He frowned. “No, that’s no it at all. It’s because…” He threw his truck into park and sighed, as if resigning himself to reveal some long lost secret. His gaze got lost past the windshield. “An alpha pulls power from his territory. Territory that’s laid out and marked by the original alpha, making the entire pack bound to it. If another supernatural being claims land within that territory, it weakens the alpha, which in turn weakens the pack.”
My mouth gaped open. “My Gran never told me that.”
He shrugged, turning in his seat to look at me again. “She probably didn’t know. We don’t reveal our secrets to anyone outside the pack. I’m trusting you won’t repeat this. A lot of people would take advantage of it.”
Trust. A powerful word for someone like me who didn’t trust easily. I trusted Gran and Cass, and now maybe Molly, but that was it. I definitely hadn’t expected Brock to confide in me.
I nodded. I wouldn’t tell a soul, save for Cass of course.
Brock gazed at Gran’s cabin. “I remember when I was twelve, it was a new moon and my dad had just been in a bad dominance fight. Belinda was outside doing her weird crystal spells, and drawing power from the land. My dad wasn’t able to heal as fast as he normally did with her stealing the land’s magic.”
Oh shit.
“I had no idea,” I muttered. I didn’t know what else to say. This whole time, all these years, they’d actually had a good reason for being so possessive about their territory.
Brock unlocked the door. “Well now you do. This land is special to my family, and it’s my turn to protect it, so… now you know why I’ve made such a fuss.” He hopped down from the truck and crossed the hood to open the door for me.
Leaning my weight on my crutches, I glanced at the cabin again. “What exactly are we doing here?”
Brock shrugged. “Searching for answers. Your family had to know what you were. If we find that out, maybe we can heal you.”
As he spun on his heel to walk inside, my stomach did flip-flops. Brock, the big bad alpha, was searching for a cure for me. It meant he cared, at least a little bit.
Molly had tucked a key under the mat. We used it and entered the house to look for clues. Never before had I hoped so much to find them.
* * *
Two hours later, we’d ransacked the cabin, including the attic, and found nothing helpful except for a black and white photo I’d grown up seeing. It was a picture of my mom, a full-blooded witch, and my dad, a full-blooded sorcerer.
Still, Brock insisted on uploading the photo to my computer, and when he zoomed in on my father’s eyes, his pupils looked slitted… like a fox’s.
No way!
My mind reeled at the implications. I tried to wrap my brain around what it might mean, but I was too flustered. What the fuck was happening to my life?
Brock tapped the photo in his hand. “So maybe your dad wasn’t actually a sorcerer?”
I scowled. Would Gran lie to me? If it meant protecting me from something bad, then yeah, she would. Did that mean I was in danger? Other than dying of starvation, or whatever was going on with my body?
“I guess.” My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears.
“Your parents, are they around?” Brock took in the slender blonde in the photo, her smile wide as she wrapped her arms around my Asian father. I got my unusual violet eyes and figure—curvy in all the right places—from my mother, and most everything else from my father. My hair was long and silky, black as a raven’s feathers.
Just staring at my smiling mother and father made my heart pinch; I never got to know them.
I shook my head. “They died in a car wreck when I was a baby.”
Brock gave me a look that said he didn’t believe the car accident line.
I rolled my eyes. “Google it. I found the news article online when I was sixteen. It happened here in town. Drunk driver. Healing witches couldn’t get to them in time. My mom bled out. Dad’s leg got ripped off, among other things.” I gulped. I didn’t have memories of either one of them, but what happened to them hurt every time I thought about it, which was why I did my best not to.
Brock winced. “Damn. I’m sorry.”
My hair swayed as I nodded. I hadn’t told many people that story, save for Cass and a few others at Hunter Academy. A wave of dizziness washed over me then, and I clutched the seat of my chair in a death grip.
“What’s wrong?” Brock’s whole body tightened as he leaned into me.
“Just tired. I’d like to go back and lie down.”
