When Eleanor saw the man waiting outside the conference room, she was surprised. She recognised him right away as the man who had been involved with Mia at the party.
Alpha Walter. He was the last person she had expected to see at Blackstorm. But she was happy to see him.
She was convinced he knew something about Mia’s background. Thomas joined them in the conference room soon after.
Alpha Walter introduced himself again as the Alpha of Shallowend. It was a distant pack and small in size.
“What brought you to our pack?” Thomas asked. He sounded defensive, as if he was anticipating that the man would cause trouble for Mia.
Eleanor wondered whether Thomas was no longer interested in finding out the truth about Mia’s background. He had caused quite the scene that night after the party. Had he fallen for Mia’s fake tears?
She wouldn’t be surprised if he had decided to trust his mate blindly.

Mia’s life had been horrible from the moment she was born. Her mother was a sex worker, and Mia had never known who her father was.
Her mother’s main focus was her job–she did everything she could to keep her customers.
When Mia came, she was an unwelcome distraction who could destroy her business, so she kept her hidden. That’s how Mia ended up spending most of her childhood hidden in a small basement.
She never got to play with other kids or go to school. Her mother kept the door to the basement locked to keep her from escaping. Rarely, her mother let her spend some time in the upper rooms when she wasn’t expecting anyone.
It wasn’t until Mia was sixteen when a man who was stalking her mother discovered that she was living in the house.
The stalker happened to be one of her mother’s customers, and when he saw Mia, he attempted to molest her.
Fortunately, her mother showed up just then 

