Page 50 of The Alpha’s Seer (The Shifters of Stormhollow #1)

Chapter Fifty

BLAIR

Iheave into the toilet bowl and groan when Calix strokes my back.

“Are you alright?” he asks gruffly, but he knows I’m not. Not physically, and now, not mentally.

“Why did you spring that on me?” I demand, flushing the toilet before rising to my feet. “About Azra.” I shoot him an accusing glare, but he just shrugs.

Like it’s nothing.

“Because she’s his mate.”

“He’s going to be so fucking bad for her.”

Calix gazes at me. “But she’s his mate; how can he be?”

I tug my hair into a bun and scowl. “She can’t stand him. She cursed her best friend, Calix.”

“But you agreed,” Calix reminds me. “You had to have a good reason.”

“I do.”

I go to walk past him, but he pulls me close. His scent permeates my senses, and I groan. He has such an effect on me, even when I’m mad at him. I shoot him a glare. “I’m supposed to be running this pack by your side. You should tell me things like that, especially when it involves my best friend.”

Calix sighs and scrubs his face. “I know. I’m sorry, but it just made sense to me.”

Another shrug.

“This must be a wolf thing,” I mutter, pulling away from him. “Or a man thing.”

“What must?” Calix frowns, following me into the kitchen.

“Your reaction. Your nonchalance. Like it doesn’t matter that we just sent Azra to live with her enemy.”

Calix scoffs, leaning on the back of a chair so his muscles tighten. The bastard knows what he’s doing, but I refuse to be distracted. “You’re being dramatic. He isn’t her enemy.”

I pull a mug from the cupboard and throw a tea bag in, wishing it was coffee. I watch the kettle boil as I think about what Azra said to me through the mind-link.

Don’t make me be with him. I can resist the mating bond.

But then the way Alpha Asher had looked at me—so broken inside. So in need of someone to love him, to help mend him.

Surely his mate will be able to do that?

So, I’d gone against my best friend.

And she’d cursed me and my children.

What a fucking great thing to say to your pregnant best friend. Not that she knew I was pregnant—I doubt she would’ve said it if she had known, but then again… she was so angry with me.

I make my tea and blow on it before taking a sip.

Have I done the wrong thing? Should I have defied Calix?

My stomach churns, and I stroke it, wondering if I even know what I’m dealing with carrying a werewolf’s baby. I can’t even go for scans or checkups like any other human can because the sonographer might see something resembling a wolf in there.

“She can’t stand him, Calix. She asked me not to send her.”

Calix studies me. “She did?”

I nod.

“You did the right thing. If we’d said no, he would have taken her, anyway. Against her will, and then the packs would have fought. We had to keep the peace, Blair.”

I sigh. “It doesn’t make what we did any easier, and you still should have warned me.”

Calix stands and walks around to where I’m sipping my tea, willing it to turn to coffee.

“I didn’t know. I just had a feeling that he was going to ask for her to join his pack because of how they are together.” His hands stroke my arms, his eyes searching mine. “You know, you did the right thing. For your pack. That’s a true Luna.”

I look up at him, and a spark of hope fizzes in my chest.

Maybe that’s why I did it. That and for Alpha Asher. Maybe for Azra too—because if she gives in to the mating bond, won’t she be happy too?

“What time is your aunt arriving?” Calix asks, changing the subject.

My aunt is visiting the pack for the first time today, and I also want to tell her about the baby. Maybe she can help. After all, my mother was a wolf, and she had two human babies.

Fuck, and a wolf baby.

Faolan.

“After two p.m.,” I reply, gripping my cup. “Calix…”

He knows what I’m about to say, and his shoulders slump like he’s defeated. Never is this man defeated. Only for me.

My heart softens.

“You want to know about your mother.” Calix takes the mug from my hands and walks over to the sofa, pulling me onto his lap and burying his head into my neck. He inhales me like he does when he’s stressed, like he needs me, all of me. “I don’t want to upset you.”

Calix isn’t one to dance around when it comes to the truth, and I want him to hit me with it. So I take a deep breath and fix him with my gaze.

“What is it? Just say it. Like ripping off a band-aid.”

Calix drops his gaze, and I know then that it’s bad.

So he tells me how he and Alpha Asher tortured Faolan. How they forced him to tell them everything, and how he eventually gave in.

“He said your mother set fire to the packhouse.”

I swallow and nod, eager for him to go on. I’m not surprised she set fire to the place where they’d held her captive! I would’ve done the same if I could.

“With people in it.” Calix lifts his gaze to mine, and I freeze, my entire body stiffening.

“What?”

My mother would never… my kind, strong mother who helped nurse bees back to health with sugar and water on a spoon, kissing our boo-boos better when we were small.

“With Faolan and his father in there.”

It’s like a bucket of ice water has dropped over me. A strange noise leaves my mouth, and I blink too much, sure I’m going to pass out.

“His father, I can understand,” I whisper. “He raped her… took her from her family…”

Calix wraps his arms around me, and I realize I’m trembling.

“But her baby?”

The burns on Faolan’s face flood my mind.

Calix is telling the truth—or more so, Faolan was.

Or was he?

“What if he was lying?” I ask weakly, but I know he wasn’t. The way my mother had looked at me in my vision when she’d told me Calix knew something…

Nausea rolls in my stomach.

“She tried to kill him? Why would she…” My words fail to materialize, and I slump into Calix’s arms as he kisses my head and holds me close. The thought of anyone hurting my child makes me venomous—murderous.

“I’ve considered this,” Calix comments with a frown. “I’ve spoken to my mother, Lexie, and Cox.”

“About this?!” I gasp, hating that he has talked to anyone else before me. “Calix!”

I slap his chest, and he winces, but we both know it didn’t hurt him.

“I had to because I wanted answers for you.” Calix grips my wrist before I can slap him again, his eyes pleading.

“Did you get any?” I murmur, a lump forming in my throat as tears slide down my cheeks.

My mother, a murderer.

Calix strokes my cheek, his eyes sad.

“My mother had some.”

I sit up and wipe my tears away roughly.

“Why don’t we go see her so she can tell you herself?” Calix suggests, pulling me close. “Only if you want to.”

I don’t want to move from his arms, but I love Luna Willow. Even though she isn’t Luna anymore, I can’t help but call her that. She doesn’t mind but still insists ‘Willow’ is good enough.

If Luna Willow has a theory… I want to hear it.

“Okay,” I agree, exhaling shakily. “Let’s go.”