Page 12 of Unforgivable Fate

“I’m glad to hear that.” Barrett tipped his beer towards him and then a serious look overtook his face, “Respect her boundaries and be good to her. She’s had a rough time and she deserves the best in a mate.”

“I don’t know if I’m the best but…”

“Fate has decided you’re the best for her and that’s good enough for me.” Barrett cut him off, “Don’t prove me wrong. Don’t prove fate wrong or else you’ll have a whole pack full of Alpha wolf big brothers to deal with. She’s like a baby sister to all of us and we’ll tear you apart if you hurt her.”

The warning made Griffin smile, “I appreciate the warning but I told her and I’ll tell you, I’ll never do anything to harm her.”

“Good.” Barrett knocked back the rest of his beer and groaned, “It’s been a long day and I have a feeling tomorrow will be more of the same. I’m headed to bed early. You should tuck in for the night too. You’ll have to face the rest of the pack tomorrow, and Nova again.”

“Yeah. I’ll head to bed shortly.” Griffin nodded. “Thanks for the beer, and for the talk. I appreciate it, Barrett.”

The big man smirked, “Friends call me Bear.”

Tension Griffin hadn’t known was even there released from his shoulders and he smiled, “Goodnight Bear.”

“Night Griffin.”

He watched the other man lumber away down the hallway and sighed. Had he just made his first friend in the Crescent Pack? He hoped so.

Griffin finished his beer and put the bottle in the recycling bin where Barrett had dropped his. He headed to the room that was now his and changed out of his jeans and t-shirt before crawling between the covers. He stared at the ceiling and watched the fan spin in lazy circles but he couldn’t get his mind to stop replaying that scene with Nova in the town square.

The spark of connection. The flare of heat. The dawning horror on her lovely face. The way she had felt in his arms, even unconscious. It had felt so right holding her there, against him, that he hadn’t wanted to let her go.

He had, but only because he’d known that he had no choice.

Winning her over wouldn’t be easy but he would do whatever he had to do. She was his fated mate. She was his and he was hers. She was here, in this place, a powerful Alpha wolf Seer, descended from one of the oldest shifter bloodlines ever documented. She was a Crescent wolf and he belonged with her. He belonged here.

Finally, he had found his home… now he just had to fight to keep it.

CHAPTER FIVE

When the knock sounded on her back door, Nova didn’t need a vision to tell her what was waiting on the other side. She already knew. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and smiled.

They were right on time. Well, actually they were a little bit late. She had thought they would come sooner but just so long as they came and she had a chance to say goodbye then she was convinced that she was doing the right thing.

She’d wanted to throw a bag together and hit the road as soon as possible but of course common sense had forced her to second-guess that plan because the bus that ran through Noir only ran once a day and she figured she may as well spend her last night at home, in her own bed, before she caught it tomorrow morning and left town for good.

She’d come to a decision about what she had to do. It hurt to even think about but it was the only way she knew to reject the bond. She had to run away and get as far from Noir as possible before anyone, especially Griffin Clary, realized she had left. She had to be on the other side of the country if not the world from him so that when the full moon rose and her wolf took control there was no way the animal could find her way back to him in time to seal the bond.

It would destroy her to leave her home, her land, her pack and her family. She had never even considered leaving as a possibility for her future. This was where she belonged. She had always known it, deep inside her soul. But if he was here then she couldn’t be and that only left her one option.

Leaving everyone she loved behind, leaving behind the only life she had ever known, might destroy her but it couldn’t possibly be worse than spending eternity waking up next to Maddox Clary’s brother.

The knocking came again and she stood from where she’d been sitting on the edge of her bed, waiting, and went to answer it.

She didn’t think they would force their way in if she didn’t answer, at least not right away, but she thought it was best to keep up appearances at least for tonight. She would open the door. She would go outside and talk to them. She would listen to everything they had to say and then she would send them on their way, convinced they could talk more tomorrow when in reality she would be half a state away before they realized she was gone.

She couldn’t tell them she was leaving. They’d try to stop her. She knew them well enough to know they wouldn’t let her go without a fight and she didn’t feel like fighting with them on the last night she got to spend here before everything changed.

Since she’d barred her family from entering her house, lest they touch anything that might give her a vision, she knew it would take them precious hours to realize she wasn’t just hiding out at home tomorrow. She didn’t let anyone inside her house. Everything in it had been specially selected by her, made by her or at the very least had been touched by her so many times that there were no visions left entangled in the objects past to surprise her. So long as nobody came inside the house, they couldn’t bring visions of their futures inside with them.

It wasn’t a foolproof plan. She had experienced plenty of visions without touching anyone or anything. But she’d found over the years that the less stimuli she encountered the better chance she had of keeping the normal, everyday visions at bay, and that meant keeping her home as peaceful and undisturbed as possible.

Her home was her sanctuary. It was her safe space. Normally her family didn’t even bother coming to her house because they knew she’d make them sit outside on the back porch and they respected her boundaries. But she’d had a feeling that they would show up tonight, which was why she wasn’t at all surprised when she slipped out the back door and found that it wasn’t just Leo and Darius on the porch but all of them.

Maya and Zander stood near the picnic table talking to Darius. Michael and Leo were discussing something in low voices. Luna was the one closest to her, clearly her oldest sister had been the one knocking, and as soon as Nova saw her, tears she hadn’t realized she was holding back filled her eyes and she launched herself into Luna’s waiting arms.

Her sister wrapped her in a hug, holding her tight and Nova fell apart in a way she hadn’t let herself since she was only a little girl.

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