Their traded family

10. File

Hope's P.O.V

I turned my head away, the smell of the cup being brought to my lips making tears pour down my cheeks. I wanted to scream, to tell them I didn't want to drink the liquid inside it, but the last time I tried, they ended up shoving it down my throat.

I didn't want to stay quiet, though, I wanted to cry. I wanted to call for Mommy and for Daddy so they could come save me, but the lady with the black hair hit me whenever I tried.

My entire body hurt from the force she used. I'd never been hit before because mommy and daddy love me, but the lady doesn't and she has no problem making me cry.

I pressed a hand to my tummy, pushing it in. Maybe if I pushed hard enough, it would forget that it was hungry. I just wanted some chocolate or pizza.

The large man holding the red plastic cup didn't let me finish my thoughts before he grabbed my chin between his fingers, squeezing until I couldn't help but let out a sob. I clawed at his big hands as he used the moment I opened my mouth to pry my lips further apart, my nails digging into his skin. I was hurting him and my mommy had taught me to never hurt anybody, but Daddy said I should if they hurt me first.

Will I get in trouble when they take me home?

The liquid spilled down my throat at last, the horrible man tipping my head back until I was forced to swallow. I screamed, burning my throat further than the weird juice was. Every time I swallowed, I thought it would be my last. It was as if a fire had begun in my belly and was spreading through my body, my throat acting as a chimney.

"Hope? Hope, wake up, kiddo!" I startled awake, breathing heavily as warm, comforting arms wrapped around me, the scent of my aunt filling my nostrils and allowing me to calm down. "Are you alright?" She asked, caressing her thumb down my cheeks, wiping any fallen tears away, if I had to guess.

"Yeah," I nodded, "just a nightmare."

"Calm yourself down and come out whenever you're ready, okay? Zane's made breakfast and then you have to get to class or else you'll be late." I threw a quick glance at the clock, then nodded, letting my aunt leave the room.

As soon as she was out of earshot, I groaned, cursing at the damn time. I hadn't slept well the past week, ever since I came here, really, and every morning when I woke up to see it was time for school, I wanted to jump off a cliff.

Having no time for that, however, I quickly rolled out of bed and began to get ready, my head elsewhere completely.

I'd been young when I was kidnapped along with Uncle Knox, in fact, I barely remember that time, other than how my parents had spoiled me rotten for weeks after, meeting my every demand. They hadn't let me sleep in my own bedroom for a couple of months, either, and I didn't object. I was sure that the minute I was alone, the bad man and the black-haired lady I now knew as Raven rather than Artemis, the ones who gave me the poison, would come to hurt Mom and Dad.

They were dead, though, the bad guys, and soon enough, the fear died with them.

Everything else I remembered from the nightmare was the darkness, the fear, and the pain. I didn't know how I remembered any of it, really, when I wasn't even three at the time - my birthday was a few months later - and yet with Hadley, everything was being intensified, perhaps my memory was no exception.

I remembered how much I'd cried, both from the pain in my throat and later from my stomach as well. The poison they'd fed me had been brutal on my toddler body, especially when they didn't feed me for as long as we'd stayed.

Two days, if what my aunt and parents told me was true. Uncle didn't want to speak of that time. I certainly never forgot, and I was sure he hadn't either, but I didn't push him. Never have.

The hunger I felt then was something I remembered, too. I was terrified and missing my mommy and daddy, whom upuntil that point I'd never separated from. Those memories didn't just leave, unfortunately, as young as I'd been and for as short of a time as I'd endured it, so I couldn't begin to imagine what it must've been like for Alana.

That was the only experience I could slightly relate to my birth mother with - being kidnapped at a young age. But whereas I was rescued after mere days and wolves were looking for me the whole time, her kidnappers had been all she knew before she died, and anyone who would've come looking for her was either dead or believed she was.

I hadn't thought about that in years, and the last nightmare I'd had about it was years ago, too, nothing after that, but with all the stress and thoughts of the last few days, the tension with my parents and not knowing whether they were okay or not, mad at me or not, because each of us was too stubborn to break first, was getting to me.

For now, however, all I could do was eat breakfast, then turn on my laptop for online classes.

***

After my classes were done for the day, I could finally make my way to the pack's library. It was a building about a twenty-minute run from the pack house with an old and rustic feel to it that Liv and I loved when we were younger. I wasn't much of a reader anymore, but she still loves books and has her nose stuck in one more often than not. When she's not painting or baking, that was. She listens to audiobooks then.

