Page 14 of Alpha’s One-Night Stand (Shifters of Clarion #3)

A ll I can think of as I sneak toward the school gate is the incredible thing that had happened to me in Fifth Labor class. I don’t even fully understand it.

I had no idea what “mind-linking” was when the professor mentioned it. I, of course, asked Saffron, who, after giving me a strange look, explained that it was just communicating telepathically.

“But don’t worry,” she said while she was taking off her clothes, “if you don’t change and can’t mind-link with me, just give me a good rub behind the ears.”

I laughed at that. I figured that’s all I’d have to do in class. Easy-peasy.

Then I was standing there, and I realized I could hear her thoughts. I can’t explain it. My thoughts felt like cold water trickling down the sides of my head when I faced the giant red wolf that was once Saffron.

But then, I just gave into it, and . . . I told her to sit. And she did!

Wait until I tell Cole about this. Humans and werewolves can communicate telepathically? Oh, how great is that?

I slide through the gates and run to our meeting place. This time, I spot Cole’s car right away, walk over to it, and open the passenger’s side door. He jumps, looking over at me with surprise as I shut the door.

“Humans can speak to werewolves with telepathy!”

He pauses, his red eyebrows furrowing. “What?”

“Telepathy. Humans and werewolves can communicate telepathically. Isn’t that great?”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s weird. And impossible. Humans aren’t telepathic at all by nature, much less with werewolves. Why do you think that? Did something happen?”

I look away from him, going back over it in my head. I was certain that I connected with Saffron. I know that I did . . . didn’t I? “I . . . I don’t know. I thought . . . I don’t know what I thought.”

He continues to look at me, his brow deeply furrowed now. “I asked you to come out here because I found something out from the source I looked into. The teacher that used to work at Moonhelm?”

I blink and focus back on him. “Right, right. What did you find out?”

Cole pauses, then continues, “There’s no better way to say this, so I’ll just say it. Apparently, your mother was a witch at Moonhelm.”

“What?” I say with a laugh. “Come on, Cole.”

“It’s true.”

“Ignoring the fact that you’re telling me that witches are a thing now, you said that Moonhelm is a school for werewolves. How can my mother have been a witch if she graduated from here?”

He shrugs. “That part I can’t say. Look, the one thing we both know for sure was that she was a student here. Whatever she was, she most certainly wasn’t human.”

I glare at him, a mix of anger and fear swirling around inside me. How dare he speak the thing that I wasn’t ready to acknowledge.

“The story is,” he goes on, “that she kept getting into trouble because she was struggling to control her powers. She was a great student, and once she’d graduated, they invited her back to lecture, but—”

“Stop, stop a second.” My heart is beating in my ears now. My mother . . . a witch? I don’t understand any of this.

“I know this is hard to understand, but we can’t ignore the facts. Humans don’t come to Moonhelm.”

I feel like I’m going to throw up. “So . . . so that makes me a witch, then?”

“I don’t know what it makes you. I also don’t know how a witch goes to a college for werewolf studies. There are clearly a lot of pieces missing still. I think that her being a witch might be connected to her disappearance. Magical supernaturals and wolves have a complicated history. There might be something there.”

Magical supernaturals? This is too much for me to handle. Suddenly, I feel the need to speak to Nana. She probably knew all about this place. No wonder she didn’t want me coming here.

“I think I’d better go,” I say to him. “I need to process this.”

“I understand,” he says. I go to leave, but he stops me with a hand on my arm. “Do yourself a favor and educate yourself a little about this world. It might give you some idea as to why your mother might have come to Moonhelm in the first place. And maybe that’ll lead us to finding out what happened to her.”

I nod. “Okay. Good night, Cole.”

“Good night.”

I leave the car and head back, my mind buzzing with the new information. That’s probably why I could do the whole mind-link thing. If humans can’t do it, but I can . . . and if my mother was a witch . . . then I must be too, right?

Cole is right. I need to find out what’s what.

I’ll start with Nana. She has to know that Mom was a witch.

I get back to my room and sit down on my bed without turning on the light. The dark is comforting right now, and I can think a little before doing what I have to do.

I’ll be waking her up if I call her now. I don’t think I care. I need to know.

I turn on the lamp by my bed, and I pull out my phone. I’m a little nervous about this. What if she tells me something about my mom that I can’t handle?

I think back to what Cole said about her being a witch at Moonhelm, and I know that I need more information. Like it or not, Nana might have some of the puzzle pieces.

I pull my legs up and sit cross-legged on the bed. I call Nana. The phone trills in my ear for three agonizing rings before she picks up on the fourth.

“Nana?”

“Yarra?” Her voice sounds thick with sleep. She breathes deeply, then says, “What time is it? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I just need to ask you something . . . and it’s important, so I need you to tell me everything that you know.”

“Well, what is it?”

I take a breath. She might laugh me off the phone. Might tell me that I’ve lost my mind asking her something so ridiculous. I kind of hope she will. If she does, then maybe it’s a lie. Maybe there’s no such thing as witches.

“Yarra?” she urges. “Talk to me.”

“Nana,” I say, “was Mom a witch?”

She goes silent. There’s no sound right now but the pounding of my heart in my ears. “Nana?”

“I think that it’s time you came home, honey,” she says.

My eyes start to burn with tears. “I can’t. Not yet. Nana, I have to know. Please.” I’m trying not to sob. Trying desperately to keep it down. But my breath is shaky, and I can hear my own anguish in my voice. Nana sighs.

“There’s a lot of your history you don’t know. It’s not something that we should talk about over the phone like this. We can discuss it when you come back home.”

“Okay,” I say to her, “but . . . but for now, just tell me if she was a witch or not. That’s all I want to know.”

Another pause. Then, “What your mother was . . . Oh, she was so much more than just a witch. Your heritage is something that . . . that I can’t explain to you this way. It’s very, very complicated.”

I cover my mouth to stop a sob from coming out. I can’t believe this. Why didn’t she tell me? Why didn’t anyone tell me?

“Come home,” she says. “We’ll talk it all over first thing in the morning. I promise.”

My whole body goes numb. I don’t know what I’m going to do with this confirmation. I sniffle and wipe my eyes again.

“Nana, I need to find out what happened to her,” I tell her. “I promise when I find that out, I’ll be home as soon as I can. We can talk then. I swear.”

“All right,” she says softly. “Be careful, honey.”

I bid her good night, then hang up, sitting numb on my bed.

So. I’m a witch.

What does that mean?

The worst thing about it is that I don’t have anyone to ask here. I’m in a den of wolves.

I lay down on my bed and look up at the ceiling. What had Cole called it? Magical supernaturals? Was that what I was?

The library would have information . . . right?

I’ll start in the library, but I have to be careful. Cole did say there are too many eyes here.

I slide into a fitful slumber, and my nightmare settles on me like a cold mist.