Free Moon Spell (The Tale of Lunarmorte #1) by Samantha Young

information about her father out of her.
    “So you were in a different pack?”
    “Hmm?” Ella blinked. “Oh. Yes. A younger pack. I met Rafe and we dated when he was with them. After he left I had a falling out with my family.”
    “What happened?”
    “Well.” She sighed heavily. “My father wanted me explore the possibility of mating with one of the males in my pack because he had the dominance of an Alpha, and they thought he might become Pack Leader. I hated the guy, so I ran away... to Rafe ’ s pack.”
    Caia smiled, thinking of the result of that. “And you met Albus.”
    Ella chuckled, resting her chin on her hand, her eyes twinkling at the memory. “It was instant. We just wanted to be with each other. I laughed at first when I told my parents I ’ d mated with another Pack Leader... but... we never spoke again.”
    Having never been given the opportunity to know her own parents it seemed like a crime against nature that Ella ’ s parents had, in their own way, made her as much of an orphan as Caia was. She mumbled an empathetic ‘ sorry ’ .
    “Don ’ t be. They were never the family this pack has been for me.”
    Caia nodded, letting that sit for a moment. And then... “So what happened with my dad?”
    Ella smiled patiently, seeming to understand her curiosity. “Albus and Rafe had never been close. Albus really only trusted Magnus, and Rafe ’ s father hadn ’ t had the best reputation.”
    Caia took a breath, her mind spinning. “My grandfather?”
    Ella nodded. “Yeah, he was quite the trip. He tried to take Albus ’ father ’ s leadership from him.”
    “Wow.”
    “Yeah, but your father was nothing like him. I soon got Albus to see that, and they eventually became great friends.”
    “How...” Caia trailed off, wondering how her father could have been friends with them after having dated Ella himself.
    Again, Ella seemed to understand. “Your father and I were just friends when I came to him after running from my parents,” she explained.
    “Oh.” Caia smiled softly, looking down at her bowl.
    “What?”
    “It ’ s just nice to hear something about him.”
    There was a moment of silence between them before Caia was jolted from her musings by the sound of Ella ’ s chair scraping back loudly from the table. The Elder smiled down at her. “Wait. I have something for you.”
    She watched as Ella dashed out of the room and could hear her running quickly upstairs. The sounds of drawers being pulled open and shut and Ella ’ s amusing mumblings filtered down through the ceiling. Caia wondered what on Gaia ’ s green earth she was up to. It was a few minutes before she came sauntering gracefully back into the kitchen, something clasped tightly in her hand.
    “Really,” she explained, “You should have had these before we placed you into hiding. But everything was done in such a rush... anyway, you should have them now.”
    Caia took photographs from her hand. She gasped, gazing at the first one. It was of a toddler standing in between a man ’ s knees as he bent down to huddle her close. Their green eyes matched, twinkling mischievously.
    “Is this... my father and me?”
    “Yes.”
    Goddess, her father had been just as gorgeous as the rest of them. She snorted as she looked at herself. Even as a toddler she had looked scrawny and weird, her head just a mass of blonde curls and her eyes too large for her face. There were two other photographs; one of her father by himself, gazing into the camera with this weary sadness in his eyes. The last of her and her father again, except a younger Magnus was in this one with them. Magnus had her on his shoulders and her father was trailing at the back of them, seeming to protest at her being up so high. His eyes were happier with her, his love palpable even in these old pictures. For the first time in years she felt that searing stab in her chest at the pain of his loss. She blinked, a tear falling onto the picture.
    “Oh!” Ella