by Maeve Hart
“Ah, got it.” I knew by her response that she used traditional tea making with a teapot. I was normally over there later in the day when I visited, and there was always bubbly on offer. I walked back to the kitchen and saw the teapot on one side of the sink.
Her teas were in the last cupboard I looked in. I chose the container with the least amount of tea in it, figuring that might be her favorite variety.
After I had found a tray, I arranged the tea items on it. Recalling the truth serum idea, I smiled. Now would’ve been an ideal time to use the serum and Granny would be none the wiser.
I headed out with the tea tray in my hands, hoping Granny hadn’t changed her mind about telling me about the Alpha.
“Here you are.” I set the tray down on a low table in front of the couch and sat beside her.
When I picked up the teapot, she yelled, “No!”
Fear shuddered through me and I froze before I stared at her horrified face. “What is it?”
“You have to wait for the tea to steep.”
Letting out the breath I’d been holding, I set the teapot down. “Okay.”
“Didn’t your mother teach you anything about tea?”
“We were more coffee drinkers in our household.”
“Tea needs to steep.” She nodded her head sharply.
“And so it shall. You tell me when to pour. Did you want something to eat with it?” I was still full from way too much chocolate cake.
“No. I’ve not long eaten.”
“Now tell me everything from the start.”
She nodded slightly. “It was a warm and sunny day. I was a mere slip of a girl. Maybe seventeen, possibly eighteen—no matter. Anyway, my mother sent me out to gather some herbs from the woods. I knew where a good patch was because I’d gotten it from there before. I found the clump and just when I was bending over plucking it, I heard a growl. Slowly, I turned around and found the worst thing I could have imagined. It was a wolf. He was staring at me, about to spring at me, and from the evil in his eyes I knew I was about to be ripped to shreds. I’d never been so terrified. I was too frightened to move.” She turned to me. “Do it now.”
My eyes grew wide as her story played out in my head. “Is that what the wolf said?”
“No. The tea will be ready to pour now.”
“Oh.” I poured us each a cup of tea, hoping she wouldn’t forget where she was up to in the story.
After she took a sip, she continued, “The wolf was around six yards away, and he sprang at me. Out of nowhere, another wolf lunged at him from his side.” With her hands she made signals of how the wolf leaped at her and the other one had come at right angles and saved her. “While they were fighting, I ran back to my mother.”
“Did you tell her what had happened?”
“No.” She shook her head and took another sip of tea. “I’d managed to gather a few sprigs and I had to lie and tell my mother that’s all that was there.”
“Why didn’t you tell her what you saw?”
“She would’ve kept me out of the woods and I didn’t want to stay away. The forest was my place.”
“Had you seen wolves there before?”
“No, but I knew they were coming and I knew they weren’t ordinary wolves.”
“Both of them?”
She nodded.
“How did you know?”
Granny took her time to answer. “If you’ll let me speak, I’ll tell you.”
I sank back into the couch and gulped a mouthful of tea.
“I heard my mother telling my father that the wolf shifters were coming. She’d seen it in a divination.”
Divination? Tea leaves? I wondered, looking down into my half drunk cup. For the first time, my interest in witchcraft was piqued if that meant witches could see glimpses of the future. I knew that shifters were our enemies, but Granny was saying one had saved her. I thought back to my first days with Jacques when he’d saved me from Seamus. I knew that Granny must have felt a bond with the shifter who’d saved her.
I desperately wanted to ask about the big battle looming or whatever it was her mother was expecting.
Granny continued, “I went back the next day.”
“That was brave of you,” I said, keeping her buttered up, knowing that compliments worked with her.
“Not really. I was sure he was calling me. There was a connection. I got back to the same spot where I’d been gathering the herbs the day before. Instead of a wolf, there was a man. I knew he was a shifter, but it didn’t matter to me back then, not at that time, because I was young and foolish and didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
“What did he look like as a human?”
“He was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. He was big and tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. When he looked at me I felt like he was seeing right into me. It’s something I can’t explain with mere words.”
I knew exactly what she meant.
She continued, “We sat and talked.”
“Is that all?”
“No, that’s not all. We met every day at exactly the same time. We got to know each other and we fell in love. You could’ve written about that as a love story in your family history records, but what came next was more of a horror story.”
I’d had a feeling that’s where things were heading.
“Whenever my mother met with her coven, I’d tell him, and then I found out he was using me to glean information. And that was too bad because I was already pregnant with Fauna.”
I gasped. “My mother?” My heart sank. That would make me related to Jacques.
“No, I meant Flora.”
“And my mother had a different father?”
“Oh my goddess, yes!”
Phew! Who was that? I wondered. That would have to be answered another day. “You killed him because he betrayed you?”
“He not only betrayed me, he ruined my life.”
I could relate to that. A mere mortal had nearly ruined mine by using me. “That must’ve been so awful for you to find that out. He didn’t want you to turn into a shifter, did he?”
“We talked about it, way before I knew he was betraying me, and I wanted to stay a witch.”
