Carter
After dessert had been served the dining room began to grow louder. People laughed more and it was clear that if someone was going to give a speech now was the perfect time. Alpha Zayden stood and walked towards a microphone that was set on a platform behind the head table. He climbed the steps and waited for the hall to be silent before he began.
"Thank you all so much for being here tonight. My wife has worked very hard to make everything perfect for tonight. I would like to thank her for the hours she put in as well as Margene Johnson for helping her with everything." The crowd gave them a quiet round of applause and the two women blushed at the compliments.
"Now, I think it is time that I tell you all something very important. About a third of the people here already know why this ball was thrown, the other two thirds may have been misled. While we are here to celebrate the mating of Alpha Carter and his new Luna, there is something most of you do not know about her. To explain it to you I am going to tell you a story." Zayden glanced at Elinn to make sure she was listening before he began speaking.
"When I was twenty years old I met the love of my life, my mate, Adara. We went out for a few weeks before we got married and were mated. If we could have been married the day we met I'm sure that we would have, but she wanted to make sure her family could be there. So we waited for a month to give people adequate notice before moving forward.
Two months later Adara came to me while I was in my office. This was an uncommon thing for her to do so I wondered why she was there. We were together the majority of the time, but I had never taken her with me to the office unless I needed to do work with me. Otherwise, she was much too distracting and we wouldn't get anything done." The crowd chuckled at this while Elinn's mother blushed a deep pink and buried her face in her napkin.
"When I asked her why she was there she just looked at me for a second. I was worried, to say the least, but I was trying to stay calm. She handed me a small package and I opened it to find a pregnancy test. That was when I learned that Prince Darius was going to be born. I was overjoyed and we began to prepare for this new arrival.
Darius was born and Adara and I were so happy to have a little boy of our own. We loved him with everything we had, but after a few months, we realized something was wrong. Our little boy was fine, but we knew that our family wasn't complete yet. So we decided to have another baby so that our little boy could have a friend.
Five months later Adara surprised me with another announcement. She was pregnant again and another baby was on the way. Darius was only a year old at the time and didn't really understand what was going on, but he was excited. When we found out it was a boy and we were so happy." I looked over to see Xander and Darius starring over at each other with knowing smiles. They both knew where this story was going by the conspiratorial smile on their faces.
"We were one happy loving little family. The boys always had anything they could ask for, within reason that is. They were always playing together and making a mess of the palace, but everyone loved them so it was fine. Our lives seemed to be filled with everything we could ever need.
Then four years later a miracle came along and our little Elinn was brought into our lives. At first, the boys weren't sure if they liked her after all girls weren't the same as boys. After she burped for the first time they decided she couldn't be too bad and we could never get them to leave her alone after that." Elinn chuckled a little and glanced over at her brothers. Her eyes were filled with tears, but they were tears of joy, she was hearing her story after all. Even if it wasn't a story that she could remember it was still one that could touch her.
"As the boys grew it was clear that Elinn was the most important things in their lives. They took her everywhere with them whether that was to a friends house or to the bathtub she was never far from them. Darius and Xanders's friends quickly became Elinn's friends too even though sometimes she didn't understand the activities. They loved her with their whole hearts along with her cousin Elliott
She was so kind even as a young girl. If her brothers or cousin got hurt she would help lift them up and bring them inside. Instead of letting an adult help bandage them up Elinn would get into the medical closet and do it all herself. If someone else tried to do it she would scold them and shoo them off, she wanted to take care of her brothers.
Then as she grew we noticed more and more little things she did for people. If they left their plates or forks on the table after a meal she would carry them over to the sinks so that the staff wouldn't have to try and track them down. When she found toys on the stairs that didn't belong to us she went around asking everyone she could find if it was theirs. Nothing was too big or too small if it meant helping those around her.
At home, the boys taught Elinn how to read simple books while Adara and I did pack work. That was when we began to notice that she was different than most children. Elinn was three when the boys began to teach her to read simple picture books. At first, we thought nothing of it just that she must be memorizing them, but when we got new ones and she could read them we were amazed.
Soon after that, the boys began to teach her about what they were doing in their classes. The math and science were a little more complicated, but she still seemed to be learning at an impressive rate. She was on the same level of math as Darius and he continued to teach her and we didn't see a reason to send her to school if her brothers could teach her just as well. Of course, we made sure they were teaching her correctly, but they became Elinn's teachers.
We also noticed that her wolf senses were heightened for someone her age. When people would try tease Darius, Xander, or Elliott she would growl at them, and not some little sad growl a nice terrifying one. She also seemed to be more in touch with her wolf side than a five-year-old should be. Our little girl was so special in so many ways and we loved her for her strange quirks." I wondered if this was part of the reason for the golden eyed wolf that Elinn seemed to possess. I wasn't sure how this all connected but I was sure that it did.
"Then one day Elliott suddenly stopped coming by the house when Elinn was about six years old. At first, we thought he must have been sick or something but after a few weeks we tried calling my brother to see what was up and he didn't answer. We tried to get a hold of him every way we could, but when we visited his pack they said that he had just disappeared one night.
We had no idea what happened to Marcus so I immediately sent out search parties to try and find him. We spent years trying to find him, but there was no sign of him. The kids became depressed and we did all we could to help them through it. Elinn had it the worst and was constantly praying that we would find our family again.
After about six months the kids started to go back to their normal routines and life went back to the way it had been before all of this. We assumed that Marcus decided that he didn't us to find him, that we had in some way driven him away. We still let searched for them, but we didn't know what the reaction would be if we found him.
Then came the worst day of my whole life that I could never have seen coming. I always thought the disappearance of my younger brother would be the worst thing to happen to me. I never suspected that something much, much worse would happen to me.
