Page 38 of Tangled Fates

But the more I fought against her, the tighter her grip became.

Until her talons dug into my veins and my blood started spilling onto the ground.

Raven. Stop.

She bent her face closely into mine. You gonna get the fuck out of my way with that pompous attitude of yours now?

Depends. Are you going to try and act like you’re not the center of this pack’s world?

I expected her to fight back. To give me some lecture on how she had bested me in strength. But instead, she stepped away from me. She released my body and allowed me to heal before she morphed back into her human form.

Still as naked as always, too.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked breathlessly.

I stood and shifted back into my human form. Clothed, of course.

“You’re going to leave us, aren’t you?”

She balked. “Is that what this is about? Me leaving? You’d rather kill me than just let me leave?”

I shook my head. “I’d rather kill you than allow you to continue to put this pack in danger because you’re pissed that you don’t have every single shred of information ever about your father at the drop of a hat.”

She pointed her finger at me. “You have a responsibility to me just like I have a responsibility to that pack. This only works if it’s a two-way exchange. Have I asked other things of you guys? Absolutely. Have I done things out of order? Yep. Does that give you the right to throw it back in my face because my parents made decisions without my approval? Fuck no.”

I ground my teeth together. “You have to make a decision, one way or another. We’re in the middle of fighting for our lives down there, and everyone is more concerned with whether or not you’re leaving instead of protecting their families. You’ve done that to them. You’ve created such a distraction that?—”

“Then, maybe you should take that up with my father if you don’t like his choice of Alpha. Because trust me, I’m not a fan of it, either. But you guys had no right to withhold Portland from me. You guys had no right to keep from me what you knew about my father’s death, because while he may have been your Alpha, he was my fucking father, Hudson. And that relationship will always trump the one he had with you guys, whether you like it or not.”

I didn’t like the fact that she was right. “Every time you leave, we can’t just keep thinking that you’re gone. That’s the precedence you’ve set with us. You leave, and no one knows whether you’re coming back or not.”

Her face softened. “I’m not abandoning you, if that’s what you think.”

“It’s not what I think, or what anyone else thinks. It’s what we feel whenever we’re around you. And that is something you’ll have to own up to and change. We can’t change that for you.”

She took the smallest step toward me. “You’re afraid of losing me, aren’t you?”

I scoffed. “Don’t be stupid. I barely know you.”

“No, but you are,” she said as she continued to come closer. “You don’t like the fact that?—”

“Fine, you’re right, all right!?”

She paused her movements. “What?”

I turned my back to her. “You’re right. I’m afraid to lose you, and every single fucking time you go running off, I have to prepare myself for the fact that you may never come back. Just like Colin never came back.”

And as the hurtful truth of my selfish words fell from my lips, I closed my eyes. The heavens opened up and rain continued to pour down as thunder rocked the ground we stood upon.

Before the softest touch imaginable warmed my lower back.

13

RAVEN

As rain drenched me in an instant, I walked toward Hudson. He towered over me, his back bursting at the seams with muscles as the rain painted his black clothes against his body. I reached out, my palm gracing the small of his back, and as his body heat penetrated my skin, I felt his sadness.

His hurt.

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