Page 14 of His Rescued Mate

She sat up, looking disappointed. Not so much disappointed, he thought, as pouting—as if he’d taken away her favorite toy, and in many ways, he supposed he had.

“Do I need a doctor’s note in order to get you to fuck me again?”

“No. I think I can help you with that,” he chuckled, dragging her up his body so that he could kiss her.

His mouth covered hers, hungry for what only she could give him. He held her close and loved the way her breasts felt nestled against his chest, her mouth surrendering to his so he could kiss her like the starving man he was. As he suspected, it didn’t take long for her energy to flag.

“Why don’t I make us some breakfast? You can pull something on, and we’ll eat at the island.”

She nodded. “We can spread out the things we found in the box. Maybe we can start making some sense out of them. I think if we have them all out, we can see if there’s a pattern and maybe put together a better picture.”

“You think it’s something big, don’t you?”

“I do. I don’t think anyone would gather all those things, seal them up, and then bury them if it wasn’t. The last couple of days while I’ve been so out of it, I keep feeling like they represent something significant—a story of love, loss, and secrets long hidden.”

After breakfast, Max and Alexa spread the contents of the tin box across the kitchen island. The old photographs and letters provided glimpses into a past that Max had never been fully aware of. Oh, he’d had glimpses into his family’s history and heard stories, but it had only been shortly before he came to Kodiak that he realized his great aunt had been banished from the pack for loving a human. It seemed that history was about to repeat itself. They had eradicated Evelyn from the pack’s records. No trace of her had remained—none save the memories of a little boy with whom she used to bake cookies. These things must be the few mementos Evelyn must have brought with her. As they carefully examined each item, a clearer picture of his family's past began to take shape.

One of the letters, written in elegant, flowing script, caught Alexa's attention. She picked it up and began to read aloud:

My dearest Evelyn,

I hope this letter finds you well. It has been so long since we last saw each other, and I find myself longing for the days we spent together on Kodiak Island. The beauty of this place has stayed with me, a constant reminder of the love we shared.

I wanted to honor your request to allow you to return to your family, but I know now, I will never love another. Even though my family has a long connection to the island—one that goes back generations—I would leave it all to be reunited with you. There are things at my family’s homestead—secrets and treasures—that are buried here.

I pray that one day we will be reunited and you will return to Kodiak. Perhaps we can discover all there is to find and create a legacy of our own. Until then, know that my love for you remains as strong as ever.

Yours always,

Nathaniel

Alexa looked up at Max, her heart pounding. "This letter... it sounds like your family has a deep connection to Kodiak Island. Maybe that's why you were drawn here. Do you know either of these people?"

Max's expression was a mixture of shock and curiosity. "I never knew. My parents never talked about our family history. They always seemed so focused on the present, on moving forward."

"Maybe they were trying to protect you," Alexa suggested. "But now that we've found this, we can start to uncover the truth."

They spent the next few hours poring over the letters and photographs. The more they uncovered, the more it became clear that Max's family had a deep and complicated history on and with Kodiak Island.

As night fell, they sat in front of the fire, the tin box between them. Max stared into the flames, his mind racing with the revelations of the day.

"Thank you, Alexa," he said quietly. "For helping me with this. I’m not sure I would have found any of this without you."

Alexa reached out and took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "You're not alone, Max. We're in this together."

Max nodded.

Alexa smiled, feeling a warmth spread through her. "I don’t know, Max, maybe it's fate. Maybe we were meant to find each other."

Max knew she had no idea how close she was to the truth. Their journey together was just beginning. There were still so many questions left unanswered, so many mysteries waiting to be uncovered, so many things he had to tell her to make her understand.

But he knew one thing for certain: whatever lay ahead, they would face it together.

* * *

In the days that followed, Alexa and Max continued to delve into the history of his family and their connection to Kodiak Island. They spent hours in the small, auxiliary library on the outskirts of town that specialized in the history of the island and its people as well as on the internet, poring over old records and documents, searching for any clues that might shed light on the secrets they had uncovered.

One afternoon, as they were combing through a stack of old newspapers, Alexa found an article that caught her attention. "Max, look at this," she said, pointing to a headline that read, "Mysterious Disappearance on Kodiak Island."

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