Chyra didn’t know what Clem was talking about-the end of the world, and all that-but she knew that she was to blame for Claire rejecting her mate considering what she had soaked into her daughter’s mind about the alpha’s family, about how the Luna seat was her birthright.
She also knew that she shouldn’t be working with Arnold. But she was too proud to concede to that, to concede to anyone, and so she shrugged her shoulders to Clem’s question.
In the next second, she saw why that had been a wrong play on her part. When she saw Clem fume in anger, when she saw Claire glare at her stinkingly, when she saw her mate watch her like she was foolish, she knew that she had made a mistake. It would have been best if she had kept quiet, than giving off that nonchalant attitude.
But her pride held her back from apologizing. Why should she apologize for being a mother caring to give her daughter the best?
“Mother, are you so daft that…” Clem was saying when his father shouted him down.
Caden, although not agreeing with his mate, wouldn’t tolerate her being insulted. “You don’t talk to your mother like that, no matter what.”
Chyra’s mouth was hung open. She couldn’t believe her son had called her daft.
“Apologize Clem…”
Clem shook his head to his father’s order, stunning his family, for the first time.
“I won’t apologize to her, neither will I apologize to you. Since the past few weeks, both of you have made me ashamed to be called your son. Watching how others acted, I didn’t know how to think or feel, but I knew you both had been doing it the wrong way for a very long time, especially mother. Father, you should be in the meeting, as the beta of the pack, but you are not, because you aren’t to be trusted, because you had worked with Arnold to exile our savior. Don’t bother denying it, Legardo had personally let us know, when they had met him at Lorenzo’s pack. Dad, do you know who Emma is? Do you know who her father is? Yes, we know her mother. But do you know her father is the prince of ancients; do you know she is the one spoken of in the Haybalich’s prophecy? Do you know the extent of your betrayal? Have you thought of what the Alpha would do to you, when all this is over?”
A pause where he stared at the other occupants of the room, and then he shut his eyes, and whispered in anger. “We don’t even know when it would be over!”
Caden had already blanched white. He had known that a lot had been going on in the meeting that he hadn’t been invited too. But he couldn’t start to imagine what it would be for him when all this was over? Would he be exiled? Would he be stripped of his title, and his privileges? Could he take that?
He looked at his mate, at her calculating eyes, and knew that she wouldn’t be able to take it. She would rather work with Arnold, so long as the latter guaranteed her a higher position; a Luna’s mother. But he was curious. What else was his son privy too?
He could see that the latter was fuming, he could see that his daughter was doing so too, but at a subdued level, seeing as she had played a part in exiling Emma.
“One more question, father, before I leave your presence. Oh, and to let you all know, I would be staying with the Alpha from today henceforth, or with Shane. I can’t have my family staining my reputation for their greedy gains…”
“Clem!!!” Chyra shouted in anger, not believing what her son was saying, but Clem wasn’t deterred. His sole attention was on his father.
“My question is about a recent development about Claire. Seeing as she kept you all in the dark about her mate and all that, it wouldn’t be surprising that she also kept you in the dark about this too…maybe mother knows, but I am sure you do not…”
Caden furrowed his eyebrows, but said nothing. He wanted to hear it.
Claire, however, knew what was about to go down. She tried to make eye gestures to tell Clem to back down, but Clem had already set his mind to do this when she came back, since he heard the news, and he wouldn’t be put down now, and so he ignored Claire. “Father, did you know that Claire has magic, that she is half witch, half werewolf?”
Caden’s first response was to chuckle sardonically, still in unbelief. How can his child be a half witch or mage? But when he saw the look of panic on his daughter’s face, when he saw the same on his mate’s face, although hers was mixed with anger, he knew that his son had been telling the truth, and his heart almost failed. A mage blood in his daughter? Was it also in his son? Where did it come from? There was none in his lineage. None at all!
He looked at Chyra calmly, demanding answers, not wanting to believe the obvious answer that was staring at him in his face. but Chyra kept quiet. She rather feasted on Clem with her eyes, in anger. but that wasn’t Clem’s concern. He was past feeling any remorse for his mother.
“Chyra, aren’t you going to speak, why does Claire have mage blood in her? Why does she have magic? And why didn’t you let me know?”
Because she must have known. Claire must have been scared, and must have confided in her, and she must have told the latter to keep it a secret. But somehow Clem had found out, and thanks to the goddess for that. Would he have ever found out? He didn’t think so.
Chyra opened her mouth and then shut it, and then she stilled herself. “I didn’t cheat on you, Caden.”