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Fifty One
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FATED ESCAPE Fifty Two
The guilt flooding through me is nearly overwhelming because no one deserves to have their mind broken. “I didn’t—that wasn’t—”The venom in Bree’s gaze silences my stuttering apology because it’s clear there’s no point. I’ve made myself her enemy and nothing I say or do will change that. It’s all right there in her gold-eyed glare.“His wolf attacked me. Nearly killed me,” she says, in a deceptively mild voice, as her eyes burn with rage. “Me. His mate.”I don’t speak. I don’t have the words to say a thing.“He says your name in the night. Sometimes he talks about the baby. He pretends not to remember, says he was just talking nonsense, but I know he does.” Bree’s next laugh is brittle. “His father had to come and save me. Oh, he had such fun rubbing it in my face that Shane would always view you as his mate. That his wolf would never let him forget he walked away from his child.”I shake my head as I will her to understand. “No, Shane didn’t want the child. He said—”“It doesn’t mat
FATED ESCAPE Fifty Three
When I feel my muscles waking up, I move to sit up. As I do, I realize that, despite Bree dragging me into this, none of this has anything to do with me. Not anymore.My movement attracts both of their attention. Shane turns to me with eyes filled with anguish that I can feel across the distance separating us.He treated me terribly. He was cruel and abusive. But I know he loved his father. It’s impossible for me not to pity him, even after everything he did to me. “Aerin.”He says my name in a way he never has before, just as he’s looking at me as if he’s seeing me for the first time. “You’ve gained weight.”I nod.Probably has to do with all the bacon Mack has been determined to feed me the last couple of months.His eyes continue to sweep over me before settling on my rounded belly.When his gaze doesn’t move, I curve a hand protectively over myself, remembering what he said about my baby, and remembering that I’m still far closer than I ever want to be to the cliff at my back.He
FATED ESCAPE Fifty four
After I’ve spent several seconds working on my breathing and quieting my panic, I glance up at Mack, because before I start climbing, an act that could still end in my death, I have to look at him again. We lock gazes. “I love you.”He narrows his eyes. “This isn’t you saying goodbye, is it?”I smile. “No. Telling you—hearing you say you love me—seems to give me strength.” His eyes soften. “I love you too.”After swallowing hard, I force myself to release the death grip I have on the protruding piece of rock and reach for the first place to put my hand. I take a second to reassure myself that I have a secure grip, and then I move my left hand.I pull myself up, grateful beyond measure that I have the benefit of being naturally strong because of what I am. If I were a regular human and forced to rely on my upper body strength, I’d have been at the bottom of the cliff before I knew what was happening.Although it feels like it takes an eternity, I find some grooves to rest my toes, easi
FATED ESCAPE Fifty Five
Although I’m not able to control my gift yet, one day I will be. I let her see there is a strength in me that she could never hope to destroy. That my mind is stronger than my body and I can flatten her with mine. She looks away.That’s when I turn back to Mack. “I’m ready now.”He takes my hand and we walk away, Bennett, still in his wolf shape, trailing us.We stop at the clearing near the stream long enough for Mack to dress in the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing before, and slip the rucksack of food containers on his back.On the way to the house, Mack tells me he and Bennett shifted to wolf to come after me when I didn’t return or answer the phone. Since Bree did nothing to hide her tracks, it was easy for him to follow the drag marks through the forest and to the clearing.I fill Mack in on everything that happened, including my mistaken belief that Faith or his father tried to bring a tree down on my head. He listens in silence, and then he scoops me into his arms and refus
FATED ESCAPE Fifty Six
“Our pack here is small—tiny compared to the Boones and the Dacres. But it’s a pack with a Luna who happens to be the most powerful omega of her generation. I might be wrong, but I’m sure a lot of shifters would be happy to live in a place with an alpha who will cook breakfast for them and care about every single one of them. And we have a child on the way. We can grow and keep on growing. We have a future. You’re walking away from yours. So, when our child asks where they came from, I will tell them the truth. Nothing. Because no pack, however strong, however big, can stand long without a future. Just look at the Raleighs.”This time it’s me turning and walking away from him. I don’t make it far.“What are you offering? An heir for the Boones?”I stop and peer over my shoulder. “I’m not offering you anything for something I should already know. A child should know who their mother was and where she came from. I’m not paying for that information. I’m just telling you what will happen
FATED ESCAPE Fifty Seven
“I know this because while I was frying bacon, she turned up at the front door wanting to know if my father had left yet. She also warned me that my father was intent on pushing you and Faith together, something she’d been trying to get me alone to tell me, but never could.”Mack’s expression is unreadable. “So, she’s staying?”I shrug. “I don’t know. I told Bennett to talk to her, that I’d be okay.” A thought suddenly occurs to me. “The Lonergan pack. I forgot to ask—”“Adela hadn’t heard of them and neither have I. She has a lot of friends, so I’m sure she’ll know more in the next couple of days.”I nod. “It’s so strange that I have a name now, but it means nothing to me. I thought I knew most of the packs, but I’ve never heard of the Lonergans.”“We’re a tiny pack,” Mack says as he cards his fingers through my hair, “and no one has ever heard of us. You hadn’t heard of us before. But a name is a good place to start.”“But you weren’t the Winter Lake pack before. What if they’ve ch
FATED ESCAPE Fifty Eight
‘YOU’RE not serious...’Sylvie frowned as she studied the synopsis pinned to the front of the file her employer had just handed her.Lloyd Kelmer the fourth was the kind of eccentric billionaire who, by rights, only ought to have existed in fairy stories—as a particularly genial and indulgent godfather, Sylvie thought. She had been introduced to him at a party to which she had been invited by some acquaintances of her stepbrother’s. She had only gone to the party because she had been feeling particularly lost and insignificant, having only recently left her American college and moved to New York. They had got chatting and Lloyd had begun to tell her about the trials and traumas he had experienced in running the huge wealthy Trust set up by his grandfather.‘The old man had this thing about stately homes, I guess I kinda feel the same.He owned a fair handful of the things himself, so he kinda had a taste for them, if you know what I mean. There was the plantation down in Carolina an
FATED ESCAPE Fifty Nine
‘Just wait until you see it, though, Sylvie. You’ll love it. It’s a perfect example of...’ ‘We’re already very close to the limit of this year’s budget,’ Sylvie warned him sternly, ‘and—’ ‘So what? We’ll just have to increase this year’s funding,’ Lloyd told her with typical laid-back geniality.‘Lloyd,’ Sylvie protested, ‘you’re talking about an increase of heaven alone knows how many million dollars... The Trust...’‘I am the Trust,’ Lloyd reminded her gently, and Sylvie had to acknowledge that he spoke the truth. Even so, she gave him an ironic look to which he responded by informing her loftily, ‘I’m just doing what I know the old man would have wanted me to do...’‘By buying a decaying neoclassical pile in the middle of Derbyshire?’ Sylvie asked him dryly.And she was still shaking her head as Lloyd told her winningly, ‘You’ll love it, Sylvie...I promise you!’Cravenly Sylvie was tempted to tell him that she was far too busy and that he would have to find someone else to take ch
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