Chapter 24 Jaxon
Jaxon
“Wake up, Alpha.”
Rustling came from outside my tent.
My wolf was already up and on high alert. It’s Tisiphone. She needs us.
No. She doesn’t.
They’d made that apparent last night. She hadn’t even bothered to come out here herself to pick up her things. I’d growled at the witches gathering her stuff, demanding to know if she was okay, but they’d only given me looks of pity.
Everyone had seen my deepest shame. The pathetic Alpha who’d been rejected by his mate.
Unconsciously, I touched my chest, feeling the weak bond that was always there letting me know Tisiphone was safe. I’d learned to numb it as a pup for both our sakes, but I still checked on it from time to time.
And it wasn’t the first time I wondered if there was a way to tear it out of my heart. To rid myself of the ever-present ache that tainted—or fueled—everything I did in life.
I was so damn tired of it.
“Alpha?” the voice called again.
“I’m coming.” I unzipped the tent.
The early morning gray of the pre-dawn cast a foggy glow on the field. I looked to the sky, trying to track the moon. Halley’s Comet was blurred by the clouds. It must’ve been four or five in the morning. Everyone in the surrounding tents was still asleep.
I shivered as I stood to my full height, coming face to face with Gentry.
I hated the sympathy in my old friend’s eyes as he looked me over. “Are you doing all right?”
“Is that why you woke me up?” My voice sounded rough. “To talk about my feelings?”
Gentry lowered his face. “We always knew you two were supposed to be together. Fate doesn’t make mistakes.”
“I’m going back to bed.” I growled.
“It’s not that.” He sighed, turning towards the eastern border. “The twins told me to grab you. Alpha Kera has arrived.”
*
Kera was the last wolf shifter I wanted to see right now. I knew we’d been waiting on her arrival, but that was before what happened yesterday.
Besides her being much older than me—like most of the Alphas in our region except for Aiden of Fenrir—and therefore treating me like a pup in many of our meetings despite her reliance on Cadejo exports, the Cerberus clan was a tight-knit bunch. They were protective of each other, to a fault.
I didn’t want to admit what had transpired between Tisiphone and me earlier. By the look on her face as I stepped over the Ossory border into Anubis territory, she already knew.
Those damn twins.
“Do you want to explain how letting your temper get the best of you helped to fulfill the promise of taking care of my niece?” Kera’s question was a lashing whip.
I straightened my spine. The Alpha in me refused to cower. “It didn’t.”
Kera lowered her voice to a dangerous whisper, “If anything happens to her, I will personally hold you responsible.”
I’d hold myself responsible, so I didn’t argue, but something about her tone rubbed me the wrong way. “Tisiphone is strong. She can handle herself.”
“You better hope so. For your sake.” Kera turned and started marching away, expecting me to follow her, as anger and worry tinged her scent.
It dawned on me that she didn’t truly believe Trish could take care of herself. Frowning, I kept pace with Kera.
Tisiphone is tough, but she shouldn’t have to take care of herself, my beast growled.
I know that. Does Kera?
The chaos ahead swallowed us up before I could voice my concerns.
Shifters from both Cerberus and Anubis, along with the erratic Alpha Jareth, who tolerated me better than my predecessor but still eyed me—and everyone besides Kera—suspiciously, were setting up a command center in a tent just outside Ossory borders.
I slowed to a stop, thinking this was exactly how it looked. “There’s no way this setup doesn’t signal aggression to the Ossory pack.”
Kera barely slowed as she glanced at me over her shoulder. “Then it’s a good thing the messenger I sent ahead already got word that you wanted a meeting with the Ossory Alpha to discuss our intentions. We meet with Liam after sunrise.”
It sounded like there was a compliment in there, but you wouldn’t know it from Kera’s tone.
She stopped in the center of the tent, surveying the organized chaos with an approving nod, and then put her hands on her hips. “Now I want someone in here to tell me why I can’t communicate with my niece.”
As her Alpha, Kera’s telepathic range was longer than most, but wherever Vincent had taken Tisiphone was out of reach for pack communications.
It was on the tip of my tongue to explain my failure again, but Calla stepped from the shadows with her wolves at her sides.
“We think Trish went undercover to gather more intel on the missing witch.” Calla gave me a cautionary look.
We do?
We didn’t. But now that she said it, that made so much sense. The breath rushed from my lungs as I fully exhaled. Had I been that blind? Kera was right to chastise me.
“What missing witch?” Kera’s eyes narrowed.
The twins joined Calla on either side, and the three of them hurried to explain the events of the festival so far. I stood back, letting them get it all out.
The tent flap parted, and in came Meg and Alec. Between them, of all people, was Sage. I didn’t sense Maddock anywhere, but it was bad enough that her mother was here too.
Tisiphone was going to lose it.
Sage offered a smile and turned her head slightly, motioning for me to join her outside the tent.
As foolish as I was, I knew better than to say no to this particular witch.
*
“Do you want to tell me what really happened?” Sage was shorter than her daughters and most other shifters, but—like Tisiphone—she exuded power and magic that would’ve brought a lesser wolf to his knees.
As an Alpha, I bent for no one.
Except our mate.
A memory of the other night came unbidden as I kneeled in front of Tisiphone, and I had to quickly banish it before the witch saw my reaction to her daughter.
“Everything Calla said was the truth,” I tried to keep the hope out of my voice as I admitted that out loud.
