Denying Fate ( Moonlight Trials Series #1)

Chapter 22 – Truths and Troubles.

Chases POV

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I pressed print and carried the papers quietly out of dad’s office. I mind linked Dan to meet me in the library so we could discuss my findings. Ace was agitated in my head. My chest was aching too.

I know Ace. We’ll get to the bottom of this and find her. I said to try and calm him down.

How could he keep this from us? I wonder if Mum knows.

I don’t know, but if she does, I can’t believe she would stay…

I arrived at the small pack library and sat down at the table, papers on my lap just in case anyone else came in before Dan. After a few minutes I heard the door open and looked up to see Dan looking concerned.

“Are you ok?” He questioned. I just threw the paperwork onto the table and put my head into my hands sadly. I sensed the hesitation in Dan before he sat and started reading the papers.

Trackers POV

I had pulled out a blanket for us to sit on and draped it over a log whilst Karma was pulling out sandwiches and more blankets to keep us warm. She wasn’t looking at me and was making it extremely obvious she wasn’t happy. I was nervous. I could sense a change in Karma through that kiss. There was still a feeling of betrayal towards Chase but also her eagerness to have that kiss, she had enjoyed it and deepened it without my guidance. Maybe the mate bond was finally working. I was all but ready to take her home and continue when Kismet entered my mind.

Karma isn’t quite ready Tracker. She needs to know the truth about Chase…

The truth… it wasn’t easy. Even I, truly, didn’t know everything. Just what I had been told by my already crazy mother and what I could find out from listening and researching.

We sat on the log, each with a blanket around us. Karma was staring at her feet and kicking snow around. I poured myself a coffee and turned to offer Karma one. She was holding her cup and turned to look at me with confused and concerned eyes. I smiled at her and poured her a coffee. She looked like she wanted t say something but before she could I took a deep breath and began.

“I’m sorry Karma. I want to have a chat before you do something you’ll regret.” This caused her eye to flash in annoyance.

“Haven’t you been the one wanting this since day one?” She questioned, glaring into her now hot, full, coffee mug. Yep, she was definitely annoyed with me.

“And I still do!” I said, grabbing her chin to make her look at me. “But I want to tell you a story, and it could either make you hate me or hate your pack and possibly Chase…” I stopped, looking at my own coffee cup now. She took my hand.

“I don’t think anything could make me hate either of you…” She began biting her lip. “What is it?” I took another breath and let it out, the cold cloud of air billowing in front of me.

“I told you about my mum, but I didn’t tell you that I knew who my mums’ true mate was…” I stopped looking at her, I didn’t want to see her eyes when she put everything together. “My mum grew up in the Silver Rose Pack and much like yourself she was the daughter of the omegas who served the Alpha and Luna. However, unlike you, my mum wasn’t allowed to talk to the Alpha, Luna or future Alpha. She wasn’t even allowed to look at them, always having to bow her head. She was trained to just serve them, noiselessly. She was a pretty popular and friendly wolf though and had plenty of friends, including your mother.”

Karma’s head snapped to look at me in surprise. I didn’t look back, knowing she would have questions, but if she interrupted me, I might not be able to carry on.

“She was even friends with the beta of the local pack, Timber Night pack. That beta was Leah…” I sensed Karma tense again, but I carried on.

“Leah was extremely headstrong and would visit the pack frequently as I believe George’s father and hers were very good friends when they were younger. Leah was very good friends with George, but she was friendly with everyone. My mum really liked her. As they all got older, there was talk of the future Alpha and Leah having a marriage arranged, everyone thought that they would be mates too. But my mum put a spanner in that…one day not long before her 18th birthday she was cleaning the future Alphas room and he entered and noticed her. She greeted him not looking up and continued her duties explaining she would leave shortly. The future Alpha apparently just watched her clean and when she was about finished, he asked her to take his glass to the kitchen. As she went to take it, she felt sparks and dropped the glass causing it to shatter. Obviously, the future Alpha was shocked and appalled and shouted for her to get out.”

I could feel Karma getting more and more nervous at the side of me, so I put an arm around her, still not making eye contact.

“Was the future alpha… George?” Karma whispered.

“Yes… Alpha George was my mums’ true mate…” I said, gulping saliva that was pooling in my mouth to stop the nausea that was threatening to arrive. I didn’t know why I felt so sick telling her, normally I would tell anyone this, making sure that everyone knew Alpha George was the bad guy, not my mother. But talking to Karma, everything felt different.

“What your mums name?” Karma asked, her voice quivering.

“Trinity…” I answered.

Chase’s POV

“So, your dad didn’t have two mates at all, he just chose your mum over his true mate?” Dan asked, his mouth hanging open in shock. I could only nod as I felt too sick to speak. “Dude, that’s… well I don’t know what that is, unheard of, I guess. How could he do that?”

“I’m sure he had his reasons. What I’m confused about is, why worry, especially once he rejected her and chose my mum? Why be paying money for her to stay close by? and why would this have anything to do with me and Karma? …” I put my head into my hands, trying to piece things together.

“Maybe he feels this is his punishment. Because he rejected his mate, you don’t get to have a full one to yourself?” Dan said shrugging his shoulders.

“Maybe… my dad did say something about this being their punishment. Which means my mum does know…? I can’t believe she would do that, what if her mate turned up?” I groaned and gathered up the papers. “Surely the moon goddess wouldn’t punish me for something my parents did though?” I asked Dan, visibly confused. He just shrugged.

