Chapter 8: Family

When Oliver brings Rachel out of the kitchen, she is half-asleep. Carol runs up to them, full of worry, but Oliver tells her that Rachel is alright and just sleeping because he marked her. When she doesn't say anything, he thinks that she's confused, so he explains that marking is just like marriage in the human world—but for life. However, Carol already knows these things from Rachel. Instead, she just follows Oliver because he asks her to. They head over to Oliver's house first, and the person who opens the door and greets them is his twin sister Stella, who is the mate of the second Beta Ezra Morgan. Stella is pregnant.

When she sees Oliver carrying a girl protectively, she looks at her twin, confused. "Who is this?" she asks.

"She is my real mate," Oliver answers shortly, pushing past her to rush to his room. He lays Rachel on his bed, covers her with sheets, and then leaves. He has a lot of questions to answer from many different people, and he's not sure how it will go. One thing he knows for sure is that most of them will be happy because the only reason they tolerated Lexie is that they all thought she was his mate.

"What happened?" Stella demands once Oliver returns. All of his friends and family have gathered in his house because Stella called them. Even Hagon is standing amongst them, though he isn't paying attention—his eyes are boring into Carol's face. He can feel the pull of the mate bond, but Lexie's spell is making it impossible for him to realize what this feeling is.

"Lexie is a black witch," Oliver starts and explains everything to all the people present. "And this is Carol, my best friend. She is the one Lexie has been giving trouble to these days. Because of her, I met my true mate, Rachel, and I marked her," he finishes.

Upon hearing Carol's name, everybody turns their heads to look at Hagon, who has been staring at Carol this whole time. The woman in question is a little bit shaken under this intense man's unwavering attention, and she shrinks back.

Even though Hagon can feel some attraction towards Carol, he doesn't want anybody other than his mate, so he leaves the room like nothing happened. Oliver raises his eyebrow and gives his parents a wicked smile, telling her to keep Carol's relationship to Hagon a secret. His mother, Sofia, understands what he's trying to say, even though she doesn't know about Lexie's spell on Hagon yet.

Oliver then asks Stella to show Carol to her room, which is in between Oliver's and Hagon's. After she is settled in comfortably, he explains how Lexie manipulated his mate bond. Still, not everybody is convinced that Rachel is his real mate, so Oliver reminds them that if Lexie were his real mate, then she would have known that he has marked someone else. So why isn't she storming his house right now?

With that explanation, all of his friends and family now understand everything and believe him. Oliver also talks to them about his respect for and protectiveness of Carol. They all affirm that they feel some sort of family bond towards Carol, though they don't know why. Sofia, however, is very much delighted that Carol has walked into her son's life. She knows that Hagon has been suffering and dying inside for many years. If his mate is truly alive, he can be saved, so Sofia will fully support and do whatever can make her son her son again. He has not been acting like the Hagon she raised. He is always sad now, and his eyes don't show any life. He became totally different person 15 years ago after the incident in the forest. He used to laugh all the time and prank others, and his eyes were full of happiness. Now, those eyes are full of sadness. Five years ago, when he felt his mate die, his eyes lost that spark of life.

So now, Sofia will do whatever it takes to get him back. As long as he regains the life in his eyes, whatever she does will be worth the effort.

Oliver continues on to tell his audience about how he plans to fire Lexie and the rest of her family the next day and then send them to the palace dungeon for mistreating people, misusing their powers, and treason since they lied to the royal family for years by Lexie pretending to be Oliver's mate and putting him under a spell. Now that he knows that she and her family are witches and wizards—and black witches and wizards at that—he has to be prepared. The werewolves have a long history of partnering with the white witches to defeat the black witches. The royals usually keep track of all the powerful witches and wizards, one of them being Rachel's grandmother—not that he knows that they're related yet—so learning that there's been such a powerful group of witches and wizards right under all their noses is a bit of a shock.

Stella, her husband Ezra, and his brother Arlo, the third Beta, then join the discussion. Knowing that they need help from other friends, they mind link Jake, the head Gamma, and Albert, the head Delta. Everybody gathers in the living room to devise a plan to defeat Lexie if she causes trouble. Oliver doesn't repeat the information about Carol for now; he just asks Sofia to take care of Carol and asks Stella to take care of Rachel. Then, all the men go to Hagon's room to get his approval on the plan.

"May I come in?" Oliver asks.

"Come in." Hagon grants his permission after some time, which is a surprise. It's very difficult to enter Hagon's room because he doesn't allow people in for no reason. If anyone enters his room without his permission, then he spends the next two days making their lives a living hell. So whoever wants to enter his room must ask for permission before entering—even his parents.

The real reason behind Hagon's dislike of letting people into his room is that because he is King, he doesn't want anyone to see him in a weak state. Whenever he thinks about his mate, he starts crying, and sometimes, he'll fall asleep with tears streaming down his face. He doesn't want anybody seeing that, even on accident.

Hagon's room is actually like a small studio apartment with a living room that he uses as his office, a bedroom, and a small kitchen. Other than dinner, he usually eats alone in his room.

When all four men enter, they sit in his office, and Oliver wastes no time telling Hagon about everything that happened over the past few days. Hagon clenches his fist when he hears about how Carol was overworked by Lexie and fainted, a gesture that only his brother notices. Once Oliver finishes, Hagon sighs and, without asking any questions, demands the removal of the traitor as soon as possible.

The next morning, the whole family gathers in the dining room for breakfast. Rache is still staying in Oliver's room since only ten hours have passed since she was marked, so she has 38 more hours to go before the process is over. Oliver delivers her food and makes sure she eats.

Stella asks Carol to join everybody for breakfast so that they can get to know each other. It's unusual for a human to be sitting among werewolves, but nobody minds because Kings only ever have human mates—they can't avoid it.

It's a blessing as well as a curse.

But something really unusual happens: Hagon joins the family for breakfast. All of them are shocked when they see him enter the room, but Hagon's eyes are focused only on Carol, who is sitting opposite to him and looking uncomfortable. He's trying to see if there's anything fake in her eye,s but they're pure. He can't describe the feeling that is welling up in his chest, but he is fighting it. He has to remind himself that this woman is not his mate—she only shares her name and nothing else. There is a hurricane in his mind; the pull towards her is so strong. He wants to kiss her and hug her tightly, but he cannot cheat on his Carol. She is the only one for him. Even feeling something for this woman in front of him is sinful.

So after staring at Carol for 10 minutes, he goes back to his room without saying anything.

What will happen to the two of them? Will Hagon ever identify his mate? When will that happen?