Her CEO Stalker and Her Second Chance Mate Chapter 154

Briar

Carter was walking up with a shotgun on his shoulder and an old woman dressed in worn jeans and a grey cowlneck sweater. Mazzie stood up straight on alert. I peeked out the window as he approached.

“Brair, there’s someone I want you to meet,” Carter said as Mazzie looked up at him questioningly. I noticed, however, she didn’t move from the door. “This is Mrs. O’Connor. I need to prove you aren’t a ghost. Let her out, Mazzie,” he said, motioning to the door.

“You sure about this?” Mazzie questioned.

“Yeah,” he answered. Mazzie took a step aside, and I opened the door and slid out.

“Nellie, meet Adelaide Briar Anderson, Alice’s daughter and my mate.” I glanced from him to the old woman who stared at me like seeing a ghost.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I told the woman who snapped out of her dumbfounded stare.

“You look so much like your mother,” Nellie said in awe. “You survived, and you have finally come home,” the old woman stammered.

“I won’t say it's been easy, but yes,” I let her know, and the next second she rushed me as Mazzie went to step between us, but the old lady got there first, wrapping her arms around me.

“Child, you have no idea how many nights I stayed up worrying over you, after what happened to your mother. I never thought you would come home after Jake died. After his own brother marked him for dead, she stepped back, gripping my elbows as she took me in. How did she know so much? She had been just down the road this entire time.

“You, you knew my mother?” I asked, shocked.

“Yes, when she and her sister were here that summer, they spent a lot of time here when Jake and Clyde were busy. If they weren’t at Martha’s, they were here if they weren’t with the men,” she said.

“W…will you tell me about her?” I asked desperately.

“Of course, come, child,” she said, glancing at Carter, then Mazzie. “I guess they can come too, the kettle is on. We can have tea.”

“Her house had hanging herbs all over the kitchen, jars of canned goods stacked and labeled on every available shelf, knick-knacks adorned the shelves, and cats ran out of the living room as we passed to hide.

“Your mama and your aunt were like night and day, one open and brimming with light and joy, and the other colder and less willing to accept people into their lives, that is, until Jake weasled his way into her heart. Your father, even though he was raised by his grandfather. Henry took his sire out, he was Martha’s first mate,” she said, pulling cups out of the cupboards and dropping some herbs into the bottom of them. “I had hoped that Clyde would resemble his grandfather in how he handled the pack. However, he bore too much pride and jealousy, he resented anything he regarded as less than him, but he was willing to take anything he could get from anyone in the process if it gained him anything, even if that meant manipulating a woman so that in his eyes, he could appear more like your uncle,” she said pulling the teapot off as it whistled. 

“Alice and Evie were inseparable. He wanted what Jake had, wanted to be loved as Jake was, and he thought by tricking Alice into loving him, people might see him differently. The thing was, he actually fell in love with her. But his love was a cruelty. She found out she was pregnant here, she also knew there would be no future with Clyde, he was controlling and brutish in his love, and that had opened Alice’s eyes. She didn’t want to bring you up with that; she wanted to take you back home. Clyde wanted to own her, break her spirit so that she would submit to him. He didn’t always hate humans, not until your mother left, and he refused to help her when his poor choices cost her her life. He never realized that you can’t tame a woman with a wild heart. Don’t get me wrong, your mama cared for your father deeply, but she wasn’t willing to let herself be consumed by Clyde. Alice had a mind of her own, and she wouldn’t give that up to anybody. She refused to change and lose herself to him.

“A few days before she found out about you, he had put his hands on her because she refused to comply to his domineering ways.” Nellie poured the water over the herbs. “Alice was an old soul, and I swear, everywhere she walked nature listened and took note of her. She smelled of deep ancient forests and herb smoke. Evie said she took after their mother, a superstitious and earth-rooted woman. They lived in an old cabin deep in the mountains of Appalachia, with a small group of people they called family. While Evie hated everything about her upbringing, Alice embraced it. I think since Evie didn’t have Alice’s affinity towards nature, she just wanted to be away from it all, but she also refused to be away from her twin. Those two were like two halves of the same coin,” she said, setting two cups in front of Carter and me and handing one to Mazzie before she sat down and continued.

“Evie found out that Clyde had laid hands on her sister, the same day she found out she was pregnant, she and Alice had a long talk out there,” she said, pointing to the garden. “All I know is that whatever was said had Evie dragging Jake here. When he saw the bruises on Alice and listened to the plea for help from Evie’s lips, Jake simply started planning on the spot. He had Evie and Alice packed up in the matter of a few hours and fixed their car, which had broken down here, which was the real reason for them getting stuck here in the first place. Don’t ask me why it took him so long to fix it in the first place, a pretty face does that to a man.” 

I eyed Carter over my cup as I sipped, thinking about the electricity at Jake’s place. There was truth in that statement. 

“Jake followed them to the state border, and I never saw the girls again. He had no contact with them for some time, and he’d come over and unload his worries at this very table. That is, until Evie started sending him letters, and after your mother's unfortunate death, he started visiting Evie again. He’d tell me all about you whenever he came back. Told me how proud he was of you, how he worried for you growing up without a pack. I never thought I’d see the day I’d meet you. Congratulations, by the way, you two. This one”— she said, kicking Carter under the table and smirking—“is a good one.” I set my empty cup on the table, and she grabbed it, looking down into the herbs left in the bottom. She made a small sound in her throat before collecting Carter’s. She just nodded and huffed. “Divide, however, is full of demons. I suggest you decide to do something about that or move on from here. The darkness that will grow and fester here is far darker than that which you have come from,” she said cryptically. “The goddess gave you a gift, don’t waste it.” My eyes found Carter’s.