The Moon Chose The Wrong Mate

Chapter 3 : The Lie About My Birth

I didn't sleep.

How could I?

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Kael standing in my doorway.

Ask your mother why she lied about your birth.

The words followed me into my bedroom. They followed me when I sat on the edge of my bed, when I stared through the window, and even when I tried to convince myself that everything would make sense after sunrise.

It didn't.

I checked the clock again.

4:17 a.m.

My mother still hadn't come home.

I picked up the note from my bedside table.

Do not trust the Alpha.

The handwriting looked like hers.

But after everything that had happened tonight, I didn't know what to believe anymore.

Maybe my mother had written it.

Maybe someone had copied her handwriting.

Maybe someone had deliberately left it there because they wanted me to doubt Kael.

I hated that every answer seemed to create three more questions.

For eighteen years, I had known exactly who I was.

Elara Vale.

Daughter of Mara Vale.

Born into the Silverpine Pack.

An ordinary wolf with an ordinary life.

No famous bloodline. No ancient prophecy. No reason for anyone important to care who I was.

Then one night changed everything.

The Moon chose Kael as my mate.

He rejected me.

My mother disappeared.

And now Kael was telling me that she'd lied about my birth.

I stared at the ceiling.

“Who am I?”

My wolf didn't answer.

For once, she was completely silent.

When the first pale light of dawn finally appeared beyond the curtains, I got out of bed.

I needed answers.

There was only one place I could think of looking.

My mother's room.

She kept almost everything she owned in a small room at the back of the house. She rarely let me go inside.

Whenever I'd asked why, she'd always given me the same answer.

There's nothing interesting in there.

I'd believed her.

Not anymore.

I walked down the hallway and unlocked the door.

The room smelled of cedar and old paper.

Dust floated through the thin strip of sunlight coming through the window. Boxes were stacked against the walls, most of them filled with clothes, books, and old photographs.

At first, nothing looked unusual.

Then I noticed a wooden chest underneath the desk.

It had a lock.

I searched through the drawers.

Nothing.

I checked the shelves.

Still nothing.

I was about to give up when something metallic caught my eye beneath the edge of the carpet.

I crouched down and pulled it free.

A small key.

My heart started beating faster.

I tried it in the lock.

Click.

The chest opened.

Inside were several bundles of documents tied together with black ribbon.

I picked up the first one.

The paper was old, and some of the ink had faded.

It was a birth certificate.

My name was written across the top.

Elara Vale.

I almost laughed.

Of course it was.

Then I saw the date.

October 14.

My birthday.

I moved my finger down the page.

Mother: Mara Vale.

Then I reached the next line.

Father:

Nothing.

The space was completely blank.

My hands began to shake.

I searched through the papers faster until I found an envelope tucked beneath the others.

There was no name on it.

Only a symbol.

A crescent moon crossed by three thin lines.

I looked at my wrist.

The same symbol was glowing faintly beneath my skin.

My mouth went dry.

Slowly, I opened the envelope.

A photograph slid into my hand.

I stared at it.

A woman stood beneath a huge silver Moon.

She looked young.

Beautiful.

And painfully familiar.

“Mom?”

It was my mother.

But something about the photograph made my stomach twist.

She wasn't wearing the simple clothes I remembered her wearing around the house.

She had on a long white dress.

Several wolves stood behind her.

And beside her was a man.

Tall.

Dark-haired.

His face was partly hidden by shadow, but the silver crest on his clothing was unmistakable.

Blackthorn.

I stared at the photograph.

Why would my mother have a picture with someone from the Blackthorn Pack?

I turned it over.

There was a sentence written on the back.

"The child must remain hidden until her eighteenth moon."

My heart seemed to stop.

The child.

Me.

Beneath the sentence was a date.

Eighteen years ago.

The exact year I was born.

I dropped the photograph.

Someone had planned this.

Not recently.

My whole life.

A sound outside made me freeze.

Footsteps.

Someone was approaching the house.

I quickly shoved the documents back into the chest and closed the lid.

Then I heard three knocks.

I didn't move.

“Miss Vale?”

A man's voice.

I didn't recognize it.

“Who are you?”

“I'm here from the Alpha.”

My stomach tightened.

I walked to the front door and opened it only a few inches.

A man stood outside in the black uniform of the Blackthorn Pack.

He looked older than Kael, perhaps around thirty, and his expression was calm.

Too calm.

“What does the Alpha want?”

“He wants you brought to the packhouse.”

“Why?”

