Her Unforeseen Destiny

Lenten Moon

When they had arrived at the library in the morning, Robert had presented Lyall and Emmeline with a variety of large tomes that he had collected together for their arrival in Edinburgh. Apparently, Lyall had told Robert about the reason for their visit on their phone before they had left Skye. Some of the books were smaller and contained information about different clans around the country and their respective alliances. Others were huge volumes with history or myths and legends. 

Emmeline had started with one of the smaller books that detailed the history of the clans in the south-west of England. There had been a few different clans in Somerset and the surrounding area, many of which had since died out or been absorbed into the larger clans in the region. Black Down Clan seemed to be one of the larger clans, as well as the River Moon Clan which was located near Bristol. 

She had pored over the different smaller clans with Lyall, trying to see if there was anything that seemed promising. The problem was that they had so little to go on, aside from the location where she had been found abandoned. She didn't know her parents' first names or her surname. It felt like she was searching for a needle in a haystack. Or maybe even a specific needle in a needle stack, or something equally as impossible. 

Emmeline had explained her life story in detail to Robert, who had listened carefully. He seemed to love what he did and was more than keen to help her try to unravel the mystery of where she came from and who her birth family was.

"I might have something," Lyall mused as he scanned the pages of clan lists. "Rabbie, do you have any more information on this Lenten Moon Clan? There's no more information about them after 2002 in here and they are in the right area at least, somewhere in the Mendip Hills."

Robert turned to a pile of books that stood stacked on the table behind him. Emmeline looked up hopefully and she wondered if they were finally starting to make some progress. Lyall smiled at her expectant face.

"It might be a dead-end, lass. I don't want to get your hopes up too much." His words hurt but she knew that he was right. They had found other clans that seemed promising, but it turned out they'd just been taken over by a neighbouring clan and there was no reason for a baby from the clan to have been abandoned. Lyall had explained the few possible reasons for a werewolf baby to be abandoned to humans and there weren't many. Usually, if the mother or father couldn't take care of the child, the extended family took care of them instead. Even if one or both parents became rogues, their child either stayed with the pack or became rogue with their parents. It was very odd for a baby to have been left with humans instead. 

Lyall was sure that something major must have happened for Emmeline to have been left outside a human hospital. He had told her that she no longer smelled human at all after her time with the clan so she couldn't be half-human. Her scent was more like that of a ranked wolf now, he had told her, and that had nothing to do with that she had spent a lot of time with members of Misty Isle. She must have ranked blood, he had pondered aloud. 

"There's not much here." Robert's tone sounded frustrated. He was clearly a man who didn't like dead ends. "But the lack of information after 2002 seems to fit with your age, lassie. Something must have happened to the clan because there's no information on alliances or takeovers or anything since then."

He continued reading from the volume he currently held and suddenly took a sharp intake of breath. 

"I might have a lead. They had an alliance with River Moon for a few years before that, when there was some kind of rogue outbreak in the area. One of our warriors, his mate is originally from River Moon. She moved here when they mated - I'll find out if she knows anything about Lenten Moon and what happened." His eyes misted over slightly and Emmeline knew that he must be mind linking either the warrior or his mate. Since she was an honorary member of Misty Isle, she could mind link with anyone in the clan she had met as long as she wasn't too far away from them. 

She hadn't been sworn in as a full pack member yet since she was only there to train for now, but Lyall had said that once she became sworn into a pack then she would be able to mind link anyone - including multiple people at once - in the pack. The more powerful a wolf was, the easier it was to mind link from far away. Some Alphas could even mind link their Luna or Beta from different countries, Lyall had commented, although, usually, the link wasn't quite that strong. Most people just used mobile phones instead since it used up less energy than mind linking across a huge distance.

"Brianna is on her way," Robert informed them both as his eyes returned to normal. "She knows the name of the clan and I'm sure she knows something - she said it would be easier to explain in person."

Emmeline shared a look with Lyall. If this Brianna wanted to explain something in person, it sounded like something major had happened. All they had to do was wait. 

It didn't take long until the library door was tentatively pushed open. A short, stocky brown-hair woman stood in the doorway and she looked a little nervous. 

"You must be Brianna," Lyall greeted her as she entered. Her light hazel eyes flicked across to Emmeline, back to Lyall and then finally rested on Robert. 

"Brianna MacLeod, but most people call me Bree," she replied, shaking hands with Lyall. She had a broad Bristol accent that was familiar to Emmeline. "I haven't heard the name Lenten Moon in... almost twenty years maybe. What's this about?"

Robert pulled another chair up at the desk where they'd been going through the various books and gestured for Brianna to sit. He perched himself on the edge of the table and folded his hands in his lap. 

"Emmeline here is trying to research her family. We found some information about Lenten Moon that seemed... promising, but all the information about the pack seems to just disappear around 2002." Robert explained and sadness clouded Brianna's face as she looked over at Emmeline. 

Brianna wrung her hands together slightly and she seemed to be trying to decide how to phrase what she was about to say. 

"It can't be Lenten Moon. There... was an attack. We only found out about it days later when one of our pack members who had been grown up at Lenten Moon tried to get in contact with his family. He couldn't get through to them so he went there with some of the other warriors. It was -" Brianna stopped and looked down at her lap. She looked like she was fighting back tears. Her next words were almost a whisper. "It was a bloodbath. I knew some of the girls there - some of the best fighters came to River Moon to train with us sometimes. They never found out what really happened there, but our Alpha was sure that it had been mercenaries. On whose behalf or why I don't know. What I do know is that no one survived."