45. The Truth Needs To Be Heard

**XANDER**

As expected, the meeting went on for hours. There were the new Omegas, Sentinels as well as pack hunters who were given their respective duties for the month.
My father often swapped the places every other week, owing to the old methods of guarding the pack and extra border patrol before the full moon. But I still believed that the extended duration of the position would highly benefit the guardians and hunters.
Technically, it was the first meeting I held after I took my place as the Alpha of the Night Pride, and with Kade already breathing down my neck, I needed to assort the duties as quickly as possible.
As the evening came to an end, one by one, every wolf got back to their own business, leaving behind Blaize and me inside the room. He slowly rose from his seat, walking over the sideboard of the room, and poured both of us a drink. It was quintessential of my brother to enjoy a glass of whiskey, neat, while we discussed the political affairs of the pack.
After he poured three fingers in two tumblers, Blaize handed me one and then settled in one of the armchairs.
“Would you now care to tell me what is this all about?” he asked after taking a sip and pointing at my shoulder. “I am getting all antsy here, being left out on the details.”
I had almost forgotten about the shoulder, given how quickly it had healed. But the looming dark threat to Maeve’s life was still lingering on my mind. I just did not find an outlet for it yet.
I took a slow sip before replying to him. “Earlier, when I was in the woods with Maeve, someone shot at us with this.”
His brows shot upwards as shock carved into his features. “And you are telling me now?” Blaize placed the glass on the wooden desk with a thud, drawling,
“This explains the crazy security and border searching you ordered the previous day.”
“Yes.” Rising, I went over to the locker and retrieved the arrow that Maeve pulled out of my shoulder to hand it over to him.
“Xan, I know you think that this is the hunters’ work, but we have got to be careful.” He touched the tool delicately and thoughtfully, noting the faint marks around it. “The arrow seems unusual though. I have never seen anything like this before.”
“That’s the best part,” I said, downing the rest of my drink. “Even more surprising that it was laden with the same elixir they use for putting the witches to sleep.”
The look on Blaize was of pure shock.
“And no,” I continued, making a small shake of my head. “This is not the hunters’ work, not even by a long shot.”
“That means the arrow was not for you. Shit.”
“I was sitting there for about an hour before Maeve found me on the small cliff. If anyone wanted to take me out, they would have done that a long time ago,” I told him.
Blaize lowered his voice in caution even though the Chamber of the Alpha was constructed in a way that no sound would escape out of its walls. “This is even worse. Does Maeve have any idea about this?”
I shook my head in negative. “Fighting the enemy is one thing, tracing a shadow is another. How do I protect her when I don’t even know what I am fighting against?”
The same anxiety was gnawing at members several days after that fateful one. It was like I was aiming in the dark with no sense of location.
“Could you sniff out anything?” Blaze enquired.
"Nothing significant. The usual.” It was apparent that whoever came for her knew that the person was stepping into the wolves’ territory. The very first thing they would try to get rid of would be their scent.
Blaize’s expression turned grim as he sighed loudly and threw his head back. He kept staring at the ceiling for a long beat before looking at me. “There’s only one way you can protect her, Xan. You need to tell her the truth and tell her.”
“I know.”
It was the only solution and my biggest fear. I had no idea how well she would take the news, given she was too carefree and happy. Time and again, she told me that she was free of her visions and worries, ever she came here to stay with us. And all of a sudden, I have to drop the news that someone was after her life?
Fates! Give me the strength.
Blaize continued, mirroring my concerns. “Her life has been puzzled enough to land her in mysterious places, like among us. I am afraid anymore secrets would break her trust. Besides, she needs to be careful. How will she protect herself if she is not well-informed about the threats to her life?”
I ironed. “I wanted to tell her that very day but when Kade came in, I just could not. Everything got lost in the Blood Promise and now I have too much on my plate to deal with.”
“What if we ask the Council to postpone the challenge a couple of months later?” he proposed. “This will give us enough time to track whoever it is.”
I immediately shoved aside the idea that only looked good theoretically. “No, this will cause more problems than necessary. Kade would start sniffing and make it difficult for us anyway. Nobody should find out about Maeve, and especially the fact that she is not exactly human.”
Blaize put in his thoughts. “The witches in the supernatural community have their own standing. And it’s not like the wolves don’t mingle with them. What if they recognise one of their own?”
As per my gathered knowledge, not precisely. “The magic in her blood is still dormant, which makes it really difficult for her to track,” I explained. “But that does not mean the guardian of the witches cannot hunt her down. The psychic blood in her veins is potent enough to expose her identity.”
“So, you assume it’s one of the guardians?” He prompted. “The ones created by the bloodline and followers of the good-psychic, Arietta?”
I slowly affirmed with a firm nod. “Remember, Esmeralda told us that the faction was created to kill the psychic who was born every hundred years? This is the only plausible explanation.”
Blaize picked up his forgotten drink, downing like the same way I did earlier. "In that case, there would be a complete unrest among the witches. The followers of Ametrine would want to retrieve her blood as well.”
“I don’t think so,” I forecasted. “This is the reason witches are keeping quiet is to prevent the news from breaking out. Ever since Esmerlda narrated, I have been looking for proofs and information in the old library. The last time they managed to track down a psychic, about three centuries ago, a chaos broke out. Until the alleged psychic vanished into the thin air.”
Maybe it was the missing scriptures or the books that accounted for the information, but very little was learned about them. In fact, no one in the witches community would ever talk about it in public.
“Then we are down to only one option,” Blaize concluded. “You have to tell Maeve the truth and ask her to be careful. Until then, I will see what I can find in the woods.”
He slowly abandoned his seat and attempted towards the door when I instructed, “And ask Garett to amp up the security and seal the territory border. We will make it look like we are protecting each other from Kade and his Firehound Pack.”
“Okay.”
“And Blaize?” I called out just when he was about to unlock the door and turned back.
“Thank you.”
I might not ever be able to express what a strength of pillar he was to me, but once in a while, I always managed to voice my gratitude.

******
When I entered our bedroom, it was relatively dark and dimmed. But my eyes did not require the power of sight to acknowledge Maeve’s presence. I caught her heartbeat several steps away. Sauntering towards the balcony, I found her standing against the railing, donned a silk robe, and bathed in silver moonlight.
My heart broke for what I was about to tell her.
I advanced towards her, snaking my arms around her hips. She must have already sensed the concern as her hand reached out to cup my cheeks. “What happened?” she whispered.
“Maeve, I need to tell you something.”
She smiled softly, rubbing her cheeks against mine. “I don’t need to act like a psychic and tell you that it is serious, right?”
Sighing, I turned her around to face me without letting go of her waist. “You have started to read me well.”
“Tell me, what’s eating at your mind?”
“Remember the arrow that hit me when we were in the woods?”
She brows scrunched together. “I do, given I am the one that pulled it out. What about it? Did you find the hunter?”
I shook my head. “Not yet, but we will. Maeve, I think you should know this - that arrow was not for me. It was for you. I must have been the one in the way.”

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