Chapter 22
Sylvan
I’m not sure how the bastard found me, but I don’t like that he did. I also don’t like that now I’m sitting in the kitchen nook next to Morgan while she and Zach talk rapidly.
Morgan is mad at me. I understand why. Zach is one of my secrets, and truthfully, I do my best not to think about him.
We may share blood, but we didn’t know about each other until about nine years ago, and he’s living proof that my father was a complete and utter cheating asshole.
My mother was his fated mate, and yet he got another woman pregnant.
My half-brother’s presence alone infuriates me.
“Wait, so how did you find us?” Morgan asks.
“I finally found the trail of Sylvan’s jobs and heard about the Foxglove witch’s death. I have friends everywhere. Your grandmother was a big deal, huh?”
“Yeah,” Morgan sighs. “Unfortunately.”
Zach is overly intuitive, which is another reason I’ve always disliked him. “Was she that bad?”
Morgan’s eyes light up as she realizes he’s in tune enough to not throw praise at her grandmother. “She was.”
“I’m sorry. Family is difficult.” His smile is faint, but his gaze flicks to me. “So you’ve been living together here? In this house?”
“Yeah,” I grunt. “What do you want? Why are you here?”
“Do you want a cup of coffee?” Morgan asks. “I’ve heard I make a great cup.”
Zach grins, and the bastard really lays it on thick. If he weren’t my brother and if he weren’t an omega, I’d sink my teeth through his jugular and rip it out.
Morgan pokes me hard enough I suck in a breath. “What?” I sigh.
“Coffee?” she asks me. “Or would you like a cup of piss to go along with your poor attitude?”
Zach stifles a sharp laugh and I narrow my eyes on her. “Coffee would be fine, witch.”
I can still taste her on my lips. My gaze lingers on her as she goes to the kitchen counter and works on starting a pot.
She’s giving me a moment with Zach, I realize. Not that she couldn’t hear us, but it’s enough space that we can talk—just us—for a moment.
“Why are you here?” I mutter.
Zach’s expression grows serious. “You need to go back to your territory and take control, Sylvan. Things are getting out of hand.”
“I’m in exile, or did you forget that?”
A spoon clatters against the counter.
Fuck.
Morgan stares at me, and I see the hint of betrayal. I can feel it in my chest too. I rub my heart absentmindedly and know I’ll need to explain things to her now.
I didn’t want this. My past was supposed to stay out of the picture. Telling Morgan anything not only risks her safety, but it means I have to place my trust in her.
Of all people in the world, fate chose Morgan for me.
In theory, she should be the one person I can entirely entrust with everything.
But that sort of thing doesn’t come easy to me, and I’m here to protect her.
For years, I’ve avoided sharing any part of myself with another.
Starting now feels like a disaster waiting to happen.
“The packs are in trouble. Some of the alphas are abusive. Their behavior is not being monitored.”
“Take it up with the authorities,” I say.
“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” he bites out. “What do you think I do, Sylvan? Sit on my ass? Do you know how difficult it is to fight other alphas when you’re not only an omega, but the bastard brother of the Wolf Prince?”
Morgan sets three mugs of steaming coffee down on the table. If looks could kill, I’d be buried in the back yard right now.
“Go on,” she urges. “I’d love to know more, since Sylvan has mentioned none of this.”
Zach’s brows shoot up and he winces. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to cause trouble between mates—”
“Just like your mother,” I snarl.
His expression falls and Morgan shocks me by holding up a butter knife. Where the fuck did she even pull that from? She points it at me.
“Apologize,” she says.
“I will not,” I bite out. “You’re the one that invited trouble into our home.”
“It’s not a god damn home,” she growls. “With you, it’s a prison.”
Before I can protest, she takes her cup of coffee and leaves the kitchen. “I’ll be in the garden.”
“Put on your sunscreen!” I call after her.
“Fuck you, wolf!”
I rub my face as I hear the back door slam. I’ve really fucked everything up. Again. I’ve hurt her feelings. Again.
