Until the Day I See My Son Again

Last year, a week after Elric’s 11th birthday, he stopped Eddy at his office—right before his father leave with Trista.

“Dad, can’t you see? She’s trying to poison Mom!” Elric’s voice rang from Eddy’s study.

Instinct took over as I rushed in. I saw his small stature facing Eddy and Trista, fist clenched in fury. Rage was leaking out from his body as he waited Eddy reading the document on his desk.

I moved to shield my only son with my body. My heart pounded in my chest, and my eyes darted to Eddy, wary of his next move. Trista, beside his chair was initially smiling but soon her face paled.

“E-eddy! I didn’t know about this!” Trista’s voice cracked with anguish, her tears falling freely. “Eddy, I swear, I didn’t know the candles I bought was made with wolfsbane!”

“Lies!” Elric's puppy growl echoed through the room, his voice tinged with the raw power of his wolf form.

My concern deepened as I noticed Elric’s partial transformation. His young body had never been able to handle the strain, and I feared he’d be bedridden for days again if he fully shifted.

The tension in Eddy’s study was palpable, as my husband stepped forward.

Eddy stood up, holding a protective stance shielding Trista as if to anticipate Elric's advance. "If she says she didn’t know, then she didn’t know. What proof do you have to say otherwise, Son?"

"But, Dad!” Elric protested.

Eddy placed down the document from his desk. “I applaud you for looking for scientific evidence through hospital lab test.” He looked at Elric coldly. “But that document doesn’t say anything that Trista know about the substance.”

Eddy then called for his assitant, “Gareth, tell the servants to get rid of all scented candle in the house.”

“Sir.” Gareth bowed and took his mobile phone to contact the head servant.

“Meeting is about to start, let’s go, Trista,” Eddy said simply and left the room with just the two of us.

Elric wept that day, tears of frustration and self-blame coursing down his cheeks.

But even in that moment, as I looked back, I saw a strength in him that I had overlooked—his resolve shining through despite the trembling of his shoulders, despite the tears that marked his face. He had stood tall, like the silent warrior hero in his favorite cartoon, defending his pack until the bitter end.

*

But now...

As I stood by Elric’s hospital bed, my heart ached with a pain that words couldn’t capture.

My strong, brave son was laying motionless. The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound in the sterile room, each beep a painful reminder of how close I had come to losing him.

His hand, connected to the IV, seemed so still, so lifeless. But then, a flicker—a slight movement of his fingers, as if he sensed my desperate plea for him to wake.

Elric had stirred earlier, just for a moment, opening his eyes before slipping back into the depths of unconsciousness. I clung to that moment, praying to the Goddess that he would find his way back to us once more.

Thank the Moon Goddess, She listened to my wishes…

"Hey, Elric. How are you feeling?" I asked softly as I took his hand in my palm, my heart aching at the sight of him so vulnerable.

Groggily, he shifted on his elevated hospital bed, lifting the hand connected to the IV. "Terrible," he chuckled, a spark of humor flickering in his eyes despite his condition.

I smiled, taking his hand in mine, but my expression faltered as I felt the fever burning on his skin. Before I could say anything, Elric spoke up.

"Why weren’t you at the Central Hospital, Mom?" he sighed, his voice tinged with exasperation yet weak. "You know you needed the inhibitor to stabilize your scent gland."

I smiled again, touched by his concern. Despite his own struggles, Elric's strength and care for me shone through.

Just as Elric had said, my scent gland was severely damaged. Around the fifth year of Trista’s frequent visits to the Winslow manor, I began to develop prolonged flu-like symptoms that wouldn’t go away.

It was Elric who insisted that I see a doctor, his concern outweighing his young age.

To avoid media attention, I sought out a specialist I trusted—Uncle Devon, my father’s younger brother. Through months of various tests, we discovered that my scent gland was severely damaged, causing unending respiratory issues that left me weak and vulnerable.

The next thing I knew, Elric had secretly taken one of Trista’s scented candles from my room. To my surprise, he had handed it over to Uncle Devon’s lab team for testing. For a boy almost reaching ten, his resourcefulness and determination genuinely astonished me.

The results were shocking.

The candle contained a subtle yet potent blend of chemicals designed to damage scent glands. It was a weapon disguised in the most innocuous form, a sinister plot hidden in plain sight.

The results were shocking: the candle contained potent wolfsbane essence.

Backed with the data, Elric confronted his father and Trista, revealing that the candles were harmful to werewolves and that my coughing was caused by them.

Trista denied knowing that actual wolfsbane was inside the candles. Meanwhile, Eddy, ever her biggest supporter, believed her without question. He simply suggested that discarding the candles from the manor would solve everything.

But no, simple treatment wouldn’t work on me. I had to take anti-inflamatory inhibitor designed for damaged scent glands.

“Cough!”

A few coughs suddenly escaped my tightly sealed lips, breaking the tense silence that had filled the hospital room.

“Mom!” Elric interjected. Despite weakness, his voice laced with worry.

After the small coughs subsided, I managed a weak smile. “I’m alright, El.”

I took a deep breath, setting my hair aside as I gazed at my twelve-year-old son lying on the hospital bed. Gently, I pushed him back to bed and adjusted his blanket.

“You’re right. I do need my treatment. But I needed to see for myself that you’re alright first, sweetheart.”

I leaned in closer, my tone becoming more serious. “Why did you go to the hunt, El? Your fever spiked again last night.”

Elric averted his gaze, his index finger nervously rubbing his left knuckle. ““If I win, Dad promised he’d take care of us more, Mom.” he muttered, almost to himself.

He then looked up at me, his eyes filled with a mix of determination and worry. “You’re sick, Mom. I might not understand everything, but Grandpa Devon showed me the numbers for your treatment!”

He scratched his cheek, a gesture he’d had since he was much younger, a sign of his frustration.

“And, Dad promised he’d stop wearing that bracelet if I made it to the top five.” He lifted his head, his sincerity piercing through his youth. “I just want us to be like before. Dad was so much happier back then, before insomnia turned his eyes into panda circles like now.”

I chuckled through the haze of my tears, a bittersweet release as they finally broke free. In that moment, I saw how Elric had been my constant shadow ever since Eddy had started drifting away. I had noticed the countless hours he spent with his notes and Uncle Devon—

but I hadn’t fully grasped the depth of his dedication.

I had been so consumed with making sure Eddy would at least continue to provided for Elric. I was so wrapped up in my own loneliness and struggle, that I failed to see the quiet sacrifices Elric was making.

Now, as I felt my son’s hand envelop mine, his voice was a gentle balm to my aching heart. “Mom, don’t cry,” he said softly, and I saw a tear slip down his cheek.

I wiped his tears away, my own voice trembling with regret. “I’m so sorry, Elric.” I paused, searching for the right words. “I should’ve listened to you better.”

“It’s okay, Mom!” Elric said, his tone surprisingly cheerful as he dabbed at his own tears. “What matters is that you’re listening to me now. And, by the way, you did listened to me before!”

His eyebrows perked up with a spark of excitement. “Oh, I know! Let’s go visit Grandma and Grandpa after this, Mom.” He leaned back into the elevated bed with a hopeful grin.

“It’s been ages since we last went to Duskhowl.”

There was a gentle light of acceptance in his eyes, a calmness that was almost unsettling. It was as if he had made peace with everything…

In a way that I wasn’t quite ready for.

I couldn’t find the words to respond, so I just nodded and told him to rest. “You recover first, alright, El? We’ll talk about it afterwards.”

Despite his weakened state, Elric nodded with a determined smile.

“Yeah!”