Page 100 of Challenged Mate
“That won’t happen.” Asher’s wolf reared its head, growling at the threat to my life.
My father’s forehead creased, no doubt noting the yellow-green hue flickering in Asher’s eyes. Then, he took in the Wilds alpha’s rigid stance. He felt his fury vibrating on the air within our silencing bubble.
My father’s eyes widened with understanding, followed swiftly by disbelief. “No. It can’t be.”
“It is, Dad,” I replied, knowing what he’d figured out. “Asher and I share a bond. He’s my fated mate.”
“It can’t be,” he repeated as if he didn’t hear me.
“Well, it is,” I snapped.
“Impossible.” He shook his head from side to side.
Irritation flared, and not just from me.
Axel, once again, spoke on his brother’s behalf, “And what, Mother tell, is so impossible about it?”
My father stared at me and Asher, looking as if he was seeing a ghost. Then, he choked out, “Because Blair already has a bond with someone else. She’s linked to another.”
Thirty-One
Asher’s growlechoed off the brick buildings on either side of us. His shoulders hunched; his wolf’s hackles raised.
I placed my palm against his bicep, hoping my touch would be enough to keep him in skins as I leveled my glare on my father. “Asher is my fated mate, Dad.”
He wasn’t convinced. “You don’t understand, Blair. This link shouldn’t be possible.”
“Why?” It was Asher who ground out the simple question.
Again, my father’s gaze bounced from me to Asher. His focus ultimately landed on the hand pressed against Asher’s arm.
“At your birth, your mother detected the sorcerer’s mark. I—” He swallowed. “I-I’d never seen her so panicked. She concealed the mark right away, and Jocelyn says it’s still hidden. She can’t sense it.”
Asher’s arm flexed beneath my fingers as he listened to my father speak. I watched as his expression shuttered, hiding his true reaction to my father’s words.
My anxiety spiked. “What is a sorcerer’s mark?”
“It is a way for sorcerers to claim a soul,” Kayla answered when no one else seemed inclined to. I looked at her, alarmed to see fear in her gaze as she stared, wide-eyed, at my father.
I looked at those around me. Each one wore similar expressions. And no one met my eye.
“Asher?” I looked up at my mate. “Please tell me what this means. Tell me what’s going on.”
His jaw clenched. He stared down my father, his wolf flickered in and out of his irises. “A sorcerer’s mark is a mark of ownership. It’s black magic, and it’s been outlawed by covens for centuries.”
“Then how did it happen to me?”
“The Graystone leader marked your mother,” my father replied. His face cracked, and I saw the anguish he’d been concealing as it seeped over his features. “They grew up together. She trusted him, but she shouldn’t have. The mark’s existence was part of the reason she left the coven in the first place. She wanted to escape him. But when you were born, it wasn’t just your mother’s power that transferred to you. The mark copied itself onto your soul.
“It’s why she left us,” he continued. “Your mother thought if she went to him and fulfilled the mark’s obligation, it would free you from his grasp.” He squeezed his eyes shut and took a ragged breath. “But it didn’t. Even after she mated that monster, you still weren’t safe.”
Poppy told me my mother mated the Graystone leader.
Now, at least I knew why.
“What’s the mark’s obligation?” I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.
My father opened his eyes. “It requires a mating—a sharing of power between a sorcerer and sorceress. For your mother, it would’ve meant letting the Graystone leader access her abilities as the Mother Goddess.”
