His father

Then there were some letters. Alex notices that his mother wrote a lot of the letters but never actually sent them. Others were clearly still like newlyweds when his father sent them to his mother for something.

There were a few knickknacks, which Alex assumes were gifts from his father. Then there were a few newspaper articles about his father.

And the more he reads through those articles, the more he realizes just how much his mom has been hiding from him and lying to him.

When he's halfway through the second article, his phone rings, and before he even fishes it out of his pocket, he knows who it is.

"Where the hell are you?" Jenny, his best friend, asks questions frantically as soon as he answers, before he can even say hi.

Alex gulps and takes a deep breath, then blurts out, "I think I know who my father is." He's still staring at his father's picture in the newspaper article as he hears Jenny gasp on the other end of the line. His father is standing with a beautiful blonde woman, both smiling widely with their arms around each other.

"How did you find out?" Jenny knows better than anyone just how much he's been trying to figure it out, only to always fall short.

"I'll explain everything later; I'll meet you at seven at our usual spot.'' After a brief confirmation, they hang up, and Alex continues to read.

When he's done, he looks up at the clock; it's only 8 a.m. His mom won't be home until around six, so he has time.

When Allen arrives home later that day, all she wants to do is bury herself under her covers. She's so exhausted that she can barely make it up the four flights of stairs to their apartment.

She's at least lucky that tonight she only had to work at the local diner, Mac-Corn. There are days she has to go straight from there to a shift at the bar, City Live. When Alex was younger, it was much harder, but luckily, she had Maya and John, who could babysit from time to time.

As she finally steps into the tiny apartment she shares with her son, she leans back against the door and sighs heavily, content to finally be back home. The relief, however, is short-lived.

The apartment is tiny enough that she can already see her son sitting at the small kitchen table, huddled over what she assumes is his homework, but after stepping two more steps forward, she halts and freezes in her spot, staring in dread.

"Alex," she manages to choke out, and her son finally looks up at her with a glare she'd never received before from him.

"You lied to me." Alex says in a matter-of-fact tone, and the hints of hurt in both his voice and eyes shatter Allen's heart to pieces. "All this time you told me you didn't know where he was. You knew; you've been lying."

"I'm so sorry; I was just trying to protect you." Allen finally manages, her voice weak and quivering.

"By keeping me from my own father?" Alex snaps back, standing up and stepping closer, holding up one of the articles that are fisted in his hand.

"No, it's more complicated than that." Allen tells him, trying to sound sterner and stand her ground. She is the mother, after all. But it falls flat, because even she knows that she may have been hiding too much.

"Complicated?" Alex mimics, then waves his hand with the newspaper in it, saying, "All this time he's been just an hour away."

"Alex, please, it's not that simple." Allen stresses, daring to step closer with her hands up before herself, "Let's sit down, and I'll try to explain as much as I can."

"Why?" Alex sneers, folding his arms, "so you can lie to me again?"

"Alex, I understand that you're angry, and I'm sorry for lying to you, but I'm still your mother, and you will not speak to me that way." Allen scolds him; the taste of it is foreign on her tongue, and she doesn't like it one bit.

Alex has always been such a good boy, rarely ever stepping out of line. And while she can understand where it's coming from and why he's so angry, she still can't allow him to speak to her like that. Like his father used to speak to her.

After a long moment of loaded silence, Alex dares to ask a burning question, his voice low: "Does he know?"

Allen takes in a sharp breath and bites her bottom lip, turning her head to the side so her son won't see the pained expression on her face.

When she doesn't respond, Alex repeats his question; his voice is a little louder this time: "Does he know?" His mother jolts slightly before turning back to look at him, shaking her head.

"No," she says in a small voice, "he does not." and when her son turns his back with anger vibrating off him in waves, Allen takes a desperate step forward and adds, "But please, please, just sit and listen to me."

But her son won't hear any of it.

"Whatever, I'm going out." Alex says, then heads past Allen, grabs his backpack, and walks to the door.

"You are not going anywhere before we're done talking about this." Allen snaps, grabbing hold of her son's arm, "Let's sit and talk calmly; I will explain it all."

But her son just glares at her, then snatches his arm back roughly out of Allen's hold and walks out of the apartment, slamming the door shut behind him.

They had never fought this way before; the closest they've ever come was a few months ago, when Alex stormed off and came back a couple of hours later. But he also texted Allen that he was fine.

This time, though, there was radio silence, and knowing that Alex had plans with Jenny did nothing to calm her nerves. Allen trusts his son to be responsible enough, but they don't exactly live in the best part of town. And no matter how many times he's made it to school and home alone, Allen still worries.

Allen tries to call him or text him, but her son won't answer. She tried to run down the stairs after him when he left, but by the time she got down, Alex was already gone.

It's been half an hour since Alex left, and when Allen finally decides to call Maya, in her panic and rage, she can't think straight enough to realize that her son quite likely might be at his best friend's home.

"Allen, what's wrong?" Of course, her own best friend knows her well enough to already realize that something's wrong.

"Is Alex there?" She asks in a panic, "We had a fight, a bad one, and he stormed out of the house."

"No, he's not here." Maya says apologetically, "But Jenny said something about them going out; I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Okay, okay, thank you." Allen manages to breathe slightly better in relief.

