The Triplet Alphas's Christmas Gift

Chapter 18 - Finding Answers

Matt's POV

"Absolutely not! I will NOT leave Teira to go apologize to some power hungry wh*re! Especially when my princess could be fighting for her life because of us!" Tyler shouted furiously. He was breathing heavily, but tears were forming in his eyes.

I agreed with him, I didn't care what Mom wanted. We would take our fated mate and no one else. We had decided that years ago after seeing how happy Mom and Dad were together. And with Teira in surgery due to David... I wasn't going anywhere either.

I took a deep breath and stepped forward, placing my hands on Tyler's shoulders. Tyler was the hothead, the one who usually jumped first and asked questions later. It made him a great fighter but not much of a strategist. And though usually he flirted with every girl around, Teira coming into our lives changed his perspective.

He only wanted her. We all did.

Seeing her in that basement, tearing those silver cuffs off of her. It took all my willpower not to take the whip from Tyler and use it on David myself. Instead, I had the immense satisfaction of placing the silver cuffs over his own bare wrists and listening to him howl in agony as the warriors took him to the cells.

Ryan and I had then helped the warriors search the house. What we found made us even angrier. The first floor held the dining room, kitchen, and family room, though that last one looked like it was rarely used. Most of the photos in the frames were clean but held pictures of Kyle or his parents or all three, like the other photos we had seen in the hallway. There was absolutely no trace of Teira living there except for the basement door and the upstairs.

The second floor held the parents' room, nothing much in there. TV, a king-sized bed, dressers, a dress dummy for designing at home, a walk-in closet filled with tons of designer clothes and jewelry, and a master bathroom with products and toiletries The expense of the items in the bedroom alone could feed Teira well for months, but her parents decided to spend it on themselves and Kyle.

The third floor held Kyle's room, and there was a trace of Teira's sweet scent in here. It was faint, but it was there, telling us that Kyle had her in his room when he could. Kyle's walls and door had several dents in them from where he had tried to break through to stop his Dad. Ryan looked at the outside of the door. It looked like an ordinary wooden door, but when Ryan hit it, it sounded like a fist hitting steel.

"Is it actually steel?" I asked, fascinated, but Ryan shook his head. "That's the weird part. It's wood. What kind of spell did they put on the wood to make it as strong as steel? Especially under werewolf strength?" he asked. I glanced around, "Probably the same type of spell they put on the house to suppress the presence of Teira in general. Unless you saw or smelled her, you'd never know she lived here." I said calmly. I was getting furious, and I wanted answers from the Harris's, but we needed to provide Dad with some evidence that Teira was David's daughter first.

We walked up the final set of stairs, where Teira's scent was the strongest, and looked at the small door at the top. The stairs were rotted and rickety, like if you put too much weight on them, you could fall through. The door wasn't even a real door, just a piece of plywood with hinges and a doorknob bolted in. It didn't have a lock, which was probably why Teira was taken to the basement as punishment instead of locked in her room.

The room was tiny. There was a mattress that look old and worn in the corner as far from the window as possible. A thin blanket was spread on it comfortably with two pillows that looked out of place, one was shaped like a wolf and the other looked fairly new, it was shaped like basketball. I smiled, picking it up, "Kyle." I said and Ryan nodded, frowning a bit. There was a large wooden beam hanging down above the mattress and I looked at it confused, "She'd hit her head if she slept here." I said concerned.

Ryan smirked, "I'm pretty sure she'd figure out how to remember it's there." he said before turning around the room, "There's no dresser. Where would she put her clothes? And that desk is basically a piece of wood on egg crates." he commented.

I nodded and pulled a curtain aside to reveal a tiny shower with barely enough for one person to fit. Ryan glared at it, "No wonder she's so small. Look at this room! Her clothes! This girl was surviving on the barest essentials!" he growled. I glanced around the bed, "Look in her desk, see if there are any photos of her and Kyle, anything to tie her to this family." I said seriously trying my best not to look around the room.

A few minutes later and I had found her stash of food hidden in the wall as well as a few things Kyle had obviously given her without their parents knowing. A couple of stuffed animals, books that looked well worn, and a diary. I refused to open it as it was my girl's private thoughts but I was pretty curious. I would look at it later.

Ryan and I searched a bit longer but couldn't find anything, we started to leave the room with the few things we found when the warriors linked us Alphas, we found something in the master bedroom. Come quickly. We looked at each other then ran back downstairs to the bedroom. Several warriors were searching the dressers and closet but one warrior was near the bookcase on the other side of the room.

I had been so disgusted by the obvious extravagance of the bedroom that I hadn't noticed the bookcase. It was huge, floor to ceiling and filled with several legal and business texts. The warrior bowed as we approached, "Alphas, I noticed a breeze flowing through here whenever I passed this spot. I glanced to see if there was a window behind it or something and could see a faint light through the cracks in the books. I believe there's a room back here." he stated showing us the spot.

Ryan looked first then let me, there was a faint light coming from behind the bookcase. We looked at each other and began pulling books trying to find the way to open the door. The warrior stepped back, trying to get out of our way and accidentally bumped a table lamp on the table behind him. The lampshade tilted to the side and a soft click sounded. The bookcase moved forward then slid to the left revealing a large room surrounded by books.

It held a huge wooden desk, with a desk lamp emitting a soft glow. Obviously, David had forgotten to turn it off before leaving this morning. There were papers scattered all over the desk, legal papers, several financial documents, but in the corner was a small ornate key. I picked it up curiously and looked around while Ryan tried to read the documents. There were a few drawers in the desk but nothing that looked like a lock that the key would go into.

I moved the leather office chair to the side and saw a small drawer with a keyhole above the alcove where David would have placed his legs if he had sat at the desk. I put the key in the lock and turned it, it opened quietly revealing a drawer full of photos and more documents.

I pulled the contents out and placed them carefully on the desk, Ryan had given the other documents to the warrior telling him to gather them and take them to Dad to look over. He came over and looked at the photos with wide eyes. There were several of a woman with black curly hair and crystal blue eyes, Teira was the spitting image of her except for hair and eye color. The woman had a mysterious aura about her and she wore a dark purple cloak with silver trim.

Other photos showed David and the woman holding hands, hanging out, kissing, obviously he had loved this woman very much so where was she? Making a mental note to ask in David's interrogation, I set the photos aside and read the documents, there was a letter from Mrs. Harris demanding David do right by her and stop seeing someone as she was his wife and had a baby on the way. Then several letters that had been returned to sender unopened.

The final letter and certificate with it was the proof we needed. It read:

Mr. Harris,

Your inquiry into the personal matters of one of our members will no longer be tolerated. The member in question, codenamed The Shadow, no longer wishes to have contact with you. As such, she has also asked that we send this package to you along with proof that it does, indeed, belong to you. You are to cease contacting us or there will be consequences.

As you know, our line of work is dangerous and no place for a package such as this. You are to take care of it until the members can collect it again.

Take care and we will be watching.

The letter was unsigned but the threat was clear, Teira's Mom was obviously in a shady line of work and couldn't care for her. The certificate that came with the letter listed David Harris as Teira's father and Melinda Sutton as her mother.

Teira was Kyle's half-sister!