Truth

Harper and the Alpha read through the entirety of The Ever Green Pack's history.

"Is all of this accurate?"

"Yes, every last word. The book had been passed down from Alpha to Alpha. Dating back to the 3rd Millennium BC. That's why, as you can see here, the beginning is written in Sumerian, following to when they became Egypt, then when they were conquered by the Greeks." As the Alpha spoke she thumbed through the pages pointing to each language. "Then they were Romans, then in the 7th century they were Arabs, then Scotsmen, then English, then they finally ended their migrations in the US after the colonies were built and they moved south." This was a lot for Harper to process, he loved history but this was still a lot even for a history buff.

"And if they were still around today, where would their pack have been?" Harper asked cautiously, not knowing if he truly wanted the answer.

"Right around what's now Asheville, North Carolina." She pointed to a map on the wall pinpointing exactly where that city is. Harper marked in his phone where she pointed and continued paging through the book.

"What does this mean here?" Harper pointed at a word that described a rare type of wolf found in the Ever Green Pack.

"Quietus Wolf." The Alpha again left and came back with another book. "This is a book on ancient creatures, known as a bestiary, this should have the answer you're looking for, here the Qs" she dragged her finger down the column of beasts starting with Q.

"Quietus Wolf is a creature believed to be a descendant of Hades's dog, the three headed beast and guardian of the underworld's gates, know as Cerberus. There was no known word for the beast until late 9th Century Scotland when their Alpha, Adair Mac an t-Saoir later changed by the English to MacTear, deemed the creature as Quietus meaning death or something that causes death. The trait is only passed through the Ever Green's Alpha blood line" Harper and the Alpha shared a worried look.

"What does this mean?"

"It means that pack has one hell of a background." She quipped

They continued through the packs history until they finally reached a page containing a picture of the Ever Greens final Alpha and main Family. An inscription at the bottom of the photo told each of the families names.

"Alpha Elijah MacTear aged 36, husband of Luna Evelyn Holland-MacTear aged 29, second daughter of The Sheffield Pack. The Twins Neil and Niklaus MacTear aged seven. The final family of The Ever Green Pack."

After reading the inscription and seeing the photo Harper needed to sit down, he realized that Neil and Niklaus were the twins from the photo and couldn't wrap his head around how one was held captive and beaten for nine years and the other was an amnesiac.

"Do you want to continue? There's only a few pages left in this one." The Alpha lifted the final pages showing Harper that there were only four left.

"Yeah, let's keep going." Harper took in a deep breath and read the final pages.

"On March 7, 2011 the twins Neil and Niklaus walked to the park for their 11th birthday like they did every year. While at the park young Niklaus wondered away from his brother and was never seen again. Over the next year the twins' parents searched endlessly for their lost son but were ultimately foiled when an unknown identity stormed into the Ever Green Pack on March 7, 2012 massacring the entire pack and the rest of the main family, young Neil narrowly escaping with the help of a witch known as Arcadia. It is believed that the young twins will one day reunite and will rule heaven and hell together. Being the last living descendants of Cerberus, the boys are the only things stopping the gates of the underworld from rupturing and causing Hell on Earth."

"Ugghh!" Harper groaned. "It just figures that with my luck my mate it some mystical gate keeper to the underworld! What the hell is so wrong about wanting to have a normal life and maybe a couple of cute kids or even a dog running around? Why does MY LIFE have to go from zero to one billion when what is apparently my mates brother shows up! Maybe I should've just ignored him that day I heard his scream by the cliffs, maybe then all this s*it wouldn't be happening!" Harper continued his ranting as he paced around the room.

"Get him some Sleepy Time Tea.." The Alpha whispered to her guard while following Harper with a worried look.

***

This poor boy was about to pop a vain pacing and ranting like that in fact you could see one bulging out on his forehead. I told my guard to grab him some Sleepy Time Tea to calm him down until morning. Harper chugged it and was in bed within the next half hour, we don't have many visitors all the way up here in the mountains so it was kind of nice that at least one of the guest rooms was getting some use. While Harper slept I decided to call his father, it occurred to me that we hadn't even told him that Harper was here. Oops. Atlas was relieved that his remaining son was okay and decided that him and his pack would come stay with us for a few days while trying to do some more research on this pack that took his son's mate. I decided that telling him the two boys were brothers wasn't an "over the phone" type conversation and figured it'd be best to wait until he got here. I took a look at Harper's map, it's an old one that's probably from around the late 1800s, it's highly outdated, which explains why it took him so long to get here, I added a newer one to his bag. Before I headed off to bed myself, I did some more research on The Ever Green Pack. Mainly I searched for which packs were their allies and which were their enemies and trust me, they had plenty on either side. After labeling each pack from "Most Probable Kidnappers" or MPKs to "Least Probable Kidnappers" or LPKs, I went to sleep.

Or tried to, my head was spinning with mysteries, who took the boys? Why'd they take them? Where are they keeping them? How are they keeping the boys from shifting into their wolves and slaughtering their entire pack? All these questioned caused me to twist and turn all night.

***

"Scarlett!" Atlas walked into the master bedroom where Scarlett had been skulking since Harper disappeared.

"Scarlett, I just received a call from The Adler Pack's Alpha, Harper is there."

"Really!?" Scarlett looked over to Atlas with a glimpse of hope in her eyes.

"Really. We're going up there in a couple days to see if we can find more information on Neil's and Niklaus's abductors. I told her that if Harper tries to leave before we get there to put him in a room and keep him there."

"You didn't?" Scarlett chuckled a little at the thought, she was glad that her baby was okay.

"I did and with the help from The Adler's expansive library we'll be able to find Neil and Niklaus in no time at all." Atlas feigned a gleeful smile. Although, the Adler's had an amazing library he wasn't sure it'd actually be enough to find the two boys because he didn't know if he even had enough information to know what they would be looking for. Even if they do find the two of them there's no telling what kind of state they'll be in once they're rescued. Plus, who knows if they're even still alive or not?