"So, what was the fight about?" Maya asks in her usual best friend-prayer tone, which has Allen chuckling a bit despite her bad mood.

Then she sighs, remembering how bad it got. "He found the box," she says simply, knowing the Maya will understand.

And sure enough, "the box?" she asks with a gasp.

"Yes, the box."

"Oh, damn."

"Yes, damn." Allen spends the next half an hour or so venting about the whole thing; telling her about what bothers her always helps. Although this time, she's still quite bitter because of the fight with her son.

Just as they are about to get off the phone, Jenny walks back into the house, and Allen almost yells Maya ear off by frantically telling her to ask her daughter where her son is. Maya notices right away how guilty her daughter looks. And she just knows that she is hiding something, despite her insistence that she doesn't know, that she met up with him, and he just left to go home just like her.

But when Alex doesn't arrive home in the span of time that it would normally take him after meeting up with his best friend, Allen rushes out of the house and makes her way over to Maya and Jenny.

Fortunately, they live just around the block, and with her rush to get there as quickly as possible, Allen arrives at their house in half the time and completely out of breath.

She is so out of shape. But that's the last of her worries right now.

"Where is he?" she wheezes in between heavy, hard breaths.

Jenny takes an instinctive step back, a worried look in her eyes as she shakes her head. "I don't," she tries to insist, but her mother quickly cuts her off.

"Jenny, right now, this is a very serious matter, so you better not lie to us." Maya reprimands with a pointed finger, "Now, tell us where Alex is."

After a short hesitation, Jenny finally spills the beans. "He's on the way to the upper east side, Moonlight Pack," she confesses in a small voice, hunching her shoulders under their blazing glares, "to see his father."

For the umpteenth time that day, the world around Allen spins.

Flashback:-

A few more relatively blissful weeks passed by, and Allen tried to soak in every moment and enjoy every second because she just didn't know how much time they would have left. They had plans to go to the USA together again to get far enough away from all this for some time so they could be together in peace.

But Rose her Alpha ex-girlfriend had other plans for them, and none of them included a poor Omega from the worst problem inside the Moonlight Pack. But Damon refused to break his bond with Allen, no matter how many times Rose tried to separate them. He insisted that it wouldn't get in the way of their plans to be together.

So, Allen didn't doubt him.

At night, the Omega kept sneaking out of her house and into their bedroom, where they would spend the night together.

Until one night, a couple of weeks before they were supposed to go off to meet together, when Damon waited for her in the garden, right by the tree she normally climbed up on to.

Allen smiled broadly at first, thinking her Alpha was there to greet her, but when she sprinted forward to jump into his arms, Damon stepped back and out of her reach, causing Allen to stumble slightly.

Damon reached out to stabilize her, but then stepped out of her reach again. "I'm so sorry, Allen," he began in an apologetic tone, a grimace on his face, "but I need you to stop all this."

The Omega whimpered and stared in shock. "What?" she finally managed to choke out.

"I'm going to marry Rose; I present her as my Luna inside the meeting room." Damon said, his whole demeanor painfully distant.

"But I am your ma -" Allen tried, but Damon shook his head and cut her off.

"There is no you, Allen; I was fooling myself into believing that there would be my love for Rose will never allow this." Damon told her in a harsh tone, "I can't fight against my love, my falling; I need a strong Luna like Allen, not like you."

Allen tried to step closer again; this time Damon allowed her as she clutched onto Damon's shirt, fisting the fabric in both hands. "Please, we can find a way," she pleaded, but she knew that Damon never liked her; he was always in love with Rose, and neither of them could do anything about it. Allen had gotten to accept this and maybe move on with her life; Damon never wanted her in the first place; all those sweet moments are nothing; he is just using Allen to get ride-felling towards Rose, and now Rose is back. "Or I can come with you."

"Allen, no." Damon cut her off again. "She wants me to take care of her and her whole pack; she wants me to give her the respect and position she deserves." Allen hated the way Damon averted his eye, avoiding Allen gaze as he hesitated. "I am going to marry her. and I will make her my official Luna."

Another heartbroken, gut-wrenching whimper escaped Allen's lips as she let go of Damon and stepped back, shaking her head. "No!" she yelled in a broken voice, then covered her mouth with both hands. "No, please no."

The Omega was trembling, tears streaming down her cheeks as the Alpha stepped closer and pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. "I'm so sorry, Allen." He apologized in a soft whisper, clearly holding back his own tears: "But I love her. I also love you, but I love her more."

"You can; we can, please." Allen pleaded, clutching onto Damon's shirt again, "I promise I never complain; I don't even want Luna's position; I want nothing, Damon. Please don't leave me; stay with me. You promise me, Damon, please."

But Damon shakes his head; he's already given up, already submitted to his heart's will. "I'm sorry, Allen." He whispered, gently pushing Allen away from him, "But I can't; I love her only, and when I know about her being all fine, I can't help but think about my future with her."

Then he was walking away, taking Allen's heart with him.

The Omega whimpered and whined as she watched helplessly as her Alpha walked away from her, then disappeared behind the front door of Pack House.

A wave of nausea hit her, and Ashly quickly ran to the bushes and fell to her knees, emptying the contents of her stomach onto the ground.