Chapter 116

For a second, Ethan’s hand stops stroking my back to pay attention to what Cedar has to say before he moves his hand again.
“Even now, I still can’t fully understand why Razer ordered the massacre of our entire family. He claimed it was because they owed him money, but I’ve always felt there was more to it. I’d seen him do the same to other families—wiped them out completely—and it was never just about debts. It was always because they had something he wanted, something they refused to hand over or yield,” Cedar explains. “From what Peter—” Cedar opens a small smile before it fades. “Explained to me, our parents come from a rare lineage of witches. A mutation between the fae and the witches.”
“But the fae are extinct!” Ethan states with a frown. 
“We’re not descended from the fae,” Cedar explains, “We’re descended from a rare mutation between the fae and the witches. Normally, the gene lies dormant, and not everyone in a generation awakens to it. But here’s the thing, both our father and mother carried it. I don’t know if it was active in them or not, but according to Peter, if my aura was that strong, it’s likely you and Oliver have the gene too because of our parents.” 
“And what does that mean?” I wipe my remaining tears away, confused. 
“It means you’re part witch, Allie. And from your bright aura, I can tell you’re part fae too.” 
Ethan’s body tenses beneath me. 
“But... But aren’t witches evil?” I ask hesitantly and look at Ethan, begging God mentally for him not to freak out. I hold his hand around me with mine. 
“Of course they are,” Ethan snaps. 
Cedar growls at his tone. “Allie isn’t evil!”
“That’s because you haven’t seen what I’ve done, Cedar...” I lower my head.
Ethan grabs my chin and forces me to look up at him. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Do you understand me?”
“What did you do?” Cedar asks.
“But what does this rare mutation mean?” I ask instead of answering him, looking for any way to redirect the conversation. 
Cedar notices, though, raising a skeptical eyebrow and giving a slight nod as if to say that we would talk later, before he answers, “It means that you can wield the power of a witch, like casting curses or doing spells. Or tap into psychic abilities, for example. But usually, this power only shows when the person goes through some deep stress or pain, and then the gene ends up being activated,” Cedar explains with a knowing look as if he already knew that whatever I went through was not easy. “In my case, since I was turned into a Werewolf, these genes were kind of nullified, but my aura became stronger because of it, making me an Alpha.”
“Like Az,” the words slip out of my mouth.
Cedar gives a small smile. “I knew that little wolf was your son.”
I nod to him. We stare at each other for a moment. Gosh, my brother’s here! “Alpha suits you,” I say, looking at his gleeful grin. I notice his grin fade, though, as I shift my gaze to Ethan, with an unease in my stomach. “Are you mad at me?” I ask Ethan.
“Of course not, love. I fucking know you. You have the purest heart I’ve ever seen. You don’t have a bad bone in your body. I told you we’re going to figure this out together, remember?”
Despite Ethan’s reassuring words, deep down, I feel like he’s putting on this facade for my sake. 
I can’t even judge him. Not after everything he’s been through because of a witch. Anyone would be sending me to the stake right now to be burned before I could even say the word *Abracadabra*.
Ethan shifts his gaze to Cedar again. Far away, I realize Vi’s still staring at us. I wish she would come closer. “Who is this Peter?” 
Cedar looks almost mournful for a moment. “You see, Razor has always been cunning. He worked with a witch of terrifying power. Like nothing I’d ever seen before. But then again, until I wound up in that goddamn cell, I didn’t even know this world existed.” Cedar offers a faint, bitter smile before it fades away. “Peter was the one who explained how it all worked. He was my cellmate, his cell right across from mine. And just like me, Razor used Peter to control that witch. Razor couldn’t get his hands on her little daughter, so he settled for her son. Always cunning, that asshole.”
Ethan’s shoulders suddenly tense even more. “So Peter was her son? Tell me about this witch. What was that child like?” He glances Vi’s way before firing again, “How did you get *here?*” Ethan’s tone is now threatening. One wrong word from Cedar, and I feel like my mate will rip his head off. 
Cedar narrows his eyes. “For me to explain all this to you,” Cedar replies angrily. It doesn’t seem to be directed at Ethan, though. He clenches his hands into fists, his knuckles white with the force. “I’m going to need that bitch’s presence.” 

