Derek's POV
At this critical moment, I was reluctant to trouble Mark, so I tried not to provoke her too much.
When I saw Elena, all the complex emotions in my heart eventually boiled down to disappointment.
I couldn't understand how the sweet girl from my childhood had transformed into who she was now.
"Did you have plastic surgery on your face?" My voice carried a note of disbelief.
The girl before me bore no resemblance to Zack.
My wolf couldn't sense her presence either.
Elena had been away from the Black Thorn Pack for too long, and she could no longer be recognized as a member of the pack.
I had too many questions.
"Yes," she admitted, showing no reluctance to answer.
"Why did you get plastic surgery?" I continued to ask.
She avoided any eye contact with me, "There's nothing to say to you. I can't stay here any longer. Leave. Just pretend you never saw me."
I stopped her, insisting, "You left the Black Thorn Pack, ignored me as your Alpha, and hurt your Luna. You owe me an explanation. Why would you harm innocent lives? I remember how devastated you were as a child when your pet dog died. How did you become so cruel?"
I vividly recalled Elena's sadness back then.
I even asked Tabitha not to bring Tucker over later, to avoid being reminded of that painful memory.
Elena gave a fleeting smile, but it quickly vanished. "Are you sure I was only upset because of the puppy's death?"
There was a hint of irony in her words.
She raised her chin, her lips forming a cold and unfamiliar smile. "I fed the puppy sleeping pills. It was so annoying with its constant barking every night. Unfortunately, it died after only eating sleeping pills for three days."
At that moment, Elena seemed like a complete stranger, except for her eyes.
I hadn't recognized her for years, even when she was by my side.
"Why did you have to kill it? If you didn't like it, you could have just had someone take it away," I said, with a hint of reproach in my voice.
"Who will be with me if I send it away? You were so busy back then, and Mom had intermittent mental illness. Zack was Beta and rarely around. It was my only pastime." Elena mentioned the dog as a pastime rather than a companion.
"Alpha Derek, did you always see me as a well-behaved and adorable little girl? That's not the whole truth. Don't you want to know who I really am? Well, let me tell you," Elena said coldly, curling her lips.
Her voice trembled with deep pain and despair as she continued, "The Black Thorn Pack may be the most powerful wolf pack in Seattle, but my mother is mentally ill and my father is a Beta, always busy with pack affairs and never around. My home was always cold, and you were the only one in the pack who truly cared for me, but you had so much to learn every day. How could you possibly have time for me?"
When Elena mentioned this, there seemed to be a glimmer of tears in her eyes.
She slightly lifted her head, managing to keep the tears from falling. "Do you know how it feels to have a mother covered in blood holding me in her arms, reaching out to choke my neck, and saying that I should never have been born?"
I was stunned. Her words struck me like a knife, piercing straight into my heart.
I knew that Zack's wife had some issues, but that was his mate, and I didn't know much about it.
I didn't press the matter further, either.
"Everyone says that mothers love their daughters, so how could she want me dead?" Elena said, her voice eerily calm. "But she did. She pinched me, pressed my head under the bathtub, burned my hair with a lighter, and poked my nails with toothpicks. She took pleasure in torturing me in places where no one could see. Each time she nearly killed me, she'd sleep soundly, only to wake up the next day and hold me close, apologizing and promising never to do it again."
"Just like with domestic violence and infidelity, it happened zero times or countless times. Whenever her psychosis took over, she'd torment me, and I'd end up taking out my frustration on the puppy."
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, guilt flooding through me. I had no idea she had endured such suffering at such a young age.
"Would telling you have severed the bond between us as mother and daughter? Nothing would have changed unless I left the family," Elena said with a determined tone.
I stared at her in disbelief. "So, you left on your own back then?"
My voice trembled with shock and pain as I asked this, my heart aching at the realization of her suffering.