as she break through Alva's emotional mask. Alva stiffened, with veins popping from her neck. She gritted her teeth as she crack. "You cursed the Lockwoods for nothing, Karin never knew you in the first place", Diana continued, as she was certain seeing how she was able the shed the perfection in Alva's facade. Alva was mistaken, not wronged.
Alva felt those sharp words cut through her chest. That wasn't the truth. Diana was never there. "You didn't see the way she looked at me".
"...what does all of that has to do with me?", Diana's voice steadied. She knew no matter what she says, Alva won't back away from her own truth.
"Your father... He knew it all. That bastard", Alva scrunched up her face, parting her lips after short sigh. "Daniel was a believer of wolf law. Burned my kind out of the forests. Hunted us like sickness", she continued. "He saw how Karin and I were madly in love. And yet, he kept hunting me. Teamed up with Viktor going after my head. Calling me a disgusting piece of shit as I recall. He once caught me, almost at the brink of my death. But your mother intervened... that I was not worth killing for. Time seemed to make him forget about me.", a muscle twitched in her jaw, as she stare at Diana. It was a kind of mercy Tamara didn't value.
"I never did".