Author's Note: Be warned, it's short, but I needed it to end where it did because the next chapter needs to be from Ana's POV. Thank you for being patient with me with this story as well as my others. If you follow me on facebook you know I've been moving into the self-publishing world. If you're interested in reading some of my work (including something original) you can find me on Amazon (including in kindle unlimited) under Madison Quinn.

Chpt. 10

Christian

"Taylor, I need you," my wolf calls out before the shift is even complete.

"On my way," his answer is immediate like always.

I'm off, running through the woods knowing that Taylor will find me no matter what direction I take. No matter how fast I run, I can't erase the image of that birthmark out of my head. In the last few minutes I've tried convincing myself that what I saw wasn't real, that it was somehow a figment of my imagination…or my wolf's. Because if it wasn't…

"We gonna keep running or are you going to tell me why we're out here?" Taylor asks.

I look back, surprised to find him there only because I hadn't heard him even approaching which is not normal. I slow down and head over to a large rock where I sit down and overlook the valley below us. Taylor sits down next to me but doesn't say anything.

"I know it hasn't been very long but were you able to find anything out about Ana?" I ask, though not sure why.

"I was," he looks at me questioningly. He knows that's not the reason I asked him out here, especially so suddenly. "She isn't married."

"What? Are you sure? Positive?"

"Christian, you know better than to ask me that," he growls. "Of course I'm sure. I searched all marriage records in the state of Nevada after I didn't find a marriage license filed in Las Vegas. Anastasia Steele has never been married."

"Maybe that's not her real name. Maybe-"

"It's her," he interrupts quickly. "When I first didn't find anything, I thought that was possibility as well. I checked with the DMV, her driver's license picture matches her perfectly. It's her Christian and she's not married."

"Shit."

"Why would she say she was married to that fucker if she wasn't?"

"He lied to her," I growl. "He fucking lied to her."

"I don't understand…why does she think they were married if they weren't?"

"She was drunk," I hate that I'm revealing Ana's secret, but I need to. "She doesn't remember much about that night. She said she woke up with a wedding ring on her finger and he convinced her to move to Vegas and try to make their new marriage work."

"That fucker," he growls. "It was about getting power over her."

"Yup."

"I'm still working on tracking him down, but I have some leads."

"Really? Even without a name?" I look out, the empty valley below us calls to me. My wolf wants to go running but my human wants to stay here and get answers from Taylor. It's a constant fucking battle and one that I'm not sure who I want to win more.

"Nothing significant yet, but I'm getting there. Give me another day or two and I'm confident I'll have his identity. In the meantime I've set up alerts if anyone so much as checks into her banking history."

"Nothing odd come up?"

"Not yet, there's no activity on her credit card or banking account. She didn't have a cell phone registered to her name and all her mail went to a PO Box."

"Did you look into her…history?"

"Meaning?"

"Who she is?" I gulp at the question but know I have to ask.

"You know I did, I had to Christian," Taylor confirms. "It's not that I don't trust her, but I need to protect the entire pack. Just in case-"

"It's fine, I knew you would. Tell me what you found."

Over the next few minutes, recounts the same story Ana just told me. She grew up in foster care, her father's name wasn't listed on the birth certificate and her mother was killed during an armed robbery at the bank she worked at. There was nothing unusual noted about Ana's mother's family but he did find out that they all told child protective services that they were not in a position to offer kinship care to Ana when her mother was killed.

"What's with the twenty questions, Christian? Do you not trust her? Do you think she's hiding something? I can dig-"

"No, she's not…I mean I think she's hiding something but I don't think she knows she's hiding something."

"Man, that makes no fucking sense," he chuckles and gets up to start pacing in front of me. "How can she hide something without knowing it."

"I saw something."

"What did you see?" he has the nerve to growl at me.

"A birthmark."

"A birthmark? A…oh fuck. You're sure?"

"Positive," as much as I didn't want to believe that what I saw was what I think I saw, I'm absolutely certain now it's what I think it is.

"But…how?"

"I don't know. Can you come up with another explanation?"

"Fuck…you need to talk to your dad."

"I know…"

"What did she say?"

"She?"

"Ana?"

"I…fuck."

"What?" he stops and turns to look at me.

"I ran out. As soon as I saw it, I ran and left her there."

"Christian," he growls at me for knowing better than that.

"I know!" I hiss. "I fucking freaked out! I was applying that rub shit that Gail gave her and there was a bruise on her hip that we hadn't gotten to yet. When she rolled onto her side, it was fucking there."

"Wow…so she's…one of us."

"I guess? I don't fucking know. I mean, there's got to be another explanation, right? You saw her reaction in the van Taylor, there's no way she's one of us."

"What if…"

"What?"

"What if she doesn't know she's a shifter?"

"How's that fucking possible?" it's my turn to get up and pace, my wolf and my human no longer content with sitting still. "You remember how strong the urge to shift was, how strong it still is even all the years after we learned how to control it."

"I don't know man, but what other explanation is there? If she has the birthmark…"

"I need to talk to my dad."

"You should get with old man Theodore too."

"Yeah…but what do I say to Ana? I can't just walk back into the house and say hi…sorry for running out but I think you're a wolf and don't know it."

"Talk to the old man first. Maybe sketch out a picture of birthmark if you can remember it-"

"Trust me, I remember it."

Every part of the birthmark is burned into my memory. There's no forgetting it; it's not possible. Just as it's not possible to forget the hurt look on Ana's face when I ran from the room and left her lying, alone. I had just gotten my wolf under control when he saw the birthmark. Before that all he wanted to do was to crawl into bed next to her. It took some convincing but he eventually became content to just lay with her, instead of taking her the way he wanted to.

"Come on, let's go," Taylor takes off running knowing I'll follow him.

We run until we make it to the very edge of the pack's land where old man Theodore lives. Taylor nods and grunts before running back in the direction we just came. I hadn't expected him to come in with me, but now what I'm here I have no fucking idea what the hell I'm going to say without sounding crazy.

Old man Theodore is one of the oldest members of our pack and he's also the pack's historian. He knows everything there is to know about shifters, not just in our pack but across all the wolf packs. If anyone can tell me I'm crazy and that what I saw isn't what I think it is, it would be him. The problem is I don't know if I want him to tell me if it's true or if I somehow didn't see it clearly.

"Christian, what brings you here, son?"