Milcah’s p.o.v. After getting the message from the Elders to pack some clothes and all the essential papers we might need, I had to do some sneaking around. First, I had to find a bag I could use. Preferably, one that no one would miss for a while and it took me a few days to find one in the back of Landis’ walk-in closet. Second, I had to locate our family file. The only reason I knew about it was that Mom had told me about it when I was a little girl. According to her, my so-called father had kept her family file updated and it held all the critical information about our family. Births, Deaths and markings are in that file; the only information missing from it is the Pack our family came from. Today, the opportunity to search for the file presented itself. A few minutes ago, Alpha Ferdinand walked out of his office, cussing and swearing. All I heard was something about an unplanned visit from an Elder. I quietly walk out of our suite, listening for any sound on the Alpha floor. It only takes a minute to realize that everyone has left to meet whoever showed up at the gate and I hope that I have enough time to find that file before anyone decides to come back to the Alpha floor. “Go straight to the Alpha office. If he is keeping it anywhere, it will be there. He wouldn’t want his Gamma or any other Pack-member to find it accidentally.” Lyrexia says as I walk down the hall. The door to the Alpha office is ajar and I thank the Goddess for giving me a break. I have never set foot in here; our suite has been the only part of the Alpha floor I have ever seen. So, the interior of the office surprises me a bit. Dark brown furniture on a floor that looks close to the color of the furniture, but I also doubt this room has been deep-cleaned in years. Dark red curtains in front of the floor to ceiling windows and even though I want to look outside, I know it wouldn’t be smart. I look around the room to figure out where Alpha Ferdinand could be keeping our file and to my surprise, I find an open safe against the back wall. Well, more accurately, inside the back wall. On my way over to the safe, I realize I don’t have to look inside. Our file is lying on a chair next to the safe and I grab it before returning to our suite, placing it in the bag. I push the bag back under my bed and go to the living room to keep Mom company. “Where is everyone?” Mom asks and I smile at her sneaky attitude. She makes everyone believe that she lives in her own private world, but she hears and sees more because of it. “Downstairs. From what I heard, some Elder came for an unplanned visit and he wasn’t pleased.” I answer her. She smiles at me while she hands me a stack with all her sketchbooks, “Put those in your bag. I don’t want to leave these behind.”I should have known that she suspected something; I was never able to keep anything secret from her. Getting up from the couch, I take the sketchbooks and walk back to my room. Her decoy sketchbook is on her lap as we lean back to close our eyes for a few minutes. A routine we do whenever we get the chance to be on the Alpha floor all by ourselves. “Why did you start using a decoy sketchbook, Mom?” I ask. A question I have wanted to ask for years, but never got the time to do so. “When I was pregnant with you, I had nothing to do. I asked Ferdinand for a sketchbook to pass the time and I always enjoyed drawing. The first drawing I made in that sketchbook was a gala dress I had hoped to wear at my Luna Ceremony and we both know how that turned out. I woke up one morning and found my sketchbook on the floor, the page with the dress was missing. I spoke with Ferdinand about it, but he didn’t realize that Katreena had stolen it. He gave me multiple sketchbooks after that day and I kept one as a decoy.” Mom answers. Lyrexia is pacing in the back of my head. She hates what they did to Mom and would love to have some words with them, once she has her full strength. Shifting takes a lot of energy from us and with the bare minimum of nutrition, it is almost impossible to shift. Lyrexia has only been out about three times since my eighteenth birthday and I want her to shift with Zunda, Mom’s Lycan, whenever they want. My so-called Father doesn’t know that Mom and I are Lycans. Mom never shifted in front of the Pack as every other eighteen year old had to do and I shifted in my bedroom, near the balcony. I have wondered for two years if he would have treated me differently if he had known that I am a Lycan. Landis might have Alpha blood in his veins, but he is weaker than I am. I sometimes ask myself if he could be a good Alpha to Frozen Star Pack or if he would be worse than his Father. There are many questions I will never get an answer to, but there are also questions I don’t want an answer to. Mainly, because I fear my reaction to the answers. Mom and I sit up straight at the same time, but I don’t hear a door close to indicate that someone returned to the Alpha floor. We look at each other when we hear another noise and we slowly get up from the couch. We move at the same time, taking slow and calculated steps toward the door of our suite. We have barely passed the coffee table when the door slowly opens and a woman in a Renegade uniform sneaks in. “Is anyone on the Alpha floor?” She whispers as she closes the door behind her. “No, just the two of us.” Mom answers as she pushes me toward my room. “Get the bag. I believe they are here to get us out of here and not a moment too late. I would have killed Katreena if I had to listen to one more insult from her.” I am stunned for a moment and stare over my shoulder at my Mom. I have never heard her talk like that in my life, but I can’t blame her for it.