CHAPTER TWO

Serena's POV

“Mummy see I found the necklace you were looking for”Aria said lifting up the golden chain in the air.

Her little hands swung in the air.

“Thank you baby,”I said.

“Now go inside, you know mummy doesn't like you coming out of the house, it's not safe for you yet, there are so many dangerous wolves out there”

“But mummy, I want to play with the other kids,”she said, stumping her little feet on the ground aggressively.

“No”I said and pulled her into the house, her screams filled the air.

She had his stubborn spirit, I tried everyday to forget him but it was hard when your daughter looks exactly the same as the man you're trying to forget.

Same dark hair, same grey eyes.

It was like a piece of him was still with me.

Aria went to a corner to sit quietly, it broke my heart that I couldn't give her the freedom she wanted but I couldn't risk getting her exposed, if anyone were to find out who she really was and who her father was, they might try to use her to get to him, To make matters worse, I was in a remarkably dangerous position as a member of the pack council.

Looking back, it felt surreal just a few years ago. I arrived here as a broken woman with a child and nothing to my name, and now, everything was on the line.

As I stepped out of the house, I collided right into a solid chest.

I looked up to see Alpha Dorian.

“Alpha Dorian,” I said, catching my breath. 

“What brings you here so late?”

His expression was stern. “There was an incident at the border. We found an unconscious man, and we’re in the middle of an investigation to figure out what happened.”

“We need you to take up the case,”he said.

“You should have just sent someone to come and tell me, you didn't have to come here yourself”

“No, I wanted to do it myself,”he said.

I sighed, he took a great risk coming to this far from town alone, I lived in a small house still on pack grounds but it was a little bit far from the main village.

“Come by the pack house later to check it out”he said then looked around the yard.

“Where's Aria?”he asked.

“Oh I sent her inside” I said.

“Don't you think you're hiding her too much, I know you're trying to protect her but sometimes you need to let her come out and see the world so she can learn things by herself”

“She's learning things here already,”I muttered.

“I don't want her to experience what I experienced, I had no one to show me what was wrong and what was right, I had no one to protect me but my daughter won't experience that, I will protect her”I said.

He placed an arm over my shoulders, sensing just how deeply this felt to me. I had come so far and my life had finally improved, but I would never forget the cold ache of being treated like an outsider in my own pack.

“Don’t worry Aria will be fine,”he said.

***

After going through some documents, I cleaned up the house and fed Aria. Being a single mother and a high-ranking pack council member wasn't easy, but at least I had my friend Lysa to help take care of my daughter.

The front door swung open, and Lysa walked in with her heavy bag in hand.

“Hey, Cherry,” she said, waving at me.

“Hey! Aria is in her room. I'm heading to the pack house to do some investigating, but I'll be right back,” I replied. “I put her snacks in the fridge in case she wants any.”I said before leaving.

I got to the pack house after a few minutes, the distance from my house to the pack house wasn't that much.

I saw the head security officer at the pack house.

“Miss Voss, thank goodness you're here, we were just about to head to the border”he said.

“Would you like to join us”

I nodded slowly, and within minutes, we were on our way to the pack border road.

Lance, the head security officer, decided to bring three other men from the team along. All four wore heavy armored vests, their faces set with quiet discipline as we moved toward the perimeter.

The distance from the pack house to the border was a bit far, so we had to walk a long way.

As we reached the borderlands, the acrid stench of decay, a mix of dead animals and rotting plants, heavy in the air greeted us. Scorched trunks and brittle, dried-up branches stretched out in every direction. 

The borderlands were a desolate wasteland. No one dared live here except for the rogues and wildlings. It was nothing but parched ground, towering trees, and by far the most perilous stretch of the pack lands.

I froze, spotting a fresh trail of blood mixed with scrambled footprints.

“I think this is the exact spot they found him,” Lance said, stepping up beside me.

“Okay,” I murmured, crouching to examine the crimson trail more closely.

The man must have been here for a while; the spot where he had lain unconscious was soaked through with heavy, dark blood.

“Did he survive?” I asked, looking up at Lance.

“Huh?”

“The man they found here, is he still alive?”

“Yeah,” Lance replied. “He’s with the pack’s healer.”

“Okay, I need to go check out his wound. I think he was attacked, but I don't know what attacked him,” I said, looking down at the ground closely.

I spotted a strange ring resting on the floor, its diamond design catching the light. Bending down, I picked it up. The symbol etched onto the surface looked suspiciously familiar, and I searched my memory, trying to place where I’d seen it before.

Then it hit me, this looked a lot like the Blackthorn Pack symbol.

“What's that?” Lance asked.