THE ALPHA’S HUMAN MATE

CHAPTER 5: THE BOX

ELENA’S POV:

He didn’t argue, he just nodded like he understood we were in this together.

Before I slept that night, I sat with my mother’s box again.

The anonymous message was still in my head too.

Whoever sent that message definitely knew Kane which also meant they knew me too.

I thought about Dana, about the box she left me with no instructions or explanations.

Maybe it was time to stop thinking and just open it.

I touched the lid again and this time, I didn’t pull back.

I lifted the cover slightly, not enough to see what was in it fully.

I saw the edge of an old picture.

Then I closed it again, my hands were shaking.

What exactly I was scared of? I didn’t know.

I put the box on the floor by my bedside table, not back in the closet.

I told myself I was tired.

It took a while before I eventually slept.

I woke up in time to get to work and the first thing one my mind when I woke up was that picture.

Who was in it?

Why did Dana keep it in the box?

These questions could be easily answered but I just held back.

At work, Yasmine noticed that something was different about me.

“You’re not sleeping well, it shows.”

“It’s not like I don’t try, I just get really overwhelmed with thoughts.”

“What thoughts? Kane again?”

“No, my mother this time.”

“She left a box, I told you that time.”

“Yes, I remember you mentioned it.”

“Did you open it yet?”

“Not fully, I just looked a little and closed it again.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, I got scared.”

“Scared of what though? It’s just photos and letters right?”

“I really don’t know.”

She took my hands and squeezed them.

“Take your time okay?, Open it whenever you’re ready to.”

“Thank you.”

I meant it, even though I couldn’t fully explain why her words helped.

The rest of my shift went by slowly.

My hands worked but my mind was somewhere else entirely, back at that picture, at the box waiting for me at home.

By the time I got off my shift, I didn’t want to go straight home. I drove to Ava’s place instead.

I haven’t been here in a while.

She opened the door before I could knock twice.

“You look tired.”

“I am.”

She let me in and didn’t ask questions right away, just made tea the way she always did and I liked.

“Talk to me, what’s going on.” She said, handing me a cup.

I told her about the box. I left out Kane, left out Sable too. Some things I wasn’t ready to tell her, yet.”

“You still haven’t opened it? After all this time?”

“I looked a little and saw an old picture.”

“And?”

“And I got scared. I closed it back.”

She sat across me.

“Elena, whatever is in that box, it’s from Mom. She wouldn’t leave you with something that would hurt you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yeah I do.”

I looked at my cup and rolled it around, slowly.

“Then why did she keep secrets my entire life?”

Belly didn’t have an answer for that and neither did I.

“Whatever is in that box, she could have told me all about it.

“Maybe,” she said after a while, “ Maybe the secrets were to protect you.”

Her words stayed with me the whole drive back home.

When I got back to my room, the box was still on the floor, right where I left it.

I sat in front of it, the way I used to sit as a child listening to Dana’s stories.

This time, I didn’t hesitate.

I opened it fully and fast, before I changed my mind once again.

Inside were old pictures, brown folded papes, most probably letters. I picked one picture up. It was Dana, younger than ever, standing beside people I didn’t recognize. She was smiling, she looked as radiant as I could remember.

Under the photos were letters, tied together with a ribbon that had faded. My name was written on the first one, in her handwriting.

“To Elena, whenever she’s ready”

My hands shook as I untied it.

“My dear Elena,

If you’re reading this, it means I’m gone and you’ve finally found the courage to open this box.

There are things about me, about us that I ever told you. Not because I didn’t trust you enough to let you know, but because I was scared of what it would happen if you knew too soon.

You are not who you think you are, Elena. Not fully.”

I stopped reading. My chest tightened, my breath came low.

I placed the letter down, I needed to breathe.

I thought about Kane in that short moment.

I thought about the wound that healed too fast. About what happened when I touched his blood.

None of it had ever made sense.

Maybe now, it would.

I picked the letter again and kept reading.

“I met your father in a world very different from the one you grew up in. A world with separate rules and its own dangers. I left it behind to protect you, to give you a normal life.

I’m sorry for the silence, Elena.

I’m sorry for every question I didn’t answer, every look I gave you that you probably didn’t understand. I did it because I loved you.

Whatever you decide to do with this should be a choice you make on your own and for yourself.

I’m proud of you now and ever.

I love you, always.

Mom.”

I sat there for a long time after finishing, the picture still in my lap, I was staring at nothing and taking everything in.

There were more letters underneath, still folded, still tied but I couldn’t bring myself to open another one tonight. My mind was already too full.

I picked up my phone instead and stared at Kane’s name for a long moment.

I didn’t call or text.

But for the first time since that very first night at the hospital, I understood a little, why everything about him had always felt strangely familiar.

Maybe some part of me had always known and I just wasn’t ready to admit it.