Filed to story: The Luna Mated to Triplet Alphas Novel
My brothers and I looked up. It was there. Chance had framed the restraining order against him. Chance laughed humourlessly.
“Your asshole parents,” he said with a shrug.
I caught Calix’s face contorting in anger out of the corner of my eye. I was too in shock to be offended.
“I sent toys and letters and things. Tried to get to see Chasity. They kept returning them. They threatened me. Told me to stay away from Chasity. The Luna blamed me and my daughter for her step-brother’s death,” revealed Chance.
He was dropping truth-bomb after truth-bomb on us. We scarcely had time to recover from any of them. Mom knew of Chase’s death and blamed it on Chance.
“I ran my casino and figured when Chasity turned eighteen she’d do her own digging and come back to me,” concluded Chance. “I became…dep**ssed honestly.”
He wasn’t lying about that. It was plain as day. I began to feel sorry for him. Loneliness was a silent killer as far as I was concerned.
“This room it’s filled with stuff they returned. Stuff for Chasity,” said Chance, tears threatening to spill over from his eyes.
My younger brothers and I took another look around the room. My heart constricted painfully. I had thought the room was filled with random junk. Now, I could see many of the items were toys: dolls, teddy bears, tiny figurines. There were also clothes that would suit a little girl: frilly dresses and filly socks, hair bows, jewellery and even small pairs of pastel-coloured shoes. I spotted a few bottles of perfumes and antiques like a rocking horse and a little carousal-shaped music box. I realised what I had mistaken for old stacks of paperwork were letters and cards. I deciphered a few of Chance’s scribbles: Grandpa misses you, I love you, Dear Chasity, To my one and only grand-baby, I’m sorry, Hope to see you soon, I wish I could see you grow up, We’ll be together one day I promise, Merry Christmas, Happy birthday, Grandpa Loves you, Love always from Grandpa.
Calix was crying. Tears were sliding silently down his cheeks. Felix actually sat down in one of the sticky chairs in front of Chance’s desk. I could see him doing his breathing exercises. He was angry. Furious. I was too. I had to confront Mom and Dad about this. If they had really done this, if they had kept Chasity and Chance apart for no good reason, then they were…they were monsters. They were villains. Another wave of nausea hit me. I felt disgusted and not because the room needed a serious decluttering followed by a generous spray of lysol.
“Chance, I am so sorry for everything. I had no idea,” I said honestly.
I wanted Chance as an ally. If he truly loved Chasity, then we had a lot in common. Chance just nodded in response to my apology. The gambling debt story was likely bullshit. Chalice’s father owned the casino. The enemies involved couldn’t be debt collectors or loan sharks, they were more nefarious than that, more sinister and their motives, more mysterious. Chasity’s grandpa could not just wallow in this room. He needed to be instrumental in helping us find Chasity. I was almost completely convinced that the people who ruined the venom ritual nine years ago had something to do with Chasity’s disappearance.
“But I need you, Chance. We need you. Chasity needs you!” I said.
Chance straightened himself in his chair. He adjusted his blazer. This was a broken but talented werewolf. A gifted werewolf.
“Your ability to tell when people are lying! Your mind-linking reading! Those are amazing!” I said, building him up.
“Danny needs you! That’s our private investigator. Team up with him, with us, please, for Chasity!” I propositioned.
We could crack this case together. I just knew it. My brothers and I stared at Chance. Despite the anger coming off from Felix in waves and the sorrow emanating from Calix, I could also feel that they agreed with me. They wanted Chance on our side. Chance’s silence was making us all a bit anxious. He looked as though he hadn’t left this room except maybe to buy the gifts that cluttered it. Would he be bold enough to join our investigation?
Alex
After a tense moment and a deep long breath, Chance finally answered my question with another question.
“What about the restraining order?” He asked.
“We won’t let you get arrested if you’re with us,” I assured him quickly.
I glanced around the room at all the gifts Chasity had never gotten. There was a chance that Chance could be a little obsessive.
“No showing up at the pack house without us,” I cautioned him. “And after I have a talk with my parents we can think about getting the order waved.”
I needed to see my parents’ reaction to Chance. I would never put them in danger. I would be present and so would my brothers in case Chance was unhinged. However, my wolf kept telling me that Chance wasn’t a danger to any of us, especially not to my Luna, Chasity. His love for her seemed genuine. His heartbreak over not being allowed to be a present grandfather for her was evidenced by his lifestyle. Hoarding was done in an effort to comfort the hoarder. Hoarders were hurting and stuff made them feel safe or loved or some other desirable feeling.
