Chapter 52

Zara

I started preparing to leave immediately. I was in a rush, because I was honestly terrified that Lucian would change his mind. I couldn't take that risk, so I rushed.

I packed a bag, just my old backpack I used to carry around my laptop. I threw in a few changes of clothes, my toiletries, my laptop, and the charging cables for my phone and computer.

Then, I went to find Kieran so he could take me to wherever they'd stashed my father's papers. He was packing in his room. I noticed that he had two suitcases, one already stuffed with clothes and barely able to zip closed.

“We're not going to be there that long,” I said. “Why are you bringing all this?”

Kieran shrugged. “Gotta make a good impression on the Alphas in the territories we travel through.”

“Oh. I just brought one bag,” I said. “I don't really have much nice to wear, except that dress you gave me and, well.” I shrugged. I didn't know exactly what had happened to the dress.

“Don't worry about it,” Kieran said, pointing to the second suitcase. “I've got stuff in your size.”

“I'm not your doll,” I protested.

Kieran shrugged. “But it's fun! Hey, while we're on the human side of the veil, we should find a clothing store. I bet they'd have something you'd look great in.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Like I said, it's fun. Come on, it's win-win. I get to dress you up all pretty, you get some nice new clothes. How long has it been since you updated your wardrobe?”

I crossed my arms and looked away. I hadn't bought new clothes, except necessities like underwear, since my ill-fated wedding day. I didn't need or want fancy clothes. That was more Chloe's thing.

But, I had to admit, Kieran had decent taste in dresses. The white dress had been beautiful, even though the color emphasized that damn collar.

“If we have time,” I said. “This is important, you know. We're not going through the veil for fun.”

Kieran shrugged. “Yeah, but there's no reason not to have a little bit of fun, right? What if we have to kill time while your private investigator, um, investigates? It might as well be shopping.”

He did have a point. “Okay, if we have time, I guess it won't hurt.”

Kieran cheered silently, miming a victory dance. Then he asked me to sit on top of the second suitcase so he could zip it closed.

“Okay,” Kieran said. “Let's go find that letter.”

My father's papers had been neatly stored away in thick cardboard boxes and placed on shelves in a storage closet. Kieran and I each chose a box labeled the year I was born.

“So the letter should be signed with your mother's name, right?” Kieran asked.

“Yes. Danielle Lucas,” I said.

“Should I pull out anything else?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I'm not sure. I didn't have much time to search the last time, I snuck in.”

“Good to know we're not the only Alphas you defy,” Kieran muttered. “Well, I'll pull anything I see with the name Danielle on it, or your name.”

“Thank you,” I said, genuinely meaning it. There were a ton of papers to go through and the search would go faster with help.

“Hm,” Kieran said after a few minutes of searching. “No letter in this box, it’s mostly financials. I did find this weird thing though.”

“What is it?” I asked.

He held up a little half sheet of thick paper. There was a tiny footprint on it in dark blue ink.

“It says ‘Certificate of Live Birth,” Kieran read. “And it has your mother’s name. But it lists your name as Zara Lucas, not Sawyer.”

“Let me see,” I said, taking the page when he extended it to me. “Oh. This is a birth certificate. My birth certificate.”

“What’s that?” Kieran asked.

I shrugged. “Humans register their babies at birth, at least most of them do. I wonder why my mother didn’t have my father’s name recorded. She obviously knew who he was, she left me with him.”

“No telling,” Kieran said. “Will this help, maybe?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “but I think it’s important. We’ll bring it.”

A little more searching later, I found the letter in my box. It was a single sheet of wrinkled notebook paper with faded black writing. There wasn’t much information in the letter.

“My love,” it read, “I am sorry. I never meant for you to learn like this. You are a father. The baby is our beautiful daughter. I have named her Zara, after my mother. It is not safe for her to be with me, and so I leave her in your care. She will thrive among your wolves, I am sure. Do not search for me; you will not find me.

All my love and devotion,

Danielle Lucas”

And that was it. She’d named me, and abandoned me, and told my father not to look for her.

“Did he?” Kieran asked.

“Huh?” I looked up, to realize he’d been reading the letter over my shoulder.

“Your father. Did he look for her?” Kieran asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe? He never told me anything. He never even showed me that letter. No one ever talked about where I came from. I learned I wasn’t Charlotte’s daughter when I was a child. I heard her arguing with my father about keeping me.”

Kieran winced. ‘That’s harsh.”

“That’s the wolf way,” I said, “Isn’t it? Charlotte had a baby on the way. She didn’t want competition from some half blood left on the doorstep.”

Kieran patted my shoulder. “I personally am glad that your father chose to keep you.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I managed a nod and tucked the letter and my birth certificate into a manila folder so they wouldn’t get wrinkled. I tucked the folder into my backpack next to my laptop.

“Well,” I said, “that’s all there is, I think. I hope it’s enough.”

“You’d think there would be more that mentions his first born child,” Kieran muttered.

I shrugged. “My father wasn’t sentimental.”

We put away the boxes and went back upstairs. Lucian stepped out of his room with a single, neatly packed suitcase.

“Did you find anything?” he asked us.

“Yes,” I reported. “The letter and my birth certificate.”

He shrugged. “Are you ready to go, then?”

“Yes,” I said, then paused. “Um. Do you have any human currency?”

Kieran nodded. “The second pack we conquered has extensive trade with the humans. I have paper currency, and we both have bank accounts with these nifty plastic cards that you use like money.”

“Okay,” I said. “I think I have to pay the investigator, but I’m not sure how much.”

“We will negotiate with him,” Lucian promised.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You have no money?” Lucian asked.

I shook my head.

“Yet you intended to go to the human side of the veil? How did you intend to survive?”

“I thought I’d find a job,” I said, “I’m a hard worker, I’m sure someone would let me clean or cook or something in return for food and a place to sleep.”

Lucian nodded. “You are a fairly competent servant. That might have worked.”

For some reason, he sounded upset about that. Why was it a bad thing that I was good at the job he had assigned me?