Page 27 of Luna Ascending

I watch my hands silently clench and unclench as my world bends sideways. I assumed as alpha-heir I knew our pack secrets, fuck me was I wrong.

Listening to my father speak, my hackles rise of their own accord. He was berating me for lying by omission … but this, this is a web of lies any arachnid would be fucking proud of. The bloody kappa Rennard knows more about MY pack than I do – and he's enjoying seeing my reaction. I won't give him the satisfaction of my wrath.

My father brusquely asks if I remember when, as pups growing up, he'd tried to insist that Tavey was not suitable beta material.

It would be impossible not to remember. It was the worst summer of my teenage years– an entire season of argument. He was far more fierce back then. However, I've always been more stubborn, and eventually he'd given up. I'd still caught him out at odd moments watching Tavey hawk-eyed, with a look of consternation playing over his face. It always puzzled me – Tavey is one hundred percent beta material.

My wolf is restless, pacing around my head, wondering how this is relevant, and I agree with him. What the hell can that have to with anything now?

“Tavey is...different” Connell pauses, glancing at his beta before quickly adding “no less one of us, no less deserving, but” he concedes “it took me some time to come to that conclusion”.

I look between the two greying men perturbed, clenching my jaw at the insult to my friend. We may not be seeing eye to eye right now, but Tavey is still my beta. My father continues quickly, his words flowing around each other in my head.

“Tavey is part shifter, part witch. Part morigan witch to be precise. Do you remember your schooling Aaron?” He asks sharply “What is a morigan?”

Feeling like a child, and just as bewildered, I bluster “Of course I know… a ...shape shifting witch...?”

From his grimly pleased expression I know I'm correct. So that's it. My beta, my best friend, is a witch hybrid?! And my own father knew all this time? Hypocritical arse – shouting me down for 'lying by omission'. What utter bullshit.

My brain skips to another track entirely. Witches, in the eyes of the council, can't be seen as all bad if they've kept him here, and hidden him.

Perhaps I've misinterpreted the animosity all this time, perhaps it's aimed at the Coven and how it's run rather than witches themselves. My wolf wags his tail as a stray thought springs to mind, perhaps one might even be accepted as a mate.

I look sharply at Angus, my father's beta and Tavey's dad. Angus glares stonily at the floor before starting his story. Seeming very uncomfortable, he condenses his history into a few monotone sentences.

“I found my fated-mate Aaron”, he sighs “she was in wolf form when I met her. Although I knew instantly she wasn't wolf-shifter, it didn't matter – she was mine. She was a morigan witch who loved to take the form of a wolf. ”

I snort at the idea of fated-mates but my father's glare silences me.

“She was everything I could want” Angus says quietly “but although she could become a wolf she wasn't one, and back then... our society was very different, far less tolerant.”

“I made him choose” my father blurts out, his guilt still haunting him years later “pack or fated-mate. Our pack wouldn't have stayed together if its beta took a witch as a mate. So Angus chose, and... I don't blame him. I shouldn't have forced that choice.”

I recall a vague rumour that, years ago, the beta had gone rogue for a while. I'd never considered asking why. I knew that Tavey's mum had died. Why the hell had I never asked more about her? I'm supposed to be Tavey's friend, but I was never interested enough to find out.

Angus ploughs on, with great sadness in his voice, to explain his love for Tavey's mum had lasted a year, and in that time she became pregnant with twins. Like any expectant father he'd been terrified and delighted all at once. In retrospect, he hadn't been scared of the right things. He didn't know enough to know that 'hybrids' were both a threat and a highly sought after prize.

His son, Tavey, was born after a very prolonged labour, and he was worried neither his wife nor the second twin would make it. With his wife in agony the next room, he tried again and again to get the midwife on the phone, while cradling his new son, and heating more water. He finally heard the sound of a baby cry through the wall and his wife shouted 'it's a girl!'

Angus stops, unable to finish his story.

My dad grips his beta's arm and takes over for him.

“Angus never met his daughter. The whole family was attacked by the Coven moments after the girl was born. We're not sure if they intended a kidnapping and it went wrong, or if their intent was to kill the whole family. As it was, there was a massive blast and Angus, holding the boy, was blown clear of the house. The other two, died.”

Angus blanches “I was so crazed with grief, I was convinced they were still alive,” he says “convinced I could still feel them, that I'd know if they were dead. I ran back to the pack. I needed help to find my wife and my daughter then... within a few days, I... I guess the shock wore off, and I couldn't feel them any more. They were gone.”

My father takes over again, giving Angus time to regain some composure. He explains that the pack's council did some digging and realised that hybrid babies were a 'commodity' – he spits the word – to some and a threat to others. Although at the time a witch-shifter mating was depraved in the eyes of the Coven, the council suspected that the Coven attacked the couple because of their offspring rather than the match itself.

The council swore then to protect Angus and the surviving baby. To do so, they agreed to keep his nature hidden. Tavey himself was only told when his witching powers started to come in as a teenager, and the council needed to ensure he was trained to control his 'extra' skill-set.

My wolf's hyper, but I have to think clearly here. Just because wolf-witch matings are a 'thing' they have no bloody bearing on my situation. Freya betrayed me, and that should be the end to it. My frustration builds as I struggle to get a handle on my own emotions. I'm a fucking alpha, I should have more control than this.

After the revelations I have to get out of the pack house for a bit – I won't let Rennard see how conflicted I am about all this.

At least Tavey and I can build some bridges, now I understand his position. It's slow, and difficult. The council might have sworn him to secrecy, but he's my beta for goddess' sake - he should have bloody told me. My gut says our bond has been rattled, but it's not broken. Every day that we spend sparring and chatting, I can feel it mending, refashioning, growing.

As part of reforming our bond Tavey gives me a 101 of his witch-craft - his skills are astounding, and terrifying. He's blatantly worried I'll be disgusted by him, that I'll see him as different, no longer my friend and pack.

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