Page 51 of His Rejected Alpha Mate
“Jas, your turn in the bathroom,” Deke said. Breaking the stare off with my son, I went to get showered.
A quick call to Dakota after exiting the shower gave me an update, but no hope for a speedy recovery. Angelica was worse than the day before. Grady and Trey were unable to get out of bed, so Dakota was having to look after everyone. I felt awful for my mate. He sounded so tired and worried. “I miss you,” I whispered. He told me he loved and missed me before he was called to check on one of his patients.
Turned out that Deke missed his calling in life. Somehow he had managed to elevate the box mix pancakes to something fit for fine dining. He’d turned the berries into a coulis that was so tasty I wanted to cry. We filled the small kitchen with moans and sighs as we ate in companionable silence, each too deep in our thoughts for conversation.
I’d spent some time in Northarbor, but not a whole lot, and while I’d heard some things about Poppy, the witch who owned her own store, meeting her was a little intimidating. This was Kade’s friend. She had played a part, however unknowingly, in Kade and Blake getting together. Her potion with the blockers that he had been using had mixed badly, sending him to the hospital after fainting at Blake’s feet.
A blonde witch was at the counter when we walked in, the bell above the door jingling our arrival. “Hey, Poppy! We need wards. Lots of one-way wards!” Kade called enthusiastically as I wrinkled my nose against the tingle of all the magic in the air. I couldn’t smell anything anymore.
“Mother Moon! Kade, look at you!” She rushed forward to touch his stomach, eliciting a growl from both Blake and Deke, their alpha instincts to protect kicking in.
“Sorry! Sorry!” She hastily moved back away from them. Kade moved forward and took her hand, placing it lightly on his rounded stomach.
He was halfway through his pregnancy; the babies growing well despite the increasingly cramped quarters. It was clear that he and Blake were working together to keep Kade in the healthiest possible condition. He had been spending more time as a wolf than he ever used to. The shifting encouraging the magic innate in shifters to heal his body around the stresses that pregnancy caused.
“Poppy, I’m not sure you’ve met him, but this is Deke. He’s Blake’s cousin and the head enforcer.”
“I haven’t. Nice to meet you. Where’s Roan at?”
“Deke is the better fighter if anything happens while we are away from the compound. Highly unlikely, but we’ve just taken in some betas from the aviary.” Blake explained, his pride in his cousin’s abilities clear.
The reminder of the betas made me think of all our sick pack mates left at home. I fired off another text for Dakota and a reminder for him to have naps. My poor bear would protect and care for them until he ran himself into the ground. He sent me back a voice note telling me everything was okay and that he loved me. I was so going to replay that over and over later. The pain of missing him was like a spear to the chest. Our bond shouldn’t be going under so much stress so soon.
“Yeah, I heard about that.” Poppy said, pulling my attention back to the moment. “The council checked they didn’t get their pack bond breaking potion from me. We highly regulate them for a reason.” Poppy looked irritated. “Means I get a promotion, though.” Her last comment was said offhand, like she didn’t really have an opinion about it.
“Promotion?” I asked, drawing the witch’s attention to me.
“Pops, this is my papa, Jasper. Papa, this is my friend, Poppy. She’s a great witch.” Kade introduced us properly.
“Nice to meet you! I can sorta see the resemblance.” The witch turned to give Kade her full attention. “I’ve made up a ton of wards, so I’ll grab them for you.” Poppy bustled around the store, forgetting my question.
“Poppy? The promotion?” Kade asked, reminding her gently as she set all we needed on the counter.
“They’ve promoted me to High Witch of the area since the former High Witch was the one selling the illegal spells.” She made a dismissive motion and started putting the spell bags into a paper bag, The Spell Shop written in large cursive on the side. “I agree with providing the potion,” she blurted. “Just not the way he went about it. If he had done things correctly, he could have gone to the shifter council and told them of the beta’s wish to leave the pack, and the unsanctioned form locking. Both are expensive potions, but the council would have paid for them in these circumstances. They would have taken it back in fines to the aviary.” She looked upset. “An unscrupulous witch charged those poor guys over the odds. They shouldn’t have had to pay a cent! It’s worse that the jerk was High Witch. He didn’t deserve the title.”
Kade rounded the counter and rubbed her arms. “It’s okay, Pops. They have a new home and once they are better, they can integrate properly into the pack.”
“Better?”
“The beta sickness. They have it.”
Her face fell. “Goddess, save them! Will they be okay?”
“We certainly hope so. Jake and Sebastian are good guys.” Deke said.
“May The Luna bless them.” Poppy made a complicated blessing, sending some magic into the air, a mix of blue and purple sparks lighting the shop briefly.
“My sister and Papa’s guards have it, too.” Kade might have disliked Grady and Trey because of how they treated Dakota, but he would never wish harm on anyone for no good reason. It wasn’t his nature.
Poppy repeated her blessing, sending up a larger spark of magic and clutching the counter to keep her upright. She brushed us off when we tried to get her to sit. “I’m sorry, it’s just I shouldn’t be doing so much magic. The baby —“
“Baby!” Kade sounded overjoyed.
“Zinna wants us to keep it quiet just now.” She took a few deep breaths and a sip from a cup on the counter, her color quickly returning. “My wife worries. We used a fertility spell and as you can see, my well of magic hasn’t refilled fully yet.” She explained, taking on a lecturing tone which suggested to me that she would be fantastic at teaching the next generation of witches about magic. “The spell takes a lot just to maintain the initial pregnancy. Once we are out of the first trimester, we should be fine.”
“Congratulations, Poppy.” I said, another flash of vision skirting the sides of my sight. I let it come, willing to take that glimpse into the unknown for Kade’s friend. The future I saw for her and Zinna, a feisty looking dark-haired woman, was of the pregnancy progressing and a peaceful home water birth under a full moon. “Oh!”
“What did you see, Papa?”
