Alfie's POV
When I'd gone back to the library to gather Callie's things I'd spotted one of our packs old birth record books on a shelf.
It occurred to me that before everything digitalised around ten years ago all pack records where paper based.
I had the idea to check Callie's birth record online, of course there wasn't one. But I'd found the record of her entering the foster care system.
Details including the town she was found and attempts made of tracking down her birth parents were all there.
What caught my attention was that the human town called Redwood was directly adjacent to the Earthshine pack borders.
The Earthshine pack was a lot smaller than ours, they kept to themselves and rarely attended any gathering or functions involving other packs.
My mind raced through every detail I knew about the pack when a vivid memory stuck out.
Our Grandmother had told us of the Earthshine pack, it was older than ours, I remembered asking why it was called that and my Grandmother explained it was named after the part of the moon that was hidden when a crescent moon was visible.
My heart raced as the possibility smacked me in the face.
Earthshine was Shining Crescent, a new name concealing their true identity.
After I'd raced to get the others and Callie, who was defiantly refusing to know of her own history I sat and waited in the car for the others to join me.
I didn't understand why someone didn't want to know where they came from.
My brothers and I were from a long line of strong alphas. Our heritage directly linked to one of the first packs in this territory.
It gave me comfort knowing this, that my strength and ability to lead a pack was literally running through my veins.
"Kane is taking Callie to Jaz' place, he'll meet us at the border." Jax huffed as he settle in the passenger seat of my car.
The rear door clicked open and Knox climbed into the back.
"So…where exactly are we going?" Knox broke the silence filling my car.
I ran my hands through my hair, itching to get on the road, my little patience wavering.
"I'll explain when Kane gets here." I gritted out, as the engine roared to life and I began driving towards our pack boarders.
My brothers, sensing my stress, stayed quiet.
I was usually the calm one, collected and organised with a strong rein on my wolf. But something was making my wolf particularly agitated and I couldn't put my finger on it.
When Jax said Callie was going to Jaz' place I had to refrain from growling.
Jaz had always been in our lives and thanks to Jax and hers relationship as teens, she was beginning to resemble a bad smell we couldn't get rid of. Her inability to respect our decision to wait for our fated, constantly hanging around, flirting and playing damsel in distress with Jax… it really rubbed me and my wolf up the wrong way.
Don't get me wrong, she was harmless, just hopelessly hung up on Jax and a childhood dream of becoming our luna.
My thoughts were interrupted by Kane climbing into the car. "Callie's safe, she's at Jaz'.. Levi will contact me if they turn up to the club, I do not want a repeat of the last time she was there." He chatted to our brothers as I continued driving.
"Soo.. care to tell us what your important lead is?" Knox drew his attention to me. I glanced up in the rearview mirror, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. I could tell they thought this was a wild goose chase. We'd been searching endlessly for the tiniest bit of information about Callie's history, so me finding something on a whim was bound to appear inaccurate.
I pulled the car to the side of the road before cutting the engine and turning to face my brothers.
"I found Callie's foster records online, the first one was an appeal notice in a local paper…I guess to see if they'd come back for her..it was posted by a paper in Redwood." I began, my brothers blinked at me as they tried putting the pieces together.
"Redwood… a human town right next to Earthshine pack territory." I continued slowly, waiting for them to connect the dots.
I was becoming impatient, my wolf paced in my head-"Earthshine?! As in Crescent! , remember the pack Grandmother used to tell us about?!" I raised my voice, frustration brewing.
"That's got to be her pack… it all makes sense." Jax mumbled to himself.
Finally! Someone understood.
"So what now? We can just turn up at their borders and demand to see their birth records." Kane added.
"Or ask if they're the pack AlphaLunas come from…they'll never tell us that." Knox agreed.
These were things I'd already thought of. I called the elder council before I told them I'd found something, one elder is an friend of the Earthshadow pack's alpha and I'd asked them to speak with him to explain our situation.
"Earthshadow are expecting us." I said matter of factly.
"Why did I not expect that? You never did like a loose end." Jax chuckled.
Kane and Knox rolled their eyes playfully.
It's true, my organisation and need for details and information could be likened to OCD.
I started the engine and continued on the road towards Earthshadow a smug look tugging on my face.
"We just have a quick detour to make." I said darkly. My wolf knowing my plans paced eagerly in my mind growling lowly.
Jax stilled, I rarely let my wolf take over, any utterance of my wolf making an appearance spelled trouble.
Whilst I was put together, a clear thinker with a head for business and critical strategising.. my wolf, Hunter was the total opposite. I've only ever lost control over Hunter on one occasion.
Shortly after turning eighteen, my brothers and I had joined the border patrol on their rounds as part of our training. I was in my wolf form when rogues attacked, somehow they'd entered our borders.
I heard the scream of a little girl and ran straight towards the sound, when I got to a clearing in the woods I found one of our pack members children trapped under the grasp of a rogue. She must've been only six or seven.
I saw red.
My wolf took over completely.
I didn't remember what happened that afternoon, I came to in the pack cells.
Chained.
My brothers looked sick, unable to look at me in the eye.
They refused to tell me what I'd done, I later discovered from one of our warriors, that I had gone feral, my wolf completely destroyed the rogues that came onto our pack lands.
I was horrified at what I was capable of and made a vow to keep my wolf on a tight leash.