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Thirty Two
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FATED ESCAPE Thirty Three
Now that the shock of coming face to face with a Raleigh has worn off, his feelings about an alpha who’s happy to cook breakfast for everyone while dressed in sweats as rumpled as mine are rising to the surface.He only has to look in Mack’s direction for me to note the derision in his eyes. He doesn’t view Mack as a worthy alpha; that much is clear. At the moment he’s acting distant, but if Mack keeps defending me, soon it’ll turn into anger, and with his enforcer in the room, I know what will happen if my father’s mood turns: Another alpha challenge and one Mack is unlikely to survive.Briefly, I peek over at Adela, who is undoubtedly the only one looking at ease in the room. If things come to it, she’ll use her gift to stamp out the aggression before it can explode, but I’d rather it didn’t come to that. I’d rather we all got through this breakfast as fast as humanly possible, and my father walked out of the front door and didn’t come back again. But that won’t happen.My father w
FATED ESCAPE Thirty Four
“My father…” I try to wrestle my anger back when I feel it surging at the thought of him. “He rarely ever talked about her, at least not to me. What little I know about her I know from his beta, Moses.”When I glance at Adela sitting on the lounger beside me, her expression is unchanged, but there’s a faint line between her brows.Seeing it has me leaning close and resting my head against hers. “Thanks, Adela.”I feel her smile against my cheek. “What for?”I go back to staring at the growing roots. “I’ve learned that when someone annoys you, you get this line right between your brows.”“Is that true?”“Yes, which can only mean one thing.” I glance over at her and find her wearing an innocent expression. A far too innocent one.“And that one thing is what, child?”That the person who’s annoyed you is my father.“That you have my back,” I say. “That you care.”She curves an arm around my back and draws me into a hug. “Don’t be silly, of course I care.”“Is that all you’re going to
FATED ESCAPE Thirty Five
When I swing around to find out why he’s stopped, I discover his face is utterly blank. I take a step back from him because, while his face may be devoid of expression, I glimpse fury burning in his eyes.I get nervous, because even though he’s never lifted a hand toward me, he doesn’t have to. I’m alone in the forest with him and his enforcer, who not only knows where all the bodies of the Boone pack’s enemies have been buried, but he’s also the one who did the burying.“It has been over a year since we were face to face,” he begins, in a deceptively soft voice.I feel my body tensing, because even though this is my father speaking, no shifter wants to be face- to-face with an enraged alpha. Even if that enraged shifter is family.“So perhaps you’ve forgotten how to speak to your father. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that I am not only the man who helped give you life but stood between you and the attempts made to carry you away in the middle of the night.”I frown because this is new. “W
FATED ESCAPE Thirty Six
The worst thing about the house being so full is that I can’t even talk to him about all the worries and anxieties running riot in my mind because everyone in the house would hear them. With my father already thinking me weak and incapable, the last thing I’d want is for him to discover new ways that I’m lacking.As I lie wrapped up in Mack’s arms, I find my mind turning to the Dacre pack.Shane killing his father still doesn’t make sense to me. And especially not now. If he was going to do it, he’d have done it when his father was pushing us together, not after I’d left him.But maybe my father is right; maybe I broke something in his mind.It seems possible. Even though I didn’t stay long after hitting Shane with pure emotion, Bennett said he lay whimpering for a long time. With no idea how to control this strange ability, who knows what kind of damage I did?“Aerin?” Mack murmurs. “I can feel you thinking, and I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say it’s about nothing good.”
FATED ESCAPE Thirty Seven
That’s when it hits me that I’m going to have to tell Mack what his fated mate tried to do. How I’m going to do that without it seeming like I’m jealous and looking for a reason to get rid of her, I have no idea.But she came here with a recent trauma. Maybe it wasn’t her at all. Maybe she’s running from someone trying to hurt her, and whoever tried to kill me with a tree mistook me for her.It seems plausible. More plausible than Faith trying to kill me for what I did to her.“Why the hell didn’t you just hit them with your dangerous curse-like gift?” I mutter beneath my breath as I brush the dirt from my sweatpants.“Then you’d have had all the evidence in the world to show Mack,” I continue as I head for home, because the thought of staying in the forest any longer is suddenly no longer appealing.Now, all the sounds I found restful moments before just put me on edge. Every twig snapping or scuttling animal has me jerking my head to peer through the brush with a racing heart.All
FATED ESCAPE Thirty Eight
“Then what compelled him to clue me in on where my daughter had run off to? Surely there was something he wanted out of it. No one acts without wanting something.”For a moment there’s silence, then Bennett speaks. “The garage is a hobby, not a job. And what I want is not in your power to give me.”I glance over at Mack to see how he’s taking my father’s attempt to steal his beta. I’m not expecting to find him shaking his head with a faint smile on his lips.Instead of intervening, he turns to me. “You want more bacon, Aerin?”I lower my head to take in the dish of golden, crispy bacon in the middle of the table. It’s my weak spot, and he knows it.But today, no amount of crispy bacon is going to be enough to convince me to stay sitting at this table any longer than necessary. Not when I know that it’s only a matter of time before someone says something that will trigger an argument, or even worse, a fight.And I know just who the two combatants will be.My eyes go to Connall to disc
FATED ESCAPE Thirty Nine
A moment passes in silence as if everyone’s picturing what that would look like. Or maybe they, just as I am, are thinking of the Raleigh pack and how quickly the aggression spread without Connall there to exert his control to stop it.Why would he leave? He had to have known what would happen if he walked away from a pack as aggressive as the Raleighs were. Was it grief for his dead mate that made him not care anymore?Connall breaks the silence. “Well, whatever this training guiding thing is doesn’t sound the least bit interesting to me. Certainly not as interesting as that other thing Aerin can do.”Now I know someone told him about what I did to Faith, and one swift glance around the table reveals Penny ducking her head. But not before I glimpse her flushed cheeks and the guilt in her eyes.I should’ve known it’d be her. No one likes to gossip the way Penny does.I clear my throat. “It was an accident. I didn’t—"Connall interrupts me. “I’m sorry I missed it. Who’d have thought
FATED ESCAPE Forty
I’m not expecting to find Adela sitting with a tranquil expression on her face, as if we aren’t about to have an epic alpha challenge blow up in the next two seconds.Before I can offer to go get Mack, or suggest that we, you know, run for our lives, she murmurs words so low beneath her breath that I almost miss them. “Pay attention, and close your eyes.”Closing my eyes right before a battle between two alphas erupts behind me is the absolute last thing I want to do. But I trust Adela enough to do as she says.As soon as I close my eyes, I feel her tap my head. A sign to pay attention, to focus.It takes a few seconds because I’m anything but calm right now and my heart is racing as panic kicks in, but eventually I do.And that’s when I see the thin silvery threads swirling around her. I know there’s physically nothing there. What I’m seeing is her gift, or rather, a physical representation of it.I track those strong, silvery strands to a soul pulsing with so much red and orange tha
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