Finding herself

Chapter 12: A long day ahead

I kept tossing and turning all night long. And not because I was sleeping on the floor, but because of my nerves. I kept thinking about what will happen tomorrow and what else will we find, maybe we will find out who killed my entire pack. I hope we will. Those bastards don't even know what will come once I find out who did it. The rogues are likely all dead by now since they don't have the strength and help of a pack.

I got up when the sun started to show itself. Alpha Jeremy and Maya were still sound asleep and I didn't want to wake them up.

I went into the kitchen after I changed into my leggings and a hoodie, and I made coffee for the three of us. I took mine outside and I sat on an old bench, that was placed by the wall, in front of the kitchen window. I watched the sunrise and it was mesmerizing. It was the same as I remember.

As a child, I often watched the sunrise, as the day began and everything and everyone came to life, and start their day. I saw it from my bedroom window and it was my favorite part of the day.

It seemed as if nothing had changed, as if no time has passed. But I knew it has and I could never go back to the way things were before. I had to move on and accept life as it is and make the most of it and myself. I owe it to my parents, so their death wouldn't be in vain. And I also owe it to myself. Enough of my life has been wasted on other people and their needs. It's my time to shine now.

As I finished my coffee, I put the cup on the window sill and took a walk around the house. All of the windows there were broken too, some of the walls around the windows had holes in them as if someone was lousy at throwing stones at them. Probably the rogues' doing.

I walked around the whole house, but nothing was out of the ordinary. I was just about to walk inside when a familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.

'Hey? You up?' Sebastian's voice sounded like he stood beside me and I looked around, but then I remembered the link.

'Yeah. Good morning.' I answered and sat back on the bench.

'Good morning to you too. Sleep well?' His voice was calm and it calmed me down too.

'Kind of. It would be better if it wasn't the floor I slept on, but for two nights I'll manage.' I smiled to myself.

'I know you wish it was me you were sleeping on, but hang on just one more night and your wish will be granted.' I could hear the humor in his voice and I could help but laugh at his remark. It was true, nonetheless.

'I'll never confess. You think what you want.' I had to have a little fun with him. It keeps things interesting. But I did want that. And I kind of missed his silly ass. Being by his side makes me forget about my troubles. I had to admit, I cared about him. Not as a boyfriend or anything, but still more than a friend.

'Oh, I know you miss me. You don't have to admit it. I miss you too. When you get back, come to my place. And take the day off of work. I have plans for us and you won't have time to go to your job. Not that you will want to go, anyway.'

'Your plans will have to wait for the weekend. I skipped work for this trip. Boss will kill me if I take another day off right when I come back. I have next weekend off and you can have me all to yourself.'

'Fine. But the whole weekend is mine then. And we get to do what I want. Deal?' I already knew what he wanted to do and I didn't complain. It involves us being naked all weekend. My favorite.

'Deal. But you have to cook for me. Or the deal is off.' I knew he was a good cook from a couple of dinners he made me when I stayed at his place.

'Ok, fine. I have some things I wanted you to try anyway. And if you can't sleep tonight, I'll be waiting for you to talk to me. And maybe describe some things. Sexy things.' I had to cut him off before it got too heated.

'Ok, ok, maybe I will. Don't tease me now. Talk to you tonight. Bye.' I could hear him laugh before he answered me back 'Bye babe.'

The link cut off and I was dumbfounded. He never called me that before. Maybe he just made a mistake. A habit from an old girlfriend. Yeah, that has to be it. It's not like I'm his babe, we're just friends. And friends don't call each other babe. Do they?

Now I had another thing I had to get my mind off of. I stood up and picked up my cup from the window sill and made my way inside. I saw Maya and Alpha Jeremy were already awake and made breakfast.

"Hey, where have you been? We've been waiting for you to have breakfast." Maya was not a morning person and was hungry.

"Sorry, I watched the sunrise and had to have a little time for myself. You shouldn't have waited for me." I sat at the table and so did they.

"Nonsense. We understand and it's no big deal. Right?" Alpha Jeremy scolded Maya with his look and I saw her blush and she looked down in respect towards him.

"Right. Sorry." She said and started eating.

