The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 290

< The box beneath the floor

Claim

The box beneath the floor

(Isla)

I didn’t want to spend another minute in Greyhaven. The box had been hidden in Derek’s study since the day he brought me to Ashcrest. I had lived in that home without knowing something connected to my past was beneath the floor. Derek had known it was there the

entire time.

“Why did you keep it?”

Derek looked at the records on the table.

“I was told to.”

I stared at him.

“By who?”

“The same letter.”

That was new. Derek explained that the message hadn’t only told him to retrieve me. It had instructed him to keep the box hidden and never open it. He had followed that order even after years passed without another message.

“Why?”

“I thought someone would eventually come for it.”

I couldn’t understand that. He’d raised me while keeping something found beside me hidden only a few steps away. Not once had he wondered whether it belonged to me.

“You never thought I should know?”

Derek met my eyes.

“No.”

The answer hurt, but it didn’t surprise me. Derek had never treated me as though I deserved answers about anything. Before we learned I was Celestial, he’d believed I was nothing more than the wolfless girl he’d been forced to raise.

Caius placed both hands against the table.

“Describe the box.”

The box beneath the floor

Derek looked at him.

“Black stone, about this long.”

Clain

He held his hands apart. The size was small enough that it could have been carried easily. Derek said there were markings on the lid, but he hadn’t understood them.

“The divided circle?”

“No.”

I looked at him.

“The Keeper symbol?”

“Yes.”

That answered one question. The box had almost certainly been left by the same wolves connected to my protected sleep. Whatever was inside might tell us why.

“Did Helene know where you hid it?”

Derek looked toward her.

“Yes.”

Helene nodded when I turned to her. She’d known about the box from the beginning. Derek had told her never to touch it.

“Did you?”

“No.”

I believed her. If she’d opened it, Derek would probably have known. More importantly, neither of them had any reason to lie about that now.

Caius looked at me.

“We return to Ashcrest.”

“Today.”

He didn’t argue. Greyhaven had given us what we came for. Staying here wouldn’t answer anything else.

Derek stood when we did.

“There’s one more thing.”

< The box beneath the floor

I stopped.

“What?”

“The place where we found you wasn’t empty afterward.”

turned fully toward him. He had said nobody else was there when he and Helene arrived. That wasn’t what he meant now.

“When did you go back?”

“Years later.”

Derek explained that he’d returned after I was old enough to walk. He’d never received another letter, but curiosity had finally taken him back. The entrance was still there.

“What did you find?”

“The chamber had been cleared.”

Ciali

I frowned. The markings had remained, but everything else was gone. Even the stone where Derek said he’d found me had been removed.

“Someone came back.”

“That’s what I thought.”

That meant the Keeper hadn’t simply sent Derek and forgotten about the place. Someone had returned after I was removed. They had taken whatever might have remained behind.

“How long after you found me?”

“About four years.”

I thought about those years. By then, I had been living in Ashcrest as Derek and Helene’s daughter. Whoever returned to the chamber could have known exactly where I was.

“Did you tell anyone?”

“No.”

Derek had kept it to himself. He’d apparently decided that if the wolves behind the letter wanted something from him, they could contact him again. They never did.

Caius gathered the records.

“Did you ever receive another message from them?”

< The box beneath the floor

“Never.”

I looked at Helene.

“Did anyone ever ask about me?”

She thought about the question.

“One wolf.”

Every part of me became focused on her.

“Who?”

“I don’t know his name.”

Helene explained that a stranger had visited Ashcrest when I was around five. He hadn’t asked to see me directly. Instead, he’d asked whether the child Derek had taken in was healthy.

“What did you tell him?”

“That you were.”

Claim

I tried to remember being five years old. Nothing about a strange visitor came back to me. I might never have seen him.

“What did he look like?”

Helene described a man with dark hair who appeared to be somewhere around forty. He hadn’t given a pack name. After asking about me, he’d left without explaining why he cared.

“Did Derek know?”

“Yes.”

I turned toward him.

“And you didn’t think that was strange?”

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