"Ten years and you decide to come back to grandma's house just now?" It was the first time my voice had been heard in the car during our three-hour journey. My mother was sitting in the driver's seat, her eyes focused on the road.

This was the first time we returned to Texas, to the city of San Angelo where I was born. The memory of when we moved was still fresh in my mind. I was six years old, and it was after the death of my father and older brother that my mother, in her grief, decided to leave everything behind.

"Your birthday is in two months. I thought you would enjoy the company of family," she said, before returning her attention to the road.

Of course, I wanted the presence of family. I had always wished for that, until my thirteenth birthday when I realized nobody would come to my party.

I settled for resting my head against the window and falling into a deep sleep during the journey. After all, she had left San Angelo in Texas and moved to Chicago as if she were running away from someone. This meant many hours on the road and several stops.

I don't know how long I slept or blacked out, but I woke up to the rays of sun hitting my face. My mother seemed happier as she drove, and there were several empty coffee cups on the side, which made me wonder if she had rested.

"How many have you had?" I asked after stretching.

"Just five cups. It's a seventeen-hour journey... we're already halfway, and you were sleeping so well that I didn't want to stop," her vibrant voice startled me. Perhaps it was the excess caffeine.

"Mom, let's stop at the next rest area, have breakfast, and you can rest a bit," I replied, looking at the desert landscape. There were no buildings, just a path abandoned by God and man.

I really didn't expect my mother to listen and stop. Eventually, we were here, at a roadside hotel, with the car parked in front of our room. She was sleeping so peacefully that she was even snoring.

Yesterday afternoon, my life was perfect. I had my final class with Mrs. Stevens, who told me that my mother was waiting in her office.

I was sitting outside the office when my mother swiftly opened the door. Her eyes were glazed, almost fiery. At that moment, I could swear I saw her pendant on her neck burning red like fire. She looked exactly as she did ten years ago when she entered the room where I was playing with my dolls under Crystal's watchful eyes.

Now, seeing her asleep, I wondered if it was all just my imagination.

"Lou? Come on, sweetie. I've slept enough. We can hit the road again," her gentle voice woke me up. I couldn't quite remember at what point I had fallen asleep sitting on the bed, with my head hanging against the wood.

Heaven, that was going to hurt soon.

Silently, I grabbed my backpack with my belongings and headed to the car. My mother hummed a soft tune to distract herself. I knew her well, whenever she did that, it meant she didn't want to continue what she was doing. Was she already regretting the trip and considering going back to Chicago? Internally, I hoped so.

"Mama, since the journey is long, can I put on some music?" I asked with a smile, and I was sure my dimples were showing because she immediately agreed and smiled.

As soon as I got into the car, I turned on the radio. The first station played an old song by Miley Cyrus: "Party in the USA."

That was all it took. Before I knew it, I was singing along and laughing. I felt deep inside that she was running away from something, but for a moment, I forgot that feeling and just focused on making this a mother-daughter trip.

"Look, sweetheart, I know we had a life in Chicago... you had your friends and your routine. I'm sorry for taking that away from you," she said. I no longer remembered which song was playing, after all, we sang along to all of them.

I wasn't upset with her for that, not that my life in Chicago wasn't good, it actually was, but not enough to want to leave everything behind and confront my mother about such a decision. I was never the most popular girl at school, on the contrary, I was always the outcast.

I wasn't invited to parties and didn't even have friends, what I had were classmates, people who took advantage of my intelligence to gain grades and honors.

Maybe at this point I was a little cruel for making my mother believe that her precious daughter had inherited the charisma and popularity of her mother, a former cheerleader.

"Alright mom, it's not the end of the world. After all, I can talk to them on the phone." No, I can't and I certainly don't want to. Goodbye to those opportunists, let them figure out how to improve their grades.

The smile on her lips was natural, she really believed that I would keep in touch with those so-called friends.

