Trouble in paradise

Trouble in paradise
Nyte
I passed Katya and Dasha on my way to the stairs. The two sisters had
earned quite the gathering around them as they yelled back and forth,
including the Alpha Markus.
“What’s going on?” I asked Chase, who leaned against the wall, watching
with minimal interest.
“Your mate and Madilyn had a standoff with the sisters today. From what I
gathered, Paige had made a good point against Katya’s claims of you two
being meant to be and she disrupted your plans as if you're announcing her
as your fate-chosen mate wasn’t point enough. Now Dasha is questioning
her, and poor Katya doesn’t like being questioned when she has no answer.”
I let out a low growl, turning away from the crowd and rushing up the stairs
to check on my mate. I had relented on keeping her cooped up in the room
under the condition that she be with me or Madilyn. That was due to my
impression that the pack would see Madilyn as my ears and eyes, just as she
would have been if we had become the Alpha and Beta. Apparently, Katya
didn’t see it that way.
The door was locked when I reached my room, relief in knowing that Paige
had locked the door after Madilyn left her in the room. I quickly pulled out
my keys, unlocked the door, and walked inside to greet my mate. My steps
froze in place as I saw her. Tears streamed down her cheeks; cards spread
out in front of her. It didn’t take a seer to know what the cards had told her.
As she stared back at me, the look in her eyes told me everything.“You knew,” she accused, sweeping a hand over the cards to collect them
back into a deck. “Don’t try to deny it or act dumb. You knew.”
I didn’t have it in me to deny it. I had been keeping enough from her as it
was. And if she found her cards, it meant that fate had decided for me, just
as they had when she came to me to mark her.
“You weren’t ready to know the truth,” I said, pulling the sweaty shirt over
my head and tossing it to the laundry basket.
“I wasn’t ready. Really? That’s what you’re going with here? Who the hell
are you to decide what I can and cannot handle?” She stormed up to me,
bumping her chest against mine. “And when exactly were you planning to
tell me that I’m pregnant? When was I suddenly gaining weight for no
apparent reason?”
“I honestly figured you would want to find that out for yourself. You’re still
early. I assumed you would notice other changes to your body before I ever
had to tell you anything.”
“Oh, you mean like a missed period? I have PCOS. I don’t always get a
period. I can go without one for months at a time. So, would you have told
me if I had gone over a month without noticing anything? Or would you
just assume I was hiding it from you like you’ve been hiding it from me?”
I was taken aback by her accusation. I had no idea about her condition. I
hadn’t smelled anything on her before.
“I wouldn’t have let you go too long without seeing a midwife,” I argued
back, certain that I wouldn’t have allowed that. I would have wanted her to
get prenatal care sooner rather than later.
“Oh, so I’m supposed to believe you now, even though you have kept this a
secret from me for this long.” She held up her cards, her eyes narrowing atme in a challenge. “And how exactly did my cards end up in that cubby
behind the wall? You told me you didn’t know where they were.”
She pulled out a card, looking at it before scowling at me. “See this?” She
showed the card with The Magician written across the top. A man holding
up a wand glared back at me. “This says that you plotted behind my back to
get whatever outcome you wanted. This tells me that you took my cards,
hid them, and then lied to my face.”
More tears filled her eyes, her lip quivering in anger as she glared back at
me. “You took a piece of me. All so you could keep me from knowing
about our bond. Why? Were you hoping I actually found a way to break it?
What else have you lied to me about, Nyte? Do you even love me? Have
you ever wanted me as your mate?”
I grabbed her shoulders, pulling her against my chest, my hands pressing
her head into my shoulder as she wept. “I never lied about how I felt, Paige.
You have to believe me.”
She shoved me back, eyes narrowed. “I can’t. I can’t believe anything from
you because you haven’t been honest with me from the very beginning!
You could have told me that day on my front porch that it was you in my
vision and the psycho on the beach was just that, a psycho. I had nothing to
fear when it came to whom the fates chose for me. Instead, you pretended
to be my fake mate while you actually were!”
She ran her hand over her neck where my mark had been made. “You
marked me, telling me that it could be undone. But it can’t when the mark is
between true fate-chosen bonds. You didn’t even give me the chance to
accept you.”
“How was I supposed to give you that opportunity? You mentioned finding
some spell or potion to break your bond!”From him!” she screamed at me. “Not you! I wanted to break my ties with
the man I thought was my mate. I came to you because I trusted you.” She
took a step back, shaking her head. “How can I trust you now?”
A sharp knock came at the door just as I approached her, Jose’s voice
thundering through the wood. “Alpha’s office! Now!”
I growled at the command. The timing couldn’t have been worse; I knew
that Beta Jose coming directly to me meant trouble. The trouble that I
couldn’t turn away from, even to console my shattered mate.
“I’ll be right there,” I called back, pulling a clean shirt from my drawer and
looking at Paige, her eyes piercing mine with daggers. “I’ll be back. Wait
here.”
She scoffed, turning away and walking into the bathroom, the door
slamming behind her. I sighed, leaving the room and walking toward Alpha
Alexander’s office. As soon as I entered the room, I noted two new Alphas
in attendance.
“Nyte, may I introduce Alpha Orion and his daughter, Liberty,” Alexander
nodded at the two Alphas.
I took in the older Alpha, recognizing his name before his face. It was hard
not to know the wolf's name with witches fully integrated into his pack,
thanks to his mateship with their city’s High Witch. I just never expected to
meet him or his daughter, for that matter. The young hybrid was barely
eighteen years old; it was said that she would be taking over the pack from
her father soon.
