Page 37 of Unforgivable Fate

Damn it. He hadn’t meant to trigger her like this. He’d thought the beautiful little clearing with the creek weaving softly through it would be a perfect place for a picnic. It had never occurred to him that this place would be part of Nova’s nightmares, a place where true horrors had happened for her and her family.

He should have asked Barrett. He should have known that if there was a seemingly perfect little spot tucked away in the woods on Crescent land that the wolves who had lived here all their lives would know about it. The fact that he hadn’t scented another wolf anywhere near it when he stumbled into the clearing that first day shouldn’t have filled him with a sense of discovery. It should have filled him with a sense of dread because why else would the Crescent wolves steer clear of it if not because of the awful things that had happened here?

“I’m so sorry.” He whispered against the top of Nova’s head. “I wouldn’t have brought you here if I’d known.”

“How could you have?” Nova groaned against his chest. “It’s not like I’ve opened up and told you about my past and I’m guessing nobody else in the pack has bothered to give you the whole story of what Maddox did either, have they?”

“No.” He admitted when she leaned back to look up at him.

“Nobody wants to talk about it, about him, but…” Nova motioned around them, “It happened. Pretending it didn’t doesn’t do anyone any good. And despite what people want to believe, what I wanted to believe, Maddox wasn’t a monster. He was just a man, a shifter, a wolf with too big an ego and too small a conscience. He was power hungry and yes, he was crazed at the end, but he wasn’t always like that. At least not with me.”

Griffin bit the inside of his cheek but ultimately he had to ask, had to know for sure, “You loved him?”

Nova cringed, “No. Yes. Maybe? I don’t know anymore. I was a kid and he was an adult. I had a crush. I felt a connection to him and he was always kind to me, giving me attention and bringing me presents. I thought he felt the connection too. That maybe someday when I grew up, it would turn into the bond everyone was always talking about.”

She must have seen him flinch because she reached down and took his hand again, lacing their fingers and squeezing.

“I was a child, Griffin. I didn’t understand what a bond even was. I was young and naïve and he took advantage of that to get close to me, to get close to my family.”

“Maybe he wasn’t just using you though.” Griffin frowned. “Maybe he did feel the same connection that you felt, but it wasn’t what you thought. Maybe it was the family tie we shared, even then, maybe you saw him as a potential love interest but it’s possible if he was good to you then he saw you as a little sister. Because that’s what you’d have been to him once we mated, if fate is really all powerful and she set all of this in motion to bring us together, he could have truly felt for you, Nova.”

“I know.” Her voice was so soft he barely heard it over the wind in the trees and the water in the stream.

“You know?”

“Yeah. That’s part of the reason I went to talk to Zoey that first day when we walked to town.” Nova released his hand and sighed, “Are we really going to talk about this? About him and everything that happened?”

“Do you want to talk about him?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Not really.” She shrugged, “But maybe we should. To clear the air once and for all.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do.” Griffin looked around and shrugged, “I thought this would be a nice place for a romantic picnic. Turns out it is a deathbed of nightmares. We may as well lay out the blanket and pop the wine I brought if we’re going to do this right.”

Nova chuckled a little, “Yes to the wine. And the blanket. Please.”

“Anything you want.” He put the basket down and looked up at her from beneath his lashes, “I told you that.”

He would have sworn that the tips of Nova’s ears flushed which made him smile. He opened the basket and pulled out the blanket he’d put at the top. He unfolded it and Nova took two of the corners, helping him to place it neatly on a soft section of green grass. She started to move back to the basket to help him unpack it but he waved her off.

“Sit. I’ll get the rest of it.”

She looked like she wanted to argue but since he was already kneeling down across from her on the blanket and placing warm dishes in the middle she sat as well. She unbuckled her sandals and put them aside before tucking her feet beneath her. She watched him spread out the trays of meats, cheeses, vegetables and breads and smiled.

“Sandwiches? Our first date and you brought sandwiches?”

He grinned, “I like sandwiches.”

“So do I but they’re not exactly date food.”

“Says who?”

“Says me.” She laughed, snatching up a square of cheddar and tossing it in her mouth. “And everyone else who has ever packed a romantic picnic with something other than sandwiches.”

Griffin laughed with her, “In case you forgot, we hiked out here through the woods. Sandwiches are light and easy to carry. Besides, I don’t know what you like to eat yet so I figured a variety of meats, cheeses and breads would give you some options.”

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