Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“How?” I asked.
“Magic, of course. A simple summoning spell that I reserve for special cases,” Tabby grinned, eyeing Kai, who grinned back at her.
I shook my head, not sure how to begin to process that but winced when it made my skull ache. But I didn’t bother questioning it anymore.
Tabitha had her own system or magic thing she had going on, and it wasn’t something I felt like she was going to explain to me anytime soon.
I was too human.
My head throbbed again to remind me of that fact, and I grimaced.
Kai reached over his shoulder and held my hand.
“Braxton. I do believe it will be easier to hear and more polite if you were to bring your presence inside,” Tabitha said in between sips.
The door opened and Brax came in with a thunderous glare in her direction. He slammed it shut, then leaned up against the wall.
“Can you fix her?” Brax asked, not even trying to contain the hostility in his voice.
Tabitha smiled anyway and shook her head no. Even my shoulders sagged in defeat at that.
“No,” she said, taking a sip of her tea. “But you can.”
“How?” Kai demanded.
“Patience, sweetness.” She smiled.
I was really going to have to get her to teach me how she deactivated Kai’s crazy so quickly.
Kai leaned back and waited as Tabitha got up. She moved to her cabinets that were covered in crystals and potions, herbs and spices, plants and candles.
As she began mixing, putting everything in a wooden cup, I watched in fascination, listening as she hummed.
“The thing is, what has happened has never actually happened before. I wasn’t even sure it could happen. I had my suspicions, but they were not founded until now.”
She smiled, still adding and mixing as Cain waited in the kitchen in all his black clothes and piercings, watching every move like a hawk.
Brax got crankier at that, while Kai looked on hopefully. Derik clutched his cup in a tight hold.
“You knew she would get sick?” Brax growled, but Tabitha shook her head.
“Not sick. I wondered if she might get weaker.”
“Does it have anything to do with the shadows? Elias’s ones inside her?” Derik asked, and I waited for the “Yes, she’s going to die” comment, but it never came.
Instead, she turned to us all, a smile wide on her face, her eyes glistening as she looked at each of us, then landed her gaze on me.
“No. Those shadows are helping her. I daresay she’d be much sicker than she is now if she didn’t have those helping to keep up her strength.”
“Why? What’s wrong with me?” I asked, sick of her not giving a straight answer.
Especially when she clearly knew.
But Tabitha just smiled. “Nothing is wrong with you, deary. We just have to–“
“Tabby. Give us the answer we came for. Please,” Kai asked in a tone that I had only heard in the last few days. The desperate one, the pleading one.
It broke my heart and had Tabitha turning to us all with a hesitant look before she sighed and handed over the concoction in the cup to Cain.
He whispered some words on it before handing it back. She took it and put it down in front of me.
It was purple, waves of aroma wafting out, but it had my mouth salivating. My headache lessened just at the smell of it, and I looked back up at Tabby, who nodded with a soft smile.
I grabbed the cup and sipped it, surprised at how warm it was. It tasted amazing, like a vanilla smoothie, and softened all the aches and pains, leaving nothing but a homey, cozy feeling inside me.
Kai turned to face me, waiting. Brax looked ready to kill Tabitha the instant I showed any sign of a bad reaction, and Derik just sat there, silent and tense.
But I felt better. I still had the weakness there, but it wasn’t accompanied by pain for the first time in days.
“I feel better. Thank you,” I said, sipping more of the potion, whatever it was.
“As I suspected then. You’ll need to drink that every day to stay on top of the pain.”
She nodded toward the drink, then turned to put more of the same ingredients in a large jar.
“Cain will come and spell the ingredients for you,” she said, and I frowned.
“Every day for the rest of my life? Why? What is it fixing?” I asked, putting the empty cup back on the table with Kai’s help.
I sat up, propped on the arm and cushions. Tabitha paused her actions, then turned to me. She smiled and came over, grabbing my hand. I let her, and she held it tight.
Kai shuffled out of the way so she could sit on the sofa next to me, perched on the edge, her long, loose patterned dress flowing over our hands.
“Is your link open?” she asked. “Stronger now?”
I checked the link with my wolves, grinning as their thoughts and emotions filled me. I nodded. “Yes.”
“Then close your eyes. I will show all of you what I see,” she said, and Brax growled.
I looked over at him. “Please, Brax?” I asked, and he pursed his lips but nodded once, coming to stand behind the sofa, as close as he could get.
I knew through the link that it was a protection detail. Derik shuffled closer, his hand on my leg, as Kai grabbed my other hand.
“Okay.” I nodded, and she grinned before my eyes closed with hers.
And I saw it. The vision she saw. It was everywhere, so many pictures, so many possible futures spinning through my mind so fast, until a single thread stood out.
A baby.
A tiny, formed human child rolling inside what looked like a womb, floating, but it was staring at me, like it knew I was watching it.
I gasped and snatched my hand back, my eyes snapping open, my gaze clashing with Tabitha’s.
49. The Answers
“That’s impossible. I can’t be pregnant. I’m not a werewolf.”
“You have been unfaithful?” Derik frowned, and I glared at him.
“You can shove that question up your ass. You know that I haven’t been,” I snapped, then turned to Tabby again.
“It was a possible outcome of the link. One I saw but didn’t believe,” she explained.
“And you didn’t think I should know that before giving me the link?” I asked, tears springing to my eyes.
I wanted to have their baby more than anything. I wanted to give them that, but Kai was branded. He was going to be mated with someone else.
What could that mean for us and a child? It would be heartache after heartache, and I wasn’t ready for that yet.
“I’m not mating,” Kai breathed, looking at me, tilting my chin to him. “You hold our baby inside you, Little Human. I will not leave your side, mate or not,” he vowed, and the tears fell.
He kissed my lips softly and I pulled away, turning to Tabitha for more answers.
“The link is a mating brand. One that can be just as powerful as a true mating depending on who has it. It was shown to me that a child could be born from such a strong connection.
“I was under the impression having an alpha’s child wouldn’t be as upsetting for you,” Tabitha said, then moved away to continue making her potion brew.
I shook my head and wiped my tears away, turning to Derik, who was frowning, looking down. Brax was staring at me, his eyes on my stomach.
I turned to Tabitha. “And carrying a werewolf made me sick?” I asked, needing to straighten out my thoughts.
“Oh, yes. You are human; your body is not made to carry werewolf magic inside you. If you weren’t winter born, you’d be dead. However, your shadows and Elias’s have kept you alive. Unfortunately it won’t be enough, even with this potion. That is where the wolves will need to help,” she explained, and handed the jar to Derik, who took it robotically.
“How can we help?” he asked, his voice quiet.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?