While Chase took the dishes back down to the kitchen, Rori had a few moments to just reflect on everything that had changed in her life in the past few days. She felt free; free from fear of her inner voice, free from fear of being kidnapped, and free from the fear of being unlovable. She had a handsome and caring mate, and she and her wolf finally belonged. "
We have a Pack, and they will love us,"
her wolf said to her.
"
I'm nervous, I've never been in charge of anyone."
"We are together in this, and our mate will help us. He grew up with Alphas, Luna was right to pair him with us."
She heard him coming and wiped the tear from her eye before the door opened. "Chase?"
"Yes love?"
"I want to know about our Pack, and my parents," she said.
"I can help some, but for real answers you'll have to talk to your grandfather and your uncle," he said as he picked up his laptop and brought it over to the bed. She was lying on her stomach, so he moved the sheet back and slipped in next to her. He put the laptop in front of her and pulled up the directory he had set up for her case. "Some of this isn't going to be easy to watch," he said. "It sickened me to think of what happened to your Pack."
"Just hold me," she said. He intertwined his left hand with her right as the file came up. "Your actual birthdate was September twenty-fourth of 1999, not far from the date your adoptive parents chose for you." He pulled up the copy of the birth certificate. "This video was taken at the Pack celebration for your birth."
The video was less than a minute long. It started in a large dining room with thick log walls and a high ceiling. Dozens of people were waiting by the door, which opened to reveal her parents and their first child. "I am pleased to introduce our daughter and Alpha heiress, Charlotte Emily King!" The wolves roared their approval, causing the baby to start crying. He held up his hands and they immediately quieted, well, all but Charlotte. "Luna Joanna has truly blessed me." Her father was a handsome man with light blonde hair and a look like an Alpine skier; tall, strong and broad-shouldered. His mate was at his side, she was much shorter, with curly red hair and lots of freckles on her cheeks.
"Mom?" She reached towards the screen, tracing the image as I froze it for her. "Dad?" She used her fingers on the screen to blow the image up so she could see their faces better.
"You have her hair and nose, and his eyes," Chase told her. "They were true mates, and good Alphas. They had no enemies, their Pack was prosperous and happy, and you can see how thrilled they were to have you."
"I grew up with the worst thoughts of them," she said through the tears. "Who leaves their daughter on the side of the road? Who hates her so much that they don't even come forward to claim her?" She stared at her parents as he continued the video. They were obviously happy and in love, and they loved her.
They LOVED her.
"Why? Why would someone attack my Pack?"
"Greed, of course. I told you how you were special, the first-born female descendent of King Lycanos." She nodded. "King Lycanos was King of Arcadia, and had fifty sons. One day Zeus came to dine with him, and he decided to test his omniscience. He killed a prisoner and mixed his roasted flesh in with the meal that was being served, thinking he would not know. Zeus was outraged and overturned the tables. As punishment, he turned the King into the first werewolf along with his sons, daughters and wife."
"That's horrible!"
"They were soon hunted and most of them killed by the villagers, but the King and Queen escaped into the hills. The curse was hereditary; Zeus made sure they could only love and reproduce with their own kind. The werewolves were strong, and to limit their numbers he made it very difficult for them to get pregnant. The only exception was the King and Queen themselves; their firstborn daughter was granted fertility like wild wolves. This allowed them to reproduce and expand, first across Europe and then to America. All werewolves are descendants of the original family."
"So, he wanted my mother?"
"No, it's more complicated than that. Your mother was mated, and that is forever. Even if your father died, she could not mate and pick up with another wolf with the same blessing. At best, she would be as fertile as any other female not mated to her true mate, less than a one percent chance a year. No, it was you they were after. The fertility blessing passed to you, and it would not matter whether you were a fated mate or not."
"I still don't understand why it was so important. OK, I'm a baby factory, but so what?"
He turned on his side and looked at her. "My father's Pack has thirty mated couples. We are lucky if we have five children under eighteen at any time. Look at my family, my brothers are so much older than Coral and I that they may as well be grandparents. Packs grow only by transfers and births, and lose people to other packs, old age, accidents and war. Most of us are struggling just to maintain numbers. You singlehandedly could grow a smaller Pack, like the Arrowhead, into a major Pack within a century. Children mean warriors, power, political influence and alliances. When your mother came of age, every unmated Alpha and male Alpha heir was praying she would be hers. Your grandfather received offers of money, land, alliances and Luna knows what else if he would arrange a mating with them. He spurned them all, declaring that Joanna would wait for her Fate Mate."
"And she did," she said as she looked at the happy couple again.
"Not everyone was happy with that. The Alpha of the Bitterroot Pack was furious his generous offer for Joanna was rejected. Your mother met and mated your father, and years later they had you. This time, he wasn't going to ask for your hand. He sent his men to take you when you were only a year old." He closed the video and opened another. "This testimony was taken at the trial of the Pack Beta."
She squeezed his hand tightly several times as she watched him describe how they planned and executed the attack. "We had the women and children trapped in the safe house, the Alpha had been killed in the initial attack, and the Luna was trapped in her home. She was pregnant and couldn't shift. Alpha Todd couldn't get her to give up Charlotte's location, so he had her arms and legs broken and set the home on fire. I was sent after one of the Pack females who had escaped, she had a head start but we caught up to her about twenty miles east of the compound. We returned, only to find the women and children dead when we breached the safe room door. We never did find the girl."
"How? How did I survive?" Rori was shocked at his callousness, at the evil nature of the men who killed dozens to get to her.
"The road you were found on was only another mile or two farther from where the girl was killed. She left you to be found, then went back to stop them from finding you. It was that evening you were found, and the fire blamed for all the deaths was not started until the next morning, the next county over."
