De Moon

chapter three

Later that night, while Claire prepared for bed she remembered the letter, Ms. Ada had given her earlier. She had not gotten a chance to read it during the day. Jodi had come back from the store almost at the same time Ms Ada was leaving and she had enlisted Claire's aid in preparing for their guests. They'd been pretty much occupied until some of the kids had started arriving.

There had been about 10 kids from school who had come over for the little get together and they had spent the whole day trying to make the gloomy atmosphere around the house go away. Claire had honestly had fun and for a while there, she hadn't been the poor little girl who just lost her parents, she had been just another girl; hanging out with people her age and having fun. The day had gone by in a flash.

Jodi was taking her turn using the bathroom and Claire decided that there was no better time to read the letter than the moment. Claire took out the smaller envelope from the drawer where she had dropped the entire package in the morning and settled in bed.

Claire opened the seal on the envelope and retrieved a hand written letter addressed to her from her mother.

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"Dear Baby Claire,

I'm so grateful for the joy you brought to my life and the light you lit in my heart. It's was tough finding anything of joy after I lost my mate, your father. You were and remains my only constant source of joy, my closest link to what had been the best thing in my life and somewhere along the line, you became the best thing in my life.

I'm writing this letter to explain some of the decisions I have had to make for us. Hopefully, I'm able to explain all of these things to you in person but just in case I don't get the opportunity, I'll be leaving this with my attorney along with some family heirloom which I have locked away at the City bank. I can't say for sure I've made the right calls but they were all the best I could come up with at each time. However, I want you to know that everything I've ever done was to give you the best possible outcome.

First things first, I'll have to ask that you keep calm and read this to end.

I've kept the very bane of your existence from you that can't be hidden forever.

I hope you are able to remember all the bedtime stories I told you about werewolves. It was the only way I could think of to possibly prepare you for the enormity of this big secret of ours.

I am a werewolf and so are you and so was your father. I was a poor orphaned wolf recovering from the heartbreak of loosing both parents to a particularly brutal rogue attack, -remember what those are? Rogues are feral werewolves who for one reason or another are not part of a pack. Their contaminated saliva delivered through a bite is the second worst thing to a werewolves' blood, the most dangerous being undiluted wolfsbane- when I met your father Lucas De Moon. He was visiting our pack, had come to form an alliance with our alpha in other to offer protection to us against the several rogue attacks we'd been facing. He had been a gift to me from the moon goddess.

I've told you so many stories about meeting the special person made for you by the goddess, all of these stories were modifications of what it felt like meeting Lucas for the first time. He had smelled like the most delicious thing I ever had the honor of perceiving, the rarest of all perfumes. We had hit off almost immediately and then he'd taken back with him when he left back to his pack.

Lucas's family were thrilled when they discovered he had found his mate. Lucas was well into his twenties and it was very unusual for werewolves to have to go so long after they turned at eighteen without finding their mates. His family had actually lost hope about him ever finding his mate and were already making plans to arrange for a befitting shewolf to assume the title of his Luna. It was indeed a relief to the entire pack that Lucas and I had found each other.

The times I spent with your father were magical and undescribable. When we found out we were having a baby, you should have seen the joy and happiness we both felt. I wasn't afraid about having a pup because I had the love and support of a caring mate.

It was around the time I had you that we began to experience very violent and frequent rogue attacks all over the werewolf. Your father had been very suspicious about the precision of these attacks, seemingly targeted at purebloods. There was a widespread of conspiracy theories concerning the attacks and your father was convinced some of them held some truths. He was very concerned about your welfare and mine and had tried everything to keep us safe never worrying about himself. He fought for his pack and family until the the day he was brutally murdered by a band of rogues, just a few days before you were three months old.

Again, words fail me in the description of the agony and I had felt and still feel at the loss. Suddenly, I was lost with a child I barely knew what to do with. The entire pack was supportive through all of this, with your grandma Lucinda taking over your in care for you when I was lost to grieve. Your grandfather took over the running of the pack again as you were way too young to assume the position of the alpha which had fallen to you being the last pureblood in the line of succession.

I was so lost in my grief and it had taken the intercession of my best friend Maureen to lead me out of the depths I had been lost in. The pack territory held so much memory of your father and I couldn't bare to continue to live there with it all adding to the fact I was worried about your safety. Your grandparents were furious at first when when I announced that I was leaving the pack with you. They tried to get us stay but I was adamant in my desire to leave. At last, we reached a compromise that I would move within the territory of Denshire wolves.

I wanted you to have a normal life and so I had asked they grant you eighteen years free of the responsibilities coming with being an heir until you were ready for it all. This would also keep you out of the radar of all of these blood thirsty rogues. I'm sorry to have kept so much of this away. The longer the secret went on, the more I wished you could live this simple life forever but I have no right to choose what you do with your heritage. I hope you have the best luck and know that I love you."

PS: Contact Maureen after you read my letter. Ms. Ada is our contact with the Denshire wolves.

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The letter was dated on her 10th birthday. Claire was incredulous. She had known Jeremy wasn't her biological father but she'd been told her biological father had died at war, well he had died at war but not the type Claire had imagined. It all sounded like a tale right our of her childhood bedtime stories only that this one was a very bloody one.

"What's that you've got there?" Jodi asked, startling Claire out of her thoughts.

"A letter from my Mom."

"Oh," Jodi said. "Are you okay?" She asked concerned about how she felt reading the letter

"I don't know." Claire replied honestly.

Jodi gave her a hug. "Don't worry, everything will be alright," she murmured.

More like get crazier, Claire thought to herself.