Page 32 of The Alpha’s Seer (The Shifters of Stormhollow #1)

Chapter Thirty-Two

BLAIR

My aunt makes tea, handing me a steaming mug as she peers at Calix.

He sits beside me, his bulk making the mug in his hands look dainty.

I should have known when I met him, that he was something different—no one is this big naturally.

His shoulders are like slabs of stone atop a mountain of bones and flesh, and his neck is as thick as a tree trunk.

But he’s beautiful.

Thank you, his voice purrs in my head. As much as I’d love to hear you describe me and my flesh, your aunt looks like she’s going to pass out.

I snort, and my aunt looks at me like I’m crazy, her eyes flickering over to Calix as if to say, ‘Is she okay?’ but Calix stares at the floor, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Sexy bastard.

Stunning bitch.

My toes curl at his rough words in my head, and he looks away. Even as I grin, a knot tightens somewhere else—Leon’s stupid messages started this whole mess, and I can’t pretend he isn’t still missing.

“Is everything alright, Blair?” My aunt keeps glancing at Calix like I’m in danger from him, and I have to call it out.

“Why do you keep looking at Calix like that?” I ask, tilting my head, before sadness and worry grip me like a vice about my brother. Part of me still expects him to stumble into the room at any second.

My aunt flushes and stares into her mug, and something about the way she presses her lips together tells me she’s hiding something.

“Aunt Ray?” I press as Calix moves his hand to my thigh.

“I’ll give you girls a moment,” Calix comments, kissing my head before leaving the room.

I frown, but then his voice echoes in my mind once more.

She knows something. Find out what, mate.

“How well do you know him?” my aunt hisses, leaning forward with wide eyes. “Seriously, Blair—I think you could be in danger. Certain…men from the mountains are dangerous.”

I fix her with my gaze and reply softly, “And how, exactly, do you know that?”

Her face turns a light shade of grey, and she looks away, and in that moment, I know Calix was right.

She does know something.

Whatever she knows, I keep wondering if Leon’s texts tie into it—did he know more than he let on? Did his drunken arrogance put us on someone’s radar?

“Aunt Ray, it’s important that you tell me what you know about these mountain men and how you know it.” I don’t mean to say it as harshly as I do, but if she’s been hiding something from me all these years and I’ve unknowingly been in danger… I’m not sure I’ll be able to forgive her.

“They just are. Local legends,” my aunt offers weakly, but I know better.

“Bullshit.”

“Blair!” My aunt gapes at me, but I shake my head.

“No, fuck this. Tell me the truth. Do you know about the werewolves?”

My aunt looks like I’ve slapped her, but there is something different in her eyes that I can’t quite read—fear, perhaps. “Blair—”

“Don’t lie to me!” I respond, my eyes wide. “Don’t, Aunt Ray. Please… I know. I know things, but I need to know more.”

She swallows, her eyes watering, and I have to brace myself. I don’t know what she will say, but I need to know. I need to know who I am, why I can see the things I do… and how I’m mated to a werewolf!

“I know about the werewolves.” My aunt’s voice is shaky and faint. “Your mother and I…” She looks away and closes her eyes, tears spilling down her cheeks. She’s never been good at talking about my mother, not since the accident. It appears now is no different.

I can’t breathe, waiting anxiously for her to tell me something—anything—then she does, and my world falls out from under me.

“We were from a small pack, your mother and I.”

I freeze as a figure fills the doorway, leaning against the frame as his words caress my mind.

Be brave, my love.

“You’re wolves?!” I half whisper, half scream.

My aunt grimaces and suddenly looks much older than she is. “Yes.”

I lean back on the sofa, my breath leaving my body in a whoosh. “But I’m a human!”

Calix steps forward and stares at my aunt; his hulking figure suddenly intimidating and fierce. “I didn’t sense this. I still don’t.”

“You wouldn’t. I’ve spent years keeping the wolf buried so deep I barely feel it myself. It’s the only way we survived.”

