The Lost Luna’s second chance

6: A MOTHER'S WORRY.

EX-LUNA ROSE ADAMS.

I felt a sense of unease as I headed downstairs. In her twenty-three years on this earth, Violet had never once broken plans with me without letting me know. It just wasn’t like her. I approached my daughter’s office door and saw movement through the frosted glass panel. Perhaps Lucas had been right, and she had simply been distracted by something. I knocked rather than just pushing the door open. It still felt odd knocking on this door; it had been my office not that long ago. I heard a crash from inside and opened the door to make sure that my daughter was okay. To my surprise, it wasn’t Violet that I found inside, but Amy, the beta’s sister. She had come to the Moonlit Sky pack with her brother when Lucas was getting ready to take over as pack alpha from my husband. I hadn’t really warmed up to her. She was an attention-hungry twenty-year-old wannabe it girl. Honestly, she got on my nerves.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked. She stared at me like a deer caught in the headlights. I saw the glass wolf that Violet’s grandmother had given her lying broken on the floor. I guessed that had been the crash that I’d heard. “What happened?” I asked, even though she hadn’t answered my first question yet. “I was just moving it, and you knocked, making me jump. I dropped it, but it wasn’t my fault. You startled me,” she replied, her explanation more accusatory than apologetic. I bent down to pick up the pieces. I doubted that it could be fixed, but I knew how much that ornament meant to Violet. I repeated my first question, but instead of answering, Amy simply picked up her jacket, mumbled something about needing to be somewhere, and rushed off.

I put the broken pieces of the wolf on the desk and looked around. What had she been up to in here? A few things had been moved around, almost as if she were rearranging the room for some reason. I left, locking the door behind me. Violet had asked me to keep a key to her office when I turned it over to her, just in case she ever needed me to deal with something for her. I still had no idea where my daughter was. I tried calling her mobile again, but, as earlier, it went straight to voicemail. I had tried to mind-link with her before going to her bedroom, but hadn’t been able to reach her; that’s why I had assumed that she had overslept. I tried again, but still I couldn’t even feel Violet. I took a deep breath and headed back to the suite that my husband and I had moved to when we stepped down as Alpha and Luna. I needed to speak with Charles at once. Something was definitely amiss with our daughter.

EX-ALPHA CHARLES ADAMS.

The moment my wife entered the room, I could see that something was wrong. Her brow was furrowed, and she was biting her lip the way that she had always done when she was worried about something. “What’s the matter, Rosie?” I asked, using my pet name for her. “Charlie, I’m pretty sure that something is wrong with Violet. I can’t find her, and she is not reachable,” she told me. “Are you sure that she didn’t just go for a run or something?” I asked. Rose shook her head, “We had breakfast plans. She would have let me know. I can’t even feel her. Honey, I am worried,” she said. She was right, it wasn’t like our daughter to disappear without telling us. “I assured her that I would look into it.

I decided to start with my son-in-law. He and Violet may not be mates, but they did claim to have fallen in love during their time together. I would never have let the wedding go ahead unless they had felt some affection for each other. We may have needed a suitable husband for Violet, so that we could pass the pack down to them, but I would never wish a loveless marriage on anyone, let alone my only daughter. I went to find Lucas, not caring if I had to wake him. I knocked on the door to the Alpha quarters and waited. After a few moments, he opened the door, looking a little groggy.

“Charles, what seems to be the problem?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. “It’s Violet. Her mother can’t find or contact her. It is very unlike my daughter to allow her mother to worry like this. Do you have any idea where she might be?” I asked. He stood up straight, suddenly more alert now. “I don’t. She was already gone when I got back from poker this morning. Let me try and mind link with her,” he said. I watched as his eyes changed and he attempted to reach out to Violet. His eyes returned to normal, and he shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “We need to find her,” I told him. He nodded and stepped back into the room. “Let me get dressed quickly, and we will go and look for her,” he replied. I sent a text to my ex-beta while I waited. Outside of my wife and daughter, there was no one on this earth whom I trusted more than Robert. He had been by my side my whole life; he was like a brother to me. Besides that, he was a damn good tracker.

By the time that Lucas and I made it down to the pack house lobby, Robert was already there waiting for us with a small group of the pack warriors. He was just finishing up explaining the situation as we knew it to them. Rose was standing close by listening. I approached her and told her not to worry, that we would find Violet and everything would be fine. She gave me a small, weak smile and kissed my cheek. “I knew that I could count on you,” she said softly. I kissed her forehead in return, “Always,” I replied. I joined the others, and we headed out. We split into three smaller groups. I went with Robert and two of the warriors. An older warrior named John, who had been in my service for years, and a younger man named Nick, who had joined the pack with Lucas.

The other groups headed off in different directions, but we held back a moment. I took a piece of Violet’s clothing from inside my jacket. It was an old, faded, heavily worn t-shirt featuring a band that she had always loved. Her scent was embedded deep into the fibers. Robert began to strip, knowing what I wanted without me having to say a word. He shifted, and I held out the t-shirt to his black-and-white wolf, Bruno. He breathed it in deeply and then suddenly took off running. He already knew Violet’s scent, of course; he was practically family. She had even grown up calling him Uncle Rob. The t-shirt was just to refresh and focus his mind. I could easily keep up with him even in my human form, being a pure-blooded Alpha, but John and Nick began to fall behind. Bruno didn’t stop until he reached the fence that marked the boundary of the pack lands. He sniffed around and then gestured with his head into the trees beyond. Telling me that she had left the pack grounds. “Well then, I guess we are heading out into the forest,” I said, to which he simply nodded.