The Shadow of a Luna
Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Chapter 22

Tyler called for two warriors to take Adam to the dungeon and don’t take their eyes off of him. He is to stay there until Tyler tells them otherwise. And after they took Adam I sat on the couch still in shock.

"Did you actually feel an Alpha aura coming off of me?" I asked.

"No. It was something different. It was powerful. But it wasn’t an Alpha aura. It was something completely different. And your eyes." Tyler says sitting next to me.

"What about my eyes?" I asked.

"We all know that vampires can compel people by staring into their eyes and making them do whatever they want?" He asked.

"Yeah. What’s that got to do with me?" I asked.

"Your pupils were pulsating while you were commanding him to speak." Tyler says.

"Holy shit. I have vampire powers. Why are they only coming out now? What the fuck is happening to me? This isn’t me. This isn’t what I do." I say. But Tyler held my hand and made me look at him.

"I think you’re missing the bigger picture. You actually got that rat bastard to talk. Which means we now know why he’s here. He doesn’t owe money to a loan shark. He was sent here for you. A rival of my father’s wants me as a bargaining chip. To use against my father. Adam is probably the reason why they attacked. Because he isn’t moving fast enough by delivering you." Tyler explained.

"Oh shit. Soomeone else who wants to kill me. What the hell did I ever do to get so many people to hate me? I’m sorry that I was born. Obviously that just fucked everything up." I yelled.

"Hey, don’t even say that again. You being born is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Don’t ever forget that. And they aren’t going to take you." He says.

"And what if they keep killing innocent people. I can’t sit back and let it happen now that I know what they want." I say.

"You aren’t giving yourself up. No way in hell." He says.

"Why the hell did my mother have to have so many secrets?" I asked.

"I don’t know. I think the only secret was who you’re real father was. And she kept that secret for a good reason. But she didn’t keep it from you. You actually met him once." Tyler says.

"I was 5. I barely remember him." I say. Tyler pulled me to his chest and started rubbing my back to calm me down. " Come on Tyler. We have to go and notify the families of the dead." I say pulling back.

"You’re coming too?" He asked.

"Well, I am the Luna." I say. And he smiled as he stood up from the couch and we needed to go to make the notifications to all the families.

We lost 8 warriors in this battle. That’s the most we’ve lost in a long time. Tyler says that the last time they lost more than that was when they went to war with a different pack about 10 years ago. His father was still in charge. And that pack wanted this one. So they tried to take it. Apparently they lost about 25 warriors in that battle. Tyler was only 15 but he was fighting along side his father. And Rachel’s brother. That’s why he felt obligated to her for so long. Her brother died saving Tyler’s life. And her father also died in that battle.

We made the notifications and the clean up was done from the battle so we headed back to the packhouse but no one was really that hungry. Everyone knew the men that died. Everyone except me. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

So I left everyone in the kitchen drinking their sorrows away and I went to the office and closed the door. I grabbed a heap of files out of the filing cabinet and I sat at the desk and started looking through them.

They were files on every single member of this pack and they all had a little photo attached. Just like a school record. So I started memorizing the face with the name. I wanted to know my pack. I needed to know who everyone was in this pack.

It was going to take a long time. There were thousands of people to get to know. So it was good that I had a great memory. And I was determined to do this.

Tyler finally found me in the office at around 11pm that night and he walked over to see the files that I had already looked at.

"I need to know who they are. 8 men died today and I didn’t even know them. That’s not going to happen again." I say determined to know everyone.

"I get that. But you can’t do it in one night." He says.

"I have an eidetic memory. I can do it." I say.

"Are you serious? You never told me that." He says shocked.

"That’s because there were more important things that you needed to know about me first. But I can look at these people’s photos, say their names two or three times and then I will remember them. And it will be like I grew up in this pack. I will know everyone. I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner." I say scolding myself.

"Tessa. It’s late. Let’s go to bed. We’ve had a big day. You can pick this up again tomorrow. I promise. I won’t stop you. But you have to be exhausted." He says.

"I am. But right now I am also hating myself too much to calm down." I say. But Tyler grabbed both of my hands and pulled me up from the chair.

He pulled me to his chest and I knew that he could feel my guilt and shame and that’s what he was trying to take away from me. Trying to calm me down. But it only slightly worked.

"Are we interrogating Adam again tomorrow. We need more answers. And you definitely need me there to do it." I say.

"Yeah. We’ll be talking to him again." Tyler says holding my hand and taking me from the office.

I couldn’t even really grasp my own emotions right now. So I could just imagine how Tyler was feeling. Trying to process his own emotions plus mine as well. Because I could feel that his were all over the place. But he was mostly worried about me.

We both had a shower together and got dressed and climbed into bed. I lied on my side looking out the window and Tyler snuggled up behind me with his arm around me. And that was actually soothing enough to make me go to sleep.

***************************

"Addison. I’m over here." A british voice said from behind some boulders. And my mother was dragging me through the woods until we were out of our territory. We walked around behind the large boulders and there was a man with blonde hair and blue eyes standing there.

He hugged my mother straight away and then he looked down at me.

"This is her. This is Tessa. Your daughter." Mom said. And Angelo crouched down to my level.

"You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." He says.

"Thank you. You’re my daddy?" I asked.

