Page 51 of The Alpha’s Seer (The Shifters of Stormhollow #1)
Chapter Fifty-One
CALIX
Mom has been expecting us, judging from the cake in the center of the table. She doesn’t waste any time in getting Blair a slice, still glaring at me like I’m the devil for sending Azra away.
But I don’t have time for that.
“Mom, can you tell Blair what you said about her mother burning—”
Blair winces, and my mother shoots me another look.
“You know what I mean,” I snap, dragging a chair out. “Please.”
Mom looks back at Blair and strokes her head, then wrinkles her nose.
Uh-oh.
“Mom,” I say quickly, distracting her. “Please just tell her.”
Mom sits in a chair beside Blair, her eyes wide. She has just figured out my mate is pregnant. I should’ve known not to let her touch her. Mothers know these things.
“I’m sorry you had to hear about what she did,” Mom begins, smiling kindly at Blair. “But I believe she may have done it for good reason.”
Blair stares at my mother, then at me. “Good reason? What good reason could she possibly have had for trying to kill her child?”
Mom makes a face, then reaches for a slice of cake. “Yes, I know. But hear me out, and please eat your cake.”
Blair reaches for the cake numbly, but her face changes when she has her first mouthful. My mom’s cakes are insanely good. Blair scarfs it down and reaches for a second slice, and Mom smiles.
“The Alpha that took her dealt in dark magic, which you may already know.” Mom leans forward, chewing thoughtfully. “The witch that died, the one that held us in the cave?”
“Loralie?” Blair remarks without missing a beat.
“Yes, her.” Mom wrinkles her nose in disgust. “She helped your mother conceive, I believe.”
Blair stares wordlessly at my mom, and I add, “Lexie found her cavern. She’d kept detailed notes of everything she’d done over the years. There was a potion with your mother’s name on it, and Lexie said it was a fertility potion.”
Blair continues to look at me before my mom speaks, picking up where I left off.
“But not just any fertility potion.”
My mother and I exchange a glance.
“It contained demon spawn,” Mom said quietly, reaching out to hold Blair’s hand in hers. “So you see, Faolan was technically her child, but he was also the son of a cruel and vicious Alpha, and he had, well…”
“The devil in him,” I finish for her, and she nods.
“He was created to be evil.”
Blair slumps into her chair, turning grey.
“The cake, Blair, keep eating the cake.” Mom nudges another slice towards her, and Blair eats it without a word. Her cheeks soon turn pink, and she looks at me with the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen.
“He was evil.”
My mom nods in confirmation. “He really was.” She bows her head, and I reach out for her, hating the vile bastard who impregnated her.
The devil.
I frown, and Blair meets my eyes, clearly thinking the same as me.
“Oh, my God.”
My mom looks at us. “What?”
But I can’t say it, and neither can Blair. When I’ve talked about the children being tainted by their father’s blood, I’d meant by genetics and characteristics—not literal demon spawn.
If Faolan impregnated my mother, that must mean their child—and many others he’d fathered—would be part demon, part wolf.
He really had been creating the ultimate pack—Demon Wolves.
“How did you kill him?” Blair inquires suddenly, looking at me with intrigue. “He was a demon-wolf. Surely that wasn’t easy?”
I shake my head and watch the memory as it unfolds in my mind, evening in his demise.
“We tore his head from his neck, but he continued to talk.” I shudder. “He spoke in tongues…”
Blair gulps, and my mom grips her hand in hers.
“So we cut him into pieces and incinerated the remaining parts.”
Mom frowns. “Are you positive he’s dead, Calix?”
I lift my gaze to hers. “Yes. We buried each part of him in a different place, and Lexie blessed each one.”
Blair relaxes, and my mother exhales heavily.
“Where would we be without Lexie?”
We’re all silent, digesting the information until Blair looks at me, her voice in my mind.
You need to tell your mother about the children.
