Page 29 of Unforgivable Fate

“Yeah, it was.” Griffin stepped closer to her. “Maybe we could do it again sometime soon?”

“Maybe.” Nova tried and failed to hide a smile.

“I better get going before he decides he has to protect your honor by coming back here and beating me to a pulp.”

“We wouldn’t want that.”

“We wouldn’t?” He raised an eyebrow.

“What? You think I’d let him mess up that pretty face? Not a chance.”

They grinned at one another for too long. She knew it was silly. It was like having a childhood crush all over again. But that thought managed to break through her happiness and remind her that her last childhood crush had been Griffin’s brother and they all knew how badly that had turned out.

“I should go.” She glanced away, uncertain of how to extract herself from the situation she had started in a graceful way.

“See you again soon?”

He sounded so hopeful. She didn’t want to dash his dreams. But as much fun as the last few minutes had been, as incredible as it was to realize that their connection was already strong enough to power her through an intense vision, she really did need some more time to think everything through before she let her wolf sink her fangs into this man.

“Yeah.” She nodded, because as much as she might want to put distance between them, she had a feeling that fate, and her wolf, and the mating heat, would have something else to say on the matter. “See you soon.”

She turned and walked out the gate without so much as a backwards glance. She passed Barrett where he was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, looking for all the world like the badass Enforcer he had been meant to be before Maddox Clary got his claws in him. He smirked at her but she didn’t have another round of banter in her, not now that she’d been reminded of just why she was hesitant to let fate run its course with Griffin.

She ducked her head and walked quickly home. She needed to get as far from Griffin as she could right now and the sanctuary of her house seemed like the best place to be. Nobody would bother her there. Hopefully. And maybe in the tranquility and peace of her safe space, she would be able to reconcile wanting a man that posed such a danger to her family’s safety and her own.

History couldn’t repeat itself. She wouldn’t let it. So even if her own future was dark to her, she would do her best to reach into the future of the rest of her family and find out as much as she could about what would happen if she continued down the path that led to mating Griffin and spending the rest of her life as his wife.

Then and only then, would she be confident enough to do what she needed to do next.

CHAPTER TEN

Nova had spent hours pacing around her house, unable to calm her racing heart or the insistent urge to run back to Griffin and leap into his arms. She wanted him. Her body ached for him, for his touch and more of his kisses. But she was logical enough to know that was just the heat of the mating and she wasn’t going to give in to it that easily.

It had only been a couple of days. She didn’t know him well enough. She still wasn’t entirely sure she could trust him. And she didn’t want to make another mistake that would hurt her family. She wasn’t ready to seal the bond and that meant she couldn’t give in and go beg Griffin to kiss her until all the voices in her head went quiet and there was nothing left but the overwhelming urge to bare her throat for him.

If there was anyone in the world who would understand the predicament she was in, it was her brother. After all, Darius had delayed their mating for weeks after they’d met and the bond had sparked. He’d said he needed time to work out his personal issues and get everything settled with the Moirae Pack before he could seal the bond with Leo. She had still been young then but she remembered the tension that had mounted between the two of them.

It was only later that she’d realized some of that tension had been sexual and it was only now, when she was facing her own mating heat, that she realized just how overwhelming it must have been for them. Putting off the mating once the bond had formed wasn’t just difficult. It was downright maddening.

She’d thought she was dealing with it pretty well until today. Today, Griffin had kissed her. He had finally kissed her and she had kissed him back. He had touched her and she had let him. More than that, she had wanted him to touch her. She’d wanted so much more than just that one gentle kiss and so she had taken more and more and more and now she couldn’t get the idea of it, or him, out of her mind.

She knew that going to Leo was the rational move but she just couldn’t make herself do it. Leo might be her Pack Alpha. He might have been her surrogate father figure after their parents were gone. He might have helped raise her and even dealt with some pretty sensitive topics like when she got her period or having the conversation about the birds and the bees. But he was also still her big brother and she could too easily imagine the horrified look on his face if she tried to talk to him about the mating heat and just how desperate she was for Griffin’s touch on her skin or what she might be able to do to staunch it for just a little while longer.

She contemplated going to one of her sisters but dismissed that idea just as quickly. Maya had tried to put off her mating bond with Zander and ultimately decided it was the biggest waste of time ever. Luna and Michael had sealed their bond within hours and so had Zoey and Rafe. They’d all made it clear when they were at her back door that they thought she needed to put the past behind her and get on board with this mating.

None of them were going to be any help in finding a way to delay the inevitable.

Finally, with no other ideas and the itch only growing worse, Nova dropped her clothes at the backdoor and stepped out onto her porch. She walked several yards out into the forest before she allowed the shift to come, letting her wolf take over the way it had been clawing to do for days now. She kept a tight rein on her animal side, reminding her that they were not going in search of their mate, and steered the animal deeper into the woods. Her wolf fought her at first, wanting to sniff out Griffin’s scent, track him down and sink her fangs into him, but when Nova threatened to take back control and shift back to her human form the animal finally gave in.

She was happy enough to be free that she abided by Nova’s strict rule and took off running through the woods in the opposite direction of where Barrett lived, and where Griffin’s scent was likely the strongest.

Her wolf ran at full speed. She darted around trees and over fallen logs. She raced after a rabbit and howled when she lost it in a hollow where she couldn’t follow. She splashed in the water once she hit the river and she smacked at fish, batting them into the air before letting them drop back into the stream and swim on their way. Her wolf ran and played for hours and Nova sat back and let the wolf expend all the energy they had cooped up inside of them from fighting the mating heat and the bond.

It was only when the sun started to set that she guided her wolf to head back towards home. The wolf wasn’t happy about it. She wanted to watch the sun set. She wanted to howl and listen for her packmates. She wanted to find them and play but Nova had to remind her that she would have plenty of time to see her friends when the full moon rose and not until. With a huff of annoyance that Nova felt all the way to her soul, her wolf headed back home at a lope.

Almost as soon as they got near her house, the wolf scented Griffin and all of her fur stood on edge. Nova strained for the surface, trying to spark the change before her wolf got any ideas about running off to find him. She’d forgotten that she’d let him into the backyard when she took the shortcut into Noir with him the other day. It was why she hadn’t shifted on her back porch to start with but after the hours of letting the wolf run it had slipped her mind. Now all the energy she’d thought was dispelled into exhaustion was back and it took every ounce of her strength to force the wolf back down and find her human skin again.

Nova panted as she lay on the grass in her backyard. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She felt helpless and she hated feeling helpless more than anything in the world. She didn’t know what to do. Fate clearly wanted her to seal the bond and mate with Griffin but she just wasn’t ready and she wasn’t sure how or when she would be.

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