Evander woke up, looking fresh and well rested. He'd slept the entire day and everyone was starting to get anxious.
"I mean, he doesn't even sleep much. Why now? Do you think he died in his sleep?"
Jake threw a pillow at him.
"Shut up. He'll wake up."
Isabella sat next to his bed without saying a word, and she was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. He didn't exactly reflect her smile, but at least, the hate wasn't that evident in his eyes. She held his hand.
"Evander, are you okay? How do you feel?"
He stared at the hand for a while and she started contemplating whether she should let his hand go before he answered her.
"I feel good."
He released his hand from hers, flipped off the covers, stood and stretched, his face more relaxed than she had seen it in a while. "Okay, I’ll just tell Jake and Alec. They were so worried."
"No need. Get some rest. I'll just go down myself.”
he said and properly walked out, before coming back in.
"Who changed my clothes?"
He asked, his eyes wide.
"I...I wasn’t there."
She said, blushing red and lowering her eyes, cause she was lying. She had changed his clothes. Just that she hasn't exactly removed it all before that. She knew he would freak out.
"Sure?"
He squinted his eyes. She nodded fast and he gave a curt nod and went out. She sighed, relieved and just sat on the bed, suddenly realizing just how tired she was. It didn't take her too long to fall asleep.
"She tried to run away."
Evander said, clutching the bag they had retrieved and glaring down at the girl's cold corpse. Alex sighed.
"I thought so too. Because, within the three moons wolf country, no Luna has ever come from a different pack from her alpha. She was right under our noses, we just never knew."
Jake nodded.
"I feel like he knew about her late, cause he didn't give a chance to his intuition, and his wolf had been weak and distracted due to Isabella. She found out before him, and instead of rejecting him, ran away."
Evander shook his head.
"There is something else."
"What's that?"
Alec asked quickly, and Evander shook his head.
"She would never had gotten out of full moon without permission. Someone must've helped her get out. Someone who had permission. There is no way she could get out."
Jake nodded.
"There have been no permissions issued from me for the last week. I mean, wolves rarely want to go out, this pack has everything."
Alec sighed.
"Me neither and I’ve been handling all the permissions for Evander too."
Evander stepped forward, looking like he knew something they didn't.
"You are forgetting something, Alec. We issued permission to someone."
Alec's eyes widened.
"Nanny Mel."
Evander nodded and echoed.
"Nanny Mel."
Jake looked surprised.
"Nanny Mel? Isn’t she your former nanny? Before that incident"
Evander let out a humorless laughter.
"Now, that's why. She asked to leave with her granddaughter, whose face I couldn't see even though I read her thoughts that day she came. I couldn't see it cause she was my mate, and I hadn't found her yet. She left with her cause of her stupid misconception of that incident."
He said, shaking his head all through.
"If that is so, what was she doing on the trail to split moon?" Evander shrugged.
"That, we will have to find out."
He unzipped the bag and poured the contents on the floor, next to the corpse. Apart from the clothes, the shoe, normal girl things, nothing else was there.
"There is nothing here."
Alec said. Evander kept and picked at the things, separating them from each other. As he removed the shoe, a bunch of papers fell out, all perfumed.
"Well, maybe not."
Jake took the first one out. He opened it and skimmed through it, before looking at Evander wide eyed.
"It contains a clue, doesn't it?"
Jake nodded and handed the paper to Alec who had been anxious to read it.
"Its a letter, addressed to her, from someone else. It was received last week."
Evander nodded.
"Read it out loud"
Alec looked at Jake, who nodded.
"Sandra, my love"
"I am so sorry we've been away from each other for so long. I love you so much, and it aches my heart that you want to leave your life behind for me, but if its for the best..."
"Wait."
Evander stopped him.
"This isn't the medieval times. Why a letter instead of a text?"
Alex looked at him.
"I don't know. Why don't we keep checking?"
Evander nodded. They took the pile, each reading the different letters, until they reached the very last in the heap.
"Here. I found it."
"What is it?"
Evander sighed.
"He didn't send text messages to her, because she didn't have a phone."
Jake shook his head.
"That can't be it."
"Why?"
"Cause I surveyed the trail from here yesterday, and I found a phone. It should belong to her."
He produced a phone and kept it on the floor. Evander looked at it.
"It looks new. Even the scratches on it look new. That means, she didn't have a phone then, but later acquired one, and somehow lost it."
Evander sighed.
"I'm tired."
Jake nodded.
"Let's ask nanny Mel".
Evander shook his head.
"No. Nanny Mel already knows."
"How?" He looked at them.
"Let's pack up. We'll need all of these. Just leave the corpse here."
Jake nodded, but Alec stood with Evander.
"Where are you going?"
"I want to take a bath and change. My hair is out place too."
He sighed.
"Why don’t you want to tell us?"
"Tell you what, Alec?"
"How does nanny Mel know?"
"Nanny Mel is on her way here. To retrieve her granddaughter. We need to be prepared. I don’t know exactly what she would do now, after the girl she tried to take away from me died such a gruesome death."
Alec gasped and Jake's eyes widened.
"Damn, so we have an angry old woman on our trail."