Third person's POV
This was the first time Elena had spoken initiatively. Derek sat at the coffee bar, preparing to make pour-over coffee. "Go ahead," he said.
Elena gazed at the pattern on the coffee bar and spoke slowly, "After I got lost, I was captured by a few rogues. They left me with a weak wolf pack in the forest, where I suffered a lot. Later, I managed to escape..."
She didn't narrate the process of her suffering but glossed over it.
Derek asked proactively, "How did you make it?"
All the information he found was very general and lacked specific details.
Elena still didn't describe it in detail, "It's simple. I had been planning for a long time, hiding matches to ignite their stored firewood. They were very poor, so it couldn't withstand a fire for long, but..."
She paused and continued, "Before setting it alight, I trapped that family in the room and burned them to death. It took me over a month to walk out of that forest. Because of the severe burns, everyone treated me like a monster. Fortunately, I met kind people. It took me many years and many surgeries to be here now."
"Why didn't you return to the Black Thorn sooner?"
"I was locked up for so many years, living a life worse than that of a pig or a dog. I fought with pigs for food in the sty and slept in a doghouse. If I hadn't been so young, I would have been raped. They knew I had Beta blood, waiting for me to grow up so I could become a Breeder for their pack. Even if I escaped, I didn't even have the appearance of an ordinary werewolf. I didn't have any courage to be back."
"Later, when I finally looked normal, you think I didn't want to find you? But what were you doing then? Busy canoodling with your mate. When I approached you, you didn't recognize me. You only thought I was a woman coming to pursue you, and had me thrown out."
Derek had no recollection.
Since Elena's disappearance, Black Thorn had been searching everywhere. Many people knew that Black Thorn had lost a Beta's daughter.
Over the years, there had been no shortage of impostors. So when a face that didn't resemble Elena at all, especially not like her childhood, appeared, everyone just thought she was fake.
Elena, thrown out, watched Derek dote on Tabitha, holding her extremely carefully.
"At that time, I saw you holding her hands, kneeling to tie her shoelaces. You took off your suit jacket to drape over her shoulders. I thought of our childhood. You used to treat me like that, but why is it all for another woman now?"
As she spoke, Elena's face clearly took on a more ferocious expression.
"You know what kind of life I had in that forest? What kept me going? I did so much, suffered so much, crawled in the dark for so long, just to see you one day. Didn't you promise to love and take care of me forever? Why, when I was suffering, were you coddling another woman?"
The person was completely psychologically twisted. Derek's brows furrowed, "She is your Luna. You are the daughter of a Beta. You are two different individuals, occupying different positions. I can love her and will continue to love you. Besides, Tabitha was so kind that she would welcome you for sure."
"I don't need it! We both have strong werewolf blood. Why does she have it easy, and I have to face thorns and brambles? What has she done to deserve this happiness? So I want to see her fall into hell, to taste the pain!"
Derek couldn't help but slap her, "For such a baseless reason, you harmed her and our child! You are nothing but a madwoman!"