#4 Moonlight on the Water

Navy

Later that week, Jenna had gotten the maps copied over onto transparent paper so we could overlap them. We were in the archives with the maps laid out on the desk under the bright light of the lamp. Jenna carefully overlaid the maps and started turning them until they all lined up.

“It looks like the Luna quarters used to be here.” I said, pointing towards the older maps.

Now, there were five floors, but in the 60s the packhouse was only a two story building with a basement. It appeared that the new packhouse was built on top of the old, the contracters just adding on the two extra floors and expanding what was original. The Luna and Alpha’s quarters used to be in the basement.

“The Alpha and Luna slept in the dungeon?” Julia asked, making a face.

“It wasn’t the dungeon then. See? They had a seperate building for that.” Jenna said, pointing to another spot on the blueprints which detailed an outbuilding.

“Let’s get these to stay together.” I said, grabbing some tape. I started taping the overlaid blueprints together so I could carry the whole thing.

“Let’s go.” I said, nodding towards the door.

“Where are we going?” Julia asked.

“The basement.” I shrugged like it was obvious. Jenna laughed once before her face got serious,

“Oh Goddess, you’re serious.” She frowned.

“Well, yeah?” I pushed open the door.

“We can’t go to the basement, Navy, that’s where the prisoners are held. Only the Alpha, Beta, and Gamm are allowed down there.” Julia said, shaking her head quickly.

“Do you know where Dover is?” I asked the girls.

“I’m not sure, Natasha would know. Why?” Jenna shrugged,

“Knox said I could anywhere I wanted as long as I had Dover with me.” I said,

“Can you mindlink Natasha?” I asked. Jenna’s eyes went dark for a minute,

“He’s in his room. Natasha is going to have him meet us by the basement entrance.” She said.

“Now can we go?” I grumbled. The girls finally agreed and they led the way to the basement door.

Dover was already waiting for us with Natasha.

“What’s going on, Navy?” Dover asked, looking concerned.

“I need to go to the basement.” I stated plainly.

“What do you need in the dungeon?” He asked with a surprised expression.

“Knox said that you would take me wherever I wanted to go without question.” I put my hands stubbornly on my hips.

“He did, did he?” Dover sighed but unlocked the basement door. He shook his head at me before starting down the steps. I followed with Natasha, Julia, and Jenna hot on my heels.

“What are we doing?” Natasha whispered. I heard Jenna quickly explain the situation. Dover easily overheard,

“That’s what we’re doing?” He turned around to look at me.

“Yes, I want to find whatever my grandmother hid down here. This used to be her quarters.” I said.

“See, you should’ve told me that from the beginning. I know exactly where the Luna quarters used to be.” Dover smirked, earning an eye roll from me.

When we reached the bottom of the steps, Dover turned to the left, explaining that the cells were to the right.

“This used to be the Alpha and Luna quarters, now it’s a wine cellar, storage, and an emergency bunker.” Dover explained as he used his key to open another secured door.

On the other side of the door was a huge, elaborate wine cellar. Continuing on was a large storage room with dusty furniture and boxes. The bunker was behind that, packed with non-perishables, blankets, flashlights, and water.

“According to the map, this entire space was her and Alpha Quinton’s quarters, so it could be anywhere.” I decided to start my search in the wine cellar. Everyone spreads out, searching the space top to bottom.

“I don’t even know what we’re looking for.” Julia grumbled.

“Well for one, a missing page from one of the books in the archives.” I said as I dug through the wine collection.

“Careful with that, a single bottle is worth millions.” Dover said, nodding towards the bottle in my hand. I carefully sat it back down.

“Wait, there’s something here!” Jenna called out from the bunker. We all ran towards her. She was kneeling on the ground with a loose stone pulled to the side.

“I stubbed my toe on the edge of the stone and it moved a little. I found this under it.” She stood up and held a small, wooden box towards me.