"I am. But no one is allowed to know. Not yet." He says.

"I know. Mommy explained it to me. My other daddy will hurt us both really bad if he finds out." I say very straight forward.

"She’s only 6. How does she know that stuff?" Angelo asked standing up.

"Daniel is getting a little more out of control. He’s drinking more." Mom admitted.

"It’s time for you two to get out of there. Now. You need to get Tessa out of there." Angelo says.

"I don’t know how. He already suspects something. I had to loose my guards to come here today. And that wasn’t easy. That’s why we’re late." Mom explained.

"You need to get the hell out of there. I will be waiting for you tomorrow. Pack whatever you two need and meet me back here. We will get as far away from here as possible. I promise." Angelo says.

"I will do my best. I love you Angelo." Mom says.

"I love you too baby." He says before he kisses her.

The following morning my mother ushered me out of the house really quickly when her and dad were fighting and I spent the morning playing with Bella and annoying Ethan, Wyatt and Tobias. That was a lot of fun. But when Bella was called back to her house for lunch then I had to go home too.

When I walked up the front stairs I saw the door was ripped off the hinges and I slowly walked inside to see the whole house trashed. I walked inside slowly and I heard some noise coming from the other side of our dining room table that was on it’s side.

I slowly walked around there when I saw my mother with her throat slit open by claws and deep claw wounds in her stomach as well. She raised her hand to me and I ran over to her crying and crouched next to her and held her hand. She couldn’t talk because of the injuries to her throat. She was too badly injured. She sqeezed my hand and I was crying hysterically.

"HELP ME. SOMEONE HELP ME." I screamed. But no one came. My mother tried to say something to me but it made no sense to me. I couldn’t understand her. And then her head fell to the side and her whole body went limp. I knew that she was gone. She was dead.

I then heard heavy footsteps slowly walk to the room and I looked up to see Daniel standing there wiping his hands with an old rag.

"She must have been attacked bt a rogue. I’ll let the Alpha know." He says casually as he walked out of the room. And he left me there. A 6 year old girl holding her dead mother who was crying hysterically.

I knew the truth about what happened to my mother. I didn’t need to be there to know it. And I knew that the Alpha wouldn’t do anything either. He was Daniel’s best friend and would always cover for him.

*************************

I woke up with a jolt but luckily I didn’t wake Tyler. It was still dark outside and my heart was pounding and I was shaking a little.

When I calmed down slightly I still got dressed and I jogged around the boarder of the territory. But I only attempted one lap today and it was still dark when I got back to the packhouse. So I had a shower and I got dressed and I sat at my drawing station set up at the window.

I put my sketch book on the easel and I grabbed a lead pencil and I started sketching the face in my dream. The man that I remember to be my real father. Angelo. He was nice to me. He was concerned. He wanted to take us away from Daniel. So why didn’t he try to find us when we didn’t show up. Why didn’t he come to find me when mom never showed up. If he knew that she died, why didn’t he come for me. I had myself convinced that it was because he only wanted me if mom was there too. He didn’t want me unless I was with her.

When Tyler woke up he rolled out of bed and walked over to where I was.

"How long have you been awake?" He asked.

"About three hours." I say.

"It’s barely sunrise now." He says shocked.

"I know. I’ve been for my jog and now I am drawing Angelo. What I remember of him from my dream last night." I say.

"You dreamt about him?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah. And there is so much shit that doesn’t add up. It wasn’t just a dream. It was a memory. I know that it was. When mom took me to meet him. We were going to run away with him but my mother died the next day. My father killed her when he found out." I admitted.

"I always suspected that’s how she died." He says.

"Yeah. But why didn’t Angelo come for me. Did he just want me if I was with mom? Was I too much of a burden? And why the fuck do I care so much? He’s a heartless soulless vampire. Why the fuck do I care?" I asked almost yelling. And I could feel my wolf Shiloh scratching in my mind. "Shiloh is going nuts." I say.

"Who’s Shiloh?" He asked.

"My wolf." I say.

"I like that name. Come on. She needs to go for a run. That’s the only thing that will calm her down. And she definitely needs it right now." Tyler says grabbing a shirt and leading me outside.

The warriors knew what I looked like. They knew how big my wolf was and that I was white.

Tyler and I went to the woods and he told the patrols to stay clear of this area for a while because I was pretty worked up. He didn’t want them getting hurt by mistake.

Tyler got me to shift first and it was slightly quicker but still hurt a lot while I shifted and he shifted right after me. And we started running through the woods. I could feel Eli nipping at my ankles trying to play. And Shiloh was playing around with her just as much. She was loving it.

We had been running around for a while when Tyler let the patrols to a quick sweep through the area and then they cleared out again while we sat back and watched them. Shiloh was flirting with Eli the whole time. The little hussy. And once the patrols ran back the other way after their sweep we started running around again. Feeling the wind in my fur and the ground under my paws, it felt perfect.

But it was short lived. I felt it when the wind picked up and I noticed how close we were to the boarder. It suddenly got dark and the mist started appearing again but this time I saw someone. An actual person. A women with jet black hair standing on the other side of the boarder wearing a long black and red gothic looking dress with her hands up in the air. She was commanding the mist. Her eyes were black as well when she looked at me.

"Tesssssa." She hissed out while staring straight at me.