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Sixty Five
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FATED ESCAPE Fifty Six
‘Why not?’ Sylvie had questioned curiously, her adoring teenage heart thumping frantically at the thought of being married to Ran, of being his wife, of sharing his life, his bed… A delicious shiver of anticipatory pleasure had run through her as she’d willed her stepbrother to say that there was a mysterious someone in Ran’s life, far too young for him as yet, a special someone...herself…But instead, disappointingly, prosaically, Alex had told her, ‘An estate manager’s salary and tied accommodation in a small cottage are hardly up to the standard or style of living that the women Ran dates are used to, and he’s far too proud to want to live off his wife...’‘The women...?’ Sylvie had flared unhappily, whilst her mother, who had been listening to their conversation, had chipped in disparagingly.‘Ran would be far better off marrying some farmer’s daughter, a girl who’s been brought up for that kind of lifestyle...’Sylvie remembered how Alex’s eyebrows had risen at this display of s
FATED ESCAPE One
Finding my mate was supposed to be the best day of my life. Not the worst.Everyone told me I should be lucky to have someone as beautiful as the blond- haired, blue-eyed, golden-skinned alpha, Shane Dacre, as my mate.How can anyone feel lucky with a mate who only laughed when they were walking away from you?For a year I took it.I swallowed it all down: all the pain from his secret cruelties, all the disgust in his eyes when he looked at me, all the fury at my standing in the way of his true happiness.I ate it until nothing tasted the same. Until even my food tasted bitter.It wouldn’t have been so bad if the old alpha, Shane’s father Iain, wasn’t pushing so hard for an heir.The most stable packs had an alpha who prepared for the next generation, his father loved to remind Shane at every opportunity with a pointed look aimed my way.But the heir had to come from his mate’s body. Mine.And so, he came to my bed, still smelling of her. The long blonde-haired, golden-eyed, and equal
FATED ESCAPE Two
Slowly, I turn in a circle and my eyes connect with the guy filling up a battered truck at the gas station. Or at least, that was what it looked like he’d been doing before he scented me, just as I scented him.Without taking his eyes off of me, he shoves the gas pump back in its slot and straightens from his lean against the truck.When he takes a step away from the truck he’s filling, I get my first unobstructed view of his body.He’s big. At least six feet, which puts him about the same height, if not build, as Shane. This shifter is more heavily muscled than Shane is not that anyone could describe Shane as lean.My mate has the sort of muscles most women sigh over, something I know all too well because before I knew what my life would be like in the Dacre pack, I sighed just as loudly as they did.I feel panic surging at the sight of this shifter’s heavy muscles and the narrow-eyed steel-gray stare, which tells me he can only be one thing.Alpha.My duffel slides off my shoulder a
FATED ESCAPE Three
Confusion swirls in his eyes. “Look, we have no intention of forcing you to stay. You can leave whenever you want.”I open my mouth.“Once you’re well enough.” He cuts in smoothly as he retreats to the doorway.Narrowing my eyes, I examine him more closely. He might have kind eyes, but he’s no pushover.And he seems the sort that can persuade you to do things you don’t want to. My lips are thin.A charmer then, like Shane Dacre.“And once the bus arrives.”Shit. The bus. The driver would’ve gone. Five minutes, he said. It could’ve been five days, and I’d be none the wiser. Just as I’m poised to ask what day it is and how long I’ve been here, he speaks. “Why would you think we’d force you to stay?” His question is quiet, and his gaze never leaves my face. This wolf doesn’t seem the sort to miss anything.I’d better be damn careful what I say around him.“I can’t imagine you have many shifter women here,” I say evasively.“We have some.” As if sensing my unease, he breaks eye contact
FATED ESCAPE Four
Since Shane came to our room, which was really only my room three times a week, I guess it has to be recent. If I was a couple of months along, there’s no way I wouldn’t have known it before I left.Even if I’d somehow overlooked it, one of the packs would’ve noticed my scent changing. I’m sure I only missed it when I was running because every day meant being somewhere new, with unfamiliar scents and smells. That and my desperate fear distracting me that Shane or his father were only one step behind me, ready to drag me back to a place I’d have no hope of leaving again.Soon I’ll start showing, and then eventually they’ll be a child which brings with it another fear. A deeper one that never leaves me. At twenty-two and being a rare type of shifter, I’ve never had to fend for myself before since I went straight from my father’s pack to Shane’s.I need to find a way to support us both. If I can’t, then I’m going to have to go back to Shane and that’s something I swore I would never do.
FATED ESCAPE Five
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t completely naked because I was and still am in my panties, but that’s still a whole lot more skin than I wanted him to see. And he covered me with a sheet, which means he didn’t want to see any more of me either.“Don’t worry, I didn’t see much.”His quiet voice has me spinning my head to my other side, cutting off a cry of pain when my leg twinges, and there on the floor beside the bookcase, with a book draped over a raised denim covered knee, is Mack.I should’ve known he was already in the room, but with his scent everywhere, I wasn’t paying attention.“Uh, thanks?” “No worries.”After closing the book, he shoves it back in the bookcase before rising smoothly to his feet. I’m desperate to know what he was reading, but I’m also desperate for him to leave so I don’t have to look into his face and know he saw me naked, stretched out on the floor like a beached whale.I know I’m not fat since I’m built like most shifters, lean and athletic, but still…At the doo
FATED ESCAPE Six
For the first time, he talks directly to me, like I’m stupid, but he talks to me. Which I guess is something. “I don’t understand why. In your pack doesn’t your al—”“What Bennett means,” Mack interrupts, making my eyes widen with shock because a beta interrupting an alpha like that is practically unheard of, “is that there are different dynamics in all packs. His role doesn’t mean he’s always the only one giving orders.”I stare at him in confusion. “But that’s what an alpha does. Give orders.”Penny has a coughing fit and Mack turns to clap her on the back. Once she’s stopped, he continues speaking. “Things are a little more fluid here.”Since I’ve never heard, or seen any pack dynamic like this—where the beta can order the alpha to do something and there’s no pushback, I shift my focus back to Bennett to see what he’s making of all this.Bennett’s expression is completely blank. “Alpha,” he murmurs.“Alpha,” Mack repeats with a wide smile. “Now, did you want more bacon, Aerin?”I l
FATED ESCAPE Seven
Although Adela stops wrapping to glance up at me, she doesn’t call me a liar, and neither does Mack, though they must be able to tell I’m not being entirely truthful.Mack’s eyes dip to my stomach. “Did you want to talk to Adela about the baby while she’s here? I can wait outside if you want?”You mean why did I run away from my mate? Uh, no thanks.They, Adela at least, think I’ve been abused. I caught her glances as if she were searching out bruises or cuts, but it’s pointless. Not just because we shifters heal too fast to leave lasting bruises. There are some wounds, some hurts that aren’t on the outside. They cut too deep for that.The worst was the indifference, I think. The way Shane would turn away when I was speaking as if what I had to say wasn’t important, or the way he wouldn’t care if I saw him disappearing with Bree. He’d return still doing up his pants as if he wanted me to know what they’d been doing. And if I somehow missed it, he’d stand next to where I was sitting
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