My aunt dips her head and cries, and Calix glances at me.

“I left the pack when they took my sister. We went into hiding and pretended we were normal humans. Just a normal family. We learned to get by—masking our scent with herbs, never shifting, never letting anyone close enough to notice. Wolves trust their noses; if you strip the wolf away, you can disappear among humans.”

Only now do I notice the way her hands shake over the tea she poured earlier—a tremor I’d brushed off, but maybe it was never just nerves.

My mind reels, but Calix is steady, his arms crossed as he stares at my aunt.

“Blair’s mother was taken? Who by?”

My aunt weeps, and we let her, absorbing what we know before discovering any more.

My mother was a werewolf? My aunt?!

“My dad?” I ask, and my aunt takes the tissue Calix has found for her.

“He was human,” she says with a fond smile. She’d always loved my dad. “I’m sorry, Blair. I’m sorry I kept it from you; I thought…”

“I can see things,” I blurt out, and she looks at me in surprise. “I’m what they call—”

“A Seer,” my aunt finishes softly. “Unbelievable. My mother was one, and so was yours.”

It makes sense.

I’m not just a human—I’m part werewolf!

But I haven’t got time to ponder my heritage; I need to know how I am connected to this crazy bastard that’s haunting my dreams.

“Who took Blair’s mother?” Calix demands.

“A vicious pack with few members,” my aunt explains bitterly, her eyes flashing. “We got her back, but the damage was done by then.”

“Damage?” I echo, my heart thundering in my chest.

I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“Your mother was beautiful, the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen,” my aunt recalls fondly and without envy. “She was also a Seer.”

Fear strikes deep within my soul, and Calix shifts.

“So the Alpha took her.”

I stare at my aunt, riveted and unable to move. “What did they do to her?”

My aunt shakes her head. “I don’t know. She was gone for a few years, and when she returned, she was nothing like the sister I knew and loved. But then she met your father… and had your brother and you.”

I’m stunned. An Alpha werewolf took my mother, and no one knows what happened to her while she was gone.

Breathe, baby.

“But…” My words die on my lips when Calix reaches for my hand, crouching before me.

“She doesn’t know,” he says, gazing at me. “Her sister was taken, and that’s all she knew.”

I lift my gaze from his and address my aunt, the woman who raised me and my brother after my parents were killed.

“How did they die? Wolves, right? What wolves?”

My aunt sighs. “I don’t know. I purposefully distanced myself from any mountain men—I knew what they were, but they didn’t know about me.”

“It wasn’t any of us,” Calix snaps, pacing the room. “My family was attacked, too. More packs are being attacked as we speak.”

My aunt looks horrified, and suddenly, I feel the need to protect her.

“Calix.” I rise to my feet, and he comes to me. I cup his face in mine. “Calm.”

“Are you…” my aunt whispers, her eyes wide. “Are you his mate?”

I nod, and she sucks in a breath.

“Goodness me. Goodness me,” she repeats, but I focus on Calix.

I should be looking after you. Calix rasps in my head.

Says who?

You’ve just found out your mother was a werewolf, for fuck’s sake.

And my aunt.

He exhales heavily and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me close.

“Let’s rest.” He shoots a glare at my aunt, who bows her head submissively.

Does she know he’s an Alpha?

But Calix is right. We all need to rest.

“Are we okay to sleep here tonight?” I ask, and my aunt nods almost frantically, like allowing us to stay here tonight will make up for years of hiding this from me. That a random pack killed my mother and father. My poor father. Did he know his wife was a werewolf? A Seer?

My head aches as Calix lifts me into his arms, and I wrap my limbs around him, suddenly exhausted.

“Rest, mate,” he whispers, stroking my hair as he ascends the stairs.

I close my eyes and let the movement of him climbing the stairs lull me into a sleep I didn’t realize I needed so badly.

“Sleep, baby,” my Alpha commands, and I do.