But I can’t. If she hasn’t figured it out for herself—
“I’m not stupid, Calix.”
Blair and I snap our heads toward my mom as she smiles faintly, smoothing down her shirt.
“I knew what he was. What I carried.”
Blair claps a hand to her mouth, horrified.
“But I love my child like I love you and Rebel before him.”
I scowl and jump up, the chair clattering behind me as I glare at her. “We’re not the same! Don’t you dare say our names with his!”
“Calix, sit down,” Blair pleads with me, darting a look at my mom. “Please.”
She’s been through enough.
“I didn’t say his name because I don’t know it,” Mom expresses, her voice laced with regret. “I held him for a brief second; that’s all.”
I glare at her but remain silent for Blair. I hate what my mom went through, but fucking hell… she loves the spawn of Satan? Is she insane?
“He’s the son of Satan,” I hiss. “Any child Faolan fathered needs to die.”
My mom stares at me in stricken horror, her lips opening and closing as I pace her tiny cabin.
“Calix, he’s your—”
“No.” I shake my head and point at her. “Don’t you fucking dare call him my brother? He’s not my brother. He’s a demon. Spawn of Satan.”
Mom glares at me. “My blood flows through his veins, Calix. He’s the same as you.”
“How?” I laugh at her.
“Calix,” Blair cautions, her eyes fixed on the table.
But I ignore her and continue. “My father was a decent man—a wolf.”
My mom bows her head, and for a minute, I lose my train of thought. The pain in her eyes breaks me.
“He was the best man,” Mom whispers.
“Then the baby you had with Faolan—”
“Not by choice, Calix,” Mom reminds me, her gaze steely.
I falter but know I need to say it. She needs to hear it.
“Fifty percent of him is pure wolf. Seventy-five percent if you count his shitty father’s genes. Twenty-five percent of him is demon.”
“So? It’s not his fault!” Mom snaps at me.
“He’s part demon, Mom.” I drag my hands through my hair. “God knows how many of the little bastards he created.”
“Calix!” Blair hisses at me as Mom drops her eyes to the table.
“After everything I endured, Calix.” Her voice is small, but every word cuts. “I carried a child that was conceived through torture. I lived with that weight, and every night I woke with him in my head. I can hate the man who did it—I do—but the baby… the baby is an innocent in all of this.”
She swallows hard as if the words hurt to push past her throat.
“If I can feel pity and fear for that child—if I can see that it’s half victim, half threat—why can’t you at least see both sides?
We owe them a chance—not because of the bastard who made them, but because mercy separates us from the likes of him. ”
Her fists unclench, trembling. “I don’t want them in my house, Calix. I don’t want them near you or Blair. But murder? That won’t unmake what happened. It will only make us the same kind of monsters we’re fighting. If I can do it, why can’t you?”
I grunt in response.
Because I don’t fucking want to, that’s why.
“I’m sorry you went through that,” I tell her. “But I don’t have to empathize with these things, and I won’t. Not even for you.”
“I think you should go.” Mom stands and points at the door with a trembling finger, her eyes shining. “Calix, leave. Now.”
“Fine,” I spit out, looking at my mate, who’s already on her feet. “But my child won’t be growing up with filth like that lurking in the background, always a threat. They’ll never fit in anywhere but hell. We can’t let them survive.”
She looks at me with raw pleading. “Consider exile, strict guardianship, or binding them to a distant foster pack—anything but killing a child.”
For a second—one second—something flickers in me at the idea of exile, of keeping them away and watched and alive. Then the heat of it returns: the thought of those genes, the risk.
“No,” I say, harder than I mean to. “We can’t let them survive.”
Then I leave, having told her I’m going to murder her other son along with any of his siblings.
Blair scurries after me, and I wait for her outside, my chest heaving. She pulls me into her arms and soothes me, but I know she won’t ever agree with murdering those kids.
But she has to understand the threat they pose.
To our kind.
To all kinds.