A young wolf captured on the wrong side of the lines during a war with no memory of her real name or where she came from is thrown into the warped society of the southern territories. She's raised as if this demented world is ordinary. Staying far f...
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The former Luna of the pack climbed up the last two rocks of the mountain's on-looking edge and settled beside her daughter on the smoothed stones. It wasn't high enough to compare to the top of their mountain edges, but enough to overlook Quinn's land.
"What's on your mind?" Judy asked, tucking Quinn's hair behind her ear. She frowned when Quinn only closed the folder in her hand and held it in her direction. "What's this?"
"Jake's research so far." She whispered, cheeks blazed red and stained with tears.
Judy opened the file and gasped at the picture of a young Gingerbread with a woman and a man. She had different bandages in each photo, no smile, and weary eyes, but what stuck out the most was the picture of Gingerbread in a man's lap as a young pup that was taken mid-stress pant. Her eyes were wide, and she was wrapped in nothing but a blanket; it looked dirty and her messy hair was close to the same as Brittany had found her, if not worse. She didn't seem as proud of whatever happened prior to the picture as the man snuggled up to her.
"Oh, Quinn." Judy covered her mouth and flipped through the notes Jake had made, along with pictures of Blood Heart's training facility. "The poor pup."
"She's sixteen." Quinn turned her head when Judy looked up. "And going into heat."
"You're going to finish the ceremony with her?" Judy asked as her total concentration turned to her daughter. "Quinn, that's wonderful—"
"She's sixteen and has been abused her entire life." Quinn interrupted, looking back over her land. "I'm in my twenties and have a community to keep together."
"You can't end our line." Judy squeezed Quinn's leg and offered her a small smile. "The Moon Goddess chose your mates for you. Be with them. Be with her. I understand you want to wait, but a child...legacy or not...would keep this pack alive."
"My child would be in danger." Quinn leaned back and shook her head. "Mommy, I can't in good mind put my Lunas through the death of our children...You know more than anyone how dangerous this will be."
Judy licked her lips and looked down at the information Jake had gathered regarding Gingerbread. She flipped through the different childhood pictures of Gingerbread in the fertile Omega system Blood Heart had created until she spotted a familiar tattoo. It was inked onto a tan wrist that peeked into the photo where a hand held a very young version of her daughter's mate's head facing the camera.
"Your Uncle doesn't know we have one of their Omegas, Sweetie." Judy shuffled the pictures back together and closed the folder without another look at the information. She turned her body and sighed sadly when she noticed tears in her daughter's eyes. "You need to stop worrying about him. He wouldn't hurt his family."
