The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 60

Conner POV

He was standing at the site of one Taro Kit Hunt’s grave. It was a lovely white marble headstone with yellow daffodils planted on it, though it was the symbol that was impressed right into the marble that had his attention. It was either a pack symbol or a shifter symbol and he knew it, it was not open for all to see, it was simply carved into the top of it, small and precise. It was a sitting fox that was smelling a daffodil inside a circle.

Spoke volumes to him and Brayden, but to everyone else, who wasn’t a shifter, it was just a simple but pretty carving on a headstone. To him and Brayden, it meant the man had a fox for a mother and was likely a fox shifter himself, which meant so was El. Though the carving did not depict what type of fox or what colour.

He was curious himself, Atlas huffed inside his mind. He didn’t care what she was, only that she was meant to be his, that Conner had screwed it all up. He had to find out where she was? Likely she was inside a fox pack now, right in the den itself, that was not going to be an easy thing to find. Those shifters did like to keep themselves well hidden, usually so well hidden you didn’t even know you were on their territory unless face to face with one.

Accounted for the specialized soap that she used, that her grandmother used, they were Alpha-blooded and keeping one’s half human grandchild safe and unscented to everyone was no easy feat, he imagined. This also accounted for why she liked being outdoors and wasn’t afraid to be in the woods ever. It was her natural habitat.

There were, however, many breeds of foxes out there, likely as many packs as wolves had. Though he knew many of them actually resided inside the big cities themselves, they were more sociable with humans, likely those rich gated communities were owned by foxes.

If her father was always here, and had the use of the Lake Valley Pack, he presumed their home pack had to be close. Though Sloan herself lived in Seattle, so it was possible that she had her pack up there and her son was here solely because it was where Brittney had come from. Who knew, not him, that was for certain? Foxes were not like Wolves, come and go from packs, free spirited. Fit into gypsy packs easily.

“A fox shifter?” Brayden sighed. “That is not going to be easy to find, a den.”

“No, it’s not. Especially considering Sloan stated she handed her over to another, is where she belongs.”

“So, in Sloan’s home pack in other words.”

“It is very likely yes.” Conner nodded “I don’t even know where that is, or where to start looking. But Eliza has Italian descent, so I would be guessing we should start with that if Sloan is not going to be forthcoming.”

“She did want to study in Italy.”

“That she did. Likely, I’m guessing is probably over there somewhere.” He turned and walked back to his car. As he called his stepmother, she picked up right away.

“Conner?”

He knew what her question was, and knew she was not about to ignore any call from him. “Not with Cordi, but your husband’s grave was interesting, to say the least.”

“Why?”

“Got a fox on it.” he commented.

“Yes, I know. He loved foxes, studied everything about them, had a whole collection in his study on them. It’s in storage for El actually.”

“You should have led with this Brittney, there are fox shifters. It’s likely he was one, that El is part fox.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that, Conner, I’m sorry.” She sounded a little shocked to him.

He sighed, she was still new and dealing with carrying an Alpha pup at that, wondered about that, seeing that El was a half Apha-blooded fox. “What was your pregnancy like with El?”

“Um, normal for the most part. Why?”

“Most part? What wasn’t normal about it?”

“She came early, is all, was like 2 and a half months earlier than expected, a tiny little baby at that. But a good, strong fighter. It took a long time to have her years, in fact, but both Taro and I were healthy, the doctor said.”

“That could have just been because he was a fox and you human is all.” Shook his head “Where is the storage unit, can you send me the details? There might be something in there that leads me to his home pack.”

“His home? He always considered Italy his home, took El there all the time when she was growing up.”

“Really, now that is interesting to me. Do you recall where in Italy?”

“Um, I didn’t go the last few years. They were father-daughter trips, those two were like peas in a pod.”

“Brittney, where in Italy? It’s important, likely where El is.” He pulled her back on track.

“Um, I don’t really recall, I haven’t been there since El was like ten. He would usually take her while I was away on school excursions or she would go with Sloan. I would ask Sloan.”

“She’s not going to tell any of us where Brittney, so you really need to think on this. Get yourself a map of Italy and see if anything jogs your memory. Also, what university was she supposed to go to? Likely Sloan has let her enroll in it.”

“The University of Bologna. It’s where her father studied.”

“What did he study?”

“Entomology and Dendrology.”

“Insects and Trees.” Shook his head, two things foxes loved. “Text me the storge details there might be something in there that helps me, locate his home pack, what about family photo’s?”

“Everything that was Taro’s is in there, for El.”

“Did you ever tell her that, might have helped her to know she still had those things.”

“I never had the chance, she was always so angry, Conner.”

“Mm, because you and father took everything away from her. Everything that was her father, all the things she was attached to. Likely felt suddenly disconnected from her heritage even if she didn’t know what she was.”

He heard Brittney sigh “I didn’t know Conner.”

“None of us did, Brittney,” He acknowledged. And clicked the line closed. It was getting late. He looked at Brayden. That man had yet to explode about what he’d heard Cordi state, “Let’s get some food and rest, check out that storage site in the morning. This hunt is not going to be easy.”

