90. Teddy and Patty

90. Teddy and Patty
Raelyn’s pov

“Welcome, I’m Theodore, and this is my mate, Patience. But you can just call us Teddy and Patty.”

“Hi,” I smiled at the older couple. “I’m Raelyn, and this is my mate Torin. Thank you for allowing us to visit you.”

Teddy chuckled, “we haven’t had such high-ranking wolves visit us since… well… it's been decades. The honor is ours.”

Patty nodded alongside her mate, “we have been living as lone wolves for quite some time now, rarely seeing our kind. It’s nice to be able to call Teddy my mate again, instead of saying he’s my husband. It has another ring to it, don’t you think?”

I giggled, “I still call him my boyfriend a lot of the time.”

Torin wasn’t in the mood for small talk, it seems, because he got right to the point. “Your son said you have some information on a witch called Cerce?”

They nodded, their smiles disappearing.

“I worked border patrol back then,” Teddy began. “So, I interacted with Cerce some of the time. As you may know, when a witch places spells around the border, it’s important that certain markers are placed. And that once they are placed, that area is left alone.”

“He’s being modest. He was the head of border patrol. He worked directly under the gamma.” Patty added.

Teddy shrugged like none of it mattered. “She did some odd jobs here and there for us over the years. Kind lady.”

“When was this?” I asked.

He sighed and tutted, “well… forty-plus years ago? I can’t remember the exact year, but I remember her little girl was about, um… three when I met Cerce for the first time.”

“You saw her daughter?”

Was Willow wrong, and did Cerce have another child?

He shook his head, “just a picture, once. But my oldest was close in age to her little Ada. So we would share horror stories about the terrible threes.”

I gulped. Ada… Adalyn.

I always assumed my mother met Cerce when she was already older. That they became friends or something and that Cerce took me in after they died. Not that Cerce raised my mom from that young too.

“And when did she stop working for your pack?” Torin asked.

Teddy growled, “that hasn’t been my pack in decades. I want nothing to do with them.”

“I apologize,” Torin quickly said. “Can I ask why?”

Patty sighed, “you don’t have to tell them, Teddy. I don’t want you to get all worked up.”

“No, you don’t.” Raelyn reassured him, while I wanted to use my alpha aura and make him talk. But I tried to follow Raelyn’s lead.

This is her quest, or whatever Enya keeps calling it.

Teddy gently tapped his hand on Patty’s leg. “It’s fine, Pat.” He then turned to us, “as the head of border patrol, I noticed some evidence that the alpha heir might have left voluntarily and not been taken like they suspected. They refused to even believe me. Or they were too proud to admit it could be a possibility.”

Patty looked down at her feet, “they blamed Teddy. Said if he had protected the borders of our pack better, none of this would have happened.” Her voice broke, “they whipped him. Made everyone watch.”

Teddy swallowed hard and shook his head, like he was getting rid of an old memory. “His brother took over, and they started blaming enemy packs for taking him.” He scoffed, “they totally dismissed everything I told them.”

“What kind of evidence?” Torin asked.

Teddy waved as if it wasn’t important anyway, “he was seeing someone. Sneaking out of the pack. I suspect a human town. I have my theories, but well, Patty tells me they range from crazy to cuckoo.”

Patty laughed, “he thinks the alpha heir was dating a human. I don’t know what your pack thinks of dating humans, but in the Moon Valley pack, it’s highly frowned upon. So the alpha heir dating a human would be quite a scandal. He thinks they killed Raymond as a big cover up.”

Torin growled, “dating a human is, -“

I stopped my mate by mindlinking him, ‘they don’t know I wasn’t always a werewolf.’

“It wasn’t Raymond, remember, Patty. Goddess, you’re getting forgetful at your old age.” Teddy said. Thankfully diffusing the situation.

“You’re the same age as I am!” Patty scoffed.

Teddy laughed, “I love you, Pat. You know that.”

Patty rolled her eyes at her mate, “My mother told me the alpha family always named their firstborn after the father. For decades the firstborn was a man. So when I was a little girl, our alpha was called Alpha Raymond. But his firstborn was a girl. She was mated to Alpha Michael from a nearby pack, and he fused the two packs together. Teddy belonged to Alpha Micheal’s pack.”

“The North Valley pack. A tiny pack of a hundred wolves.” Teddy added.

“Yeah, so it wasn’t difficult to merge the two.” Patty explained. “But before Luna Evelyn and Alpha Micheal took over, every alpha heir in that family was called Raymond or some form of it. Going all the way to the very first alpha of the Moon Valley pack, Raemondo. I think it’s Spanish?” Patty said. “But Alpha Micheal stopped all that. What was his son’s name again?”

Teddy smirked, realizing his mate had forgotten the name, “Joseph.”

“But this middle name was Raymond, if I remember correctly.” Patty said. “He never used it, though.

“Joseph Raemondo,” Teddy sighed. “But we used to call him Joey. He was cute as a button when he was a pup. Big green eyes. So curious, always asking questions. He would have made a great alpha. Not like his brother.”

I have big green eyes.

Torin and I locked eyes. It can’t be a coincidence. Ada and Raemondo.

My mom was raised by Cerce, either her child or, I don’t know, adopted? And my father… He was the alpha heir of the Moon Valley pack.

It must be.

I don’t know how, but maybe my dad took my mom’s last name? Moonveil. And used his second name to hide?

But why hide? Why run away?

I got some answers, but also even more questions.

Teddy stopped me from spiraling by asking us a question, "so, why is a young couple like yourself asking questions about a witch? Did something happen to her?"

I nodded, "She passed away a few years ago. We're just trying to find out more about her life."

Patty smiled at me, "you seem like good people. Not like those others that came asking about the witch."

"Who?" Torin asked.

Teddy growled, "some people from the first pack. They came looking for her. Had some questions, they said."

"When was that?" Torin asked.

"A couple of weeks before Joey disappeared. Joey's family thought they might have been involved, but like I said… He left on his own. I'm sure of it."