Page 23 of Tangled Fates

“I bet that conversation went well,” I murmured.

“It was the beginning of our downfall, to be frank.”

I raked my hands through my hair. “Yeah, yeah, I garnered that from your letter.”

As I slid my hands down my face, I tried to process what he was saying. So, Dean had seen the reel, but I hadn’t? The other guys hadn’t? That didn’t seem right. I thought upon Hudson and Lila. I thought about the pain he experienced with her betrayal. My heart broke at the pain he held near and dear to his heart, and it spun me off into another round of questions.

“What would make that happen?” I asked.

“What would make what happen?” Dad asked.

I cleared my throat. “What would make one person see a reel of another, but the other person doesn’t see it?”

He drew in a deep breath. “There are things about this universe that even we can’t explain.”

“So, it’s just hit or miss? Doesn’t really sound like the universe I’ve come to know.”

“This meadow you’re standing in? This is where the source of our power comes from, and even I don’t understand how it works. All I know is that some people are destined to be with one another, but all parties involved have to be ready to receive it.”

All, not both. “And if someone’s not ready to receive it?”

His eyes grew sad. “Then, they never see the reel. At least, that’s what I believe.”

“So, you’re not certain.”

“I theorized over the years, but I found nothing concrete in my research. Your mother and I, we loved one another greatly, and even in the afterlife I know that I’d never love anyone else the way I loved you and your mother. I don’t know why she never saw the reel. Some say it was because she was human. Others say it’s because even though the universe has something planned for us, we have the ability to make our own decisions. I think it’s simpler than that, though.”

“What do you think it is?”

He smiled softly. “I think it’s one of the great mysteries of the universe that we simply aren’t meant to understand.”

I never pictured my father as one to give a cop-out answer like that. Especially when shit didn’t make sense. He meant to tell me that, even though we had these incredible powers given to us by evolution or whatever, that we didn’t understand how fated mates worked?

That didn’t sit well with me. There was an answer for everything else, but not this? That sounded like some hinky bullshit. But as my brain kicked back into gear, I rattled off the most frequented question my brain kept focused on.

“Do you trust Brody, Dad?”

He narrowed his eyes as his tone of voice grew pointed. “Why? What has he done?”

“That question tells me all that I need to know. Why do things seem off with him? Why do I want to keep an eye on him?”

He drew in a deep breath. “Brody always wanted to be an alpha. Always gunning for ways to prove himself. Always biting off more than he can chew. I’ve felt that about him ever since he took a place within my Inner Circle. With you gone, he was the next bloodline relative to be named Alpha once I decided to step down.”

“Or once you were killed,” I said flatly.

He nodded. “Exactly. He would have been named Alpha, had you not come back.”

“Is that why you named me Alpha? So that I would come back? Or was it to keep Brody from taking over? Because I knew nothing about this life until you thrust me into it. Until that lawyer of yours called me out of the blue and?—”

He took the smallest step toward me. “Can’t it be both? Can’t I want everything good for my pack and kill multiple birds with one stone?”

I shook my head. “It’s more than that. With you, it was always more. Everything was always so damn calculated, even when I was a kid. That much I remember. So, tell me: why the hell did you name me Alpha?”

“I’m so sorry, Lovebug. I’m sorry that it’s all you remember from?—”

“Tell me why!” I bellowed.

And as my voice echoed throughout the treetops that surrounded us, Dad’s voice carried the truth of everything toward my ears.

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