Moon Marked by the Goddess

Five

I called the clinic this morning, and Loraine told me she'd come over to talk to me, after her shift. I decided not to waste any time, and asked my father if he would drive me over to the storage unit so I could look through the things my birth parents left behind. Hopefully looking through things will give me some answers, and distract me from my issues with Jackson.

He asked me if I wanted him to go in with me, and I told him no I had to do this by myself. So now I'm standing outside in the early afternoon heat looking at the storage unit door. It's orange, and opens from the bottom, like a garage door. I unlocked the door when I first arrived a few minutes ago, but ik unable to open it. Scared of what I'll find inside. What if my parents aren't the good people I always hoped they are?

Taking in a deep breath, I bend down and open the door. The movement causes quite a bit of dust to fly into the air. Fanning my hand in front of my face is doing little to keep all of the dust out of my nose and eyes. I take a step back, and take in a few long fulls of clean air, waiting a moment to the let the dust settle. When I look back up, the dust cloud has fallen, and I'm able to see into the room.

The room is about the size of my bedroom, so maybe 12 by 12. Right inside the doorway is a small nightstand with a small dusty picture frame. I pick it up, and wipe the dust off with my hand to get a look at the picture. It's of a man, and woman I recognize to be my birth parents. Their standing outside at the park behind the pack house. His arms around her waist as he hugs her from behind placing a kiss on her cheek. Sunshine hits her eyes, that look like pools of maple syrup. She's got the biggest smile on her face I've ever seen. Showing straight perfectly white teeth. Her hair looks to be dyed a bright red, that is pulled back into a ponytail, that seems to just be pulling the curls out of her face, because they are flowing off to the side of her, I'm assuming on a gentle breeze. My father's eyes are closed, but you can see the happiness on his face. As my wyea travel down the picture, I notice his hands are resting on her stomach which is very pronounced, it must be close to the end of her pregnancy with me. I the turn the frame around and unclasp the back, so I can remove the picture. Once the back is off a small folded piece of paper falls out onto the floor near my feet.

I put the frame down onto the table and pick up the paper, unfolding it.

'If you're reading this Rylan, just know I didn't want to leave you. There are things

I don't have time to explain. Find my green notebook, it will answer a lot of your questions. - I love you kiddo, Dad'

I look on the back of the note for more, and am met by blank paper. I quickly fold it, and slide the note under my shirt, into my bra. I don't want to take any chances of it sliding out of my pockets. I pick the frame up and look for another note, there isn't. I attach the back.

If he didn't want to leave me, someone made him, right? He didn't plan to leave me alone. Someone must have hurt him, but why would everyone tell me he'd been unable to live without his mate and leave me? Were the lying to me, or was his suic*de framed?

I pull the drawer to the night stand open, there's not much in it; just a few dollar bills, an old pack of gum, and 2 gold wedding bands. I take of the wedding bands I to get a closer look. The engraving on the smaller band says 'Elaine and James.' The engraving on the larger band says 'James and Elaine.' I put the bands in my front pocket, and feel my phone vibrating in the same pocket. I pull it out and look at the display screen 'Beta Bryce is calling' I answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey darling, was just calling to check on you. It's been almost an hour. I just want to make sure you're okay by yourself." He sounds genuinely concerned.

"I'm okay. I've just been looking at photos, and their wedding bands so far. This was harder than I thought it would be though. Can you pick me up when you're free, and we come back another day? Loraine is coming over in a little while."

"Yeah, I'll be right over. Give me about 10 minutes, okay? We can pick up some pizza on the way home for dinner." He says.

"Thanks dad, I'll see you soon." I hang up and slide the phone back into my pocket, beside the rings.

I walk toward the back of the storage unit, where there are several stacks of storage bins, and boxes. Nothing is labeled, so it's a crapshoot, but I have to look for that notebook. I open the first storage bin I get to. It's filled with pictures, I close it and move it to the side. Grabbing the next bin, I open it, and its filled with baby girl clothes. I quickly shut it, and move it. Trying not to dwell on the fact that they clearly wanted me so badly, and something took them away. I walk away from the bins and go to a box, ripping off the tape, it has a lot of worn books in it. I start pulling them out one by one examing, when a leather bound black notebook catches my eyes. I pull it out and open it. The handwriting is the same as the note I found. Flipping through the pages quickly it seems to be a diary.

A horn blaring draws my attention away from the book. Looking toward the entrance I see my dad's black pickup truck. He waves at me, offering a smile. I grab the notebook, and head out. On the way I grab the photo of my parents and tuck that under my arm with the diary. I pulled the door down, and secure the lock.

I hear the door opening and turn around to see my dad has leaned over and pushed the passenger's side door open for me. I climb in thanking him.

"Ry, I know you hate talking about your feelings, so I'll make this as quick and painless as I can. I love you, and if you need an ear to listen I'm here for you. I know today was very hard for you, but your strong and still standing. Now, what kind of pizza do you want?"

"Thank you." I say over a lump in my throat. "Just pineapples on my pizza, please." I know there's no way he's involved in what happened to my birth parents, but I can't talk about it yet.

We drive to the local pizza parlor in silence, which doesn't bother me, I have a lot on my mind. When we arrive, he pulls into a parking spot right in front of the building. Be tells me he's gonna run in and grab the food, and that I can stay in the truck.

A notice the car beside me looks just like Jackson's a little red four door sedan. I suddenly feel like the wind has been knocked out of me, and lain shooting through my chest. I look up to try and get my dad's attention and see Jackson kissing a girl, I can only see the back of her head. She has straight black hair, styled into a short bob. Jackson quickly backs away clutching his chest in what seems to be discomfort. Then he makes eye contact with me and looks almost guilty, but it is replaced with anger. The girl he is with turns her head to the side some, and I realize it's the Alpha's daughter frkm the neighboring pack, a little over an hour away. I don't remember her name, but she's from the New Moon pack, which split from our pack some time ago.

The pain is slowly being over washed by the feeling of shame. My mate would rather cause us both pain, than be with me how pathetic can I be?

My dad returns with 2 pizzas, and a dark look on his face. "If that boy doesn't act right soon, I want you to reject him. I don't give a d*mn if he is the future alpha, or my nephew he will not disrespect you like this."

"It's okay, can we please just go home now? I'm tired, and need a shower." I say hoping we dont have to talk about this anymore. I can't handle him seeing how badly Jackson has hurt me.