“Stop!” Debra shouted, and her voice carried over the rest of the noise. “You can’t do this!”
Jordan growled at her, obviously annoyed by the interruption. “This is our destiny. The stars have chosen Ayla as my mate. I don’t care if she’s half witch, or from the Cancer pack. She’s mine.” He looked back at me with such possessiveness that my pussy clenched in excitement, while my chest tightened with fear.
“You don’t understand,” Debra said, her voice urgent. “You cannot mate with her."
"Why not?" Jordan asked.
"She’s your sister.”
My heart stopped. So did everything else. The whole garden fell silent. Even Jordan froze, his mouth hanging open.
His… WHAT?
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jordan asked.
For once, he and I had the exact same thought. Horror filled my chest as I stared at Debra. Her words didn't make any sense. It shouldn't be possible. Unless… Oh shit. “Are you my mother?”
She gave me a condescending look. "Don't be ridiculous."
Thank the goddess. But if she wasn’t my mother, that meant…
"How can she be my sister?" Jordan asked. "Are you saying we have the same father?"
Debra dipped her head and lowered her voice. “Yes. I had an affair with Harrison, the Cancer alpha.”
Several gasps went up around the shifters gathered there. Cheating on your mate was not only rare and unusual but considered blasphemous. The fact that she'd done it with the Cancer alpha, their pack's worst enemy, only made it more scandalous.
My head was spinning, trying to take in this new revelation, but I felt like a computer that had frozen and couldn't reboot. Jordan was my brother. No. Just…no. It wasn't possible. How?
HOW?
I wasn’t the only one who was dumbstruck. Jordan gaped at his mom, and I watched emotions flash over his face in quick succession. Shock and horror. Anger. Pain. He looked like he'd been betrayed in the worst possible way.
And that's when I saw his eyes. Blue, just like mine.
Dixon's had been brown. Debra's were brown too. But not Jordan's.
He wasn’t the Leo alpha’s son. He was the Cancer alpha’s son.
Oh god, oh god, oh, god. He was my brother.
Horror and disgust washed through me, and I wanted to go and scrub every single inch of my body and wash my mouth out with soap. We'd kissed. Multiple times! He’d been seconds away from having sex with me! The thought of what had been interrupted made me dry-heave. If I’d had anything at all to eat in the last few hours, I was sure I would have thrown it up.
While I gagged, Jordan just stood there, pants still unbuttoned, looking like his entire world was crumbling all around him. He glanced over at me and shuddered, then turned to the Sun Witches. “How did this happen?” he yelled. “How could I be mated with my own sister?"
The Sun Witches shared uneasy looks, and Roxandra said, “We're not entirely sure…"
Jordan grabbed his head like he might tear himself in two, and let out a roar that made the ground tremble. Then he stumbled off the altar, buttoning his pants before shoving through the line of Sun Witches. The Leo pack parted around him to let him pass, and Debra raced after him without giving me a second glance. Leaving me here to deal with this hot mess of a situation all on my own.
Fuck my life.
The shifters spoke to each other in frantic, hushed whispers, like no one could believe what they'd just seen, and no one knew what to do next. I certainly didn't know either. The Sun Witches huddled together, and no one was bothering to get me out of these bonds tying me to the altar.
“Hey!” I shouted. “Let me free!"
No one moved a muscle. I sighed and tested the strength of the bonds. Unfortunately, they were stronger than I’d thought they would be. I tried to teleport, since the moon was bright overhead, but felt something like a giant wall when I tried. Damn, the Sun Witches must be blocking my magic somehow.
I opened my mouth to yell again when a deep, shuddering boom ran through the town. I felt it vibrate the altar below me, and a rustle went through the gathered crowd. Now what?
Sirens started going off, and a few lone howls sounded from shifters in the distance. “We’re under attack!” someone yelled. That seemed to jolt everyone into motion, and they began stumbling and jostling as they tried to rush out of the garden. The Sun Witches disappeared in a flash of light like fucking cowards, and still, no one made any attempt to free me. My heart pounded as I struggled with my bonds, knowing I'd be way too vulnerable while tied to this altar.