"Don't be in such a bad mood. Please. Next time, don't wait. And for the remainder of this trip, I have just one wish. For the both of you. Please, please, for me, pretend like we aren't alpha and his pack, but friends. Family. You're all that I have and there is no one here to see that we aren't formal towards each other. I just want to find out what happened so I can put everything behind me finally." That wasn't the total truth. I won't be putting anything behind, I will avenge my pack. But they didn't need to know that.

Alpha Jeremy was the first one to speak up. "As you wish. After we eat, I suggest we take a look at the alpha's books. His office is intact, I managed to find a key, but it looked like someone tried to break in. Probably to destroy anything that tied them to the pack. Thankfully, alpha had a steel door installed and it protected the files from being destroyed. We have to look through those files and find something."

"I agree. If they went through all this trouble, there has to be something." I said and Maya just nodded her head as if her mouth was full.

After we ate, we cleaned up and walked upstairs. Just as Jeremy said, the door had visible scratches on its sides from someone trying to get in. It also had a dent in the middle, I guess someone threw themselves against it. Or punched it. Still, the door didn't open. I was impressed. I took a mental note to install myself a steel door once, just for fun.

Jeremy unlocked it and we stepped inside. It smelled stuffy and we kept the door open to get some fresh air in. The windows were intact, so no air was exchanged in the room for fourteen years. The plants on the window sills were long dead. The office looked like that of Alpha Jeremy, it had a desk in the middle, a couch in front and a big black leather chair behind it, and a giant wall covered with a wardrobe with shelves, that was full of books. Not just books, but also journals, newspapers, and geography books. And we had one day to look through all of it.

"This will be a long day," I commented and Alpha Jeremy agreed, while Maya just sighed.

We all took our places in front of the wardrobe, dividing it into three parts. We opened every book, and every journal, and turned every paper, in hopes to find something to help us out.

"How come you never checked this place out before?" I asked Jeremy while looking through a journal of alpha from a hundred years back.

"Well, it wasn't my priority. We wanted to get out of here, in case someone came back. I found the key back then and took it with me, so nobody would be able to open the door. I knew it would wait for me. All we did, was install fire protection, so it wouldn't get burned down. But I guess nobody tried since there are no burn marks. My priority was keeping everybody safe and looking for you. And I knew I would find you someday and we would look at it together." He looked at me and he had tears in his eyes. I walked towards him and hugged him. He waited for me, looked for me, and in the end will help me avenge my pack. He truly is like a father to me.

"Thank you. For everything. You don't know how much it means to me that you help me like this. Let me get something ready to eat, I'm sure I'm not the only one starving." It was well past noon already and all we ate was breakfast. I walked downstairs and into the kitchen.

The fridge had some minced meat and tomato sauce, so I made spaghetti Bolognese. It was quick and easy. I washed everything before they came down to eat so I would get back up there sooner. Once we ate, I made us coffee again and we had some chocolate chip cookies with us to eat with the coffee. It was enough to last us until night time and we made our way back into the office, back in our places.

Once I was done with my side, I moved to the desk. It had a couple of drawers, but they were stuck. I pried them open with as much force as I had and when they opened, I pulled the whole drawer out and the papers flew everywhere. I picked one up and looked at it. It was a treaty, between this pack and another, that prevented each pack in the contract from gaining pack knowledge or recourses in case of the attack. In the end, it was signed by two alphas, and drops of brown were under each name. I showed it to Jeremy and he gasped.

"This is a blood contract. The blood binds the signing party from breaking it. It would literally kill the other person if they break it. I guess it was signed long before this attack. And someone came looking for it, probably to tear it apart. This is proof, why nothing was taken from here. And you will never guess who the other pack is." He turned to me and I knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"The Black Wood pack. The one that you were kept at for all those years. It explains why they kept you hidden and why they came looking for you. You are their evidence of what they had done and it could destroy them." With the last sentence that Jeremy said, I saw a glint of hope. It almost brought a smile to my face. I walked to the couch and sat down. Finally, I have a reason to destroy them. I know everything about them. I read the books they had and they had all their fighting techniques, connections, everything. All I need now is an army. But this pack is in no shape to fight. I guess we'll have to change that.

"Uh, Anya," Maya called me and I looked at her. She was standing behind the desk with a journal in her hands. "You will want to see this."