Episode 3

Being back at the ranch caused me a certain nostalgia and sadness. It was here that I lived my best moments, where I fell in love and got married. It was difficult to return home and take on the responsibilities that were left behind.

The Beauchamp family in general was made up of humble and, in a way, special people. My father, George, was a wolf, but he was expelled from his pack for falling in love with my mother, a simple witch. After this union, my siblings and I were seen as outcasts in the perfect society that the alphas of the Foster family wanted to create. We were born with my father's predominant gene, meaning we were wolves. My nephews were also wolves, and my late son was the strongest one yet. But my daughter, Louise, I fear for her safety. So far, she hasn't shown any abilities. It's as if she's just a mere human.

My husband, Caleb, was a human. He was the only man I truly loved, and he accepted me for who I am. Our wedding took place at the ranch, under the gaze of the whole family. It was the happiest day of my life, without a doubt. It was common in our family to have twins, but I was greatly surprised when I became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, whom I named Benjamin. And when he turned eleven, I became pregnant with Louise, my sweet girl who captivated everyone in the family from a young age with her sweetness and fragility. It was fun to see Caleb teach Benjamin to protect his little sister. They said that Louise was their little girl and that no one would come near her. I was lucky, my family was happy, and the feeling inside me was gratitude. So you can imagine my reaction when I found out that my husband and son had died in a car accident.

The pain tore my heart apart. The only memory I had of them now was little Louise, playing upstairs in the house with her older cousin, the delicate Cristal.

I didn't want to run away, but it was necessary. And now, ten years later, I was returning home. My mother had changed a lot, the wrinkles on her face, her once black hair now completely gray, showed that age had finally caught up with her.

"I'm back, Mom," I whispered as she embraced me after asking Eva to take Louise inside. We had a lot to talk about.

In passing, I could sense that both my mother and Eva were happy about our return, but I also felt that they were hiding something.

"Lorenzo, you can dismiss everyone for today. You're all off tomorrow, I'll see everyone here on Monday!" my mother spoke so kindly that even the man was startled before smiling.

I didn't notice when she started pulling me by the hand to walk beside her along the trail next to the house that led us to a small mountain. That piece of land, just like the mountain, belonged to the Beauchamps, with the difference that only the family could walk on that trail.

"So much time has passed, Mary, ten years my dear... Look how grown you are, I see that you raised Louise very well too," her shining eyes indicated that she wanted to cry.

"Oh, Mom... So much must have changed in my absence. I thought Eva hated me for leaving," I confessed as I walked beside her.

"No one judges you for leaving, on the contrary, Eva was the first one to defend you when you left with Louise. No one is really prepared to lose someone," hearing those words, I realized the sadness in her eyes. I hadn't realized that we had reached the entrance of the cave that led up the mountain. The view from there was beautiful, the whole ranch illuminated, the green swaying crops against the evening breeze, and the large house taking on an orange hue due to the lights that were turning on around it.

"We lost Calleb and Benjamin at the same time, then we lost Sebastian. Eva was devastated, but she had the twins to please her." My steps ceased upon hearing those words, my brother-in-law Sebastian, a wizard who had also married Eva, had died? I couldn't express it in words, he was a tall man with almost platinum blonde hair and gray-blue eyes, one of the few who didn't shun my mother for her choice of marriage.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that he had died?" The question came involuntarily, how would they have told me when just last week I refused to have any contact with anything from my past.

"You were already grieving, we didn't want to bring more bad news. He passed away five years after the boys." I looked down, feeling ridiculous for acting like a teenager ten years ago and running away.

"Come, dear, light the torches to show the ancestors that you have returned." my mother said, pointing towards the darkness of the cave.

A smile appeared on my lips, my mother still maintained the tradition of lighting torches for the ancestors. My smile was involuntary, as much as my mother was a witch and her children were not, she made sure to show that we were still part of the same family.