Rhydian's POV
The pack are back in Newcastle, so it doesn't take long for me to find my parents. If they really are my parents. Mum can smell me coming, either that or her instincts are telling her something is really wrong. We run into each other in the woods.
"Mum, what's going on?" I don't greet her properly, I can't yet. I need answers.
"It's Carys isn't it?" She says. She looks worried. "Take me to her."
"No. Tell me who she is, why are they saying she's my sister?" I'm angry, my eyes turn yellow and my veins turn black.
"Stay calm Rhydian."
"ANSWER ME."
"She's mine. I had her almost after I had you." I go from angry to confused.
"That's why I've been having those feelings, that something was wrong. It was her who was suffering. Ava said you kept things from Carys. She's your daughter? What about dad?"
"He's her father."
"What?" I shake my head. "No, but her parents- they raised her."
"Geraint and Rhiannon took her from me," she tears up, "Geraint heard had through the grapevine that I had a child before, Ava, and that she was his. He took Carys as revenge. He said if he couldn't have his daughter, he would take mine." She breaks down, falling to her knees. I pull her up and hug her tightly. I do nothing but let her be sad.
There's so many thoughts racing through my mind. Why didn't mum say anything before? When Carys went to the wild, or even when the whole Kincaid thing happened. Maybe she didn't realise, but she must have. She knew who I was straight away.
"Please take me to her Rhydian." I nod and I take her hand and we walk back to the city. She whimpers the whole way there. She tells me about dad barely being able to look at Carys, because he's so heartbroken that his own daughter doesn't know who he is.
I explain to her what Whitewood told me was happening to Carys. I have to explain exactly what Carys' disorders are, in the wild they just have sanity and insanity, no specific terms for anything.
We exit the forest and make our way into town to go to Segolia. Mum's never been there before, I don't think she's ever even been to the city. We walk hand in hand into the building and up to the med wing. Mum's taking it all really well. She comes to a stop outside Carys' door.
"Mum?"
"She's going to hate me." She's still teary eyed.
"She won't, you protected her. The worst that will happen is that she won't talk to you. She hasn't spoken to me yet. And anyway, she'll get over that. She doesn't really have a choice." I squeeze her hand. "You'll be okay, I'm here."
She pulls herself together and takes a deep breath. We walk in to find Ava sitting on the chair I spent the night on, Jana sitting on the edge of Carys' bed, and Carys standing looking out of the window. Jana and Ava look up at us.
"What's she doing here?" Ava says as she gets up and folds her arms.
"What are you doing here?" I reply.
"My sister's not well. I came to support her." She hisses. Carys sharply turns around.
"I don't want your support. I want my family," she smiles weakly at me, "my pack." She smiles at mum.
"Wait outside Ava."
"No I-"
"Go." I don't shout, but I raise my voice slightly. She picks up her posh white jacket and storms out of the room.
"Jana, maybe you should wait outside too. Mum wants to talk to Carys." Jana walks over to Carys.
"Will you be okay?" She asks her. Carys nods, receiving a kiss on the forehead from Jana, she leaves the room too.
I lead mum over to the chair where Ava sat, I sit on the edge of Carys' bed, she joins me.
"I just want an explanation. I can't be mad at you, you've done so much for me." She says to mum, taking my hand.
Mum takes another deep breath. "Gerwyn and I- we- we're your parents." She can't look either of us in the eye. Carys takes it surprisingly well, it's like she already knew. Maybe deep down she did.
"Okay, okay, well why- I don't understand." She turns to me.
"Mum, shall I explain?" Mum nods, I realise she's started crying. That's not like her. "Your dad, Geraint, he didn't know about Ava, when he found out about her years later, he discovered she had been taken by humans. He took you as revenge. He wanted a daughter. He didn't do it in cold blood, you have to remember that he truly did love you, and so did Rhiannon." Her eyes are welling up.
