Page 8 of Tangled Fates

“Your parents weren’t fated mates?” Dean asked.

The entire question stopped all of us in our tracks, and almost instantly I watched Raven’s anger melt right off her face. Like an ice cream sitting out in the hot, humid summer sun.

Levi was the first to speak. “Why did they get married, then? If they weren’t fated?”

Raven faltered. “You—you guys didn’t know that?”

I nodded toward the bed. “The letter I found when I came in, did Colin write it?”

She swallowed hard. “Yeah. I guess he meant to send it to me, but never did.”

Dean took a step toward her. “And it said that your mother and him weren’t actually fated mates?”

She nodded solemnly. “Yeah, it did.”

Dean took her by the shoulders and gazed into her eyes, and for the life of me I wanted to chop his motherfucking hands off for touching her.

“You’re right in every single shred of anger you feel,” he said as he spoke with confidence. “You’ve been through hell ever since you got here, and we haven’t made it easy.”

“No one has,” she murmured.

I cleared my throat. “But you have to understand that even the Inner Circle doesn’t know everything. At the end of the day, only Colin had all of the pieces to this damn mystery unfolding in front of us.”

“So,” Levi said as he appeared with a tray full of mugs and the coffee, “get it out of your head that we’re out to get you. Because we’re not.”

Raven closed her eyes and locked her hands above her head. “All right. Okay. Let’s—let’s just… start at the beginning.”

Watching her attempt to control her anger instead of spew it gave me hope. Maybe she was finally abandoning the drain on her energy in favor of finding answers.

At least, I hoped, anyway.

“What do you guys originally know about my father’s death?” she asked.

I chuckled. “Guess she’s not mincing words any longer, huh?”

She shot me a look. “When do I ever do that?”

Dean smiled. “Never.”

Levi handed her a fresh mug of coffee. “We know that Colin snuck out beneath all of our noses and ended up in Portland.”

She took a long pull from her drink. “What else?”

Dean knelt down in front of her. “We also know that he lost control of his wolf in Portland.”

I shook my head. “We assume that’s what happened. No one ever confirmed that with us.”

Raven swallowed hard. “Elias confirmed it for me. He lost control of his wolf when he got into Portland.”

Dean shrugged as he massaged her foot. “But outside of that, we know nothing of what happened to him.”

“That’s why we’re as spun out as you are,” I said.

Raven scoffed. “Whatever.”

Levi sat beside her on the bed. sighed. “We were already suspicious of Colin’s death. That’s why some of this information shocks us, but some of it doesn’t. We knew there was foul play involved, but we don’t know how. Or who. Or even why.”

Raven looked up at me. “You guys know nothing else?”

---