Chapter 18 #2
We hung up and I continued to my parents’ house, ten times angrier than I’d been before.
At the last minute, I turned off of their driveway and onto mine.
When I parked, I sent out a text to the clan group text that was reserved for the alpha’s messages only.
It was easier than trying to send a message directly into their heads like in the older days.
Clan meeting at 8:00 p.m. sharp. At the alpha’s house. There will be no flying. It will be brief. It is mandatory.
Everyone knew that mandatory didn’t mean call out of work or skip an appointment. It just meant everyone who could possibly come, even if it was inconvenient, should show up.
Having the meeting at eight gave people a little bit of time to get their ducks in a row, but it gave me a lot of time to stew on how pissed I was.
Instead of taking the next two hours to brood, I launched myself into the woods and shifted.
It was hard to fly among the thick trees, but I managed.
When the sun began to drop lower in the sky, I headed back.
Just in time, too. It was a quarter to eight and people had begun to show up.
My front porch was covered in members of my clan.
I walked up and greeted everyone, keeping an eye on the watch on my wrist. At exactly eight, I put one hand in the air.
My parents had just arrived, thankfully not early, which meant I hadn’t had to sit there and come up with excuses for why I hadn’t come by or why I was calling this meeting without talking to them about it.
“Thank you all for coming and I’m sorry to call a meeting on such short notice.
As I said, I’ll be brief and get to the point.
I know my position as alpha can be tested, but I will not abide disrespect.
Each of you has the option to openly challenge me.
Going behind my back to undermine me will not be tolerated.
I am ready to take this clan in a forward direction.
That might mean changes. It might not, depending on the situation, but we will move as I see fit.
As every alpha has before me, I have an open door.
You all have opinions that I will always consider.
But there will be times that I make a decision that you don’t necessarily agree with. ”
I looked around the crowd slowly, meeting the eyes of a few people who I thought might give me more shit than others.
My dad. Tessa. “That’s what the clan transfers are for.
If I lead the clan in a direction that you’re not comfortable with, you’re welcome to transfer.
We even have funds set aside for those situations.
” We really did. It was a part of our clan emergency fund.
We covered things like medical emergencies, lost wages, and large expenses if the clan member couldn’t swing it.
“There are options, but none of those options should be behind my back. I am your alpha.” I said my last sentence with the weight of my alpha power, and the crowd collectively bowed their heads.
“If there are no questions, you may go.” There.
I’d reminded them that if they didn’t like the way I ran things, they had the option of leaving.
Or they could challenge me. But I’d be damned if I was going to be cast aside by someone who wanted to do things their way.
Both of my parents stuck around. They both knew the cause of the meeting was to put my father in his place. The only reason I’d done it this way was after the conversation I’d had with Tessa. She’d glared at me the entire time and left faster than anyone else. That woman was trouble.
“Were you just trying to embarrass me?” Dad said as soon as the last car pulled out of the clearing in front of my house. “I was concerned about Skye and trying to help you out.”
“Nobody knew what I said had anything to do with you, unless you told people what you did. Sammy is the only one who knew, and she’s not here.”
He blustered. “I’m trying to help you, son!”
“Then trust me.” It was a fight not to raise my voice.
Mom sighed and walked to the porch to plop down in one of the rockers.
She wasn’t stupid enough to think she could keep us from this argument, but I did notice her rolling her eyes a few times.
“I don’t understand why you’re so worried about Skye,” I said. “She’s my mate.”
Dad’s shoulders slumped. “Because you’re not the first, okay?”
I couldn’t have been more stunned. I looked at Mom, but she was staring at Dad with a shocked expression on her face, too. “What in the hell are you talking about, Mitch?” she asked.
“I mean, you weren’t the only one who looked into this. I put some feelers out that I needed resources on a, uh, touchy subject. It took some years, but I learned of a clan in Washington. One of their members realized his fated mate was human.”
“How?” I exclaimed. “I contacted that clan!”
“If you’d started searching sooner, you might’ve found this out instead of me. You were probably in the midst of medical school when I got this information.”
He was right. I hadn’t contacted the Washington clan until well into my residency.
