The Assassin

Part 28

Adele

We finally emerged from the bedroom a few days later. Damien had someone deliver us food upstairs and he wasn't letting me leave the bedroom. Not that I minded. But I was itching to go for a run. Not because of the exercise but just because of the habit of it. I had gotten plenty of exercise in the bedroom. Trust me. It took me half a day convincing him that we needed to get out of the room, but not before he spent another half between my legs making sure I was completely satisfied.

With shaky legs I managed to make my way downstairs. Damien had been summoned for another board meeting which he reluctantly attended. I was happy to have the break. I needed some fresh air. I ran a lap around town until I got to the library. I greeted the clerk again who bowed her head lower than before.

"Welcome back, Luna." I had completely forgotten what it meant to be marked by the Alpha. Right, I'm the Luna now. I should ask what does the Luna do exactly. I knew that they were like the first lady of the president but what were my duties? I had no idea. I opened the cabinet with the allied pack files and started looking for the one labelled "Crescent Valley."

Got it. I laid it down on the table and started reading it. Just like the almanack of Lunar Peak, this file went on for centuries. I found long lines of ancestry, some dating back hundreds if not a thousand years back. They listed all the blood line crossings over the years. Every time someone migrated from one pack to the other to mate or to move closer to relatives, there was a mark. I found Damien's name and followed his family tree. It stretched far and wide but was mostly entwined with the sister pack. It made sense. These two packs had been allies since the beginning of dawn. All the alphas and lunas of both packs were somehow related, through mating or by blood.

My finger glided over the names of the human descendants till it landed on a mate of the Crescent Valley pack "Amelianna". My heart skipped a beat. No. It had to be a coincidence. Surely someone else had the same name as my mother. But the date of birth and death matched perfectly. This is impossible. My father told me she was kidnapped. My father told me she had been tortured and that's why she went crazy and he killed her.

Unless... Everything I had been told by the hunters had been a lie so far. What if everything that my father told me was a lie too? I clenched my mother's silver necklace. Was it even hers? Was my father really my father? My mind was filled with myriad of questions. I had to get out of there. I needed air. I needed to run. I needed to run out in the forest to clear my head. I stuffed the file back in the cabinet and rushed out of the library. The clerk barely had time to stand up yet alone bowed their head when I was already out the door.

I was fast. I ran through the gate which the guards happily opened for me. I sprinted off road towards the woods. I ran the trail without thinking or looking back. I just ran. I took a direction and kept running till my lungs were burning. I finally stopped when my legs gave out and I came crashing down on a meadow. I wanted to scream but no sound came out. My head was spinning and I had to close my eyes to stop the sky from spinning too. I laid there for what felt like hours.

When I finally got up, it was getting dark. I could feel my mark throbbing and Damien's worry through the bond. After the marking, my senses had heightened up. Everything was more potent than before. If before I could only sense his feelings and take a wild guess, now they were clear as my own. He was worried for me. I assume he heard that I had run off to the woods. Woops. I should have told him before I left.

I started jogging back. It didn't take long till I heard howling and the ground thundering from paws hitting the forest floor. The majestic black wolf appeared in front of me from the trees yellow eyes gleaming in gold piercing my own. I lifted my arms in surrender as it growled at me. "Hello, wolf. I've missed you." I chirped and raised my hand to pet it. It licked my face and wagged its tail. I knew Damien was fuming inside, but the wolf was in a more playful mood and just happy to see me. Wolf laid down so I could climb on its back to ride it. I gripped its black mane and it bounced into motion.

It was wild. The wolf was leaping between the trees and gliding through the forest flawlessly. It was beautiful. I was screaming it to run faster and laughing at the top of my lungs. My wolf was perfect. My mate was perfect. I felt Damien's heart melt and he wasn't angry at me any more. "I'm sorry I left without saying anything. I just needed to go for a run." The wolf nodded and huffed its approval. "Next time we go together, I promise." That seemed to soothe things over. I rode the wolf all the way to the pack house. I hopped off and Damien went upstairs to morph back and to get dressed.

I slumped on the couch and saw little Sophie running to greet me. She looked lovely as ever with her pigtails and her princess pyjamas. "Luna! Luna! You are back." I picked her up in a hug and set her down on the cushions next to me. "You look sad, what's wrong?"

"I do? It's nothing for you to worry about. I was just thinking about my family... especially my mom." I fiddled with the necklace without even realising it.

"Oh, do you miss her? I miss my aunt too."

"Your aunt? Where is she?" Sophie looked down at her hands.

"Mommy says she is missing. Do you want to see a photo of her?" She got up and ran into her room. She came back after a minute with a photo album in her hands. She sat back next to me and started showing pictures of her family. "That's me with mommy when I was born. That's daddy. That's me again. That's Beta teaching me how to ride a bike. And that's aunty Selina."

I looked at the woman in the picture and she seemed familiar to me. Like I'd seen her before. I searched my brain for recognition. Stella walked into the room to take Sophie to bed. I looked at the photo and back at Stella. Then it hit me.

"Stella, do you remember when I arrived here and you were having a conversation in the garden with your mate?" Her eyes went wide from embarrassment. "I overheard it, and I'm sorry to have eavesdropped, but do you remember what you said?" She narrowed her eyes a bit.

"Yes, we were arguing about you, I was upset back then because it reminded me that my sister had been captured by hunters." I nodded as it confirmed my thoughts.

"I know where she is. I saw her a month ago before I came here." Stella's mouth gaped open. Damien returned down stairs and stared at me with a curious look. "I don't know if she is still alive, but I know where they are keeping the captives."

"How do you-"

"Because I was there. I know what they do to them if they are captured. It's a real torture chamber. I never touched her, or anyone else but I didn't stop it either. I'm so sorry." I rambled on. Damien took a hold of my shoulders and leaned his head closer to me.

"If what you say is true and you know the exact location of the prisoners, that changes everything." I looked at him and knitted my brows. "We have been trying to get that information from elsewhere in attempts to rescue them. But if you say you know where they are kept, we can finally prepare for the extraction." He stood still and his eyes matted while he mindlinked.

"Tomorrow, we hunt."