The Alpha's Stolen Luna - Chapter 143: Chapter 143

: Sutton
“I don’t know…” I replied hesitantly, despite Nova pushing right up against our barrier.
She wasn’t trying to force a shift but rather make sure she didn’t miss anything. Her curiosity was almost overwhelming, and I had to admit, it was something I had wondered about myself. But it still felt like a road I wasn’t ready to go down yet.
‘No, it’s a road Lucas isn’t ready to go down,’ Nova admonished in my mind. ‘We are ready to find out who we are.’
‘Don’t be so sure,’ I retorted. ‘You have no idea what the consequences of us knowing will be.’
I chewed my lip as I wondered if I could out of the situation but my mind was drawing a blank. Maybe because Nova was right. I did want to know what he would say. I looked back at Soloman as he stood patiently.
“May I?” I asked, indicating the spot on the couch next to me.
I nodded, scooting over to give us plenty of room. He settled in, taking a moment before he spoke.
“I told you that King Osric and I grew up together, didn’t I?” he began.
I nodded. “You did. You said you were good friends.”
“Very good,” he replied. “In fact, I acted as his Beta for many years.”
“Oh…” I said in surprise. “I didn’t think that kings held to pack hierarchies.”
“Oh, yes,” Soloman confirmed. “It’s where the tradition began. He asked me to be his Beta when we were just teenagers. I was honored, of course, and I worked hard to serve him to the best of my abilities. That included looking after his children after the death of his mate, our High Luna. Has Lucas told you what it’s like for lycans to lose a fated mate?”
“He said it was extremely painful,” I said. “Both emotionally and physically. He said some lycans don’t survive the loss.”
“That’s true,” Soloman agreed. “King Osric was nearly one of them. It took months for him to regain the strength to face the world again. During that time, I helped Raphe and Leanetta through their grief.”
“How old were they?”
“Raphe was nine. Leanetta was six,” he said. “I’d like to say they didn’t understand much of what was going on but that wouldn’t be the truth. Lycans of all ages feel the bonds of family very deeply. Raphe tried to pretend nothing had changed but that caught up to him more than once in his life. Leanette… well, Leanetta clung to me. In a way I’d never expected.”
“It sounds like she was more of a daughter than a niece,” I commented, seeing the affection in the way he spoke about that time.
“For a time, she was,” he said. “But their father eventually recovered enough to take on that role once again. In fact, he leaned on the love of his children more than ever. He was a devoted parent and he doted on Leanetta. I remained close to them, keeping an active role in their lives as well as my role as the Royal Beta. I was honored to have the privilege of watching her grow up into a beautiful young woman. It made the discord within the family even harder to face.”
“Lucas said there was some controversy about the order of succession,” I said. “That’s what led to her death.”
Soloman nodded. “The country was divided. It never came to a full-on civil war. They preferred more covert and underhanded ways of fighting each other.”
“They? Leanetta went after her brother also?” I questioned.
“No one was entirely innocent in that fight, my dear,” Soloman stated bitterly. “She did what she had to do and she did it for the right reasons. Yet she never could manage to prove Raphe’s hostilities against her to Osric. At least, not enough for him to condemn his own son. So, the attempts to undermine her continued.”
“Eventually leading to her death,” I surmised. “But you believe she survived somehow. Why?”
“I suppose it was something I had hoped for a long time,” Soloman admitted. “She had come to me not long before, telling me she may need my help to disappear for a while. But there was something she had to take care of first. Then the accident happened. I thought it could have been her way of escaping. Like she had planned to do. There was one other person she would have asked to help her other than me. After the accident, I tried to contact her but she had gone missing. I searched for her for a long time. But after days and weeks and months went by and Leanetta hadn’t reached out to me at all, it became harder to believe she made it out.” Soloman trailed off, looking into the distance as he was lost in memory. “I stepped down as Beta after that. I had failed to protect Leanetta. I wasn’t worthy of the position anymore. But Osric still valued my abilities, so he insisted I continue my responsibilities on the Royal Council.”
“Which is what led you here,” I said.
“Precisely,” he said.
“Still, you said you saw a picture of my mother when you found my father,” I pointed out. “Lucas said you told him it wasn’t her.”
“The photo I saw looked different from the Leanetta I knew,” he said. “However, not enough to have a simple explanation. Even the eye color could be explained.”
“How is that?” I asked, wrinkling my nose.
“Leanetta liked to go out without being recognized,” he explained. “From the time she was a teenager, she craved independence from the overprotective tedium of royal life. It was hard to do that when you were as recognizable as she was.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. “She never knew, but I found out she had custom contacts made that completely hid her heterochromia.”
Pulling out a photo from the worn leather, he handed it to me.
My heart jumped into my throat. I stared at the image in my hand. My heart racing as I tried to contemplate what I was looking at. The differences were there. There was no denying that. But the similarities… This…
This was my mother.