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alpha Ethan***

Aftermath is not a pretty thing. Rogue bodies are scattered around my pack, the pack gate is broken, and on top of that, there’s this big fucking problem now that it’s called Kelly.
I knew something was off.
I position myself in front of my mate as soon as we arrive in front of Kelly’s cell in the dungeons. With her brother on one side and my sister on the other, the three of us look at her.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be upstairs?” I turn and ask my mate.
“No. I want to hear what Cedar has to say.”
“So do I,” I reply, turning and staring at her brother. He seems unfazed, waiting for the metal cell door to be opened with his arms crossed.
As we walked down here, I mindlinked Dad and Josh to take care of the rest of the stuff while I focused on this matter.
“Open up, Lucian,” I order the guard at the post.
“Yes, Alpha.”
The cell door swings open with a deafening clang of metal, echoing through the stone corridor. Unlike the torture rooms, this cell is not only cleaner but also more comfortable. There is a bed and a nightstand close to the walls, as well as a metal chair that’s currently serving as Kelly’s throne of frustration, probably because her hands and legs are tied to said chair. Jordan’s sister has her shirt too tight with several buttons undone, showing off a lot of cleavage, not that I would be affected by her, even before the curse was broken, I already had no feelings for her, now that I know my fated mate, I like her even less.
“What am I doing here, Alpha?” Kelly asks right after trying to mask her angry eyes. “My brother just died, and I’m being locked here! What’s going on?”
I realize she’s purposely avoiding Cedar’s gaze, even though he’s looking at her like he’s about to strangle her with his bare hands. Little Dove tries to come out from behind me to look at Kelly, but Cedar stops her.
Good.
“Well, we’re here.” I move my gaze to my mate’s brother. “You better have a good reason.”
“You asked me why I came here only now,” he starts saying, still glaring at Kelly. Then he looks into my eyes and points at her. “Because of her and her fucking brother.” He lowers his hand as if he could snap too easily by getting that close to her. “All those years I was with Razor in his pack, I saw them both coming and going. Razor was their mother’s uncle.” 
Kelly sneers at him, and Vi gasps next to me. Little Dove hugs me from behind, and I cover her arms with my hand in front of me. 
“They always visited the pack to get more potions from that fucking witch. But it was always a strange potion to mask their auras,” Cedar goes on. “Although the potion is powerful, it’s got a catch. They’ve got to choke it down every single day, or it’s useless. And whenever they ran out, they would show up there. Either she or her brother, always one of those assholes, would come crawling back there.”
The fuck! That’s why her aura is always neutral, then?
‘This motherfuckers!’ Kral growls.
“That’s a lie, I swear, Alpha,” Kelly begs. “Please don’t believe him! This guy’s not even part of our pack! He’s lying!”
Before I can say anything, Cedar continues. “However, something happened that no one expected.” He opens an evil smile. “Razor ended up breaking off the business he had with the old witch, which made them both freak out because they no longer had her services at their disposal.”
“That’s a lie!” Kelly screams. “None of that is true! I’ve never seen that guy in my life, Alpha!”
“Of course, you didn’t see me, you psycho bitch! I make sure to always disappear when you show up. Especially after what you did to Peter's last cellmate.”
Kelly bares her white teeth at him, ready to shift. But the chair she’s sitting in is not just any chair. It’s designed to prevent anyone who tied it up from doing so.
“So that’s the reason?” Little Dove whispers behind me as if talking to herself as Kelly unleashes a torrent of death threats on Cedar.
“What are you talking about, Little Dove?” I ask sharply, and everyone immediately shuts up.
“Uh... During that Blackmoon festival, the one with the Black Moon, I felt something strange coming from those two. Jordan and Kelly gave me a bad feeling like they were hiding something... Even their smell stank... I mean, not that they were stinking from lack of bathing, it was a smell—”
“We got it, baby,” I say, helping my rambling mate. 
Then she adds, “I didn’t like how Vi smelled that day either!”