Talia's eyes flashed at the mention of that name. Natalia Moonrider.
She had a name, a full name that her parents gave her. Talia was her nickname and not a name someone made up.
Where did she hear it the first time? People at the Red Moon pack called her derogatorily as 'roach', 'rat', and 'slave', but she knew that her name was Talia, which confirmed that someone addressed her as such at the Red Moon pack, and that meant Talia was not randomly abandoned and found. She was given away, together with her name.
Talia forced herself to focus. She had so many questions, and the people with answers were right in front of her.
"You said, my mother was gone. Does that mean…?", Talia couldn't finish.
"We are not sure, but we can assume she is dead.", Isaac responded. "That would explain Valerian's sorry appearance. The death of his mate was killing him."
"Did he say where he went?", Damon asked.
"No.", Sophia responded. "We guessed that he went to get revenge for his mate. It didn't appear she died of natural causes."
Damon frowned at Sophia. "You better tell us the details."
"What details?", Isaac asked while moving his body to shield Sophia in front of Damon's rising rage.
"Everything!", Damon demanded.
"We don't know more than what I said.", Sophia responded.
Damon's frown deepened. "Your brother returned, and you didn't ask him where he was or where he was going after leaving you with a child? Did he say anything else about his mate? How did she die? Was someone chasing him?"
Sophia shook her head helplessly. "You need to understand that Val's appearance was a shock to us. I didn't know he will leave, and we didn't press him with questions, thinking that he will rest, and we will have plenty of time to talk later. I was happy that my brother was back, and people wondered if he will take over as the Alpha." She smiled bitterly. "He was gone for decades, yet people still saw him as the Alpha."
"So, it was about your position.", Damon said through his teeth.
"It was about the pack!", Sophia snapped back.
Talia's heart tightened. In the last few minutes, she heard the story about her parents that gave her hope, and then took it away. The good thing was that her father brought her here with the intention to keep her safe. They didn't abandon her. Her parents were protecting her. But why was her heart aching like someone was digging nails into it?
Talia had no idea at what point Damon wrapped her in his embrace, but there he was, holding her to prevent her from falling apart.
Axel remembered one thing. "I read a document that spoke about Talia's birth. How the stormy clouds parted, and the moon shone on her."
"I wrote it down because that was the only thing Valerian told us about the child's background.", Isaac said. "We were planning to ask him about it and get more details, but he was gone."
Axel thought that was another prophecy, but it seemed it was just a note his father made. When Axel spoke to Cassandra, she confirmed gibberish because she was in cahoots with Sophia and Isaac to keep it a secret.
"And then what?", Axel continued probing. "How did Talia end up in the Red Moon pack if her father asked you to protect her?" Axel was back to the question that started this avalanche of information. Why did they give Talia away?
Sophia responded. "We noticed immediately that Natalia was quiet. Too quiet. She was barely able to sit without support, yet she would look at us like she understood everything. It was not normal for an infant to act like that. We took her to Cassandra, and that's when Cassandra told us that she is the child from the prophecy, the one that will bring calamity."
Axel's mood worsened. "Your brother gave you his daughter, believing you will keep her safe, but you heard some nonsense from an old Oracle, and you decided to discard her." Cassandra lied to him openly, who knows what else she lied about?
Isaac frowned in disapproval. "Don't accuse us of such a thing. We raised you. Do you know us as people who will abandon a helpless child?"
"If you don't want me to accuse you of such a despicable act, then tell me what happened.", Axel's temper was rising.
"Please, understand", Sophia pleaded. "We had you and the things were going fine, but then Val returned and the pack was getting restless again. With Cassandra confirming how the baby is the one to bring calamity, we were facing two choices, neither was an easy one."
"And your choice was to give her away.", Axel said.
Sophia's face was filled with grief. "It was to sacrifice one for the many. Valerian was the best one among us, and he went out with our strongest warriors. If enemies managed to reduce him to that state, they would have no issues destroying the pack. With enemies on the outside, we couldn't afford the calamity from the inside."
"Why the Red Moon pack?", Axel asked.
Isaac shook his head. "We didn't give her to any pack. The people we gave Natalia to were reliable. After some time, we checked on them, but we found that they were gone. We thought they moved and took Natalia with them."
Sophia continued talking to Axel, "Until you came to us after the Summer Solstice festival with a story about how there is one of us in the Dark Howlers pack, we thought that Natalia was somewhere far away, but then you said that the girl's name was Talia and after you described her, I suspected she was Valerian's daughter."
"Who were the people that took Talia?", Damon asked.
"It was a human family who already had three foster children.", Isaac responded. "Their identity is not important because they were one of many points of contact where our members would check in while staying in the human realm. We told them that Natalia was a child we found and that we were searching for her parents. They didn't know she was one of us. Unless our powers awaken, we are no different than any other werewolf and if she gave herself to a man who was not her mate, no one would ever know."
"You planned out everything.", Damon spoke while eyeing them suspiciously. "Did you also count on Alpha Howard taking her?"
Alpha Isaac responded, "I know what you are thinking, Alpha Damon, but regardless of if they were working for Alpha Howard or if they were forced to give up Natalia, the only thing they could tell him was that we asked them to take Natalia in."
"Did you investigate where that family went?", Damon continued asking.
"No.", Sophia admitted. "We had many things to deal with and…"
"Is that how you lead our people? Did you ever own your mistakes, or are you just capable of coming up with excuses?", Axel asked irritably. He didn't want to hear another lame justification for how things were done for the safety of the pack.
It made him wonder if he would be abandoned like that if Cassandra said that he was the child from the prophecy. And what about his unborn children? Were they in danger as well from their own grandparents?