“Well,” Zach says flatly. “It’s nice to see I’m not the only one who thinks you’re an asshole. But it has to hurt more coming from your own mate.”
“I want to kill you right now,” I say simply. “Very much.”
He takes a sip of his coffee and regards me with a mix of curiosity and disdain. “Why haven’t you marked her yet?”
“You know I can’t,” I growl. “I can’t.”
“Why? Because you think they’ll go after her?”
I slam my hands down on the table hard enough, coffee spills over the mug, creating a ring of liquid on the oak top.
Zach doesn’t even flinch, but his eyes turn hard like diamonds.
“You know they will,” I whisper harshly.
“You know they will. They’ll go after her and kill her.
They’ll hunt down anyone I love. Anyone I care about.
Everyone is at risk. The only reason you’re not dead is because I’ve made the world think we despise each other, and still it’s not enough.
You stay in the pack lands, but you’re always looking over your shoulder.
Forever paranoid that someone will slit your throat, because of me.
Because you couldn’t leave your bloodline alone. ”
He growls back at me. “Would you have? If you were me?”
I look away from him and stare out the windows. I can see the back garden from here and relax when I see Morgan slathering sunscreen on herself angrily.
“What even happened here?” he asks quietly. “And don’t you know how much it hurts for an omega to be around their alpha while unmated?”
“I’m fucking aware,” I say. “I can feel her pain.”
“No. You don’t get it—”
“I do get it,” I say again. “I was Maeve Foxglove’s bodyguard and her last set of instructions for me was to meet with her lawyer and granddaughter.
At that meeting, Morgan and I learned her dying wish was for us to be bound together and forced to live here for nine months.
On top of that, I can feel Morgan’s pain.
I think it was an incentive to keep her safe. ”
Zach cocked his head. “And how’s that going?”
“Fine,” I snarl.
He doesn’t believe me.
I rub the back of my neck, and decide to lay it out for him. As much as we resent each other, neither of us would actively try to harm the other. Fight each other? Yes. But never harm.
“There’s a darkness here,” I say. “I don’t know what it is. But I know that Morgan is supposedly cursed, and I think it’s connected to that.”
“Or,” he says slowly. “It’s connected to you.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“The curse. Her curse.”
“It’s not connected to me,” I say. “We’ve never known each other before now.”
Zach takes another sip of his coffee, and it pisses me off, because he has this look on his face that tells me he knows more than I do. And how is that? Why would he know more than me about what’s going on?
“If you would have taken control of your territory, you’d know more,” he says. “But instead, you’ve been selfish and running around alone. Tell me about this darkness.”
“Tell me what you mean by all of that,” I say.
He shakes his head. “No. Tell me first, then I will explain what I know.”
I glance out at Morgan again. She’s digging a hole of sorts in the backyard.
“I think she’s planning your funeral,” he chuckles.
“Probably.” I rake my fingers through my hair.
“On our first full moon together, she wandered out into the garden. She went missing for a few hours. I could not find her. Her scent. Her heartbeat. When she finally did come back, I found her standing at the end of the path, and there was this . . . creature. This shadow. Darkness. It reached for her, calling her into the forest. I got to her just in time, and then attempted to hunt it the rest of the night.”
“And you found nothing.”
I nod numbly. “It was gone without a trace. I don’t know what it was.
We’ve tried finding answers. We’ve torn up her grandmother’s library and found one book that I thought might help, but it’s just ramblings about how wrong our history is.
We had no other sightings until two months ago.
We were attacked by three of them. They shot me with silver bullets. ”
“What?” Zach says, leaning forward. “But you’re . . .”
“Alive.”
“How?”
“Morgan pulled them out.”
He shakes his head. “No. Even if she did so, you should have died.”
“I should have, but I didn’t. She saved me.”
He scowls. “But I heard she has no magic.”