“He didn't say.”

I looked past him.

Three wolves stood near the road.

They weren't ordinary guards.

Hunters.

I knew it the moment I saw them.

My wolf growled.

Danger.

I closed the door.

The man's voice came through it.

“Miss Vale.”

“I said no.”

“You don't understand.”

“I understand perfectly.”

I locked the door.

Then I grabbed my coat.

If Kael wanted me at the packhouse, he could explain why himself.

I headed for the back door.

The moment I stepped outside, a howl echoed through the forest.

Then another.

They'd realized I was leaving.

I ran.

Branches caught against my sleeves as I pushed deeper into the trees.

Behind me, I could hear the hunters following.

They were fast.

Too fast.

I had no idea where I was going.

I only knew I needed distance.

My wolf pushed against my mind.

Let me take control.

“Not yet.”

You'll die if you keep running like this.

I ignored her.

A wolf suddenly stepped out between the trees.

I stopped so abruptly that my shoes dug into the dirt.

Another appeared behind me.

Then a third.

Three wolves.

No way through.

The largest one stepped forward.

I backed away.

My heartbeat thundered in my ears.

Then my wrist burned.

The silver mark flashed.

All three wolves froze.

Their ears lowered.

Their bodies trembled.

I stared at them.

“What…”

The largest wolf lowered its head.

It wasn't preparing to attack.

It was submitting.

I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

Apparently, neither could they.

Then a voice came from behind me.

“Interesting.”

I turned.

Kael stood between the trees.

He wasn't wearing his Alpha coat. His black shirt was torn at the shoulder, and there was blood along his cheek.

His eyes moved from the wolves to me.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

I stared at the blood on his face.

“You're bleeding.”

“It's nothing.”

“You keep saying that.”

He ignored me.

I took a step toward him.

He immediately stepped back.

The movement hurt more than it should have.

“Why do you keep doing that?”

His eyes met mine.

“Doing what?”

“Acting like I'm dangerous.”

His expression hardened.

“You are.”

I stared at him.

“Then why are you protecting me?”

For once, he didn't have an answer.

His eyes moved toward the wolves.

“They weren't sent to kill you.”

“Then why are they here?”

“To see if the rumors were true.”

“What rumors?”

He said nothing.

I stepped closer.

“Kael, I found something.”

That got his attention.

“What?”

I reached into my coat and pulled out the photograph.

The moment he saw it, he stopped.

His expression changed so quickly that I almost missed it.

Shock.

Real shock.

“Where did you get that?”

“My mother's chest.”

He took a step toward me, then stopped himself.

“Your mother still has that?”

“What does that mean?”

He stared at the photograph.

“That's impossible.”

I almost laughed.

“You really need to stop saying that.”

His eyes lifted to mine.

I held the photograph out.

“Who is the man beside her?”

He didn't answer.

“Kael.”

His jaw tightened.

“That's my father.”

My stomach dropped.

“What?”

“My father.”

I looked at the photograph again.

The man standing beside my mother was the former Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack.

Kael's father.

The same man who had died years before Kael became Alpha.

I looked back at him.

“Why was my mother with your father?”

“I don't know.”

“You're lying.”

His eyes snapped toward mine.

“You think I don't know when you're lying?”

He went quiet.

I stepped closer.

“Then tell me.”

“I can't.”

“Why?”

His gaze dropped to the photograph.

“Because if what I think is true…”

He stopped.

“What?”

He looked at my wrist.

Then at the photograph.

When he finally spoke, his voice was low.

“Your mother wasn't hiding you from the pack.”

I waited.

“She was hiding you from my father.”

A cold feeling spread through me.

“Why?”

Kael looked away.

“Because eighteen years ago, my father ordered a massacre.”

I stared at him.

“Whose?”

He looked directly at me.

“The last remaining members of a bloodline the pack believed had been destroyed.”

I looked down at the photograph.

At my mother.

At the strange symbol.

Then at my own wrist.

“Kael…”

His expression softened.

“There’s something you need to know.”

“What?”

He hesitated.

Then he said something that made the entire world seem to tilt beneath my feet.

“Your mother wasn't your only parent.”

I frowned.

“What are you talking about?”

He looked toward the rising sun.

“Your father is alive.”

For a moment, I couldn't understand the words.

My father.

Alive.

For eighteen years, I'd believed he was dead.

I'd never questioned it because my mother had never given me a reason to.

But if Kael was telling the truth, then the biggest lie of my life hadn't started last night.

It had started the day I was born.