My first reaction was to be furious that this man dared to call me 'pup,' but his other words quickly caught my attention.
"What did you just say?" I asked, perhaps a bit too forward.
"I said you're a healer. Quite valuable, you are. That's why I just couldn't allow my nemesis here to have you in his pack," Archie said, referring to Elijah's father.
Elijah and I both stared at Archie and Dean with our eyebrows furrowed. Elijah did seem to know some of what they were speaking of, but I was completely baffled. I had always enjoyed taking care of the sick and wounded in the rogue packs, but I didn't have any magical powers that would make me rare and valuable. What did being a healer really mean?
"I think you may need to explain a bit further," Elijah said, clearing his throat and nodding towards me. He knew I didn't know what the fuck they were talking about.
"Healers are rare and powerful amongst our species. They have very special abilities, but it takes some practice and training to bring them to the surface and master them. Most healers aren't aware of what they are until they're put in a desperate situation," Alpha Dean explained. I didn't miss the fact that he wouldn't look me in the eye or address me. I was a rogue and hadn't been officially made Luna yet, so he refused to show respect for me. It pissed me off, but even I knew Alpha Dean wasn't someone you wanted to fuck with.
"I obviously haven't been made aware of my own 'powers,' so what can healers typically do?" I asked. The question was directed towards either man since Alpha Dean seemed to dislike me.
"Well they can heal the sick and mend even the worst wounds, of course. With practice, many can alter moods and feelings. Some of the most advanced healers can bring back the dead and put themselves into another's mind," Archie explained enthusiastically. He truly must have lightened up with age as Elijah had said, because I knew he wouldn't be talking to me directly otherwise.
"How would she go about activating her abilities?" Elijah asked.
"Some meditate and focus hard. Others seek the assistance of a witch or fellow healer. Unfortunately, she's the only werewolf healer that we know to exist today," Alpha Dean replied. I huffed in response to his tone.
"Very well," Elijah said lowly. He must have not known how else to respond at this point.
"I know a witch, perhaps she could help me," I suggested.
"A witch? How do you know a witch?" Elijah asked curiously.
"From one of the rogue packs I ran with. She stayed with us most of the time. Her name is Sofia," I told him.
"Alright then, I guess we will need to locate Sofia within the next few days, if that's what you wish," Elijah said, pressing his lips softly to my temple.
"I suppose we've helped all we can," Alpha Dean spoke up, directing his words to Elijah.
"Actually, I have another question," I interjected. "Where are my parents?"
Alpha Dean's face remained stern as he restrained himself from glaring at me. If he glared, he would be acknowledging my presence. I knew he wouldn't dare.
"Who knows? If they came to Dark Root searching for you, then they're likely dead or imprisoned. If they became rogues to look for you, then you would know better than I," Archie replied.
I let out a sigh of frustration. My parents were most likely dead, just as I always assumed. I couldn't remember them, so there was nothing to miss, but doesn't everyone yearn to know their family?
"We have to check the pack records to see if we could figure out who they are," I said to Elijah, turning my attention to only him.
"Of course, Lena," he replied immediately with a soft smile.
"In fact, I'd appreciate it if you'd take a census of your prisoners, just to be certain," Elijah said to Alpha Dean.
"For you, friend," Alpha Dean said simply and nodded.
That man really pissed me off. I wished that I was already officially the Luna just so I could kick his ass.
Beta Eli soon entered the room to escort Dean and Archie to their guest suites for the night. The two would be staying the night in the pack house and heading back to their own packs sometime tomorrow.
Elijah and I immediately headed for his office where all of the pack records were kept. After we pulled out the files that would be the most helpful, we were joined by Daphne, followed by Beta Eli and his mate, Scarlett.
We each spread out across Elijah's office and made ourselves comfortable so we could effectively sort through all the census, birth, and death records that the pack possessed. I learned a lot about many pack members that I didn't even know. In fact, I learned that Moretti was an extremely common last name in this pack. The surname was spelled in different variations, so we couldn't be sure which spelling was actually linked to my family. Actually, we couldn't be sure that was my last name at all.
"I have not come across one Lena in the entire pack, regardless of last name! Not one!" Daphne shrieked in frustration a couple hours into our search.
"Calm down and keep looking, Daphne. Separate any files that may seem significant," Elijah said, shooting his sister a warning glare.
After another hour of sorting through files, I saw Beta Eli freeze out of the corner of my eye.
"Lena..." he mumbled, staring intently at the papers in his hands.
"What if...what if Lena isn't your birth name. What if your name was shortened, kind of like a nickname, at some point in your life, and that's all you can remember?" Eli asked me.
"What did you find Eli?" Elijah asked, dropping the files he had at his desk.
"Salena Moretty, Age 4. And you're two years older, right Elijah? This census record correlates to your parents' when you were 6," Eli explained.