I was shocked. It didn’t seem that witches and shifters were so far apart if Granny had been considering changing for him. She’d surely be accepting about me being in love with Jacques if the same thing had happened to her.
“He had no choice since he was already a shifter and I didn’t know he was the Alpha. He kept that from me. I was just trying to keep him safe and I didn’t know he was taking the information back to his pack. In the end, he and his pack wiped out my whole family.” She looked at me. “Your family. My sisters, my brothers, and my mother and father, and all the witches in my mother’s coven.”
“That’s awful. Why would they do that?”
I saw a tear come to my grandmother’s eye. “I had to take revenge on two counts. Number one, he deceived me, and number two, revenge for my family. I devised a plan against him.”
“What did you do?”
“I sent a message for him to meet me to see his child. I left Fauna—I’m sorry, Flora—with some people I knew and that’s when I exterminated him. Months before, he’d made the mistake of telling me how shifters could be killed. I used that knowledge to kill him. I thought that rather fitting since he had betrayed me.”
“How did you do it?”
“I won’t tell you how I killed him.”
“Why?”
“The soul has had too much pain and there’s been too much days.” She was talking mumbo jumbo again and not making sense. “And you’ve had enough in your long young life with Ronald being killed.”
“Donald,” I corrected her. “And you had nothing to do with Donald being killed?”
Granny stared at me and I didn’t know if I imagined a smirk around her lips or not. “Your mother told me it was his sister who did it—killed him with poison.”
“Jenni
fer is saying she was framed.”
“Perhaps I did or perhaps I didn’t. It doesn’t matter now. He’s gone and nothing will bring him back.”
“No one deserves to die.” I hadn’t even told Granny half the horrible things he’d said to me and the way he’d treated me.
“Would you think that the being who wiped out your Granny’s entire family should continue to live?”
I shook my head. “It’s a hard one.”
“If I hadn’t taken revenge, who would’ve?”
I knew Granny and my mother didn’t believe in karma and I wasn’t sure whether I did, so I didn’t mention it. “I don’t know, Granny. I guess I would feel it wasn’t up to me to take things into my own hands.”
“It’s about time you had an opinion on these things, Destiny. How old are you now, twenty-five?”
“I’m over thirty, Granny.”
“Well, you should know your opinions on things by now. No good comes from being wishy-washy.”
“I just gave my opinion. I wouldn’t make that decision to take someone’s life. It’s not up to me to decide if someone should die, even if they killed a lot of people.” I shrugged.
“Then who would it be up to when someone wrongs you? Don’t tell me you believe that there’s only one God, or you believe in karma? That’s not how you were raised, Destiny.”
I sighed. It hadn’t been easy growing up in a family of witches.
She looked down at her tea. “How about another cup?”
I picked up the teapot, ready to pour it.
Moving her cup swiftly to the side, she said, “You have to make me a new pot. That one would’ve gone cold by now.”
I picked up the pot and headed to the kitchen. It was an incredible story that she’d just told me. The death and destruction and talking of killing was giving me a headache. Granny had fallen in love with Jacques’ grandfather and all along he’d been using her to gather information. No wonder the women in my family were bitter about men. My father had abandoned my mother and I was yet to learn why.
Was Jacques using me too? I couldn’t wait to find out whether Jacques knew of the relationship between his grandfather and my grandmother, but that was something that we had to talk about in person. Seeing his facial expressions when I told him was a must.
Chapter 4
Being away from my grandmother for a moment, I had a chance to reassess the reason I was there. I needed to know what she knew about Don and precisely what he’d asked when he’d visited her. I waited for the kettle to reheat while I mentally rehearsed all I needed to ask.
When I sat down with Granny again, I got right to the point. “Tell me about that time Don came here?”
“I already told you, he came here to touch the Alpha remains without my knowledge.”
“What reason did he tell you he’d come? Did he ask you about the shifter?”
“I think I’ve done enough talking for today. My throat is beginning to hurt.”
“Granny, it’s important. I need to know. Did Don ever ask you about shifters?”
Granny’s green eyes flicked away from me and I knew there was something she didn’t want me to know.
“I need to know the truth about everything.”
“I’ve already told you the truth about who Flora’s father is. She doesn’t even know that. No one knows.”
“Really?” I couldn’t believe that Granny would keep something like that from her daughter. “Why doesn’t she know?”
“It would be shameful. I haven’t told either of my daughters who their fathers are.”
“Why did you tell me?”
“I thought someone in the family should know the truth. And when I’m gone, you can tell Flora yourself.”
“Why don’t you tell her? I’m sure she’d rather hear it from you.”
“It brings back too many emotions. I don’t think I could.” She shook her head.
I could tell she’d been hurt deeply. “Does this mean that Flora is a shifter?”
“No. Turns out she’s not. And she doesn’t know her father was either. I suppose you’ll tell her now.”
“I can keep quiet if you think that’s best.”
