Chapter 10: The Buried Records

Devlin's POV

I didn't sleep. Not after what I heard. Not after the way Jason looked at me when I asked if Chloe was pregnant.

It's mine.

Those two words wouldn't leave me alone. They just kept playing over and over, like my brain wanted to make sure I never forgot the sound of his voice saying them. At some point, I wondered if he slept in one of the guest rooms.

Anyway, I'm glad he did. I didn't want him anywhere near me. And for the first time since I met him, I didn't care anymore. I was too tired of chasing after a man who'd already decided that our bond meant nothing to him.

Sleep finally took me sometime near morning, shallow and useless. When I woke up, the sun was already coming through the curtains, and my body felt like it belonged to someone else. Heavy. Wrong. I turned my head towards his side of the bed. I was used to his scent. Cedar and rain. But now it smelled faint, making the hollow in my chest feel worse.

My head pounded when I sat up. I hadn't had enough sleep. I dragged myself to the bathroom, and the woman in the mirror looked like she'd been run over by a train. My skin had lost its glow. My eyes were swollen and tired. I turned the shower on hot and let it beat down on me, but it didn't fix anything. It just made me wet and still exhausted.

I pulled on a loose cream blouse and dark trousers, leaving my hair down. I didn't touch any makeup today. I didn't have it in me to pretend today was a good one.

A knock came at the door.

"Come in."

One of the maids stepped inside. She was young, with warm eyes and neatly braided hair.

"Good morning, Luna Devlin."

"Good morning."

She hesitated in the doorway.

"Breakfast is ready downstairs. Alpha Jason and his parents are already at the table."

Just the thought of sitting across from them made my stomach turn.

I shook my head.

"I'm not going down."

"Should I say you're not feeling well?"

I almost laughed. Not feeling well. That was one way to put it.

"No," I said.

"Just have breakfast brought up here." "Yes, Luna."

She turned to go.

"Wait. What's your name?"

"Mara."

"Mara." I nodded.

"Bring it up when it's ready."

She came back a few minutes later with a tray and set it on the table by the window.

"Thank you," I said.

She gave me this sympathetic, but careful look before leaving without a word.

I stared at the food longer than I ate it. I wasn't hungry but I made myself eat anyway. Not for Jason but for myself. I needed whatever strength I could force into my body.

Halfway through, footsteps passed outside my door. They stopped. My heart locked up in that pause before they kept walking. I knew that walk anywhere.

It was Jason.

My fork was set down. I didn't want him near me today. Maybe not tomorrow either. I finished what I could stomach, pushed the tray away, and sat by the window.

The morning stretched out ahead of me with no Luna duties waiting for me. No council meetings, no pack reports, no injured wolves waiting on me. That emptiness scared me more than I expected. Because without the Red Moon Pack, who was I?

That question sat with me until another one pushed its way in.

What did I actually know about myself?

I knew my mother's name. And that she had died after giving birth to me and my father had never liked talking about her.

Whenever I asked questions about where she came from, the answers were always short. She was from West Africa. That was about as much as I'd ever been told. I'd never questioned it enough before. Maybe because there had always been something else demanding my attention. My duties as Luna, The pack, and Jason.

But now, sitting alone with my thoughts, I couldn't stop wondering why my father had been so secretive about something as simple as my mother's past. And if there was more to my birth than I'd been told? I needed to know.

I wasn't going to ask my father yet. Knowing him well enough, he'll only tell me what he wanted me to hear. The Pack clinic was the right place to visit. If there were records about my mother, that was the only place I could find them.

I grabbed my bag and left the house.The clinic was quiet. I'd been there many times as Luna, but never for something this personal.I walked through the familiar hallway, nodding at the few faces that recognized me. Some stared. News moved fast in the pack, but I didn't care. I approached the reception desk.

"Excuse me."

The woman behind the desk looked up. "Yes, Luna?"

"I need to visit the old archives."

Her expression changed slightly.

"May I ask why, Luna?"

"For some research."

She hesitated. "Those are old records,and they're not usually available without authorization."

"Then find out who can authorize it." I said.

The lady seemed surprised by my tone but nodded. "Of course, Luna."

She disappeared through a door at the back. I waited, my thoughts running in every direction. A few minutes later, an older woman came out. She looked at me, then at the receptionist.

"You're here for the old archives? What section would you like to research?"

"My mother's records. And mine."

The old woman stared at me uncomfortably, as if she was afraid someone else might hear, then motioned for me to follow her. We entered a small office, and she closed the door behind us.

"Those records are restricted," she said.

She looked uncomfortable. "Your father placed the restriction himself."

My heart skipped.

"He did?" She nodded.

"Years ago."

"Why would he do that?"

"I don't know. I wasn't the one who placed it."

She paused before adding, "Your father gave the order directly. The original records were removed from the regular archives."

"Removed?"

"Yes."

I stared at her. "Where are they now?"

She hesitated. "I don't know if they're still here."

My frustration rose. "Do you know anything about my mother? You're one of the oldest staff members in this clinic. Surely you must have met her sometime. Anything at all? Please?"

The woman studied me with a pitiful expression before finally speaking.

"I met your mother briefly. At that time, she was pregnant and already in labour. We never really spoke to each other."

She lowered her eyes. "Your mother died shortly after giving birth to you. She was already very weak."

I swallowed. "What happened to her?"

"We never found out everything. There were complications, but the records we have are incomplete."

"I don't understand?"

"Your father took the original delivery logs and replaced them with a restricted version."

My chest tightened. "What does the restricted version say?"

"Very little. Only the basic details of your birth."

"And my mother?"

The woman shook her head. "Very little about her background. She wasn't from any pack in our territory. She was an outsider, from West Africa."

I looked up. "West Africa?"

"That's what was recorded. There were no pack marks on her file and no regional lineage stamps. Her history was unusually incomplete."

I sat there trying to make sense of it. My mother had come here from West Africa, married my father, gave birth to me, and died shortly afterwards. Yet somehow, even her history had been left almost completely blank.

Why? Why would my father hide something like this from me?

"Is there anything else?"

"I'm sorry, Luna. That's all I can tell you."

I believed her. She wasn't hiding anything. She simply didn't have the answers I was looking for.

"Thank you very much." I said. Fixing my blouse, my heart still racing, and walked out into the sun.

I stood there for a second, thinking about my mother, whose history seemed to have been deliberately buried. Jason wasn't the only one who'd been keeping secrets from me. My own family had buried something too.

The thought of confronting my dad came to mind, but I decided against it. Not yet. I needed to be quiet about this so I wouldn't raise eyebrows or create too much suspicion. If my father had gone this far to hide the truth, I couldn't risk letting him know I was digging.

Whatever my mother left behind, whatever my father hid—I was going to find it. I'd spent years proving I could run an entire pack with no wolf of my own. Now, I was going to stop at nothing until I found the truth about who I actually was.