Page 121 of Rejected By the Alpha King

Maeve shifted and crouched over her witch. “Heal yourself. Your father could do it.”

With a wry laugh, Cam grabbed the older woman’s hand. “How many times do I have to remind you that I am not my father.”

Wolves approached from the tree line. “Get me a healer or a witch. Now,” I roared. They disappeared, and I leaned over Cam. Maeve snarled at me, but I didn’t pay any attention. The wound was deep.

Werewolf claws.

“Who did this to her? One of your wolves attacked her!” Maeve shouted at me.

Ignoring her, I pressed my hand to the wound. “Cam, do you know who attacked you?”

The witch didn’t respond.

A shadow passed over me, and I looked up to see Irene hurrying our way. “What happened?” She asked as she knelt down.

“I don’t know. Where are the other witches?”

“I don’t know. We all needed a break from each other. My cottage was getting tinier by the minute,” Irene muttered as she pushed my hand away and examined the wound. Pressing a hand over it, she closed her eyes. “Hesserati,” she whispered.

At first, nothing happened. Muttering under her breath, she shifted around and took a deep breath. “Hesserati Avit.”

Slowly, the wound started to knit together. Irene shuddered and fell back.

So her magic had returned. When she caught me staring, she immediately averted her eyes.

“She’ll still need to see a healer. I could feel the infection in the wound.”

Rising, I picked her up. “I’ll get her to the infirmary,” I told Maeve. “You can come with me. And you, Irene. I think maybe you should come with me as well.”

“Jax,” she whispered.

“Not now.” My witch had been keeping the truth from me. First Bridget tried to kill my mate. Now my witch, who I’d risked everything to save, was lying to me. I had the most powerful wolves staying in my house. What the hell was I going to do when they started questioning my leadership?

The way things were going, I was going to have to start questioning it myself.

Saul met us halfway to the infirmary with a stretcher, but other than being unconscious, Cam was fine. After examining her, Saul confirmed that she did have a deep infection, but she would be fine after some antibiotics and rest.

Maeve never stopped glaring at me. “So your witch has magic, and you have a wolf attacking witches. Did you lure us all here so you could kill all our witches?”

“This meeting was not my idea, Maeve,” I countered calmly. “And Irene is clearly not at full strength, but I will be having a word with her.”

“If she dies, I blame you,” Maeve hissed.

Things were going so well. I walked out of the infirmary, grabbed Irene by the elbow and maneuvered her out of the infirmary. “Explain,” I hissed. “Now.”

“I am not hiding anything from you, Jax. My magic is returning. Slowly. I’m hardly at full power, and I’m not much use to anyone. I used to be able to do a healing spell in my sleep, and now it practically saps all my energy.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m not hiding anything from you, but we are surrounded by witches and wolves that cannot be trusted. I can’t be taken again, Jax. I won’t be. I have nightmares every night. You cannot imagine the pain and fear involved in stripping a witch of magic.”

Glancing away, she wiped her tears. “I’m sorry that I exposed myself in front of Maeve and that it will fall on you. Cam would have died otherwise.”

I believed her. “Does this mean that your magic will return to full strength?”

“I don’t know. My instinct is to say that if it was going to, it would have done so already.”

“I’m sorry, Irene. I hope you’re wrong. Could you detect any magic in Cam’s wounds?”

Irene turned back to face me. “No. Possible poison, but nothing magical.”

So a wolf. It didn’t necessarily mean that it was one of my werewolves. There were others on this land. Guards attached to each of the alphas.

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