For the past week, I'd had exams in nearly every class I was taking, so instead of researching my heritage and birth mother, I was researching physics, chemistry, math, and all that. Not to mention it was exam week for everyone in this pack too, meaning the library had been packed with students, leaving me physically unable to do anything.

I could only use the library when no one else was there, or at least when very few wolves were there, to protect the secret. It would be suspicious if I just randomly started hanging out in my uncle, the Alpha's, office, unfortunately, sothe library was all I had as the files couldn't be transferred to another device for safety reasons. Not only would it look extremely bad in front of the Elder's council, but it could also put his entire pack in danger if the files were to appear in the wrong hands, and I'd promised to be cautious.

Besides, if the male who created me heard I was digging around for his identity after he'd gone to such lengths to hide it, and if he was of high rank as I suspected, he might send wolves after me and my family and causing anyone of my loved ones pain was something I knew I would avoid at all cost.

There was a computer here, though, in the conference room, that my uncle used whenever he was in a meeting that required more space than he had in his office, so all information was synced to it. The room was heavily guarded, naturally, but if the Alpha said it was to be used by his niece, it would be used by his niece.

Except everyone would think I'm working on some special project between Blood Moon and Silver Claws. Which I guessed, in a way, was true.

"Miss Hope," one of the guards in front of the room greeted me as I approached, the other simply tipping his chin. "The Alpha warned me you would be here, so just let us know if you need anything," the male smiled, and I thanked him as I walked inside, exhaling when the door finally clicked shut.

I stood against the wall, watching the chair I was meant to sit in, then the computer I was going to open in a few seconds. That device could lead me to my birth mother, to anything about her. It could potentially lead me to the monster whose blood I carried or any siblings I might have from females he's abused.

All that stood between me and the truth, was the computer and a few hours of research.

***

Hours later, however, and I knew that a few hours was a very bad misunderstanding. There were thousands of transactions, properties, wolves, and everything in between to look through, and because I was the only one who would be actively doing research, I was certain it would take me a year, if not years, of work.

I'd started by looking through females who lived in the pack at the time Alana was supposed to be here, looking for a fake name or identity her buyer could've given her, but that was a decade and a half ago and so much information had been lost already.

I banged my head against the large circular wooden table, groaning in frustration when yet another file I checked didn't have anything to do with Alana. And since it was possible that there was a fake picture put in her file, if she had one at all, which was highly unlikely, every detail had to be checked manually, taking up even more time.

A knock on the door startled me out of my self-pity, Beyla walking inside the room and taking a seat next to me.

"Anything?" I shook my head, another groan spilling from my lips.

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I've checked like twenty females and not one has even the slightest hint of not being who they say they are."

"Have you checked for the male who, you know, bought her?" I shook my head.

"Not yet. I wanted to see if there was any chance of finding her file first." Beyla sent me a reassuring smile, gesturing at the computer.

"Search for his file!" She demanded.

I exhaled a heavy breath, my eyes exhausted from staring at a flashing screen all day, but complied, entering the males' database and filtering the files to those few years that I needed, then scrolled down to his letter, beginning to filter through all the other documents until I landed on his name.

"There," I pointed at his file so Beyla could see, "this one's his!"

"Open it!" She urged, her leg bouncing in anticipation under the table.

She was almost as invested as I was. Clicking on the document, however, my mouth fell into a frown, my eyebrows drawing together.

"That can't be right," I mumbled to myself, Beyla staring expectantly at me as I clicked through buttons and scrolled with the mouse.

But there was nothing. Nothing but his name, his birthday, death day, and that he resided in the pack house, whichwasn't true. It couldn't be. Everything else had been wiped out.

"f**k!" I threw the mouse down, covering my face with my hands as I felt my frustration boil over. I needed to shift and go on a run before I destroyed something expensive I couldn't pay for.

"What? What's wrong?" Beyla inched closer, taking a peek over my shoulder. "What the-" She didn't finish her sentence, as astonished as I was.

"Someone was protecting him," I seethed.

Why was it only the bad guys that always got away with everything?

A/N

Hi, Treasures! Make sure you join my F-a-c-e-b-o-o-k group Teddy's Treasures for extra content and discussions! One step forward, two back, but at least now you have a little insight into what happened to Hope when she was kidnapped!