Page 23 of Pitch a Witch
The jerk winked!
15
“Why do I get the feeling that this is becoming a habit?” Alex grumbled, scrutinizing me through his barely opened eyelids the next morning.
A mammoth-sized coffee mug was cradled in his large hand with steam curling over it and “Mine is bigger than yours” written in black print—a gift from Stella, I was sure. His wavy hair was mussed from sleep, and his white t-shirt was inside-out, the thread particularly visible on his broad shoulders. I was not a morning person either, so I understood his grumpiness, especially when the sun was blinding us through the large, open windows of his office.
“Because you secretly like it when I annoy you, but you don’t want anyone to know?” Snorting at his scrunched-up face, I raised my own mug and sucked on the black coffee like a baby goat on a tit. “Yum, I think I’ll ask for a portable IV with the stuff.”
“I hear you, kid.” Sipping on his own poison, he hummed his approval. “If this has anything to do with cars, clothing, or the like, I’d advise you to rethink your life choices. I’m tired and preoccupied with things like safety. No time for games right now.”
“No.” Chuckling at his narrowed, mismatched gaze, I leaned back in the overstuffed chair I sat in. “We were all tired last night, and I needed to process things before I said anything.” Buying time by sipping coffee, I watched alertness tighten his features over the rim of my mug. His ebony skin had lost its usual healthy glow, and guilt drilled a hole inside me.
The Alpha looked as tired as I felt.
“I want to apologize for being selfish and only thinking of myself yesterday while you are doing more than you should so I can keep breathing. It’s not enough, and I’ll keep saying it until it feels like it is, okay?” Alex nodded guardedly at my heavy sigh. “Sissily is the only person that has been there for me through thick and thin, and I couldn’t sleep in peace until I saw her and assured myself that I didn’t lose my best friend. My only friend, I should say.”
He mimicked my grimace. “I’d like to think you have more than one friend, Hazel.” Leaning forward on his desk, he placed the huge mug between both palms and eyed me much too acutely for my liking. “From experience, I know that when standing in the middle of a storm, it’s difficult to see the shelter, even when it is right there in front of your nose. I’m not happy that you are going through this … let us call it a journey for the lack of a better word, since I don’t want to look at it as a negative outcome.”
“We can agree to disagree on this,” I huffed under my breath but didn’t interrupt him further.
“As leaders, we all face trying times when we must make difficult choices that may or may not make sense to anyone else. I, by no means, make any excuses for what your grandmother did, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t understand it. Some situations require a sacrifice, and I think this was such an occurrence. If you look around you, you’ll see that you are better off because of it.”
“How do you figure that?” Incredulity rang loud and clear in my tone, but I didn’t dial it back.
“Do you remember what I said last night when you asked me if I wanted you back here?” One green and one blue eye with a soft glow searched my face with laser focus. It was unnerving.
“I’m pack.” My throat was tight, but I pushed the words out somehow.
“The last person who wasn’t a shifter but was considered pack came three hundred years ago.” He let that linger for a while so the meaning could fully settle. “Danika’s meddling had nothing to do with that. That was all you. So, I’d say you have more than one friend.”
“Thank you, and I know that. Well, I know that now because it takes me time to deal with my trust issues,” I told him sincerely. “But that’s not what I meant with what I said. I just feel like an ass for causing so many problems because I couldn’t do what I was told.” Danika’s words were riding my ass hard ever since she said them.
“I do hope you know, Hazel. We generally don’t welcome outsiders into our fold if we don’t trust them with our lives. With the lives of our young.” Satisfied, he went back to sipping his coffee.
My sweaty hands made my mug slippery, so I placed it gently on his desk and folded them in my lap where he couldn’t see them trembling. His last words spiked my anxiety, but I had to be honest with him for my own sanity. There may not be redemption for my soul, but that didn’t mean I had to pile more sins on it.
“I had the opportunity to corner Danika for some answers.” Fleetingly, my gaze dropped to the blinking sigils under my skin, the ones the Alpha couldn’t see from the glamour. “She explained why our magic was different”—The next part got stuck in my throat, but I forced it out—“and why I’m different.”
“Why do you look like you are going to be sick? This is a good thing, no?” Alex sat the huge mug on the desk with a harsh thump and raised from his chair as if he was ready to jump and catch me if I toppled over. “Is this something to do with the symbols on your skin?”
“What?” I gaped at him dumbly as his forehead puckered in confusion. “You can see them?” How was this possible? Apart from Sissily, River, and Danika, nobody else should’ve been able to see them.
But Alex was nodding cautiously. “Judging by your expression, I shouldn’t be seeing them?”
“Glamour was placed over them when the book unlocked my magic.” The deeper the line between his eyebrows grew, the more panic clawed at me.
“They appeared the evening of the pack gathering two nights ago. We knew you would eventually tell us what it meant and didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“We?”
“Amber and me.” Alex cocked his head in a very animal-like manner, his mismatched gaze now curiously expecting my arms.
“I wonder what that means.” Thinking back, I had a feeling the glamour held since Shadowblood didn’t pull out pitchforks and such, but if the Alpha couple could see them then …
Then what? I had no idea, and I was getting sidetracked.
“You mentioned trust, Alex.” Steeling my spine, I straightened in the comfy chair. “I’d like to return the favor because I believe you have every right to know the truth, despite what Danika thinks.”
