Chapter 13: NO FACE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | NO FACE

ASPEN

She typed my name so fast, I wondered how she didn’t make a mistake. But she didn’t make any mistakes. Results for the search popped up on the screen only seconds after she clicked the search button. I was still marveled by it when she dropped a bomb.

“Are you sure your birth name is Aspen Luna Morgan?” she asked, staring at her laptop with sheer concentration.

“Yes, that’s the name I’ve been called all my life, at least, for the part I can remember.”

“Do you have a birth certificate?” She took her gaze off the laptop, waiting for my response.

“Yes, I do. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take it when I left my old pack. But I do have a certificate, and that is the name on it.”

The way her face contorted after I told her that was enough for me to know that the results of the search were not good.

My mind flew as I thought of the various possibilities of my identity. Who was I? Did she find out that I was the child of an armed robber or something similar? Was I the child of a rogue? Or worse, was I the child of a mistress, a woman who destroyed another man’s family?

Various thoughts about my identity and background invaded my head, and I expected anything, the worst of the worst, but what it turned out to be was something even worse.

“Your name couldn’t be found anywhere, Aspen. You don’t exist in the history of werewolves,” she revealed.

Ronan took the laptop off her lap, typing away on it. “That can’t be right. Maybe there’s a glitch in the system or something,” he said as he scrolled, trying to find my name in the book of death. But there was nothing there. Nothing at all.

I didn’t exist. I was a person who didn’t exist.

Ronan ran his hands through his hair after minutes of searching, frustrated. “This is beyond fucked up. Your name was either wiped away completely to hide something, or Aspen isn’t your real name. I think it’s the latter. No matter what happens, you can’t just wipe people’s names. Even after death, the name still remains in the books. The name you were told is clearly not your real name.”

Great, another shocking revelation about myself. I didn’t know if this was meant to be a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, I came here to find out who was responsible for the death of my mate, and I haven’t made any progress. Instead, all I keep finding are revelations about myself that keep making me question my very own existence.

“Could you check it again? I’m sure there must be a mistake somewhere. I’m pretty sure Aspen is my name, it’s the only name I’ve ever had.” I almost burst into tears, my voice quivering.

Seeing my panic, Rachel shot me a look of pity. “Okay, how about we try this? I’ll search for your first name alone, no middle or surname. Then we’ll check the pictures and history of each and every person named Aspen in the book. I’m sure we’ll find you in one of them.” From the high-pitched way her voice sounded, I knew she herself barely believed we would actually find my name there. But then again, there wasn’t a crime in giving it a shot, right?

She inputted my first name only, and my eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when over eight hundred women, children, and even dead people popped up from various packs and sectors.

Rachel hadn’t expected it to be this much either, and you could see it in the way her eyes widened. She was reluctant to start checking the profiles one by one, and yet, she did.

Knowing that we would never finish quickly if she worked alone, Ronan brought out his own laptop and did the same thing after getting the code from her. They were both checking everyone named Aspen’s information, Rachel starting from the top, while Ronan checked from the bottom.

I sat there silently, feeling out of place and like a liability. It wasn’t their battle to fight, but they were fighting it anyway. And me, the person who should be at the war front, didn’t even have a laptop to search for my own information. Even if I did, I didn’t know how to use it.

It was pathetic, really. I was a liability, and yet they were by my side, helping me find out everything I needed to know.

After hours of checking every single person named Aspen’s information, we reached a dead end. There was no one named Aspen that was me. There was no sign of me at all, like I didn’t exist to begin with.

Could it be that I was some sort of experiment, and that was why I wasn’t registered and couldn’t be found anywhere?

“Maybe we should check her other names, Morgan first. And if we can’t find anything, we can move to Luna,” Ronan suggested. “Why don’t you check Morgan while I search Luna?”

They got to work immediately, Ronan checking every profile with my middle name while she did the same thing for the profiles with my last name. Yet, after checking every single one, they couldn’t find anything about me.

Not even a sign.

“This is so, so wrong. Something big is going on, and something tells me that you’re right in the middle of it all.”

Rachel was right, and those were the exact words Adrian told me before his death. He said something big was going on.

But why was I in the middle, and how did I get dragged into a situation I had no involvement in?

“Things are getting really serious. I feel like an FBI agent,” Ronan joked, rubbing his forehead like the case was giving him a headache.

I didn’t blame him, I was getting a headache too from trying to wrap my head around the fact that I didn’t exist.

“Wait, I have an idea.” Rachel picked up the wanted flyer of me, took a picture of it with her camera, and ran it through the book.

Confused, I leaned into Ronan to ask a question. “What is she doing?”

“She’s running a photo check to see if there’s anybody with your face in the Book of Powers.”

Moments later, Rachel turned her laptop back to me with a grim expression.

“I’m sorry, Aspen,” she said quietly. “You don’t exist. Not even your face exists.”