Page 105 of Challenged Mate
“Who are you?”
“Hugh.” The man took one step closer. “Hugh Graystone.”
I took an equal step back. “You’re the leader of the Graystone Coven.”
His head tilted to the side. “You’ve heard of me. I’m surprised.”
“Why?”
“It was my understanding you only recently learned of your mother’s heritage.”
“And?”
He tucked his hands into his front pockets. “And most shifters aren’t so familiar with coven politics to know me by name.”
His relaxed stance didn’t lower my guard.
“Well, maybe you don’t give us enough credit.” I thought of the countless tomes on covens filling the Wilds Pack’s bookstore. “Besides, your last name is the exact same as the covens. So… it wasn’t much of a stretch to guess you were their leader.”
He threw his head back and roared at the dark above. His laugh grated my wolf. Her hackles raised. She knew, as did I, that there was somethingwrongwith this man.
“You are a delight.” Hugh’s head lowered. His eyes gleamed. “Again, let me say how remarkable you are.”
“You don’t know me,” I snapped. “How about you stop with the unwanted compliments and tell me what I’m doing here. Is this a dream?”
“It’s not a dream, nor is it reality. Think of it as a holding space of consciousness. My magic called to yours, drawing you here.”
“Why?”
“Because we needed to speak.”
“About what?”
His eyes narrowed—the first sign of the temper within. “You know what.”
I willed my face not to betray my discomfort. “My mother’s power.”
He nodded once. “Among other things.”
I pressed my lips together, unwilling to be the first to address the “other things”. If there was any chance he didn’t know about the supposed mark that had transferred to me at birth, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him.
Hugh didn’t need me to continue the conversation. “The Moonstone is a precious object. It is worshipped by our people. Return it, and no sorcerer or sorceress will bother you or your fellow shifters ever again.”
“The Moonstone?”
Hugh’s brows turned down. He searched my face. Then, with a disbelieving chuckle, he said, “No one explained how your mother’s power became your own, did they?”
His derisive amusement chaffed. But, again, I opted not to risk sharing more information than necessary. “As you pointed out earlier, I’m surrounded by shifters. Assume I don’t know what you’re talking about and just get to the point.”
With a smirk, he obliged. “The Moonstone is a well of power. It’s an ancient stone, handed down from Mother Goddess to Mother Goddess throughout the centuries. Not only is the Mother Goddess naturally gifted with immense power, but her ability to wield the Moonstone makes her the most powerful sorceress alive.
He continued, “When your mother returned to the Graystone Coven, after yourbirth, she wasn’t the same. My father foolishly assumed she simply mourned your father. He didn’t know about you. And he didn’t know what your mother had lost when you were born. It wasn’t until your mother died that he realized she no longer possessed the Moonstone.”
Revelations threatened to overwhelm me.
“You’re not the man who married my mother,” I stated.
“No,” he scoffed. “How old do you think I am?”
