Alpha King Rejected Mate

2

She touched her throat as if alarmed. "That has happened before?"

"More than I care to admit." I glanced outside as lightning flashed across the beach. "Where are we?"

“This is my house," Celeste said. "I promise you'll be safe here. You're my guest, not a prisoner."

"That doesn't answer the question."

Celeste tilted her head and gazed out the windows. “It's a tricky question to answer. This area is called Lunatera. The Moon Witches have been hiding here for decades to escape the attention of the Sun Witches.”

“But where?” I pressed, growing impatient and annoyed. "Back in Oregon it was still daytime, but here it's night. It was a new moon there, but somehow the moon is full now. That should be impossible."

Celeste's eyes rested upon me again, and she still wore that little smile. I couldn't tell if it was kind, or sad, or pitying. "The moon is full because we're in an alternate realm ruled by the moon goddess, Selene. Here time stands still and it is always night."

I swallowed the cocoa I'd been sipping, nearly choking on it. "I'm sorry, what? An alternate realm?"

"Yes, this place does not exist in your world. Only those blessed by Selene can journey here, which is how we've stayed hidden and safe all this time. The Sun Witches cannot find this place, and they have no power in this realm.”

I shook my head, finding all of this hard to accept, though it did explain why no one knew how to contact them. "How do I get back to Kaden and my pack?”

Celeste laced together her hands and rested them on the table. “Time moves differently here. Unlike on Earth, it does not march forward in a straight line, so we can return you to the moment when we took you. Once you're ready, that is."

"Ready?" I let out a small huff. "What does that mean? Why can't we go back now?"

Celeste began shaking her head before I even finished the sentence. “If we send you back now, you will be taken by the Sun Witches, and your cause will be lost. You're not powerful enough to fight them yet, but we will train you to use your magic properly so you can stand a chance against them.”

The tiny bit of hope she gave me stole my breath away. “And Kaden? Will I be able to save him too?”

Sadness made Celeste's eyes crinkle, and her smile faded away. “I don't know for sure, but yes, there is a small chance you can save Kaden as well.”

I didn't listen to the word ‘small.' All I heard was yes. There was a way to save Kaden, a chance he wasn't dead. That was all I cared about. I closed my eyes and breathed in the warm smell of chocolate, focusing on that flickering hope inside me. I'd wanted so long to learn how to use my magic, and now I would do it for Kaden, no matter what it took. But that thought only brought more questions.

"Why me?" I asked. "Why not one of the other Ophiuchus? Or Kaden? I'm pretty sure they all have more magic than I do."

Celeste straightened her back as if bracing herself for something. “You're my daughter, Ayla.”

My mouth fell open as the mug slipped from my fingers and clattered against the table, sloshing cocoa from the rim. I barely noticed, too busy scanning Celeste up and down with wide eyes, trying to understand what she'd just said. This is my mother? Somehow I found it harder to believe than the idea we were in a magical moon realm. My hands shook so bad I had to clutch them tight in my lap to make them stop. Mother. After all these years, she was sitting in front of me, and she was nothing like I'd expected.

“But—” I wanted to say a hundred things, but what came out was, “but your hair is white!”

Celeste let out a laugh that seemed almost startled out of her. “Yes, it is. Your hair should be white too, but when you were a baby I used a spell to change it to hide you better. No one would ever look twice at a red-haired little girl and think she had Moon Witch blood.”

My hand jerked up to touch my hair. I'd always thought I'd inherited my red hair from my mother, but that was another lie. The thought sent a wave of crushing despair through me.

“I can change it back for you, if you'd like,” Celeste said.

"No," I said with perhaps a bit too much venom. I tucked my hair behind my ear, almost protectively. Even if it was fake, it was a part of my identity now, something I'd lived with my entire life.

How much of my identity is built on a lie?

“Of course," she said quickly. "It does look lovely on you, especially with your eyes. You've turned into such a beautiful girl. Sorry, beautiful woman." She reached across the table as if to take my hand. "I'm just so happy we are together again. You have no idea how much I have longed for this day.”

I jerked away, sudden anger piercing through the shock, sadness, and despair. “If that's true, where have you been my entire life? You abandoned me with a pack that hated me! Where no one wanted me, not even my own father! Do you know what I've had to endure all these years?”

Celeste drew back, and a flash of remorse went through her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Ayla. For everything."

"How?" Tears began to stream down my face. It was all too much. Kaden. My mother. This weird place. I covered my eyes as my whole body trembled with the grief and pain. "How could you leave me?"

I felt Celeste's hand on my back, light and tentative, as if she was unsure if she was allowed to touch me. "It was the hardest decision I had to make," she said, her voice cracking. "I'll explain everything to you, I promise, but right now you need to rest. You've been through so much in the last twenty-four hours, and I don't want to burden you with anything more until you've had a chance to recover."