“No, Italy is a large place, and even if she attends that university, there is no guarantee she’s going to be on campus the day we are there, might not even be staying on campus, likely within the new pack and commutes to and from with others of her kind.”

“Agreed and who knows what days she’ll need to be there, what times her classes are. If those around her are her alpha-blooded relations.” This was turning into something that might not be manageable for him. Getting her back could well take months or even years and he knew it. He might not ever be able to get her back.

Not if she actually feels like she belongs there, if she is comfortable there, she might just stay there regardless of him being her Mate. Knew she had to have been initiated into that other pack, it was the only explanation for her feeling severed from him, unless, of course, that person Sloan gave her too, took her for their Mate.

Though when he thought about that, Sloan had said that person would respect her choices, so he didn’t think that was it, she wouldn’t even know what they were right away, so he could only come to the conclusion that she had been initiated, which meant they had told her what she was as well. That was likely going to come as a shock to her.

They headed for the storage site first thing in the morning and everything was neatly boxed up in there. Everything had been labelled for what it was, that made things easier. He was sitting on a box as Bradden was going through Taro’s things. He was actually looking at photos of her and her father in a photo album, smiling at her as a little baby, even then she had those unusual eyes, her father had them too.

Sloan as well, held out a picture to Brayden. It was of the three of them. She was about one in the photo, had black hair and silver-grey eyes just like her father and grandmother. “You want to bet those silver-grey eyes of hers are part of her Packs distinct lineage.”

Saw the man look at it “Yes, find the den with those eyes and we’ll likely find El herself.” he nodded.

“Are you going to yell at me Brayden, I really don’t like waiting for you to explode?” he sighed when the man just turned back to looking through the box he was in.

“Good, let you fear when it will happen.” he muttered, and said no more.

Conner shook his head, he didn’t so much as fear it, just wanted it over and done with. To be honest. He went back to looking at the photos. There were lots of photos of her and her father camping out in the woods, doing outdoor activities and holidays, he realised.

Took him many hours to go through those boxes, to find that photo album that he thought he was looking for. She was little and there were lots of kids around her. All looked Italian descent, likely these were all pictures from inside Taro’s home pack.

“I got it, or at least I think so.” He said after looking through it, there was a lake, open fields of grass and trees. Though he noticed that not one photo actually showed the buildings, carefully taken, though he could see in the background of a couple of them, foxes off in the distance. The question now was, could they use those photos to source out where in Italy this place was.

She was of different ages inside the album, from a small toddler, six years old and then maybe like ten as well, even one when she was likely 16. This album showed her growing up. She’d not changed much, was always pretty, even as a little one. Seems her father took her there often, likely trying to sense out her shifter or not.

Though it wasn’t just her father in them, Sloan was in some of those pictures as well, and another woman, close enough looking for him to know it was the woman’s sister. This was their home pack, though why Sloan was out here away from it, he didn’t know.

Not even he really liked being away from his pack, from the forest that surrounded it, he felt connected to the land that was his, to the other wolves inside it. He was curious if Foxes didn’t have that strong connection themselves. Or if they just liked to wander like gypsies did.

He handed the album to Brayden and he flipped through it, looked at the photos, “It’s the same lake,” he noted, “Likely is the pack, but there is no picture of the den itself.”

“I noticed that, carefully taken, though a few inside it, just not the building itself.”

“Countryside not city.” Brayden nodded “That might make it a bit easier. Dens in the city’s would be harder to find.”

“Walled in or a single apartment building.” Conner nodded.

There was no symbol on the album, none on any of them, but Brittney had not been wrong, about all the pictures of foxes, the man had heaps of them, lots of mythology books on fox shifters of all cultures as well.

“Let’s go home.” Conner sighed.

“You don’t want to talk to Sloan.”

“No, she didn’t like me anyway, is not going to give me anything on El. If El was unhappy and wanted to leave, that’s all that would have mattered to Sloan. We’ll head for Italy and start the search there, with her university of choice.”

“That would be too obvious, Conner.”

“Let’s just see when we get there. Sloan is a fox, cunning and sneaky, likely highly intelligent and likely very wealthy if she is an Alpha. Also, with it being Taro’s alma mater, I’d be willing to bet, Sloan could pull strings and get El back into her school of choice. Perhaps she thinks we wouldn’t go there because it’s where we would expect her to go. So obvious a place to look that we’d dismiss it.”

“Hiding her in plain sight, you mean?”

“Yes, sometimes the best place to hide someone is right under their nose.” Conner nodded.

He packed several of those boxes into his truck, most of them actually. Brayden just stared at him for a moment and then helped him. He was going to prep for her to come home, he was not going to give up on her. No matter how long it took, he would bring her home and show her their suite was filled with all the things from her life growing up, that he wanted her to have those memories around her.

Showing her that he cared about her, hadn’t really done much of that, needed to show her he really did care, though coming across her might be an actual issue with Atlas, he was going to want to claim her on the spot. Stopping his beast from doing that was another matter, something else he was going to have to work on.