“She does,” I whisper. “She says she doesn’t. And it’s not like other witch’s magic. It’s not large, it’s quiet. It’s peaceful. How’s your coffee?”
“Perfect,” he says.
“A little too perfect? She doesn’t know how you like your coffee, right? You’ve just met her.”
He frowns and looks down at the mug. “Now that you mention it . . .”
I nod. “It’s little things like that. But she doesn’t think she has magic. Maeve made sure she believed she was powerless.”
“But she pulled silver bullets out of you.”
“Cursed silver bullets.”
He shakes his head again and sits back, looking out the window. “The darkness you mention isn’t new. It’s been terrorizing our territory. Omegas have been taken.”
“What do you mean taken?” I growl.
“Taken. They vanish. Kidnapped by these shadows. Do you remember meeting Alex Shaw?”
I frown. Alex was an older alpha, and one I begrudgingly respect. I nod.
“His mate was taken. She was six months pregnant.”
My eyes widen. “What? Has she been found?”
“No.” Zach swallows hard, his eyes softening. “No. And he was shot with those silver bullets, too. He’s dead.”
My blood runs cold.
“A lot has been happening,” he whispers. “A lot that isn’t being spoken about in the news. I don’t know why. It’s all in rural areas like Hex Ridge, and it seems to be following this mountain range.”
“This mountain range spans over six territories.”
He nods. “Yes. And all six territories have had issues with people disappearing. Witch, daimon, or werewolf. All omegas. So those three creatures? They wanted to take her, Sylvan. Most alphas have not been able to fight whatever they are. You’re lucky.
Maeve may have known about this, and maybe that’s why she forced you into a bond.
As terrible as she clearly was, maybe she was trying to protect Morgan. ”
Maybe. I press my lips together and mull over everything he’s told me.
“What made you seek me out?” I ask.
“I’ve been trying for a few years,” he admits with a shrug.
“At first, I was going to try to force you to come back. But then it became an excuse to move around a lot. You’re good at covering your tracks.
It hasn’t been easy. You blocked my calls, emails, texts, and you never stay in one place for long, so all my letters have been returned. ”
I feel guilty for that. I’d been on the run long before he came into the picture, though. It’s been a reflex for years.
“You know why,” I say.
He shakes his head. “The Council had no right to exile you and if you would have fought it, you would have won. What they did after our father died was wrong. They’ve erased the history of our pack. Of your people. But you tucked tail and ran.”
A growl rumbles in my chest. “I was eighteen. I blamed myself for everything. I’m the only one that survived my pack's death, and our parents died with everyone else. Everyone thinks I had a part in it.”
“But we know you didn’t.” Zach shrugs his shoulders. “Whatever darkness haunts the mountains, it curses all of us. Not just you. Not just your witch. And if we don’t find a way to stop it, more people will be taken. More people will die.”
“It’s not my responsibility,” I whisper.
“But Morgan is. And whatever this is? It’s after her. So if you want to protect her, Mr. Bodyguard, then you get involved. Or, stay as you are, and don’t come to me when they take her.”
Before I can snap at him, he’s sliding out of the booth.
“Where are you going?”
“To get to know my future sister-in-law. She’s far better company than you, anyway.”
I glower as he leaves me sitting and fuming. Morgan’s voice is friendly and warm when he steps out onto the back porch, and his laugh follows.
I owe her so many answers as to why I am the way I am. But I’m not sure I can tell her. It feels risky, exposing myself that way. She’s seen glimpses of it, of course, but it’s not the same as her knowing everything.
It’s only now that I realize I didn’t argue with my brother when he referred to Morgan as his future sister-in-law.
I lean back in the booth to watch them through the window. He’s helping her dig up weeds, and they’re laughing. She likes him. Feels comfortable around him.
Being the way I am is lonely. And moments like this, I’m reminded of just how painful loneliness is. I yearn to be out there with them, laughing and talking about the future and being a good partner, brother, and leader.
But I’m not sure I can be any of those things, even if I try.
I should still try.