“I left you there on the sidewalk. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. When we were out of sight, I stayed and watched you with your parents. I followed you home. I watched your family for days, trying to find an excuse to make you come with me. I learned everything I could about you and your parents, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take your childhood away. I didn’t want you to have the pressure of being my Luna when you hadn’t even shifted yet. I was afraid I’d scare you. You were so tiny, just a child. I thought you might be twelve or thirteen.”

He’s rubbing his chin on my head, his whiskers snag in my hair. “I thought I was doing what was best for you. I know, now, how wrong I was. I’m so very sorry. I can’t express how sorry I am for letting you go.”

The regret in his voice is clear, but I still don’t understand what he regrets? That I lost my parents? That I was alone, or the fact that he never looked for me? Would he ever have looked if I hadn’t ended up here? There are so many questions. “Would you have ever looked for me if I hadn’t shown up here?” Sadness clear in my tone.

“I’ve been looking for you for two years, little one.” He sounds just as sad as me.

“How is that possible? I never lived more than fifty miles from my childhood home? If that’s true, how did you not find me?”

His arms still hold me, but his hands brush over my arms, legs, back and even my face. His touch is gentle and reverent. “I never knew what pack your family belonged to. I didn’t want to bring you to anyone’s attention. I get challenged as Alpha a few times a year now, but back then, it felt like I was challenged a few times a month. I thought it would put a target on you, have people trying to use you to get to me. The only person who knew I’d found you and the entire situation was Michael, my Beta. So, I waited three years to the day. Then, I left to go get you and your family if they wanted to come.” His hands have stopped moving, and his body grows tense. “When I got out of the car, I knew you were gone, I was sick with worry. I started contacting every pack within five hundred miles, searching. No one knew who you guys were. No pack claimed your family so I made it my mission to check each pack, in case they were hiding you from me. It’s been two years. There hasn’t been one day that’s passed without me thinking of you, wondering where you were.”

We are both quiet for a while. I still have questions, but I know he didn’t walk away and forget me like I assumed. The sky’s darkening, stars twinkling in the twilight. When the silence is finally broken, he whispers, “Will you stay here tonight? We still have a lot to talk about. I could make us some dinner?”