Page 50 of Wolf Forsaken

I kept my distance, more cautious of him now. He stopped in front of a group of boulders, not far from the river.

"Is this where I was found?" Seemed like a horrible place to abandon a newborn, but maybe my mother didn’t have any other choice.

"Yes." He pointed to an area between the boulders that would have provided adequate coverage to a baby. "He said he heard you crying a mile away. He was on patrol that night."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I think my father was Baron."

He shielded his eyes from the sun and squinted at me. His jaw worked back and forth as he examined my face. "He wouldn't have abandoned you if he was your father. Baron was a good man."

"He was found dead the day after I was born. I was placed in an ivy bush outside a clinic and found that same morning. I'm guessing your son put me there?" He was considering the information I shared. "Why not take me to the women of the pack? Or the alpha?"

"You didn't smell like a wolf. I asked him the same questions when he told me years and years ago. I didn't know the connection between your birth and Baron's death." He dropped his hand and stared out at the river. "My son was secretive."

Was.Did he not think he was alive anymore?

"He paid a social worker five hundred thousand dollars about a week later to ensure I was adopted far away from here." Something was amiss, and I intended to dig all I needed to in order to find the answers.

That surprised him, and he brought his hand to his chest. "Excuse me."

"Half a million-"

"We didn't have that kind of money." He shook his head vehemently. "Where would he have gotten that kind of cash?"

"Maybe he robbed a bank, or like you said, he was secretive." Unlike the movies, there weren't a ton of ways a person could get that kind of cash quickly. Did he just have that much lying around somewhere?

Movement drew my attention to the trees where Silas was walking toward us. "He had it hidden in the floorboards of the house, Pops."

That was a surprise to me. He hadn't said a word about it and had acted like they had none. Had he been lying?

"I thought I told you-" The grumpy face was back. I wondered what his story was. Maybe part of it was because his son left.

"She's my mate. You don't really expect me to leave her alone with another man for long, do you?" He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. "Why did you bring her out here?"

"This is where she was abandoned. Tell me everything you know about that money." His eyes darkened, and he looked out at the river again.

"He was kind of frantic getting it out. There were two metal boxes, and inside were bundled bills. I was like eight, so I don't remember much else. He was very short with me, and I went back to my room."

"It could have been your mother's money. She was always saying nonsense about needing to be prepared for anything and everything." He seemed tired suddenly and looked back to the forest like he wanted to go back.

"But half a million dollars? That's life savings level." Silas scratched his beard. "I wish we had a way to contact him."

"He just... left?" I was already growing more and more concerned about what had actually happened to my real mother and father. Something bad had gone down.

"Yeah. He said he was tired of pack life and wanted to travel." Silas shrugged. "I can't blame him. Between starting a new pack and dealing with Cole's father... I've only been doing this about ten years and I've about had it."

It sounded an awful lot like Silas hadn't heard from him since he had left. "Is he missing?"

"Yes." Pops looked at Silas with sadness in his eyes. "Now I'm thinking there's something else going on we don't know about."

"No." Silas crossed his arms over his chest. "He said he needed to find himself again. Being an alpha sucked the life out of him."

"Almost a decade with no contact is not needing to find himself again. He's missing or dead." Pops was not shitting around and pointed his finger at Silas. "You need to realize that and put him in that database doohickey. I'd do it myself if I had access and knew how."

"It can't hurt. Ten years is a long time, Silas." When I looked up at him, he wouldn't meet my stare. Maybe he was in denial.

One thing was for sure, he had the answers I needed.

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