Page 47 of Betrayed Alpha Bride

An icy hand grips my heart as I finally realize I’m too late. My questions will never be answered.

The old woman glares right at Galen as if he’s incredibly stupid and she wants to smack the words right into his head.

“In case ya aren’t getting my meaning, son, I’ll state it plain. Lily Clarke ain’t here, boy. She’s dead.”

Chapter 14 - Galen

The sun is well behind the horizon when we arrive at the cemetery, with only a low violet light across the mountains as the stars begin to flicker to life across the sky. A cold wind whips up and whirls towards us as we head through the huge wrought-iron gates, almost as if it’s trying to stop us.

Clara walks ahead of me, her purposeful stride pushing through the long grass and weeds that threaten to overtake the path. It’s obvious that in this town, no one tends to the dead.

We turn down a narrow path to the south end, where the old woman told us to go. A shimmer of white glows in the darkness, and I see a tall woman standing over a grave with her face turned down. For a brief moment, I wonder if I’m seeing ghosts, but then I catch her scent.

Definitely real… and definitely related to Clara.

As we approach, the woman doesn’t look up, and we stop awkwardly beside her. I turn to look at the headstone and see the name we came to find.

“Lily Clarke, beloved sister, blood of the earth, servant of the light”

I have no idea what the words mean, and I can tell from Clara’s expression she feels the same. We stand next to the woman for a few minutes, until the silence stretches beyond awkward and becomes creepy.

“You came,” the woman says with such finality, it’s as if she’s handing down a death sentence. “She said you never would. That you were cursed, like her.”

Clara inhales sharply, her face going white with fear. I stand in front of her and square up to the woman, daring her to face me.

“Faye?” I ask in a commanding tone. “Are you Faye Clarke?”

“I am,” she answers, finally turning around and pulling the hood down to her shoulders. I’m shocked by her pale, gold eyes that shimmer even in the dark.

So much like Clara’s… but slightly yellow, as if the softness in her is tainted with cruelty.

She smiles as if she just heard my thoughts and looks over my shoulder at Clara.

“Maybe she’s been in the ground long enough that the breach between you broke,” Faye says. “She said you’d never be close to anyone… especially her.”

Clara chokes out a small sound like a sob. My protective instincts kick in, making me take a menacing step forward.

“You sound like you know an awful lot about my wife,” I growl. “Do you care to share it with us, or should I take her away from here right now?”

She cackles, the sound getting tangled in the wind until it sounds like all the gravestones are laughing. I suddenly realize Faye could be completely out of her mind, and therefore useless to us.

“Oh, calm yourself, you big scary wolf,” she says in a singsong tone, as if she’s talking to a puppy. “No harm will come to her from my hand, but I can’t promise my words won’t cut.”

“Tell me!” Clara demands, pushing past me. “Tell me what happened to her!”

Faye sighs, the sound blending with the wind. I get an eerie feeling again, and if I couldn’t hear the woman’s heartbeat and smell her blood, I’d be sure she was an apparition.

“Dane came through here when Lily was so young. She enchanted him, and they shared a wild kind of love. He begged her to return with him, but she wouldn’t leave the coven. It broke her heart, you see. She was never the same after that.”

I feel Clara tense up beside me at the mention of her father, but she doesn’t speak. When she fumbles for my hand, I wrap my fingers around hers and squeeze gently, hoping to give her strength.

“The coven wanted her to have the baby here, to make the baby a witch. Already, we could tell she was no shifter. But Lily was afraid—afraid of the loneliness in her own soul. Whether she meant it or not, I don’t know, but she begged the gods to make her daughter normal and spare her the curse of becoming an outcast. She was hated here in this town for her powers and her beauty, with only the coven to love her and accept her as she was.”

Clara squeezes my hand hard, and I know these words are wounding her just as Faye warned.

“She birthed you in secret, so the coven could not take you, and went out to find your father. She left you with him and came back to her people, but they were all fashioned of the same ilk as her. I didn’t know it, but they had all pledged to die, and they went through with it not long after Lily returned.”

“Jesus Christ!” I sputter, mortified. For the first time in my life, my words aren’t in vain. I’m invoking him in prayer.

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