“Anyway,” he said. “She was much like Skylar. Beautiful, kind, and accepting of what he was. But when he gave her the mating bite, it nearly killed her. She woke up in the hospital in hysterics and terrified of him, something in the magic didn’t mix well with her blood and she became, to put it delicately, mentally distressed.
When she started screaming about dragons, they took it up as her losing her mind.
Their clan’s witch had to come in and wipe all of her memories of him and their secrets, but the witch couldn’t remove the magic from the woman’s system.
She was placed in a mental institution, where she remains to this day, as far as I know. ”
My heart plummeted. Then it rose as anger surged. “Why the hell did you wait until now to tell me this?” I yelled.
“Seriously, Mitch, this was information he needed to know. What if he already bit her?” Mom crossed her arms and glared at us.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t get this far. That you’d come to your senses or that when you told her about it, she’d reject you.
But this is why I asked you to come over today, to tell you.
And that’s why I contacted Sammy, so she’d be on standby if you gave Skye the bite and it went horribly wrong.
I told her it had to do with Skye blabbing, but that wasn’t it.
” My father stepped forward. “I’m not just thinking of you, son.
I’m thinking of Skye and her well-being.
What if she’s like the woman in Washington?
What if the bite can kill her or make her insane?
” He gripped my shoulder hard. “Can you live with that? You should really rethink the mating. And maybe consider asking Sammy to remove the knowledge of the clan from Skye’s mind.
It won’t hurt her, and she’ll be safe. It’s best for everyone involved if you end things with Skylar and have her memories of our secrets wiped. ”
There wasn’t much else to say. I couldn’t really refute his arguments, though his methods had been wrong. He apologized for not telling me sooner, then they left, leaving me sitting on the front porch, stunned.
Skye texted me several times, and eventually, I responded that I was worn out and headed to bed. She knew I’d had that surgery, so she was sympathetic.
I did go to bed but barely slept. When it was time to go back to work, I was in a terrible headspace.
I couldn’t ignore what my father had said, and it made me furious.
My heart ached with every breath and I was so confused I could barely focus on my patients.
Why would fate choose this for me if it weren’t meant to be?
What was the purpose? What was the reason?
I didn’t mean to be, but I was snappy at everyone, including Skylar.
She didn’t have time to question me, and when I thought she might, I ducked her, including hiding in an exam room for lunch.
About an hour later, she nearly bumped into me, and once again, I snapped at her.
“You’re being an alpha-hole,” she hissed at me. “Get the stick out of your ass.”
She didn’t understand why I was so upset.
Her shift ended at three, but I’d picked up another surgery days ago before I knew I’d be going through all this.
It wasn’t a long one, but when I finished and finally headed to my car at seven, I found her sitting on the hood reading something on her phone.
She didn’t speak, just stared at me with one eyebrow arched.
My heart splintered when I saw her. I wanted to bawl my eyes out and tell her how sorry I was. Instead, I walked straight up to her and wrapped my arms around her. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “There’s a lot going on and I’m not processing it well.”
“I’m supposed to be your partner,” she said into my chest. “You should talk things through with me, Anthony.”
She was right, but in this case, I couldn’t.
How could I tell her that being with me might make her go insane?
And if we had sex again, I didn’t know if I could stop myself from biting her.
When my dragon rode me like that, it was nearly impossible to resist. Which meant we just couldn’t have sex.
And I knew Skye. She wouldn’t run away just from one bad case.
She was a lot like me. She’d believe there had to be others and not all of them ended the same as the case in Washington.
I wanted to find out more on my own and I didn’t want to put that burden on her shoulders, so I decided to not tell her.
“I promise I’m handling it. You don’t have to worry. ”
She smiled uncertainly. “Okay. Promise me you’ll come to me if I can help?”
I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Of course. Come eat dinner with me?”
We figured out over sandwiches that her girls wanted her to spend a night with them, and Jace had asked me to come by and hang out with him at the bar.
We decided to spend the weekend apart. It would be good for her to wrap her mind around all this.
And I needed answers. I was bound and damn determined to get them.