I took it from her hand and walked away from the group. It wasn’t that I didn’t want them to see its contents, but the weight of its history was making me emotional. Decades ago my grandmother hid this very box as she fled for her life, leaving behind her children and her mate. I took a deep breath and slowly opened the chest.

Inside was a folded up piece of paper, a black and white polaroid, and a locket on a golden chain. I pulled the necklace out first. It was oval shaped and bronze with an intricate floral design on the front. I popped it open and revealed a small picture of a smiling family. I recognized Cordelia and Quinton immediately, they were with two small children.

I unfolded the paper next, it had a jagged edge and faded ink. This was clearly the paper my grandma removed from the photo album. On the paper was a detailed account of the events Cordelia and Quinton went through, starting with the visit from the Council. Attached to it was a handwritten note that read,

The Council sent a representative to our pack a few days ago. His name is Jacobs. He couldn’t be much older than Quinton but it was clear that he was looking for power. He wants to be promoted to an Elder one day, that was made clear by his ego and elitism. He wasn’t happy to learn that the rumors were true, Alpha Quinton’s mate was a siren, he had chosen a siren Luna.

The Council had made it clear years ago that interacting with other species was unlawful, but they never explicitly said it applied to mates. How could they? They would have an uproar on their hands. But, here we are, with the Council breathing down our necks because I wasn’t a werewolf, I was a siren.

Jacobs made it clear that I wasn’t welcomed nor approved. He promised to return with more Council members to convince Quinton to reject me. Quin assured me that he would never do that, but I wasn’t convinced. The Council scared me just as they scared my people all those years ago when they first began to threaten war.

A year later, three members of the Council came to the packhouse with an army of their rogue werewolves. They threatened the pack, my children, and my mate if I didn’t resign as Luna and leave the pack.

Quin never wanted me to go. He wanted to fight. I gave him no choice. I left in the dead of night two days later. I don’t trust the Council to keep their word, so I’m leaving proof of their evils against us hidden here in hopes that it can be used against them one day.

Signed, Luna Cordelia Marshall of the Velvet Moon Pack

I handed the note and paper off to Jenna so they could read it. I picked up the polaroid and saw two young faces smiling back at me. One boy looked to be a toddler, the other a newborn baby girl. The picture was captioned: Henry (b. 1965) and Harper (b. 1969). These must be grandma’s children, my aunt and uncle. Harper was just a year old when Cordelia was forced to flee. My heart ached for her all over again.

“There’s something else, Navy.” Dover was crouching over the whole. He reached in and pulled out another piece of paper,

“It looks like another note.” He handed it up to me. The front was dated: 1988. I unfolded the note,

My name is Fiona Marshall. Soon I will marry Alpha Alto and become a Greystone. Alto doesn’t know my true story. He thinks I came from one of the neighboring packs in Canada, but that wasn’t the truth. I was abonded here when I was six. I never thought the Alpha’s son would end up choosing me to be his mate.

In 1972, when I was three years old, rogues attacked our packhouse and overran it. Some of us survived by hiding in an underground bunker, others fled and, likely, became rogues themselves or died, many were killed, like my mother. One of the families in the bunker took me in.

In 1975, Alpha Clayton founded his pack, Blue Moon, and moved nearly a hundred wolves in. The family who took me secretly joined and I was delivered as an orphan. They faked my ancestry.

During the construction of the new packhouse, they found a box hidden in the wall. I ordered them to secrecy, as their future Luna they had to oblige. I learned about the secrets of the Council and my lineage. Quinton Marshall was my mother’s brother, I was the niece of the exiled Alpha.

I knew only one thing for sure, the Council ordered the attack on my previous packhouse, murdering my mother and, possibly, the rest of my family. I had no idea why and I’m too afraid of my future husband to ask.

Maybe one day someone will find this letter who is brave enough to ask.

Signed, Luna Fiona Marshall of Blue Moon

“Holy shit.” I gasped, looking up at the ground.

“What?” They all spoke in unison.

“I need to talk to Knox.” I said urgently, gathering up all of our findings and hurrying out of the basement.