Derek's POV
In the pouring rain, I watched as Tabitha stood in front of the tombstone holding an umbrella, looking so lonely and crushed.
Noticing the rain gradually wetting the hem of her clothes, I finally softly spoke up, "Let's go back. It's getting late."
She just quietly stood there as if she could vanish into the wind at any moment.
Losing another loved one once again dealt a heavy blow to her, making her appear even lonelier, which broke my heart.
I stretched out my arms, wanting to pull her in for a warm hug.
She just looked at me from under the black umbrella, her icy gaze sending a chill down my spine.
"Tabitha, it's okay. You've still got me." I tried to comfort her.
She still said nothing. The look in her eyes seemed to be telling me that my very existence, perhaps, was the very source of her pain.
As the wind howled, Tabitha showed even more determination.
She left straight away, as if she had nothing left to lose.
Her silence made me feel uneasy.
I murmured to myself, 'Tabitha, just give me a bit more time. I'll definitely help him work through this trauma.'
"You're always so full of yourself, Derek," Leo sighed in my head.
I brushed away my unease and followed Tabitha back to the villa.
Seeing her walk to her bedroom, I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, I headed toward the study.
As soon as I stepped in, I saw Alvin. Noticing me, he reported, "I found some stuff about Elena. When she left the pack, she was taken away by a few rogues and ended up in some remote pack in the mountains to be a breeder."
"Breeder?!" I almost squeezed out these words from between my teeth, anger boiling inside me.
As society had evolved, most packs dropped the whole breeder role.
I never thought some packs still operated like that!
"Yeah, that pack was small and poor, and the members were ignorant. Elena had a tough time there. I heard she got chained up. She had to sleep in a doghouse at night, fight with pigs for scraps, and work on the farm. If she ever made a mistake, she'd get beaten up."
My veins bulged on my forehead as I pictured her life there.
She was the daughter of Beta Zack, how could they treat her like that?
"And then what happened? How did Elena manage to escape?" I asked.
"A big fire took out every shifter of the pack many years ago. She might've escaped during that chaos," he analyzed.
His report was short, yet it summed up Elena's tragic past. I finally understood how she got those scars.
Maybe the traumas would haunt her forever. And I guessed all that torment was what made her lash out at Tabitha.
"Alpha Derek, what's your next move?" Alvin asked.
I clasped my hands, resting my chin on them. "I wanna help her."
"Help her?" Alvin was somewhat puzzled.
"I wanna help her recover from that nightmare and let her live a normal life like the other girls," I explained.
Alvin frowned. "But how are you going to explain it to Tabitha?"
I pondered for a moment and said, "I'll figure it out. They're both the most important women in my life. They shouldn't be against each other. I'll take good care of them."
During that visit to the castle, I took a bottle of medicine from the lab. It was something that Poison and Wolf Shadow had been working on. After taking it, one could forget about the past.
As long as I could get Tabitha to take this, she'd wipe away all those painful memories.
Same went for Elena. After having the pills, she would still be a member of my pack. And she wouldn't remember any of the harm she had suffered.