“Yes. It would be better. She’s been a tad unstable lately and news like that wouldn’t do her any good.”
Then it dawned on me that the Alpha had to have had other children. If Don’s document was correct, Flora had two half-brothers: Jacques’ father who had died and Jacques’ uncle who raised him. My grandmother held many secrets and she’d already told me some. I was pushing my luck, but I continued, “Do you think Flora is the only child the Alpha fathered?”
“When I met him, he had just lost his wolf mate, so I guess it’s possible there were others, but he never mentioned any offspring to me.”
By the time I left Granny’s house, it was late in the day. While I waited for a taxi, I called Abbie and arranged to meet the next day after work. It was hard to take in everything Granny had told me. So far things fitted in with Don’s document.
I was pleased to get back to the loft half an hour later and glad that Jacques was staying in his penthouse so I could think things through. I kicked off my shoes, headed to the bedroom, and found Don’s document under the mattress. Even though it wasn’t night, I slipped into bed and plumped the pillows behind me before settling back to read the pages once more.
When I finished reading, I shoved the document down toward the end of the bed. Now I was worried about my income. Jacques had encouraged me to put my business on hold, saying he would support me while the drama surrounding Don’s murder unfolded. I hoped I was doing the right thing. Even if Jacques and I got married, or at least lived together, I would still need my independence. I didn’t want to lose myself in another man like I’d nearly lost myself in Don. I reminded myself that my design business wasn’t going all that well anyway and once I was ready to work again I’d have to reassess whether to keep going in the business or to work for someone else. Right now, working for someone else or working in a partnership seemed a good idea. I only hoped that Jacques was being genuine with me. In my heart I felt that he was.
Eventually I got out of bed and made myself a cheese toastie and then flicked through the TV channels until I found a movie to watch. When I was halfway through a second movie, I fell asleep on the couch.
When I woke the next morning, I saw I’d found my way into the bed. The security issue of the compound was weighing heavily on my mind. Knowing I couldn’t speak about such things over the phone, I called Jacques, hoping he’d get the hint I wanted to talk to him in person sometime soon.
I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and called him.
“Good morning,” he answered.
“Hello. I have a lot to tell you when I see you next.” I tried to invoke a sense of urgency with my voice.
“I’ll call back soon. I’m just in a meeting.”
The moment I ended the call, my cell phone sounded. I looked down at the caller ID to see that it was my mother. “Hello, Mom.”
“Hello. I haven’t heard from you in days. What have you been doing?”
“I visited Granny yesterday.”
“Yes, I’ve just left her house and she told me you’d been there.”
“We had a nice talk and I made her a cup of tea.”
“Where are you now?”
“I’m house sitting a new apartment. It’s a loft. Do you want to come over and have a look at it?”
“I’d love to. Text me the address and I’ll make my way over.”
I ended the call and texted her the address, and then she texted back saying she was an hour away. An hour! This had been a big mistake. I hadn’t even had a coffee yet. I staggered out to make a cup, knowing that after that I’d need to jump in the shower, and then set about making the place looked lived in. Yawning, I stuck a small cup under the spout of the coffee machine and pressed the button for a short shot of espresso. That would keep me going for a while.
A
fter I’d had a quick shower, I dressed and then went into the kitchen. Mom knew I was a little messy so I took dishes from the cupboard and placed them in the sink to make it look like they needed to be washed. Then I put a tea towel on the edge of the kitchen bench before I raced to the bathroom and unloaded some toiletries into one of the cupboards.
For safety’s sake, I checked under the bed to make sure Don’s document was still there where I’d put it last night. It was.
The buzzer sounded and I opened the downstairs security door for my mother. When she walked into the loft, she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before she looked around. I was still reeling from all the information I’d gotten from Granny.
“Well, this is nice. More than nice.” She walked further in. “How did you go from your one bedroom apartment to this? Are you sure Don didn’t leave you anything?”
“Quite sure. I even had to give the ring back to his family, remember?”
“That’s something I won’t easily forget.”
“This is only temporary. I didn’t want to be in Abbie’s way and the opportunity came up to housesit this loft for a few months so, of course, I took it.” I cleared my throat, hoping that what I’d just said hadn’t sounded too rehearsed.
She walked around, having a look at everything. “How long will you be here?”
“At least a few months. The owner is overseas.”
“It was very fortunate that this came up just when it did. And who owns it?”
“Just someone… you don’t know.”
She spun around her green eyes boring through me. “You don’t want to tell me?”
“Not really, no.”
She turned around and took a few steps towards one of the windows, saying to no one in particular, “That’s okay; I’ll do a divination.”
I knew if I protested about that she’d get suspicious, so I remained silent. “Can I get you some tea or coffee?”
Her lips turned down at the corners. “Why don’t we go to a café? There are plenty of them around here. No use making this new kitchen dirty.” She walked into the kitchen and looked in the sink at the dishes. “Oh, too late for that. Surely you could do the dishes once in a while, Destiny? I didn’t raise you to be untidy.”
