Chapter 13 Addison
Addison
Everyone’s been on high alert over the past few days.
After the attack in the woods, we’ve been expecting more of Axiom’s guards to charge in on us.
Especially if the one who was questioned was telling the truth.
Whatever Axiom is really looking for, they’re not going to give up.
Declan has ordered near-constant patrols of the perimeter, ensuring every spot is secured.
We have cameras set up and the entire pack ready to pounce on our attackers at a moment’s notice.
Right now, we need as much support as possible. I’ve sat down with Declan and the others countless times, going over every detail I remember. The longer I’m away from the facility, the sharper my memory becomes.
I help color in everything I couldn’t before. I tell them all about Dr. Hendricks and all of the guards. I try to detail as many of the drug treatments they gave me and explain what the effects were.
Declan put the word out about my mother, too. Apparently, there are plenty of other shifter groups in the area. I had no idea people like us were as widespread as we are. And it’s not just wolves, either. There are bears and lions nearby, too.
Nora and I are sitting in the living room, and she’s showing me one of her favorite shows, Bridgerton. I haven’t had much time to enjoy the luxuries outside the facility. I look at things like the television with wonder that amazes everyone else around me.
I feel like I still have so much to learn. Not just about myself and my past, but the world as a whole.
“It’s all so romantic,” Nora says with a soft smile as she watches a couple dancing on the show.
She goes off on a tangent about Regency era romance, which is entirely unfamiliar to me, other than what I see on the show.
It’s hard to believe people in human society have put so much structure on something as simple as love.
The only thing I can compare that to is the bond I have with Zeke and how natural it feels.
Now that we’ve mated, the feeling between us is so intense.
Whenever he’s gone, I feel a void in my chest. I want to be close to him all the time, and every time we’re reunited, it’s like I’m seeing him after he’s been gone for years.
And when I hug him before he leaves, it feels like I might never see him again.
The front door opens, and both of us stand to see Declan and Zeke excitedly walking toward us.
“We’ve got news,” Declan says, a relieved and hopeful look in his eyes.
“We think we’ve found your mom,” Zeke tells me, his hand holding mine.
My mouth hangs open, and my mind races a mile a minute. I have so many questions I need answers to, but right now, I’m too stunned to speak.
“We asked around and apparently someone in our pack used to know of someone named Aubrielle in a nearby territory,” Declan explains, his hands gripping his knees.
I can see in his eyes that he needs this to be true as much as I do.
“It’s not a common name, so we’re hoping it could be your mom.
They’re about an hour away, the Echo Ridge pack. ”
“We’ll leave at first light to go see them,” Zeke adds.
Later, I can hardly sleep. Even lying next to Zeke, I don’t feel the same urgency to be with him that I’ve felt every other night. I’m too preoccupied.
Tomorrow, I might get to meet my family. My parents, who I barely remember, will have information about who I am.
I’m terrified and excited at the same time, my stomach fluttering and my skin buzzing.
For the first time, I can see peace on the horizon.
I feel it here with Zeke, but the threat of Axiom coming to take me away is overbearing.
But if we can find my pack and get them to help us, then we’ll be unstoppable fighting back against Axiom.
We can bring an end to this once and for all. And I can’t wait.
All of us pile into two cars to head out to the Echo Ridge pack first thing in the morning. I sit in the back seat with Zeke, who holds my hand tight the entire time.
Everyone around me is talking and trying to imagine what will happen when we get there, but I can’t bring myself to participate in the conversation. What is going to happen?
It’s been ten years. I’m not the young girl I was when I last saw my parents anymore. I’m older, scarred, and a part of me is always going to be broken because of what happened. I don’t know if they’ll even recognize me.
Tara tries to lighten the mood by playing some music in the car. The only songs I’ve heard up until this point were from the movies and shows I’ve watched over the past few days. She tries playing a lot of different types of music, genres she calls them, to see which stands out to me.
Most of it is a little too brash and loud, but then she finds a song with a very soft and mellow guitar melody and a woman singing over it.
It sounds so soft and gentle, and it soothes my already frayed nerves.
She plays more of the artist’s music, and I feel myself relaxing during the back half of the drive.
When we finally arrive, Declan stops the car and tells all of us to wait just outside the perimeter of the Echo Ridge territory.
He gets out on his own and crosses the space.
A group of three wolves eventually comes running through the trees.
Everyone else is calm seeing this, but every muscle in my body tenses thinking Declan is going to get attacked.
They shift back into their human form, revealing three people standing proudly and strongly on their territory.
The one at the front is a man, older with black hair dotted with gray.
The man behind him is much younger but looks similar, like it could be his son.
And a woman is standing there, too. She has long, flowing blond hair and eyes so blue they almost look clear.
I can’t shake the idea that they look familiar. I can’t place their faces, so a part of me wonders if I’m trying to find something I know in them to convince myself that this is my home.
Declan says something to them, and I see the Echo Ridge pack’s protective stance soften. After a while, Declan walks over to the car and climbs back in, putting it in drive and moving forward.
“The Alpha, Roderick, said he’ll see us,” Declan says as we make our way deeper into the territory.
I stare out the window with wide eyes, thinking that this could be where I came from. This might be where I was born, where my parents are, and where my family is. I don’t want to miss a single leaf in the trees along the way.
Eventually, we drive forward until we see a small village appear. The houses are much more modest than Zeke’s house. They’re smaller, made of wood like old log cabins. A few people are roaming around and looking at us, but everyone seems calm.
We stop driving when we see the same three wolves who approached in the woods running toward a building and shifting back.
Declan opens the car door and gestures for all of us to do the same. Everyone else gets out, and my stomach twists from the anxiety. I don’t know what’s about to happen. I just hope it’s good.