She smiled back at me, standing as she extended her hand in greeting. “I
would like to say it’s a pleasure to meet you, Nyte. However, under these
circumstances, I think it might be slightly inappropriate.I shook her hand, noting the combination of her features. Her dark hair
matched that of her father’s, but the sparkling green of her eyes held magic
and no doubt came from her mother. “I assume your pack has been
experiencing the same phenomenon as we have if you have come all this
way.”
“Not exactly,” Orion said, gesturing for his daughter to return to her seat.
“Our city is easily locked down. However, there have been attempts.
Thankfully, those attempts have been thwarted with witches at every corner
of the city.”
Alpha Markus scoffed, earning a glare from the older and more powerful
Alpha and his daughter.
“Do you know who is behind it then?” I asked, eager to end this nightmare
once and for all, hoping to save the missing werewolves.
“Yes and no,” Liberty replied. “We have caught a few vampires. However,
there are spells upon spells placed on them. Each time we attempted to
question them, they’d bite off their tongue or burst into flame before our
eyes. I can barely find a trace of the power used. It’s dark though. Very
dark.”
Orion looked at me, tapping his chin with his finger as his eyes gazed
behind me and then at my face. “I understand that you have a witch-mate,”
he stated. “And I hear she has a powerful tracker bloodline and
premonitions.”
My back stiffened, recognizing the same request that Rome had tried over
the phone. Why couldn’t these men, whose mates were also witches, not
understand that she owed the pack nothing? They didn’t trust her, so why
should she help us?
“Why should that matter?” I asked.Orion chuckled. “You can’t protect her from what she is. What she is, is the
best chance you may have to stop this. It is witches who protect my pack
from this outside force. A witch may need to save you and your missing
packs.”
Orion nodded to Liberty, the two standing again. The young hybrid smiled
at me before her gaze turned to Madilyn. “I will see you in a few weeks
then, Madilyn. We are looking forward to your visit.” I watched my wouldbe Beta smile, nodding to the alphas.
“Thank you, I look forward to it as well. It will be interesting seeing how
your pack works,” Madilyn replied, bowing her head respectfully.
Liberty turned back to me, a soft smile touching her lips. She stepped
closer, lowering her voice low enough that even the sharp senses of the
wolves in the room couldn’t catch every word. “I have the power of
premonition as well. You have to trust your mate; if you don’t, then you
both will lose the fates’ favor.”
With that, they departed, leaving the rest of us to contemplate the new
information they left with us.
“Bah,” Markus scoffed loudly. “They are just trying to spread that witch
wolf integration bullshit they feed their pack. Just because they haven’t lost
any wolves yet it doesn’t mean they won’t. Witches are only out for
themselves. As soon as it gets too much, they will leave that city, and Orion
and his half-breed daughter will come to us for help.”
“Watch your tongue,” I growled, narrowing my eyes at the visiting alpha.
Markus grimaced at me, his Beta growling low. “That’s right,” he chuckled
darkly. “Your little witch bitch is probably already planning her exit. No
doubt she caught wind of the danger the packs are under, and she’s ready tohightail it out of here. Mark my words, you will be mate-less before your
pack is taken out.”
I jumped to my feet, his Beta jumping in front of him, our noses pressed
together as we growled. “You don’t know shit about witches,” I snarled,
shoving his beta to the side to look my actual opponent in his eyes. “You’re
ignorant words show that. Covens are as sacred to witches as packs are to
werewolves. They’re family.”
“So, you think your little witch feels that your pack is her coven?” He let
out a booming laugh. “I’ve seen how this pack treats her. There is no way in
hell she has loyalty to any of you.”
I felt my claws extending, the desire to punish Markus for his disrespect of
my mate and her kind. I was just about to make my move when Alexander’s
voice boomed out around the room.
“Nyte! Madilyn! Stand down!”
I jerked my head around, finding that Madilyn had taken the Beta I had
shoved away to the ground, holding him in place with a chokehold. The
lesser Beta had begun to turn blue as she held him, gasping for air when she
released him at our Alpha’s command.
With a crack of her neck and knuckles, she stepped away from her fallen
opponent, obeying Alpha Alexander and placing herself between me and
the other Beta as he slowly rose back to his feet.
“Nyte, I understand the desire to protect your mate, but I’ve told you before
that we can’t afford this internal bickering. Not when any of our packs
could be the next.” Alexander scrubbed his hand down his face, Beta Jose
growling low at us. “We can now confirm that a vampire and a witch are
doing this. And the fact that they attempted to take Orion’s pack means they
have the confidence to go for larger packs. Orion’s pack is twice our size,and since they couldn’t take that pack, they will be coming for any of us
now. We pose less resistance than a pack protected by an entire coven of
witches.”
“Maybe we should enlist witches then,” Madilyn spoke up.
“Over my dead body,” Jose growled.
“It just might be,” Madilyn countered with a huff. “You are so blinded by a
history that has long been in the past. Witches are not our enemy. Not all of
them, anyway, and certainly not Paige or her family. They have done
nothing to our kind except accept Nyte into their home and family. They
were praising the couple even! Yet we stand divided. You even voted to
remove Nyte as the future Alpha over his connection to a witch, despite him
being one of the most powerful werewolves within the last century.”
She looked around the room, scoffing before turning away and heading to
the door. “People love to say that love is blind, but I’m finding that hate is
the blind emotion. Love sees too much beauty in those different to us to be
truly blind.”
She left the room, her words ringing in the silence of the office. Not even
Markus spoke up; his brows furrowed in deep thought. I looked back at
Alexander and Jose; they exchanged glances equally thoughtful in their
silence. I said nothing, turning and following Madilyn out of the office. As I
approached my room, I stilled; the door was left ajar, and a lack of scent
sent alarm bells through my head.
Shit.