Throughout dinner, Sophia could see that Eleanor was dying to find out what had happened between her and Ethan.
So she was not surprised that the moment they got back to the Alpha’s villa, her best friend dragged her to her bedroom and immediately asked about it.
If finding her mate had gone differently, she would have been over the moon and excited to share the news with Eleanor. But given how it had gone, she decided now was not the right time to break the news to her best friend.
There was already so much going on. She didn’t want to make Eleanor worried about her. It was enough that one of them was already going through love troubles.
“Nothing,” she said, walking to the window and peering outside. “He mistook me for someone he knew.”
“Really?” Eleanor asked. She sounded unconvinced.
Sophia dared not look at her. It would be so much harder to lie if she did. “Yeah. I know, it’s ridiculous. I saw how he looked at me when he ran out of the restaurant, and that’s why I followed him. We cleared up the misunderstanding, so it’s alright.”
“Oh,” Eleanor muttered. “And here I was, expecting something juicy.”
Sophia laughed and finally looked back at her. “I think you are the one with something juicy to tell me. What happened with Mia? Why did she leave the restaurant half to tears?”
“Henry was not nice to her,” Eleanor said. “He was so brutal, even I felt embarrassed for her.”
Sophia walked back towards the bed, taking small steps. She wiggled her brow. “Henry, huh?”
Eleanor laughed. “What?”
“He seemed to be more than a little invested in you tonight. What’s that about?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Eleanor claimed.
Sophia sat down beside Eleanor and hooked their arms together. “I’m not blind, dear friend. That man is interested in you, and he was not afraid to give you the eye even with Thomas at the table.”
“Like the eye you kept giving Ethan?” Eleanor countered.
Sophia blinked. “What?”
“Don’t act innocent, I noticed. You kept staring at him with this dreamy look in your eyes, as if he’s everything you’ve ever wanted.” Eleanor bumped her shoulder into Sophia’s. “Don’t be shy. If you want him, tell me. He is my friend, I can set you two up. I honestly think you two would be good together.”
Sophia sighed. “I don’t think he thinks that.”
If only Eleanor knew the whole story.
“What do you mean?” Eleanor asked. “You are beautiful inside and out, what’s not to like?”
“Maybe I’m just not his type,” Sophia said.
Sophia wasn’t surprised that Ethan liked Eleanor. Most males who met Eleanor ended up infatuated with her. If they got to talk to her, they flat-out fell for her.
Everything about her was great. She was beautiful, had a charming personality, and happened to be a no-nonsense warrior Luna.
“Then maybe he is not as great as I thought,” Eleanor said. She took Sophia’s hand and laced their fingers together. “I’m sure you’ll find the perfect man for you soon.”
Sophia smiled and leaned her head against Eleanor’s shoulder. Even if she could not tell her the truth yet, her words still made her feel better.
She would not give up on Ethan. Not yet.
***
The next day, Thomas left early in the morning with Miller for a training session. Eleanor remained behind to entertain their guests, which was exactly what she needed to have a private meeting with them.
She met with Ethan and Henry in her office, and asked Sophia to join them.
“You’ve all met, but let me introduce you again. This is Sophia, my best friend. She is the person I trust the most so I want her to know everything going on. Sophia, this is Henry Hudsen. He is actually the Alpha of the Darkfall pack. Ethan is his Beta.”
Sophia looked between the two, “So you are not brothers?”
Ethan shook his head and looked away while Henry replied, “No.”
“We think it’s best for now if Thomas doesn’t know Henry’s true identity,” Eleanor said.
“Got it,” Sophia said, taking a seat on an armchair. Henry and Ethan occupied the two-seater in the room while Eleanor took up the other arm chair.
Eleanor brought Sophia up to speed about what she had discussed with Henry the previous day. When she asked her whether she wanted to join her secret group, Sophia said she was ready to do whatever it took to help her win against Thomas.
They decided that Sophia would be in charge of spreading the word around the pack and recruiting werewolves who were open to leaving the pack.
As they discussed their plan in detail, Eleanor remembered Mia’s incident at the party. “Can you also look into Mia’s identity? I have a feeling she is hiding something, and I don’t want it to affect our plans.”
“Of course,” Sophia said. “I can’t wait to expose her, so you bet I’ll dig as hard as I can.”
Other than being happy to be helping her best friend, Sophia was also elated that Ethan was part of this. It meant they’d remain in contact, so she didn’t have to worry about him disappearing from her life when he went back to his pack.
As long as they were together in this, there would be many chances for their relationship to develop.
***
Mia had hoped that Alpha Walter would leave her alone after what happened at the Alpha party.
But since that night, he had sent her many messages, calling her out on her lie and asking about her new life. She ignored his messages first, but when he started making threats to expose her, she called him.
In the end, she told him that she had a plan and if he agreed with it, she’d give him one million dollars after the plan succeeded.
Walter finally agreed, and Mia relaxed.
As long as her past never caught up with her, she would be okay. All she had to do was deal with Eleanor and ensure that Thomas was on her side.
***
After the meeting in Eleanor’s office, Sophia sought information about Mia from multiple sources. After talking to some of the warriors who had attacked the rogues alongside Thomas when he found Mia, she confirmed that Thomas’s story checked out.
Mia had indeed been captured by the rogues and Thomas had saved her. What no one knew so far was what pack she had belonged to before she got captured.
As long as they did not find out what her original pack was, it would be hard to uncover the truth about her identity.
Things took an interesting turn when the man from the Alpha Party arrived at the pack accompanied by a young man. The young man carried a cute dark-haired baby.
The two requested to see the Alpha and Luna of the Blackstorm pack.

When Eleanor saw the man waiting outside the conference room, she was surprised. She recognised him right away as the man who had been involved with Mia at the party.
Alpha Walter. He was the last person she had expected to see at Blackstorm. But she was happy to see him.
She was convinced he knew something about Mia’s background. Thomas joined them in the conference room soon after.
Alpha Walter introduced himself again as the Alpha of Shallowend. It was a distant pack and small in size.
“What brought you to our pack?” Thomas asked. He sounded defensive, as if he was anticipating that the man would cause trouble for Mia.
Eleanor wondered whether Thomas was no longer interested in finding out the truth about Mia’s background. He had caused quite the scene that night after the party. Had he fallen for Mia’s fake tears?
She wouldn’t be surprised if he had decided to trust his mate blindly.
“I would like to apologise for what happened at the party,” Walter said, looking contrite. “I didn'

His missing daughter