“My daughter isn’t reckless.” Sage shook her head. “She wouldn’t put herself in danger for no reason.”
I clenched my jaw, staring straight ahead.
That was twice this morning I’d heard someone speak of Tisiphone in a way that didn’t explain her at all.
It seemed they didn’t know her as well as they thought they did.
Maybe I didn’t either. I was starting to think there was a whole other side to Tisiphone that none of us had figured out.
And that killed me.
“You know you can speak freely with me.” Sage smiled. “I don’t bite.”
I chuckled a bit at her attempt of a joke, but couldn’t bring myself to say anything. We’d had a few heart-to-hearts over the years, and Sage was a very maternal witch, but she didn’t owe me anything.
Nor I her.
My wolf whined softly.
I continued to stare straight ahead. “There isn’t much to say. Tisiphone makes her own decisions.”
Maybe it was time to believe that she knew what was best for herself.
And that might not include me.
“Her great-grandmother, Lisa, took me under her wing when I escaped the human purist city,” Sage said, shocking me with the turn of conversation.
It wasn’t often I talked about Lisa with anyone.
I was always curious about Tisiphone’s family, but Lisa had done more for me than most adults, so I eagerly waited to hear her name spoken.
“Lisa lived alone in the woods, carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders,” Sage said. “We were all surprised when she came out of isolation and declared she was opening her home to train the new generation of wolf-witches.”
I knew the stories of this. Lisa was a powerful wolf-witch herself and was blessed with future sight like Calla. I’d always assumed she knew something we didn’t, but she died before cluing the rest of us in.
“I was still coming into my own power at the time. Tisiphone must’ve been, what? Six? Seven?” Sage stretched out her lower back, looking for a place to sit. I gently guided her to the nearest boulder.
“Thanks.” She nodded before continuing her story. “Tisiphone was burning bright with her gifts at the time. Her sisters never showed any magical aptitude, preferring to train with the wolves instead, but here comes Trish, following us around and casting her own childlike spells.”
A lump formed in my throat that threatened to choke me. This was a magic of its own. The story Sage was weaving, laced with love of a mother.
It was a stark reminder that it didn’t matter how powerful I was; at the end of the day, a cold hearth and cold sheets awaited my return to Cadejo Pack.
It doesn’t have to be this way… My wolf gave a mournful howl as he thought of his mate.
I shook my head, refusing to go down that road with him again. Maybe it was always supposed to end like this. With me learning the truth, and giving her up.
No. Don’t say that.
“Seven.” I coughed, clearing the pain from my throat. “Tisiphone was seven when Lisa started the school. I came that year at the same age.
“That’s right.” Sage nodded. I hated the look of pity in her eyes. “I remember.”
I did too.
An abandoned alpha wolf with too much magic and paws too big for his frame. I came tumbling into Cerberus woods when Victor dropped me off, and Lisa’s cabin became a home for far too short a while.
And I remembered the day at the graveyard, right after Lisa made me promise to take care of Tisiphone, when my mate released me from my vow, pushing me away.
I’d bounced from pack to pack and home to home among the other wolf-witches, never staying too long in one place so as not to disrupt the order of things, until I was of age to return to Cadejo and take my destined role.
I’d done it all for her.
Yet I still didn’t know why.
I do.
“We should get back,” I said.
Sage didn’t move from her seat. “It’s crazy how biology works.
I know we don’t study much science out here, but genetically, my three girls are as close as can be, yet they are all so different.
Meg leads with her head and hides her romantic heart.
Alec is my… wild one.” Sage smiled fondly.
“But Tisiphone gives herself to everyone around her and pushes away anyone who tries to return the favor. I think she suppresses her true nature to stay small, so that others can shine brighter. She’s more like me than I care to admit. ”
“I’d say that’s an accurate description.” I nodded, feeling the ache deepen in my chest.
The sun broke the horizon with a pale strand of light. My skin crawled with the need to get back, to do something to help with the emotions swirling inside me. Still, Sage sat.
“She’s also an awful lot like you,” the witch said. “I think that’s why you were meant to be together.”
I stared at her without blinking.
“Don’t bother to deny it.” She waved her hand in the air. “It’s been a long few days of travel and I’m too tired to argue. But I’ve never needed the sight to know you were always supposed to be a part of our family. Fate doesn’t make mistakes, even with shifters as stubborn as the two of you.”
“I…” I wasn’t quite sure what to say.
Sage rolled her eyes. “Now, I’m a little upset because I sent her here with the hope that forcing the two of you to spend time together would fix whatever is broken. My mate disagreed, but I told him you both needed this chance.”
She glanced up with pleading eyes. “Please don’t make me have to go back and tell Maddock I was wrong. I’d never hear the end of it.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at her unexpected words, but there wasn’t much else funny about this situation.
“I messed up. I pushed her too hard. I shouldn’t have let loose my wolf like I did.
She’s probably never going to talk to me again, and even if she does want to, I can’t go back in there.
I’m banned from the warlock’s trials. I… I failed to protect her.”
Sage slid off the rock and reached for my face. I was forced to lower my head to receive her touch.
And when I did, something strange happened. It was more than a calming peace that washed over me. It was a warmth I’d never felt. Acceptance like I’d never had before. And I had to wonder, if this was what it would’ve been like to have a mother who cared.
“Do you still love her?” Mischief sparkled in the witch’s eyes as I nodded. “Then why would you let some silly human warlock keep you from your destined mate?”
I knew I always liked her.