Page 39 of Tangled Fates

The whole of my heart shattering in an instant.

“Hudson,” I whispered.

He whipped around, breaking our connection. “Don’t.”

I looked up at him through the hair that had matted itself to my face with the rain. “You’re not losing me. You know that, right? Even if I can’t be Alpha to this pack, which very may well be true still, I can’t just abandon this part of my life. My father was part of this life, and if I want to stay connected with him in some way, I can’t just turn my back on you guys the way my mother did.”

His brooding brown gaze locked with mine. “Petal.”

I blinked. “What?”

He tilted his head. “Her name was Lila, but I called her petal because she always loved venturing into the woods to pick morning glories and lilacs for a vase in her bedroom.”

My heart melted at the mere thought. “Beautiful nickname.”

“Beautiful girl.”

I smiled softly before it faltered. “What really happened to her, Hudson?”

He drew in a deep breath and leveled his gaze over my head, staring off as a storm raged around us. “Lost love and all that. Not really complicated.”

“And you never thought it was weird? Or off? Like it shouldn’t have happened in the first place?”

He looked down at his feet. “Look, all I’ll say is this: I know what it’s like for the universe to tell us one thing, and then deliver another. So, understand that I’m telling you this story not for you to feel sorry for me, but for you to understand that the universe never has the last say. Ultimately, the universe can only show us what we’re able to have should we strive toward it, but the universe promises nothing.”

I shook my head softly. “And with all of the explanations you guys have for everything that goes on around this place, you never thought that sounded off? Or weird? Or… not right?”

He eyed me carefully. “What are you saying?”

Did I really know what I was saying? “I don’t know. Just… been thinking a lot.”

Hudson nodded his head as he gazed off over mine, and my hand moved as if it had a mind of its own. It gravitated toward his cheek, itching to touch his skin as the sensation of his heat reached out to my own. I slid my fingertips along his stubble. I watched him lean his cheek into my palm as I cupped it softly. And as I took a step toward him, bringing our bodies closer than ever, I couldn’t help but ask.

“What did she do to you?”

He nuzzled softly against my palm. “I saw it, you know. Plain as day the first time I ever laid eyes on her.”

“The reel,” I said softly.

He nodded. “They say that when you lay your eyes upon your fated mate and the time is right, you’ll see your entire life with them flash before your very eyes. From the first moment I laid eyes on Lila, I saw it. I saw us, and our union. Our children, and our pack. I saw us growing old, and I loved her from the moment I saw her wrinkled hand interlocked with mine at the end of it all.”

“That sounds beautiful,” I said as I stroked his cheek with my thumb.

“But,” he said as he pulled away from me, “she ran off with a human.”

I blinked. “Wait, what?”

He put some space between our bodies. “Yeah. She cheated on me during a trip into Portland that was only supposed to be for supplies she couldn’t find for herself here. And apparently, she met someone she enjoyed more than me. Before I knew it, she was gone, and the whole pack practically broke themselves trying to look for her.”

“That’s horrible.”

His gaze quickly crashed back down to mine. “Which is why I won’t allow you to do it to us all over again. If you want to run back to your human world, that’s fine. That’s your choice, and you have every right to make it. But you won’t be doing it without informing the pack. They’ve chased after enough people who didn’t love them enough to stick around.”

It explained so much about him that it had me rooted with shock. As rain battered to the ground around us, splashing our legs with dirt, wind whipped through the trees. I watched Hudson turn toward the pack, his back straight and his muscles tightened, as if he were preparing for an onslaught. And as I looked at him through this new lens he had given me, I realized why he didn’t trust his temper. Why he didn’t trust anything, or anyone, really. Especially his heart.

He was afraid to fall all over again and get hurt.

“Hudson?” I asked softly.

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