Zeke holds his hand out for me, and I take it. I cling to him as we walk toward the doors of the building where the others are already heading inside.
“Welcome. Our apologies for the hostile introduction,” the man with dark hair says. “We’ve heard a lot of rumors of violence in the area, and we’ve been on alert because of it. But I want to welcome you to our home. My name is Roderick. I’m the Alpha of the Echo Ridge pack.”
“Jenny,” the woman says with a soft smile. She points at the younger man beside her. “This is my mate, Thane.”
Thane gives us a quiet nod.
Declan introduces all of us, and at one point, Roderick whispers something in Thane’s ear, and he nods his head before walking out of the room.
The entire time he talks, Jenny’s eyes are on me.
As I look at her up close, the familiar feeling only gets stronger.
It’s not like it was with Zeke, where I felt a connection so strong that it felt like a memory.
With her, I feel like it’s an actual memory.
Like we have a history, but I just can’t remember.
“Addison Snow,” Jenny says when Declan finishes. My skin burns when I hear her say my name, because I can sense the familiarity in it. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
I shake my head. “I don’t really remember anything. All I know is there was a fire, and then all of my other memories were from a facility I was being held in.”
“The facility you mentioned, Declan?” Roderick asks. Declan nods. Roderick looks at Jenny, and I can almost sense the tension growing in the room. “If you were being held in a facility testing on shifters, that explains what happened to you. And your parents.”
I stand straighter and take a step forward so I’m in front of the crowd. “What happened to my parents?”
Jenny swallows and looks at the ground before her eyes meet mine again, filled with sadness. Water pools on her lower lid, and she blinks it away.
“If we had known you were being held somewhere, we would have come looking for you. But there was a fire at your family cabin. It killed your parents, and we couldn’t find you in the ruins, but we assumed you were killed, too,” Jenny explains.
“No,” I say, not accepting that as an answer.
We came here to find my parents. They have to be here. They can’t actually be dead.
“I’m afraid she’s telling the truth,” Roderick says, his voice somber. “It brings us no pleasure to tell you this. It hurt us when the fire happened. That day, I didn’t just lose a member of my pack. I lost my brother. Ethan was his name. He was your father.”
I brace myself against the wall, and Zeke is beside me in an instant, wrapping his arm around my waist to keep me upright.
“The fire happened so suddenly. Afterward, we couldn’t figure out what started it to save our lives,” Roderick continued. “We didn’t smell any other shifters in our territory, so we didn’t think it was an attack. We thought maybe a heater was left on or the stove burned out. But now...”
“It was intentional,” Declan adds. Roderick looks at him, nodding his head. “They were looking for shifters to test, and they must have seen Addison while she was young. The perfect age for experimenting on. So they burned the house down and kidnapped her while leaving her parents.”
“And no one ever went looking for her because of it,” Jenny whispers, her voice barely audible. She looks at me and offers me a faint smile. “You don’t remember this, but you and I used to be best friends. We would play together all the time. We’d run around shifted, biting each other’s tails.”
As soon as she says it, a memory surfaces in my mind. I see exactly what she means. Both of us, young wolves, running around the yard of our houses while my parents watched.
Thane returns with a group of people around him. He hands Roderick and Jenny clothes he gathered for them, and they both slip into them as everyone else files into the room and stares at me.
“I guess you must have figured out by now that Thane is your cousin. He’s my firstborn,” Roderick says, clapping his son on the shoulder. “But there are some other people I’d like you to meet.”
He walks over to the group of people and introduces me to his wife, Penny, and their other children, Izzy and Rose. My aunt and my cousins.
I’m overwhelmed by seeing them, and it takes every ounce of strength not to burst into tears. This is my family. They might not be my parents like I thought I’d find, but they’re my family nonetheless.
Zeke, Nora, and Tara all stay with me as we take a seat at a table and talk to my relatives. Declan heads off with Roderick and Thane with Cole and Kyran. I don’t need to ask what they’re doing to know they’re talking about Axiom now.
Penny tells me stories about my family. That my parents were childhood friends all their lives. When both of them were eighteen, they realized they were mates, and they sealed their bond quicker than anyone she’d ever seen.
My younger cousins, Izzy and Rose, are fifteen and sixteen, so they don’t even remember me.
But they’ve heard stories about my family and me their entire lives.
Jenny has a lot to say about growing up with me—some of her fondest childhood memories involved running around with me and causing trouble.
Even though I still feel the sharp pain of finding out I’ll never get to reunite with my parents, to let them know that I’m okay in spite of everything, I feel good.
Everyone is welcoming and warm, and they take us on a tour of the territory.
I see all the places Jenny told me we used to run around.
When I touch trees along the way, flashes of memories come back to me.
I start coloring in the details of my life before Axiom. Before the torment and the pain and the loss. I was happy with a family who loved me and friends who cared about me. They did everything right to make sure I was safe.
One night changed everything. One night with a cruel business that didn’t care about the lives they were destroying.
The others come to find us as we sit in Penny’s kitchen while she makes lunch for us all. All of them have a serious look in their eyes as they rejoin us.
“Declan just told me about everything they’ve uncovered about Axiom. They kidnapped one of our own,” Roderick says to his family, standing behind me and resting a hand on my shoulder. “They killed my family. We won’t let them get away with this.”
“We’re going to launch an attack in three days,” Declan declares. I feel the energy in the room shift, and I don’t know how to respond.
Now that I have my family and Zeke, I don’t want any of them to be in danger. But I’m angry. Axiom took everything from me, and I want that entire building demolished.
As I look in Roderick’s eyes, then at Zeke’s, I can tell they want the same thing. And I know that soon enough, we’ll have it.