Page 113 of Midnight Moon
I couldn’t care less.
“I deserve an explanation, and you’re going to give it to me. Right here, right now.” I willed my voice to convey just how serious I was. I would not agree to go anywhere, or do anything, until I learned the truth of whatever was going on.
Finally, my father met my gaze. “What do you want to know?”
There were so many things I wanted to ask. I settled on, “Why would you want me to go to the Wilds Pack?”
“For your protection.”
I eyed him skeptically. “Protection from what?”
His jaw hardened. “Sorcerers. They won’t stop coming for you, and once we leave Badlands’ territory, I’m afraid they’ll succeed in getting what they want.”
As much as I wanted to dismiss his irregular behavior, I couldn’t ignore he sounded serious. A new fear settled in my belly. I licked my dry lips, and asked, “Why do the sorcerers want to hurt me?”
“Because of what they think you have.”
“What do they think I have?”
“Your mother’s power.”
I blinked. “My mother?” I knew very little about the female who gave birth to me. She’d died when I was a toddler.
A host of emotions played over my father’s face: regret, sadness and, lastly, resignation. “I apologize, Blair, I should have told you the truth sooner.” He paused, shaking his head as he stared at a spot over my shoulder, lost in a memory. “I believed her protection would keep you safe. I thought we had time, but it seems I was wrong.”
His solemn admission petrified me. The male standing in front of me was not the formidable, brave alpha who’d raised me.
“Dad, I don’t understand,” I murmured. “What aren’t you saying?”
My father’s lips pressed together. Another flash of regret crossed his expression, but he did not respond.
It was Asher who ultimately told me the truth.
I looked over my shoulder when he began to speak, meeting his gaze. Once I heard what he had to say, I wish I never had.
“Your mother wasn’t a shifter, Blair,” Asher delivered the world-altering blow. “She was a sorceress… apowerfulsorceress.”
Twenty-Eight
A sorceress?
No. It couldn’t be.
I was a shifter—one hundred percent. I didn’t have any magic.
“You’re wrong.” I backed up, colliding with the wood railing. Asher, Chase and my father watched my retreat with a mix of caution and unease.
“When you were born, the bulk of your mother’s power transferred to you,” my father explained. “She had just enough left to weave a protective spell around you. It masked that part of yourself, allowing you to live life as an ordinary shifter.”
“Iaman ordinary shifter,” I insisted.
“You are not,” my father stated, “but no one in our pack knows. I had every intention of staying silent… but then the sorcerers found you.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, and my eyes darted over his face, taking in his expression.
Mother Moon… he’s serious.
“Your mother was one of the most powerful sorceresses in her coven,” my father continued, rattling my faith in everything I thought I knew. “She was slated to become the next Mother Goddess—their leader—but then we met, and she chose a life with me instead.”