"I'm so sorry Cariad." Mum speaks through her sorrow. "I wanted to tell you, I so badly wanted you to know who I really am. But you've been through so much. There's something else you need to know," something she hasn't told me yet, "The things that are happening in your head, Rhydian explained it all to me, it runs in our family, my mother had similar... problems. I never knew her, my father was killed, not long after I was born, she lost her mind and ran away, leaving me with our former Alpha, Johannes. I'm so so sorry." She stands up and crouches in front of Carys and I placing a hand on each of our knees.
"I forgive you, or at least I'll try to. I've learnt that holding grudges gets me nowhere." Carys already seems to be more like natural herself. Carys and mum stand up. They both look into each other's eyes before sharing a long needed hug.
I don't know how I didn't see it before, they have the same eyes, the same facial structure, but not the same hair. For some reason Carys, Ava and I all have blonde hair. Then there's little Bryn with his jet black mop.
"But, I have Arogyl Arbennig, like my par- like Geraint and Rhiannon."
"It can be developed, just like Eolas and Anceon. Although, Gerwyn's father had it too, maybe you inherited it from him. Sometimes things like that can skip a generation."
"I think, I think I need some time alone, some head space." Carys says, I stand up.
"Um, Dr. Whitewood said not to leave you alone, especially if you're not restrained." She nods solemnly. "Sorry Carys."
"No it's okay, I guess I'm a danger to everyone." She plonks herself on to her bed.
"It's you we're worried about. You're a danger to yourself at the moment." Dr. Whitewood walks in the room. "How are you feeling?" She asks.
"Surprisingly okay."
"That's good to hear, I'm assuming this is your mother Rhydian?" I nod my head.
"I'm Carys' mother too." She says awkwardly.
"Right, well I'm glad you all got to the bottom of that." Whitewood replies, she seems uncomfortable.
"What happens now?" She asks.
"Well, we'll probably have a psych specialist come in to chat to you, and hopefully you can go home as soon as possible." She says smiling, but none of us smile back.
"I don't really have a home. I've been living in the wild until I'm old enough to work and get a place of my own." She suddenly gasps in fear.
"Carys?" I say, getting closer to her, she doesn't say anything. She just grasps her head and buries her face in her pillow, she's breathing so quickly. She must be hearing things again.
"What's happening?" Mum asks. "Cariad?"
"No." Carys says.
"Okay, I think it's best if you leave Rhydian, we'll look after her." Whitewood hurries me out of the room, blocking my view of a distressed Carys.
The door is shut in my face. "Rhydian, what's happening?" Maddy comes up behind me. I turn around and see Tom and Shannon standing there too.
"I think she's having another episode." I say. We hear Carys screaming out. My heart skips a beat. That's my sister in there. Ava and Jana stand up from their waiting room chairs.
"What? Let me in." Jana charges towards me. I grab her and try to hold her back.
"No Jana, it's okay. She's with Whitewood and mum, she's safe. It's not that bad. She's just having a little freak out." Jana looks at me, as if to say 'she needs me, not those people who barely know her', if only she realised just how much mum knows her. "Don't worry, she's strong." Jana cries, Maddy puts her arms around her and takes her back to her seat. Reassuring her that everything's okay. I want to tell Jana, but I feel like maybe Carys wants to be the one to tell her.
I go and take my own seat down the other end of the hall. I can feel Ava looking at me, it doesn't take long for her to walk down the hall to me, but she walks past me and starts dialling on her phone. She goes into another room and a few minutes later comes back out.
"I'm sorry, I made things even worse, I didn't realise how bad she was." She says, sitting a few seats away from me. I think hearing Carys in the state she's in has really made Ava see the light.
"It's not me you should be apologizing to, Carys is the one having a breakdown. You could have waited until she was older. Maybe if you let her make her own decisions, she might actually be willing to know you."
"I know, I handled it badly, and I'm done making excuses. I've sacked the lawyer, that's who I was calling."
"Thank you."
"I'll go back to London, you and Carys can call me or visit whenever you want, or if you don't want to that's fine too. But I really hope you do." She stands up. "Goodbye little brother."
I stand up too. "Goodbye." I give her a half-hearted hug and watch as she walks out of the building. I look back down the hall as Carys' door is opened.
"Jana, she's asking for you." Dr. Whitewood says.