The Unwilling Luna and her Three Mates

The Forgotten Records

I had learned a long time ago that people revealed more when they thought you weren't paying attention.

A pause.

A nervous glance.

A change in their breathing.

Small things most people ignored.

But I noticed… I noticed everything.

I had to.

Growing up as the daughter of a disgraced Alpha meant I spent most of my childhood studying people.

I learned who pitied me.

Who hated me.

Who believed the rumors about my father.

And who knew more than they were willing to admit.

Mara belonged to the last group.

I knew it the moment she saw that symbol.

She had tried to hide her reaction, but she was too late.

I saw it.

Fear.

Not of me.

Of what the symbol represented.

The problem was, she refused to tell me anything.

And I was tired of people deciding what I was allowed to know about my own life.

So, the next morning, I returned to the archives.

The Silver Ridge archives were larger than I expected.

Rows upon rows of old records filled the underground room beneath the pack house.

The air smelled like old paper, dust, and secrets.

A fitting place for the truth to hide.

Mara looked up when she saw me enter.

Her expression immediately told me she knew why I was there.

"You're persistent."

"I've been called worse."

A small smile appeared on her face before disappearing.

"You have your mother's determination."

"Well everyone please stop saying that ??."

"Oh but it's true."

I walked toward the table.

"I need answers."

Mara sighed.

"Answers could be dangerous."

"Then if I say I don't care ?"

"Then you don't understand what you're searching for."

I placed the old book on the table.

"This symbol."

Her eyes immediately dropped to it.

"You should put that away."

"Why?"

"Because some things are forgotten for a reason."

I stared at her.

"My mother died because people ignored something. My father disappeared because people ignored something. I'm done ignoring things."

For a moment, Mara said nothing.

Then she slowly sat down.

"You really don't know."

"Know what?"

She looked at the book.

"That your parents were looking for the same thing."

My heart stopped.

"What?"

"Before your mother died, she and your father spent years searching through old records."

"Searching for what?"

Mara hesitated.

Then she whispered:

"Something connected to your birth."

I frowned.

"My birth?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't make sense."

"It will eventually."

I hated that answer.

Again.

Always eventually.

Always later.

Always when you're ready.

I wasn't a child anymore.

I was twenty-two years old.

I had crossed territories alone.

I had fought rogues.

I had survived because I didn't wait for people to save me.

"I need you to stop protecting me from the truth."

Mara looked at me sadly.

"I'm not protecting you."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Trying to prepare you."

——-

That afternoon, I left Silver Ridge territory.

Alpha Cedric had offered to let me stay longer, but staying meant waiting.

And I had spent enough of my life waiting.

My next destination was the western territories.

According to my father's old records, he had traveled there frequently before my mother's death.

Maybe I would find something.

A witness.

A clue.

Anything.

The journey was quiet at first.

Too quiet.

My instincts told me I was being watched.

I stopped near a river and looked around.

Nothing.

No movement.

No scent.

But the feeling remained.

Someone was there.

I reached for my dagger.

"Come out."

Silence.

I waited.

Then a branch snapped.

I turned.

Nothing.

Whoever it was, they were good.

Very good.

A normal wolf would have missed them completely.

But I wasn't normal.

Not anymore.

I continued walking, but I kept my guard up.

The strange feeling followed me until sunset.

Then, suddenly, it disappeared.

That bothered me more than anything.

Because whoever had been watching me hadn't left.

They had simply decided I no longer needed to know they were there.

——-

That night, I made camp beneath the trees.

The fire burned quietly as I studied my father's old dagger.

I wondered how many secrets it had witnessed.

How many conversations.

How many moments I would never know about.

"You're hiding something," I whispered.

Of course, the dagger didn't answer.

But I already knew the truth.

My parents had known something was coming.

Something dangerous.

Something connected to me.

And whatever it was…

Someone had gone to great lengths to keep it hidden.

I looked up at the moon.

For the first time since leaving home, I felt something I hated admitting.

Uncertainty.

Not fear.

Never fear.

But doubt.

What if I found my father and discovered everyone had been right?

What if the man I remembered was only the version he wanted me to see?

I closed my eyes.

No.

I refused to believe that.

Because if I was wrong, then the entire foundation of my life was built on a lie.

And I wasn't ready to face that.

Not yet.

——-

The next morning, I continued west.

I didn't know that my journey was about to change.

I didn't know that the next territory would bring me face-to-face with someone who would challenge everything I believed about fate.

I didn't know that the man waiting ahead of me would become the first impossible piece of a destiny I never asked for.

But for now…

I only had one goal.

Find my father.

Find the truth.

And uncover the secrets everyone was so desperate to hide.