Chapter 100 Elara's POV
Morning came with sunlight streaming through unfamiliar windows.
I woke in Helena's guest room, momentarily disoriented before remembering where I was. Red Stone Pack away from Blue Moon away from Kaden.
The freedom should have felt liberating. Instead, it felt strange wrong somehow.
I pushed the feeling aside and got dressed. Simple clothes, jeans, a loose shirt that accommodated my growing bump, comfortable shoes for walking.
Helena was already in the dining room when I arrived, along with several pack members I hadn't met yet.
"Good morning," She said warmly. "How did you sleep?"
"Well enough the bed is comfortable."
"Good. I thought we could have breakfast together before we head out to the old Silver Moon territory."
We ate while Helena told me stories about my mother. About how they'd been friends before Elena was born. About the kind of person she'd been gentle but strong, loving but fierce when protecting those she cared about.
"You have her eyes," Helena said
"The exact same shade of green when I first saw you, that's what struck me most."
"Do you think... do you think she would have been proud of who I became?"
"She would have been proud that you survived. That you are still fighting despite everything that's been taken from you."
After breakfast, I went back to my room to prepare for the day trip. Kara knocked a few minutes later.
"Ready?" She asked.
Almost... just grabbing a jacket."
Damian was waiting by the vehicles when we came down. He'd brought his medical bag, always prepared for emergencies.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, falling into step beside me.
"Nervous excitement scared all of it."
"It's understandable that you're about to confront your past."
We climbed into the armored vehicle with me, Damian, Kara, and two of Kaden's guards. Helena rode in a separate vehicle with her own security.
The drive started smoothly and we traveled through Red Stone territory, past forests and clearings, heading toward what had once been Silver Moon Pack lands.
Then, about an hour into the drive, the radio crackled.
"We're losing transmission," one of the guards said, fiddling with the device. "Cell signal is dropping too."
I pulled out my phone, no bars, no connection.
"Is that normal?" I asked.
"Sometimes in remote areas but we planned the route to avoid dead zones." The guard tried the radio again, nothing but static.
A chill ran down my spine. Helena's protective necklace felt suddenly heavier against my skin.
"Should we turn back?" Kara asked nervously.
"We are almost there," Helena's voice came through on a backup channel. "Just another fifteen minutes. We'll reassess once we reach the old territory."
I tried to shake off the unease. It was probably nothing, just bad luck with signals.
But my instincts were screaming that something was wrong.
We continued driving and the landscape grew wilder, less maintained. Signs of old pack lands that had been abandoned for fifteen years.
Finally, we arrived.
The old Silver Moon Pack territory was haunting. Buildings still stood but they were damaged, burned, reclaimed by nature. The main pack house was a shell, its roof collapsed, walls blackened by fire.
Helena led us through carefully, pointing out what different buildings had been. The Alpha's residence. The training grounds, the school where pack children had learned.
"Your family lived there," She said, pointing to a partially intact building. "That was your home."
I walked toward it, my heart pounding. Stepped through the doorway into what had once been someone's life, my life.
There were still remnants. A child's drawing on a wall, faded but visible. A broken toy in the corner, a scorch mark where fire had consumed everything.
I touched the wall, trying to remember trying to feel some connection. Nothing just emptiness we spent two hours there. Helena introduced me to three people who still lived nearby survivors of the attack who'd chosen to stay near their old home despite the danger.
They told me stories about my father about what a good Alpha he'd been. How he'd loved his daughter. How devastated he'd been when his mate died in childbirth.
"You were everything to him," an older woman said.
"When you were taken, when we thought you'd died in the attack, he fought like a man possessed. Killed five of Erebus's followers before they brought him down."
The image was painful, a father fighting desperately to save a daughter he'd never find.
We also saw the state of the survivors. They were struggling. Living in makeshift homes. Barely scraping by the attack had destroyed not just the pack but their entire way of life.
"Why don't you join another pack?" I asked.
"This is our home," One man said simply. "Even in ruins, it's home."
By the time we left, I was emotionally exhausted. The drive back to Red Stone territory was quiet, everyone lost in their own thoughts.
The cell signal returned about halfway back. My phone immediately buzzed with missed calls and messages.
All from Kaden.
I would call him when we got back to Helena's pack house. When I had time to process everything I'd learned.
We arrived as the sun was setting. I went straight to my room, needing space to think.
A knock came about an hour later.
"Come in."
Damian entered, carrying a tray of food. "Kara said you skipped lunch though you might be hungry."
"Thanks. I didn't realize how late it was."
He set down the tray and sat in the chair by the window. "How are you processing everything?"
"I don't know. It feels real and unreal at the same time. Like I'm learning about someone else's life, not mine."
"That's because you don't remember it. Your brain can't connect those stories to actual memories."
"Will I ever remember? Really remember?"
"Maybe. If the suppression spell is broken or maybe not. Maybe Elena Silvercrest is gone and all that's left is Elara."
We talked for a while about the trip, about what I'd seen, about the survivors still living in the ruins.
"They were so poor," I said. "So broken. And it's my fault."
"How is it your fault?"
"If I'd stayed. If I'd fought. If I'd been stronger-"
"You were eight years old, there was nothing you could have done."
Damian's voice was firm. "You survived. That's what matters."
"But at what cost? They lost their Alpha's daughter and their hope for the future."
"And now you're here alive carrying a child who might be even more powerful than your father was. Maybe you are their hope for the future just fifteen years later than expected."
I smiled despite my heavy mood. "You always know what to say."
"That's my job comforting distraught patients."
"I'm not just a patient to you though, am I?”
The question hung in the air. Damian was very still.
"No," he said quietly. "You're not."
"Then what am I?"
He was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was careful. Measured.
"You're someone I care about more than I should. More than is appropriate for a doctor and patient."
He looked at me directly. "I have feelings for you, Elara. I've tried not to. I've tried to keep things professional. But I can't help how I feel."
My heart stuttered. "Damian-"
"I know you're Kaden's mate. I know you love him even if you haven't fully admitted it yet. I'm not asking you to choose me. I'm just... being honest. Because you deserve honesty."
I didn't know what to say. Part of me had suspected. But hearing it out loud was different.
"I care about you too," I said carefully.
"But you're right. I am Kaden's mate and even though things between us are complicated, even though I'm still hurt by what he did, I do love him."
"I know. I've always known."
Damian stood. "I just needed to say it to stop carrying it around. Now you know and we can move forward as friends."
"Friends," I repeated. "I'd like that."
He moved toward the door.
My phone rang sharply, cutting through the moment.
Kaden's name flashed on the screen. I looked at Damian, then at the phone.