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As I stared down at Milo's sleeping form, I couldn't stop my mind from flashing back to his reaction in the bathroom after he shifted. I fully expected him to be scared or overwhelmed, but he completely broke down, and seeing that...well, it worried me. It made me question whether or not that was a reaction from the fighting ring or if there was potentially something deeper that I didn't know about yet.

I frowned before carefully standing up from the bed in an attempt to not wake him. I moved toward the dresser where my laptop lay and took it with me to the living room, making sure to leave the door open slightly in case he woke up. I sat down on the couch and opened my computer. I already knew what I was looking for: the missing wolf files.

The missing wolf files were exactly what they sounded like; files of werewolves who had disappeared over the years. In some cases, they were useful; however, in Milo's case, I highly doubted they would be. A lot of wolves who went missing were never reported. It was often assumed that if a wolf left their pack grounds there was no foul play, but instead, they likely left of their own free will. The files were mostly used for high-ranking wolves who had gone missing these days, but there still were the occasional ones for other wolves.

Though it was unlikely that I'd find Milo in the files, I still had to look. I was hoping that if luck was on my side, I could find one and maybe it would have a family listed or what happened to him—anything that could help me better understand and help him in the long run.

I typed in Milo's name and began to scour through the reports in hopes of finding anything that could potentially be a match for him. The search proved to be harder than expected. The search proved to be harder than expected though. There were multiple Milo's in the system, yet none of them seemed to quite match him. Ages were off, ranks were off, or physical features were. Thirty minutes became an hour, one hour became two, and eventually, I let out a defeated sigh. As far as I could tell, there was no record of Milo or his disappearance. It was expected, but I still was disappointed that I wasn't able to find any new information on him.

I shut the computer, stood up, and stretched just as someone began to knock on the door. I briefly glanced back in the direction of the room where Milo was sleeping before moving to open the door. I half expected to see Solomon or one of the elders there, but it was only Emilia, thankfully.

"Hi, Emilia, did you need something?" I asked her quietly as I tried to not wake Milo up.

Emilia smiled at me. "I actually just wanted to let you know that we were able to find most of the children who were found's parents. They're going through one last checkup before we start helping them reunite with their families. Of course, there are a few whose families we haven't been able to find, but we've found temporary homes for them in the pack for the meantime."

Her words managed to cheer me up slightly. Even if searching for Milo had been a bust, some of the other rescues were able to find their families.

"Thank you, Emilia. For helping out during the rescue and for looking out for those children. They're going to have a better life in the future."

Emilia shook her head. "Look in the mirror, Slater. You've also helped them greatly. There's no need to thank me for doing the right thing." Her eyes scanned over the room. "Speaking of the rescues though, how's your mate doing?"

"He's...getting there," I responded. "He still needs some time, but he's doing better than when we first found him so that's already more than enough."

Emilia's eyes softened. "I'm glad for you, Slater. I should probably head out, though. I promised Indie I'd help her with training today."

I nodded. "Thanks for stopping by."

Emilia turned to leave and I shut the door behind her before returning my attention to the closed computer. Emilia had managed to find the parents of the children, but how? Did she use the missing wolf files?

I took a seat on the couch and reopened the computer before typing in a few of the children's names and features. A few popped up, but the majority didn't so how did Emilia manage to do it?

"Emilia, how did you manage to find the children's parents? It wasn't through the missing wolf database, right?" I linked.

It was a stretch, but maybe I could use whatever she did to potentially find Milo.

Emilia took a few minutes to respond. "First, I tried to check the missing wolf files but practically none of them showed up, so instead I checked the human databases and sure enough, the majority of them showed up."

Human databases? It made sense given how young the children were that they'd have been reported, but Milo? It was stretch. Still, I had to check.

"Thank you," I linked her as I started down the rabbit hole called the internet. I began to search everything related to Milo and checked multiple websites that could potentially have him on there. I went as far back as five years ago to when he would've first gone missing. Like before, there were multiple Milos in the system, but none of them quite looked like my Milo. I let out a sigh and was just about to give up until I saw it.

I held my breath as I clicked on the photo and zoomed in. Sure enough, it was him. With dark hair much shorter than now, a toothy grin on his face, and warm brown eyes, staring back at me was a picture of Milo.

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