“I don’t know, I mean this isn’t the first-time people have rejected mates and chose someone else who isn’t their true mate. There must be something else we are missing…” He said, looking through the paper again. “Maybe Trinity did something too, I mean Tracker is two years older than you, your dad rejected her when he was 20 and she was 19, meaning Tracker was already 1. Your dad married your mum 6 months before he was made Alpha at the age of 21 and your parents had you 6 months after they were made Alpha and Luna. Meaning Tracker would have to have been born when Trinity was 18 and your dad was already planning to be with your mum… and it doesn’t say anything about them meeting before he met your mum. Maybe she was part of your mum’s pack?”

I grabbed the paper. It was true, there was no background history on Trinity. It didn’t say which pack she came from or how long dad had known her. Maybe she had slept with another wolf before meeting my dad and got pregnant, and then dad rejected her because of that and chose my mum. Whilst wolves were not expected to stay loyal to their mates before they found them, it was unheard of for an alpha to make the future alpha an adopted child, unless there were dire circumstances. It was a thought but didn’t explain why they kept it a secret for so long.

“It doesn’t explain everything though, it also doesn’t explain why there are secrets and why Karmas own parents aren’t even trying to find her.” I said through gritted teeth throwing the papers angrily on the table. Dan shook his head in defeat.

“We need to do more digging…” He said, trailing off. I just nodded and grabbed the papers heading to my office for the day’s work.

Trackers POV

“I remember that name…” Karma whispered. “My mum spoke ever so fondly of her, but she made it sound like she had died.”

“Well, I guess part of her did.” I said, sadly causing Karma to snuggle into my side further.

“What happened next?” Karma asked, her curiosity marred with worry.

“Well, this is where the story varies dependant on how coherent my mum is feeling. She tells of a time where she and Alpha George would meet in secret and there were talks of them eloping together. Then other times she would talk about Leah and how she stole him away from her and it was them that would meet in secret. She says he rejected her once he turned 18 but she didn’t reject him back, meaning the bond was still there. However, what I do know is that my mum fell pregnant not long after she turned 18 and had me before George was made Alpha. What I don’t understand is why she kept hanging around if he had no intentions of being with her. She was clearly thinking enough to get pregnant. There was also an incident when I was one, which I do not remember, where she attacked the future Luna.”

“What?!” Karma gasped, sitting up to stare at me, then she started giggling “I would love to have seen that! So, what happened next?” I couldn’t help but chuckle back at her. I grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes, finally feeling a little more at ease. Talking about this didn’t feel as bad as it had earlier. Her eyes were sparkling with both upset for me as well as excitement at hearing what happened with the Luna and my mum. However, when I spoke to anyone else about it, the rage would boil over from me, and I would blurt everything out with anger. Karma made me slow down and think about things more clearly.

“Well, again, I’m not sure on the exact details but I do know they ended up in a big fight and surprisingly they both ended up in the hospital. Which everyone was surprised at, an omega taking on a beta and a future Luna. What I do know though is that not long after that the pack asked for her to be banished and the Luna refused and so Alpha George announced about her mate rejecting her. Everyone seemed to then give her sympathy and things calmed down. However, mum started becoming more and more bitter and she began having bizarre ideas that she was supposed to be Luna and wanted to hurt Leah. She got me to become friends with Chase…” I paused. This was the part I dreaded taking to her about. She would know what my mum had planned and that she had brought me up with these ideas, and whilst meeting Karma had calmed me, I still wanted revenge on Alpha George and the whole pack for what they had done to my mother and in turn, me.

“What’s wrong?” She questioned, looking at me. She must have sensed the fear in me as I hesitated in carrying on the story.

“Well… this next bit, you need to understand I was young, and I just wanted to make my mum happy…” Karma jumped up and put her arms around my shoulders staring straight into my eyes with a stern and matter of fact look on her face.

“You might be a little… angry and crass at times but in the short time I’ve known you, I don’t think you’re evil!” She said and hugged me. I smelled her blueberry scent, and it calmed me down. She moved to pull away and I grabbed her, sitting her on my lap and pulling one of the blankets around me. She didn’t move but I could feel how uncomfortable she was, but not the usual ‘stay away from me’ uncomfortable, more of a nervous uncomfortable.

“Please, I won’t try anything. I just need you close…” She nodded and calmed a little. I sighed, not sure if it was from upset or relief at her reaction, but I carried on. “So, when Chase was born, I was around 2 years old. I didn’t understand what anything meant at the time, but my mum would push me to go to Chase and give him small gifts and coo over him. As I got older, and he started to get older we would often seek each other out to play. Probably because we were so used to each other. Alpha George actually seemed happy about that and even mum seemed happier, so I kept doing it, to see them both smile. Then you were born, and I lost Chase almost immediately as he would cling to you even as a 1-month-old, it was so hard to get him away from your crib. I have to admit, I do remember being jealous, but he did finally start playing with me again. When you were around 2 years old you came to play with us. You couldn’t quite talk but would always say no to me and yes to Chase regardless of what he was asking. I was around 6 years old and went home and complained to my mum, who was still miserable and plotting new strategies, but I wasn’t aware… until that night. She started whispering in my ear that you were taking Chase away from me, but I didn’t think that. I was actually more upset that you didn’t like me. Suddenly, my mum smiled the biggest smile I had ever seen.”

“What?! Why?” Karma asked confused.