Elijah sprung up from his chair and approached Eli to quickly grab the document from his hands.
"Iris and Frederick Moretty," Elijah whispered, reading the words off the piece of paper he held.
I jumped up and ran over to Elijah, snatching the paper from his hands to examine it for myself. I read over the same details he had read out loud before reaching scanned in copies of their driver's licenses. Iris Moretty. 28 years old. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. Frederick Moretty. 31 years old. White hair, blue eyes.
I froze as I read the details and examined the low-quality photos scanned onto the page. Iris's expression in her photo seemed bold and fierce, much like I imagined mine would seem, yet it was Frederick's features appeared to mimic my own.
This had to be them. I knew it.
I could feel it.
"This is them!" I said loudly.
Elijah nodded without hesitation. "Let's collect all of the records we have on Iris and Frederick Moretty," he demanded.
Salena. Was my real name Salena? Something about it seemed so familiar.
Saleeena, Saleeena. My Lena, you're a queen-ah my dear.
No fear, no fear, you are loved my dear.
Saleeena, Saleeena, you're so beautiful, my love.
Lena, You were sent from heaven, above.
My whole body froze as the flashback overtook my mind. My body began to tremble, so I immediately reached back for the sofa behind me and pulled myself onto it. My change in demeanor didn't go unnoticed by Elijah. He quickly dropped his files and stood up to come over to me.
"What's the matter" he asked softly as he brushed a strand of hair out of my face.
"It's them...that's me...I saw it! I know it is!" I told him, my voice gradually increasing in volume. I was struggling to hold back my tears.
"I believe you," Elijah murmured to me as he quickly pulled me against his chest. I didn't try to resist – he was the only comfort I had.
"Has anyone found anything?" Elijah spoke up.
"Alpha Elijah," Scarlett started softly as she held up a paper in her hand.
"Frederick was your father's Beta, originally," Scarlett said hesitantly.
As Scarlett finished, Daphne seemed to have found something important as well. She sat in a chair in the corner, nodding eagerly.
"This file shows that Frederick and his mate, Iris, were approved for a travel permit around the time that Lena would've been 5. Father was forced to strip Frederick of his title as Beta and replace him in order for them to leave, but they're still officially members of Polar Moon. They were never marked as rogues because they applied for travel permits," Daphne explained.
I gasped. Had I once been of Beta blood? Why would my parents give up their ranks just to travel? Were they searching for me?
"Surely if a Beta's child had disappeared, there would be some kind of documentation, right?" Daphne asked.
"Yes, we should have documentation on any missing pack members. It has to be around here somewhere," Elijah replied as he began to rummage through the drawers of a file cabinet.
Elijah finally paused when his eyes landed on a thick, red file. He yanked it out of the drawer and carried it over to the rest of us as we now sat gathered around a coffee table.
"These are all of the missing persons reports from when my father was Alpha," he told us as he opened the file and began to pull out the papers. It certainly seemed like a lot of people had gone missing, but with rogue relations not being the best back then and Archie being the Alpha of Dark Root, disappearances must have been more common.
After several minutes of flipping through papers, Elijah pulled out the one we had all been looking for.
MISSING PERSON: APRIL 22
SALENA MORETTY – AGE 5
SALENA MORETTY WAS REPORTED AS MISSING BY HER MOTHER, IRIS MORETTY, AT APPROXIMATELY 11 AM ON APRIL 22. IRIS MORETTY REPORTS THAT THE CHILD'S FATHER, FREDERICK MORETTY, WAS AT WORK DURING THE TIME OF THE CHILD'S DISAPPEARANCE (FATHER: BETA FREDERICK MORETTY). IRIS MORETTY REPORTS SALENA MORETTY WAS OUTSIDE PLAYING WHILE IRIS DID LAUNDRY AND PREPARED LUNCH INSIDE. NO EVIDENCE WAS LEFT BEHIND. ALPHA DONOVAN PERRIN ORDERED A SEARCH PARTY TO SPREAD OUT APPROXIMATELY 20 MILES AROUND THE PERIMETER OF POLAR MOON PACK.
I had to stop reading. I had read enough. A weird feeling suddenly came over me, almost as if this somehow seemed familiar. The strangest feeling of all, was love. My parents did love me. The entire pack had looked for me when I disappeared. The man from my dreams was wrong – I was loved.
"We need to speak with my father," Elijah said. The reality of the situation was finally sinking in. I had been kidnapped from my own pack and ended up a prisoner in Dark Root. My parents were still missing because of me. I had to either find them, or find out what happened to them.
Elijah dismissed the rest of our crew before we made our way to find his father. The former Alpha often spent his evenings playing chess in the pack house library. As we entered the library, we saw none other than Donovan playing chess with a much older man, both with very serious expressions on their face.
