Chapter 204 Chapter 204
Aunt Tillie’s house was small, but reminded Jesse of his grandmother’s, with pillows, throw blankets, and porcelain figurines all over the main room. He only had to glance around to know that despite her relatives passing away, Evanna, or Leah still dusted and cleaned the place like they were going to return from a holiday.
“The bedroom is in there.” Evanna pointed as she set the bedding down. “I’ll be back after I’ve gotten dinner.” She offered a smile, “Leah dug up the potatoes today, so we’ll have fresh vegetables to go with it.”
Jesse motioned to the door, “do you need a hand with that?” He shrugged, “I could…”
She waved her hand, “we got it.” Evanna stood there for a moment longer, just looking at him. “Oh,” she hurried past him and went over to a small cabinet on the other side of the room, “these,” she pulled out two thick leather-bound books, “are Aunt Tillie’s journals.” She set them on the small table beside the chair. “She told us to give them to the Alliance when they came.”
Jesse wondered if they would explain where the rest of the clan was. “Have you read them?”
Emotions he couldn’t read flashed through her eyes, “some.” She said quietly, “it’s hard to read it, brings back…”
His cat suddenly demanded he put her at ease, “I’ll take a look, thanks.”
She looked relieved, “yeah, okay. I’ll be out with Thera for a bit, but if you need anything just give a shout, we’ll hear you.” Her expression was haunted as she moved by him and quickly went out the door.
Jesse pulled his pack over his head and opened it. Pulling out his phone, he checked for a signal. One bar. He shrugged, it was better than none. Turning in a circle, he looked around, there were no photos or pictures anywhere. He wondered for a moment if maybe they’d been packed up because it was too painful to see them. He went over and looked into the bedroom. Just a bed and a small dresser were in it. The big building he’d been in before was probably the main gathering spot when there had been more of the clan left. It only made sense that it would have been the Alpha family’s home.
Looking back at the thick journals he went over and opened the cover of the one on the top. On the inside of the cover, it had two dates, he could only surmise it was the period the entries were for.
Picking up the first one, he went over and sat in the chair that faced the window. As tired as he was, he doubted he’d get far in it, but he needed to know more about this clan, or more specifically where they went. Flipping the page, he was glad to see Aunt Tillie’s handwriting was legible, if not near perfect. That told him the clan had been well educated up here and hadn’t always been closed off from the rest of the world.
The first entry’s date was almost twenty years ago.
Pearl says I need to write in this to help alleviate my loneliness. It’s been a year now since my Sawyer passed and the wound is still too fresh I can barely breathe when I say his name. I don’t know if writing in this is going to help anything, but at least once I’m gone there will be a piece of me left behind that people can read about.
Our Alpha came back with the men that went searching and still have no answers about where Bette, Naya and Zuri went to. It’s like they vanished into thin air. It’s very unnerving and has all of us edgy now. No one is allowed to go anywhere without one of the men with them.
Jesse looked up and out the window. Blowing out a breath he rubbed his eyes. Twenty years ago, women were vanishing. Fuck. This story was going to be one that was all too familiar. He watched Thera and—Minn? take off across the yard. Is that where Evanna had been? Had she been taken and found her way back?
Getting up, he grabbed his pack and pulled out the bottle of water and a protein bar, he needed to stay awake and try to get through as much of these journals as he could before Shaelan and Calum called back.
He’d offered to help with dinner when he saw Thera roaming the yard, from this far he wasn’t sure if it had been Leah or Evanna that had answered him, but they told him to rest, they had it under control. Picking up the second journal, he sat down on the doorstep, where he hoped the fresh air would keep him awake longer.
The first journal had covered a lot of ground, he knew now that the clan had been thriving at one point, close to thirty members and they’d still been going to gatherings of like clans to keep the clan going with new mates brought in. Then, like he knew was coming after that opening paragraph in the start, members started disappearing.
He turned the page and read the next entry. It was short.
They searched the entire mountain and villages below. They are gone without a trace. I don’t know how that is possible, but my heart is breaking right now. Belinda’s Lyvia is gone and so are her girls, Ashtyn and Leah. Little Leah is only four years old. Two of the boys, I can’t even think right now to write their names and three more of the older girls are gone too. It feels like some kind of nightmare.
I have to get back to the common house now, the men went back out to look and we’ll be needing some hot meals when they get back. I just snuck over here to cry privately for a few moments.
Please let them all be okay.
He looked up and across the yard. She’d been taken when she was four? How had she made it back? He turned the page. Now, if he had to use toothpicks to keep his eyes open, he was going to finish this second one and get some answers.
He was about halfway through when Thera bound over to him. Looking up, he saw that Leah was standing outside the bigger building. He looked at the cat, “dinner I take it?” The cat made no motion telling him either way. Getting up, he closed the journal and set it inside the door on the chair. He wanted to finish it but also needed to eat and go for a run so his cat would stop being so annoying. The tension from his cat as he was reading was making Jesse’s muscles ache.