Two days before my daughters ninth birthday she received a note. We didn't know who it was from so Adara decided that she should open it and read it first. It wasn't well-wishings from one of our subjects as one would assume it was something that changed our lives forever. The note read:
Hello, there little darling,
You turn nine soon now don't you? You don't know me, but I know you. I know everything anyone could ever want to know about you. I know somethings that could probably change the whole world. Don't worry, we will be meeting soon enough. We will get to know each other very well. See you soon!
I was so worried about what it could mean for my baby girl. I immediately had people trying to figure out where the note had come from and who delivered it to the castle. We didn't cancel the birthday party though, we didn't want people to think that we were scared even though we were.
The next day we told our daughter that she was to stay in her room until one of us came to get her. The boys checked on her every hour if not more often than that, they knew that something was wrong. At this point, Xander was eleven and Darius was twelve. We trusted Xander because he was always so level-headed and Darius because his wolf could help to protect Elinn." Zayden's eyes filled with rage as his story continued on to the part that had shattered everything around him.
"It had been several hours since we had last checked on Elinn. I ran upstairs to see if she was in her room, but she was nowhere to be found. I had no idea where she went or who she could have gone with. Everyone was searching for days.
The pain you experience when losing a child is so tremendous you feel like you are going to die right then. You don't know what to do or how to go on with your life when such a big part of it is now gone. I don't think anyone can fully understand what I'm talking about unless they have kids and have lost them.
The saddest day of my life was February twenty-first of two thousand and six. I lost my only daughter and the second brightest ray of sunshine in my life next to my wife. But what was just as bad was seeing what it did to Xander and Darius.
Xander became severely depressed, he refused to eat or talk until Elinn came home. He would just sit on his bed and cry while he clutched his little sisters favorite blanket to his chest. No one could comfort him the way he needed them to, except for Darius.
Darius was depressed too, but he dealt with it differently. He went out with the pack warriors all the time trying to find any trace of the girl he loved so deeply. When he would come home Xander would wait by the door to hear if they had found anything new or heard about someone who might be Elinn. Every time Darius walked through that door he would pull his little brother into his arms and they would cry for their loss all over again.
The saddest part of the whole thing though was something I was never supposed to hear from them. They would cry with each other when Darius came home than race up to their room. I never knew what they were doing until one day I decided to follow them. I don't cry often but when your little boys sit praying to the godess and say "please bring back our Elinn. We need her she is everything to us. We will give you whatever else you want just give us our sister." it breaks your heart." Elinn was in tears at this point, but she was still listening intently to her father not wanting to miss a single word.
"Life went on though, days and weeks and months and years went by and nothing changed. After five years Adara needed something, anything to get some kind of closure, it was making her ill and she was constantly in bed.
So we held an empty casket funeral for our lost daughter, never knowing if she was really gone or not. Adara cried so much, not just because her daughter would never come home, but her boys refused to come to the service. They refused to believe their sister was dead, and they wouldn't stop searching no matter how long it took." Zayden had to pause to regain control of his breathing as he tried to pull himself together. There were tears flowing down his cheeks from remembering all of this heartache.
"Three and a half weeks ago I got a mind link from Prince Darius. He and Xander had been searching with guards trying to find anything even after twelve years they refused to give up. I got news that sent me racing for the doors to the palace.
Darius had scented his sister." The dining room filled with gasps and whispers. No one knew what this could mean or why they hadn't been told. They had no idea that this had happened unless they were from my pack or the select few royal pack members who had been informed.
"I couldn't believe it when I heard it at first, I thought it had to be a cruel joke. There was no way that after twelve years we would finally find something. Then Xander linked me telling me they were in no man's land and it was indeed his sister's scent. I ordered them to find her and do whatever it took to get her home to me.
When I told Adara about what the boys were saying she broke down. She thought that it must have been the smell of our daughter, but she didn't think she was alive. She was so afraid that this meant that her little girl was dead and her brothers had just discovered her grave. She wanted me to start to prepare for the backlash this would cause for the boys, but I refused to believe that was true. My daughter had to be alive.
I heard nothing from my sons for five hours after that. I tried to link them, but they had blocked me out and I was getting so mad. I didn't know what was going on or if they had really found my baby girl and I was worried. I hoped nothing had happened to them, they were all I had left." Then Zayden turned to face me and he smiled.
"I got a mindlink six hours after I had heard from Darius and Xander from Alpha Carter. He told me a story that I will let him tell you in a moment, but first I would like him to bring his mate up here for a second." I stood and took Elinn's hand in mine pulling her with me. Her eyes were red from crying, but she looked as beautiful as ever.
I never took my eyes off of hers as we neared the platform. I could feel her anxiety through the bond and knew that it was due to the size of the crowd. She always hated being around large groups and now she was the center of attention. She looked me in the eyes and I knew that it was to keep herself from freaking out too much. We reached the top and stood next to Zayden and he pulled Elinn into his side.
"This is Carter's mate, Elinn....she is my daughter and I finally get to see her after twelve years. And I couldn't be happier." The crowd cheered and Zayden hugged his little girl tightly. After a long hug, she turned to face me and planted a quick kiss on my lips.
"I believe it is now Carter's turn to speak. I'll let him explain the rest," Zayden explained as people asked how this had all happened. As he turned to face me I took Elinn's hand and placed it in her father's. Zayden gave me a hug while making sure to never let go of Elinn.
"You mean everything to her, I can see it in her eyes. I couldn't have found a better mate for her if I had tried." Zayden told me then stepped back so I could begin my speech.
AN: Hope you enjoy. Until next time, bye bye!