"Father, we need to talk to you. It's important," Elijah said sternly.
Donovan turned to us, glaring. "I'd sure hope it's important if you're interrupting my evening chess. I'm winning too, you know. Now I have to leave this slimy mutt here and hope he doesn't switch around our pieces," Donovan said grumpily as he stood up and motioned for us to follow him.
We entered a small meeting room, and Donovan quickly shut the door behind us, staring at us with expectant eyes.
"Father, we've found out who Lena is," Elijah started.
"That's wonderful son but that certainly seems like it'd be a personal matter between the two of you," Donovan replied.
Elijah shook his head. "No, we found out who Lena actually is...where she's from, who her parents are. Dad, Lena is from here. She's from our pack. Her real name is Salena...Salena Moretty."
Donovan's face paled as his attention quickly turned to me.
"S-Salena? It's really you? My Goddess, it is you!" Donovan exclaimed before pulling me into a tight hug.
I accepted his embrace and lightly hugged him back. I guess our families had been close after all.
"I don't know how I didn't make this connection sooner," Donovan said as he released me from his hug, only to continue to stare at me as if I might vanish at any moment.
"I'm really interested in finding out if my parents are alive," I told him.
Donovan nodded. "Of course, of course. Your parents left the pack several days after your disappearance. Our search parties couldn't find a trace of you, so your parents got frustrated and decided to take matters into their own hands."
"We'll need to send out notices to the other packs so they can assist us in the search for her parents. We're much too far away from everyone to do it all ourselves," Donovan explained to Elijah.
"Of course, father. Alpha Dean has already agreed to search through his prisoners, just in case," Elijah told his father. The two men nodded back and forth to each other as they thought carefully about their plan.
"Dad, there's something else," Elijah started. "The reason Lena was kidnapped by Dark Root in the first place, is because she's a healer."
Donovan's eyes widened for a moment before he forced himself to regain composure.
"That's certainly some astonishing news, but then again, I know just as well as anyone that Dark Root would only kidnap someone of value," Donovan replied.
"First things first, we need to do our research and organize some searches for your parents," he added.
"But they could be dead," I blurted out. "If they're dead, I'd at least like to find out what happened to them."
"That could certainly be the case, but I refuse to accept that for now. Frederick and Iris were very dear friends. I'd love to have them back, and they certainly deserve to be reunited with their daughter," Donovan responded.
"Lena, let's go ahead and get some sleep. It's been a very long night and it's getting late. We can begin to deal with this first thing in the morning," Elijah said.
I sighed and nodded. As much as I wanted to figure all of this out right now, I knew we wouldn't get anywhere until we were able to contact other packs in the morning. That and, Elijah was right. It was late and we needed to rest if we were going to be productive tomorrow. First step, initiate a search for my parents. Second step, contact Sofia and see if she'll help me with these abilities I supposedly have.
I followed Elijah back upstairs to our wing and climbed in bed while he went to take a shower. He joined me only a few minutes later, laying on his side with his arm propping up his head.
"I remember you as a child," Elijah said softly.
I hadn't even considered the fact that we spent our early childhood together. He stared at me longingly, no doubt replaying his earliest memories of me in his head. He must've been waiting to bring this up for when we were alone.
"We would play together all the time. I can't believe I hadn't realized all of this before now. I feel so stupid," Elijah told me, shaking his head.
"It was a long time ago," I told him, trying to be reassuring as I granted him a small smile.
"Our parents would always joke about us being mates. Of course, no one imagined it would all actually end up this way," Elijah said with a weak grin. I could tell there were a million things running through his mind.
"If we had been able to protect you...keep you from being taken...we could've been together long ago. We would've continued to grow up together, probably being friends...and then we would've found out we were mates. I wouldn't have had to be without you," Elijah's voice was shaky. Oh goddess, was he going to cry? I couldn't witness an Alpha cry, it'd be weird.
I couldn't witness my mate cry. It might break me.
"Shhh," I whispered. "You have me now."
I reached out and softly touched Elijah's cheek, causing him to smile widely. His eyes still seemed watery, but I knew my affection brightened his mood. He was such a kind man. I would have to start being more loving towards him, especially now that I was learning about my past.
I hated that I had been rude to him so many times. My personality was naturally defensive, and it probably always would be. Regardless, it was time to let my mate break down some walls.
"You're so beautiful, Lena. Beautiful and fierce, just as a Luna should be," Elijah told me as he reached out to stroke my cheek in return.
"And I love you. Even if you can't say the same to me yet, I love you more than you could imagine," he said.
Well, what do ya'll think? So much was revealed during this chapter! I'd love to know your thoughts on everything that's happened. Please continue to vote, comment, follow, tell your friends, etc.! I appreciate it all very much. Also, Luna Hana should be updated within the next day or two.