CHAPTER 497: THALIRA

Jasmine stood quietly at the doorway.

No one could even utter a single damn word.

Her figure looked so small beneath the soft blue chemise, her pale legs barely steady beneath her.

The wrapped towel lay cradled in her arms, as if she were protecting something fragile and sacred.

Her eyes weren’t red from crying anymore—just glassy, tired. Haunted.

Soulless and empty.

The hallway fell silent.

Fiona’s mouth parted slightly, eyes widening as she took a slow step forward, but Jasmine didn’t move.

She just looked at them, gaze flitting from Erik to Nanny Nia, then finally settling on Fiona.

"I heard voices," she said softly, her voice still hoarse, broken like something unused for too long. "And I thought maybe..."

Her words faded off. No one dared finish the sentence.

Nanny Nia immediately rushed toward her. "You shouldn’t be standing...come, let me take her-"

"No." Jasmine shook her head faintly, stopping Nanny Nia right in her tracks.. "She’s mine. She stays with me."

Her arms tightened slightly over the towel. Fiona’s hand shot to her mouth, a choked sob slipping out.

She held into the towel fiercely as if someone was going to take her baby away from her.

"I just wanted some air," Jasmine added. "And... to walk. Even just for a little."

"You should rest," Nanny Nia whispered, brushing Jasmine’s arm carefully.

"I’ve been resting," Jasmine said. "Now I want to bury her."

There was a much tighter silence in the room than at her arrival.

A breath caught in Erik’s throat.

He looked down at the floor, unable to meet her gaze. Fiona’s arms wrapped around herself.

Nanny Nia nodded quickly, placing a hand on Jasmine’s shoulder. "Of course, then that’s what we’ll do. No one is going to stop you."

A heavy silence followed again. Jasmine shifted slightly and glanced at Erik, her voice a whisper now.

"I know what you did."

Erik’s breath stopped. His eyes rose slowly to meet hers.

"You didn’t put me in the cell," she continued, "but you didn’t stop it either. You knew something was wrong. I saw it in your eyes that night. But you turned away."

Erik opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"I’m not angry," Jasmine said, eyes still on him. "I’m just... tired. Disappointed. I thought you of all people would stand up for me. How wrong I was."

He stepped forward, shame written all over his face. "Jasmine, I never meant for any of this—"

"I know," she interrupted, her voice firm but quiet. "That’s what makes it worse."

Her words landed like a slap, soft but devastating.

Fiona exhaled slowly and reached out to Jasmine.

The last time they had spoken, the last time the two best friends had seen, they had had a bitter argument.

But now none of that mattered.

Tragedy had brought them together and made them forget their differences.

Fiona now became standing straight. "We’re with you."

Jasmine said nothing and then resumed her way forward, already walking down the arched hallways.

Not a single word more. Just the steady shuffle of her feet on the stone floor.

When they were sure there was a ready enough distance away from her, but yet she was till in their sight they began walking after her.

Erik attempted to go along and Fiona stopped him immediately.

"She doesn’t want to see or have you around." Fiona said. "Haven’t you done enough?"

"I just want to make things right." He said.

"If you really wanted to, then you would leave her." She stated.

Erik seemed like he had more to say, but Fiona’s stern glare told him that he wasn’t needed.

He reluctantly sighed and turned away headed in the opposite direction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The burial happened in silence.

Under the largest willow tree in the garden, with the wind whispering through the leaves like lullabies.

Jasmine chose the spot herself. Said it was the only place in the entire pack that had ever felt truly peaceful.

They had walked and walked Fiona and Nanny Nia had begun to worry Jasmine would collapse out of weakeness, or perhaps she was so drained that she was hallucinating wherever she was taking them to.

But when they finally arrived, it was a place no one knew even existed.

A beautiful lake and garden hidden in between the nestles of ugly and broken bushes.

The willow tree singing right above the lake and providing shelter as its leaves dropped one by one.

None of them said a word.

Jasmine walked ahead underneath the willow tree.

Nanny Nia and Fiona stood nearby, heads bowed, while Jasmine knelt down and placed the wrapped up towel on the gently grass.

"This was my happy place." Jasmine said aloud even though it seemed to be more to the baby than to her companions. "I had one just like this in the pack where I was raised."

And then she used her nails to begin gently digging the ground.

"Jasmine are you sure we shouldn’t help y-

But Jasmine cut Fiona off by turning her back on them and digging.

Nanny Nia held Fiona’s shoulder prohibiting her from reaching out to assist her.

Jasmine resumed digging and digging with her bare hands.

Soon she became agressive and began to weep and scream.

Still refusing to stop as her nails dug in with soil and was pricked by rocks.

But she continued.

When she was satisfied with the small grace.

She gently picked up the wrapped up towels and held it to her chest.

She cradled it to her chest and began to sing very softly.

A song that Urma used to sing for her when she was a little girl.

When she was done.

She kissed the towel.

"This cruel world didn’t deserve you. Rest Thalira." Jasmine said as she gently put the towel in the ground.

"Thalira." Nanny Nia whispered quietly in realization. "That was the name she chose for her baby."

Fiona’s heart crushed. "Thalira means moon companion."

Nanny Nia struggled with the tears at the corner of her eyes.

"Yes. She always spoke on how having this baby meant she finally had a companion in life." Nanny Nia managed. "Sh.... She..."

Nanny Nia paused trying to get a hold of herself.

Before she could continue, Fiona finished for her, the tears being sniffed away. "She is unshifted and never felt her connection to the moon. So she named the child Thalira which meant moon companion. The companion she never had and her first connection to the moon as a wolf."

The women stood in silence their hearts been burdened at how tragic it was.