“I wanna help. I wanna help Chasity,” said Chance, nodding to himself. “Yes,” he said.
I grinned. There was a huge smile on Calix’s face too. Felix was wearing a frown and a furrowed brow though.
“Wait!” Demanded Felix. “So where is Alexi Franck and who is he to you?” He questioned.
To our surprise, Chance simply laughed. He began looking for something in the inside pocket of his snug blazer. He pulled out his wallet and sl*pped a card out of it, offering the card to Felix. Felix took it. Calix and I leant in, scrutinising the card. It was an ID with a picture of a less dishevelled version of Chance. The name on the ID was Alexi Chance Franck.
“Oh,” said Felix softly. “Oh, it is you! But that doesn’t make sense. Our…informant said you were awful and it seemed as though Chalice had a huge gambling dept,” continued Felix, his eyes narrowed.
Chance fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair.
“She did have a huge gambling dept and I did yell at her a lot,” admitted Chance, the shame and regret evident in his eyes. “She was a wayward child. I wouldn’t say I was awful but maybe she thought so,” mumbled Chance with a sigh.
Chance removed his sunglasses and wiped them with his blazer. The sunglasses were w*t from tears shed during our difficult conversation.
“Being a parent isn’t easy,” whispered Chance, looking away from us. “She was angry because I wanted her to straighten up. She was doing drugs and being wild.”
I pictured Chalice as an older party-girl version of Chasity. Chasity could be quite stubborn. Perhaps, Chance had never really been able to discipline his daughter and by the time she had become an adult with a family of her own, it had been too little too late.
“I tried to get custody of Chasity and after that, she swore up and down the street I was the devil. I wasn’t able to get custody. I’m a single man and I own a casino. I probably don’t seem like a good guardian either. Chasity stayed with her mother and father till they gave her to the Luna and Alpha and there was no way I would win against them. They run the pack lands,” explained Chance.
His story was plausible. There was a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. How could Mom do this? Why would she take in Chasity only to treat her like a maid when she could have been raised by her loving grandfather? Sure, he was not ideal but he would have undoubtedly cherished Chasity. Calix took the words right out of my mouth.
Calix
“Why would Mom insist on raising Chasity if there was an alternative? Why would she subject Chasity to…” I said, trailing off.
My wolf found this infuriating. I felt sick and deeply saddened. I was already mourning Chasity’s absence. Now I was mourning the childhood she missed out on. The childhood she could have had if Chance was telling the truth about Mom.
It was hard to admit that my Mom had been abusive towards Chasity, exploitative even. The two women I loved most might never truly be on good terms. When I got Chasity back (because I was getting her back at any cost), I would have to tell her what Mom had done. Chasity was my Goddess. I could not keep this from her. Chasity would find out that she could have had a relatively idyllic childhood with her Grandpa instead of being the pack house maid. Why would the pack house have a little girl for a maid anyway? What had Mom been thinking? We could have more than afforded a regular paid maid. We used to have several maids before Chasity had come to live with us and we had hired two new maids once Chasity became my mate.
“Subject Chasity to what?” Inquired Chance, momentarily snapping me out of my own inner monologue.
He didn’t know. Of course, he didn’t know. How would he? It had been common knowledge that Chasity had been made to “earn her keep” at the Pack House among well-connected pack members but Chance lived on the fringes. Fringe-dwellers were pack members too but they were hardly in the know. The news would devastate him. It was devastating me. I was not the only one. My brothers and I all displayed our feelings differently. Alex held back. I could feel him holding back now. There were so many rep**ssed feelings within him, it was like a dam filled to bursting. The last deluge of emotions had flown out back when he had discovered that Chasity was ours. Felix, on the other hand, rarely got sad, he got mad.
Felix
I was so f**king pissed. Were my parents maniacs or something? Who the f**k would begrudgingly raise a child and make her feel unwanted when she was wanted by a living financially-stable family member? Chance could have probably paid Chasity’s “debt” cash and raised her himself. What was the point of subjecting her to years of toil? I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t just sit here while my Baby was missing and my Mom was sitting on a hugely relevant secret. My wolf was once again pacing. He needed to know if Mom was the culprit behind it all, even the kidnapping. I needed to get to the bottom of this.
I got up and walked out of the Chance’s pigsty of an office without a backwards glance. He seemed like a decent guy but I was done talking to him for now. I needed to question my parents.
“What did I say?” I heard Chance ask as I left.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?