We had finally arrived in San Angelo, the city seemed bigger or was my mind playing tricks on me? With the shadows of mountains on the horizon, it was easy to stop the car in the middle of the main avenue and admire the clouds passing in the sky. Mom decided to park the car in a spot right in front of the grocery store, perhaps the only one in town.

"Your grandma likes hazelnut chocolate, I thought of taking it as a gift..." I smiled at her words and waited inside the car. It was clear that my mom was stalling to finally get to the place where the family lived.

"Aunt Mary? Is that really you?" A woman with long blonde hair crossed the street, wearing a white shirt and black riding pants. My mom was startled by being called and immediately faced the girl.

"Cristal? Little Cristal Beauchamp?!" Mom responded as the girl opened a wide smile affirming it. That was my cousin Cristal, ten years older than me, which meant she should be twenty-six now. I watched from inside the car as the two embraced, it was quite a beautiful reunion. Cristal turned around and called for a man who was on top of a truck throwing hay on the ground. Looking more closely, I noticed that the man was her twin brother, Luke Beauchamp.

At some point, I refused to just stay in the car, pretending I hadn't seen anyone and that my mom was waving desperately outside, calling me. I threw my head back and got out, slamming the door right after.

"Is this little Louise? Wow, look at how she's grown!" Luke was the one saying as he pulled me into a tight hug that I couldn't return. Looking closer now, I noticed that both of them also had a pendant around their necks, just like my mom, but the designs on them were different.

"It seems like you didn't tell grandma you were coming... Take the chocolates and two jars of honey." Cristal whispered to my mom, which made us laugh because that was definitely not a whisper.

"See you later, we need to finish unloading the hay. We'll be back in the evening, is that enough?" Luke asked, looking at my mom, who smiled and caressed his face lovingly.

"It will be. Thank you, my loves. If she allows it, I'll make your favorite blackberry pie." Mom replied, earning a small celebration from the twins who hugged again and returned to the truck. At that moment, I didn't understand and just looked at her with some surprise. When the two were already far away, I dared to ask.

"What was all that? And since when do you make blackberry pie?" I was still in shock, hoping that my mom could honestly answer me.

"Maybe one day I'll tell you the truth. For now, there's nothing that needs to be understood here." She replied as she returned to the car, ignoring the main reason that led her to stop in that place.

(...)

The Beauchamp Ranch, as it was known throughout the state. My family had the largest number of land possible, thousands of acres where corn, soybeans, coffee, and vegetables were grown for the local business. My grandmother managed everything with great grace and joy, my cousins worked with her as well as their sons and daughters. I still didn't understand how my mom had abandoned the family in the past. Does grief cause this in people? The feeling of escape.

When we stopped at the entrance of the ranch, the employees smiled at seeing a different car, and in the center of it all was the big house with an elderly woman with gray hair holding a hat while giving orders to the group of young men in front of her.

"Mrs. Agnes, there's a visitor." That's what I heard when the car finally stopped and she turned around, looking sternly at the car, but that look disappeared when she saw us. Her eyes shimmered with tears.

"Oras Lorenzo, they're not visitors. My daughter and granddaughter!" she smiled and ran to embrace me. I couldn't quite understand what was happening, well, one day my mother would explain. I was tightly squeezed in her arms, almost running out of breath, but I still missed the scent of cookies that emanated from her. When it was my mother's turn, the silence between them was frightening. It was my mother who broke it, stuttering a few words, and then my grandmother hugged her as tightly as she could. Dismissing the employees to their tasks, she guided us to the entrance of the house, where a woman with long black hair and fair skin was standing, watching the scene with a smile on her lips.

"Eva, look at what the wind brought." I smiled awkwardly as I looked at the woman. That was my aunt, Evangeline Beauchamp, better known as Eva to close ones and mother of twins Cristal and Luke.

Radiating elegance and kindness, Eva walked towards where I had stopped and hugged me, as if she felt a huge weight lifting off her shoulders. Everything was so confusing, but in a glimpse, I saw the same pendant around her neck, sparkling in silver. In that moment, I remembered when I was six years old, before the move, and dreamt of the day I would receive my own pendant.

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.