That day, when the compelled humans attacked the ceremony, one of them approached Isabella and gave her a message from her mother. It was a message for both of them to meet up. When she saw the message, she felt unbelievably happy.

"Mom..."

The message was for them to meet up at the old mansion where Victor and Isabella used to stay. Since Victor’s parents were staying in Purgatory, the only ones who stayed in that mansion were Victor and his servants.

Isabella knew that her mother would be angry at her for letting the young master die, but still, all she wanted was to see her mother. That’s why the moment she got the message, she left without hesitation.

The journey was rough, but still, she fought her way through any monster that attacked her until she arrived at the mansion. The first thing she noticed when she entered the estate was the dead monsters scattered about with a single wound in their head.

Isabella felt her throat go dry and a cold chill climbed its way up her back. This woman was her mother, but she was a killer first. Isabella had learned that over the years, and so she was ready to defend herself if it came down to it.

She slowly crept her way through the once lucious garden, which had now transformed into a small forest. She entered the mansion, watching her surroundings carefully. Her senses told her that there was no one there, but she knew better.

The mansion, which was once a picture of elegance and beauty, now stood as a broken wreck. In the few months it had been left unattended, vines and other plants had taken over. The walls were already crumbling, and there were blood and gore splattered about.

She walked through the wreckage of what once used to be her home. Though it never felt like home. Back then, it was just a place where her master lived. After a while of searching, she decided to look upstairs. She went to the master bedroom where Victor used to sleep. She hoped her mother wouldn’t be there.

She selfishly hoped that her mother would be in her room, and it was that selfish thought that distracted her mind for just a second, causing her to be blindsided by the needle-like wooden stake that pierced through her throat the moment she reached the room entrance. She didn’t even have time to react.

Her vision blurred, but she was still able to make out her mother’s faint outline as she clutched her throat and struggled to breathe. The embedded stake was stopping her from healing. Her mother stared at her coldly as she watched her struggle, choking on her own blood.

Those cold red eyes were the same ones from her childhood. No matter how long it’s been, she would always remember them. Isabella pried her hand from her bloody throat and reached out to try and touch her mother. She was surprised by her own actions. She had never been so brave as to try and touch her before. But this time, for the first time, she wished to touch her mother’s cheek, but before her hand could get to her, everything went black.

Isabella’s mother, being a lethal assassin and hunter, knew the perfect spot to strike to incapacitate her daughter.

...

The lethal assassin stared down at her own daughter lying on the floor. She could hardly believe that this was her own flesh and blood.

"I’ll have to fix her," she muttered in a cold, emotionless tone, then pulled out the stake which was still embedded in her throat. The wound on Isabella’s throat healed and closed up immediately, which confirmed her suspicion.

"She has been turned. Was it Master Victor? It must be." She felt a bit of satisfaction with this thought in her mind. At least if she managed to gain Master Victor’s approval, then maybe there was still hope for her daughter rejoining the clan. But before that, she needed to question her daughter. Find out why she hadn’t avenged the young master or returned home yet. There were things she couldn’t understand.

"Lady Kaguya," suddenly a woman dressed in a maid outfit stepped out of the shadows and addressed Isabella’s mother by bowing her head deeply. This maid was one of the maids who served beside Isabella as a servant of Victor.

"Are you ready to begin with the interrogation?" the maid asked.

Kaguya looked at the maid without any motion and answered in a flat voice.

"Yes, tie her up."

The maid nodded and, without hesitation, tied the unconscious Isabella to a chair. Just then, Isabella began to stir, and her eyes slowly opened. The first thing she saw was her mother’s cold eyes staring back at her.

"Mom! I’m glad to see you."

"What happened to Lord Victor?" she asked flatly.

Isabella felt a lump form in her throat from her mother’s question.

"H-he died," she sputtered.

"How?"

"You failed to protect him!" the maid interrupted. Her eyes glowing blood red.

She failed to understand how the young master was dead and yet this servant was still alive. The noble thing to do was to avenge the young master’s death, then kill herself. Yet she still breathes. Being a pariah and a disgrace to her family.

"You know what Victor was like," Isabella said. "His strange obsession with human blood drove him away from his family and into the human world. That obsession got him killed."

"You!" the maid was fuming. She looked as if she wanted to murder the traitor in front of her, but there was one thing getting in her way. Before she could even lift a finger, she knew the assassin would’ve taken her life. In the end, she was forced to bite her tongue.

"What are you trying to say?" Kaguya asked. This didn’t sound like the daughter she raised. "I heard that a werewolf killed Victor. A werewolf that you were seen getting close to. Were you trying to earn his trust so you could kill him?"

Isabella shook her head, and her mother’s confusion grew even more.

"No, that werewolf... He saved me. That’s why I have joined his pack. I’m no longer loyal to the Veylmont clan, mom."

"You impudent!" The maid shouted. She couldn’t bite her tongue anymore. "She must die for her treachery. If the Veylmont clan ever hears of this, then—"

The maid didn’t even get the chance to finish her sentence because just like that, she was dead. The assassin claimed her life by plunging her wooden stake into her heart at such a speed that not even Isabella saw it happen.

Isabella watched in shock as the maid fell lifelessly to the ground. And all while her mother’s face remained as cold as ever.

"You have been bewitched. That wolf must have done something to you. I’m taking you back to Purgatory where we will rejoin the Veylmont clan. And that wolf will face the wrath of our clan. Mark my words."

For the first time in centuries, Kaguya felt an emotion. That emotion was gut-wrenching hate. Hate for the werewolf who killed her young master and bewitched her daughter. At that moment, she swore on her clan and on her very life that the werewolf would not live to see another full moon.