Chapter 64

A look of confliction crossed Rhys’ face as I stared at him intensely, but I refused to back down. We were mates now officially. He had marked me. There were to be no more secrets between the two of us. I didn’t want that. I knew that he always had reasons for what he did, but I didn’t care. This was important. If it involved me, I deserved to know. I refused to be kept in the dark about my own self anymore. If anyone deserved to know anything, it was me.

“Why don’t we go back to the office and talk about it?” He asked reluctantly.

I glared at him. So, he was keeping secrets. Great. When would he realize that I was not fragile? I had been through hell, yet he was still treating me like I would break. I would not break. Never again would I let anyone treat me like I was inferior to them, especially not my fucking mate.

“Fine.”

“Gracie...” He tried.

“No.” I snapped at him. “I don’t like that you’re keeping things from me.”

He nodded, an apologetic look crossing his features. It was sort of funny to me because it was very obvious to me that he didn’t like that I was angry at him at all, but I wasn’t ready to just forgive him because he agreed to tell me and looked apologetic. I needed more than that. Like the actual truth.

His thumb traced over my hand in attempt to defuse my anger, but it was a weak attempt. We made the rest of the walk back to the house and up the millions of stairs to his office in silence.

“I was thinking we could add your own desk in here,” He tried as he took his usual seat and I took the one across from him, much to his distaste.

“Sure,” I answered, tapping my fingers against my chair to let him know that I was waiting. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had some power, and it felt freaking thrilling.

“I believe I told you I met with a witch a couple of weeks ago,” He started nervously.

“You did.”

“And I believe I told you that she wasn’t much help.” He fidgeted with the pen on his desk. It was odd to see the Alpha King so unsettled, but a part of me was thriving off of it.

“Well, when your heat ended, and you finally were able to sleep, I got up for a little while, unable to sleep anymore, and I was told by Leon that the witch was here in his office, and he wasn’t sure what to do.” He paused for a moment. “I obviously, have been trying to track her down since she had disappeared so suddenly before, but I had had no luck and then just as suddenly she was in my pack, in my own fucking house.”

“Okay...” I said slowly, remembering how Rhys had just asked Ethan about witches just a few minutes ago. I felt bad for losing my temper. It seemed this information had only been discovered a few hours ago, and I had been asleep. He might have been just waiting for a good time to tell me, and I hadn’t really given him the chance. “And what did she say?”

“She said a lot... So, the witch who I met with is one of the people who bound you... She says she did it twice at your mother, Louanne’s, discretion. She was told that you were able to shift since birth, and that it was to protect you, since you couldn’t hold your head up, let alone control your shifts. I’ve never heard of anyone ever being able to shift from birth. I’ve never heard of anyone under the age of 5 ever being able to shift. And I thought maybe this was common among Lycans, but since it frightened your mom enough to call a witch, I’m leaning toward that it is not common...”

I leaned away from Rhys, and back into my chair. My own mother was the reason I had been bound? She didn’t trust her own kid to figure it out eventually? Was I that horrible of a child? Was that why I couldn’t remember much?

“The witch, Sandra, believes that you have powerful alpha energy that far surpasses that of your sister, Kinsley. Most of the time, if you are going to bind someone like that, it only ever takes once. However, you needed a second binding almost immediately after the first was placed. She said you had started breaking out of it, so she bound you again.” Rhys took a deep breath, his eyes never leaving mine before continuing. “She claimed she wasn’t exactly sure when, but she was called upon again. And she said that time she refused to be a part of it. The excuse that you were too young, seemed to have worn its purpose, and was no longer good enough. She also said it was someone different asking this time, not your mom because she had passed by that time, but she didn’t know who was requesting it. Sandra also says she knows they reached out to other witches when she refused, and she claims she only knows of one of other binding that you had, but there potentially could have been more...”

I sucked in a sharp breath, trying to stop the rage that was coursing through my soul at these revelations.

“Did I ever hurt anyone when I shifted?” I asked, hoping the answer was yes so that I could understand why they did it.

“Not to my knowledge, love,” Rhys responded gently.

“Then why would they do that to me? My own mother...”

“I think your energy is more powerful than Kinsley’s and it worried people. Your mother wasn’t alive for all those bindings, so I’d like to think the first time, she might have really done it to protect you. But my guess is that once certain people realized your power, they did everything they could to contain it by any means necessary.”

“And that’s probably why they all hurt me too.” I said sadly. I couldn’t shake the hurt I felt. I mean, my own freaking mother. How could she hurt her baby like that? Didn’t she love me? Her own daughter? Didn’t anyone care how much damage this would all cause?

“I would assume they were afraid of your power, and therefore made you a target, yes.” Rhys answered hesitantly.

Anger surged through me again, overriding the sadness again. How dare they?! I was just a child, and they took advantage of my abilities and made me weak! They didn’t care who they destroyed if it gave them power!

I stood up and slammed my fists into Rhys’ desk. “I want to take them all down! And I hope they all die miserable deaths in the near future!