Page 71 of Tangled Fates

She mastered the art of clothing herself after her shift.

“I don’t know what the hell has gotten into you or how in the world I’m going to help if you don’t fucking talk to me,” she said as she stalked toward me, keeping her stare locked with mine, “but if you don’t cut it the fuck out right now, I’m done.”

I blew air through my nose. I’m not talking about this right now. Get out of my way.

She stood off to the side and held out her arm. “Then, go. You think you’re so big and bad, lecturing me about running off when you’re about to do the same. So, go on. Be the big, bad wolf. But our mating bond isn’t fucking important right now. There are bigger things at stake than how many men get to pile-drive me for the rest of my life. Got it?”

Dean chuckled. You tell him.

I growled as I turned my face toward him. Shut the fuck up.

“No,” Raven said as she stepped back into my vision, “you shut the fuck up, Hudson. Now, go run off and be a hypocrite, or get your ass back inside so we can figure out what the hell to do about Brody. But I’m not fighting you another step of the way just because life screwed you over and now you want to take it out on me. Got it?”

I leveled my gaze with hers. Hell of a set of words coming out of your mouth.

She scoffed, but I saw the hurt behind her eyes. “Yeah, a wise man once knocked some sense into me. But it seems like he doesn’t have that same sense of his own. Come on Dean. Levi. We’ve got work to do.”

I watched as she stormed back into the house, her hips swaying, and her fists balled up at her sides. I hated that she was upset. I hated that I had caused her to get so upset. And she was right. I had become a hypocrite, barking at her for always running off when I was about to do the same. This was different, though. We weren’t talking about the well-being of an entire pack.

Which, when I thought about it, again proved her point.

“You happy now?” Dean asked.

“Like it didn’t take us weeks to get her to this point,” Levi said as he marched up behind Dean. “You could’ve ruined everything just now. You know that, right?”

I’m sorry. It’s just?—

Dean scoffed as he shook his head. “You better be sorry.”

What did you just say?

Levi held out his arms as he walked backwards toward the house. “You don’t get any room to be upset right now. So, deal with it.”

I said I was sorry!

“Then, you better fucking act like it,” Levi said as he turned his back to me.

Dean drew in a deep breath through his nose. “Look, I get it. With everything that happened with Lila? You’ve got every right to feel the way you do. You just don’t get to process it now. There’s too much at stake.”

I slowly shifted back into my human form. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to sharing her like this. I don’t know if I can.”

Dean patted my shoulder. “Then, you don’t have to. You know as well as I do that fated mates aren’t set in stone. The universe can show you, but you don’t have to take it. You can walk your own path.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I murmured.

“But maybe don’t think of it as sharing.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “And how do you propose I do that?”

He slid his hands into his pockets. “I mean, we all have our own unique, individual way with Raven. It’s not like she treats us all the same, and that’s a good thing because it’s not like we’re the same people. I know she loves each of us equally, even if each relationship appears different.”

“You make it sound so… easy.”

His hand slid off my shoulder. “Just like we bring out the better parts of her, she brings out the better parts of us. And if you can’t find a way for that to be enough, then you can always carve out your own path like Lila did.”

My eye twitched. “Is that supposed to guilt trip me into something?”

“No,” he said as he turned around and walked backwards toward the house, “it’s supposed to show you that you have options. So, either way, there’s no use in taking it out on us. You have to make the best decision for you, but you also have to understand that you can’t have everything your way. Sometimes, the universe simply knows better.”

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