Page 39 of Unforgivable Fate

“But there is something I do want to explain to you. Something we were talking about earlier. The reason I went to see Zoey that first day, after you convinced me not to run away.”

“Zoey is Rafe’s wife. Michael Hudson’s brother. The one that was human before being mated to Rafe.” He shrugged when Nova raised a brow, “Bear has been schooling me on all the wolf connections.”

“That’s good.” Nova smiled. “And yes, Zoey was human before Rafe came home and scented her as his mate.”

“Came home? I remember something about him leaving the pack for a few years.”

“More than a few.” Nova admitted. “He and his wolf were traumatized after seeing their twin brother gunned down and their parents shot by hunters. He left the pack rather than fight Michael to lead it and he actually only came back when Leo got in touch with him, needing help convincing the Moirae Pack to aid him in taking back his rightful place as Crescent Pack Alpha and saving us.”

“I definitely didn’t know that part. Are you saying that Rafe came back to Noir and the Moirae Pack, where he found out his mate had been all along, because Leo was on the run from Maddox and needed help saving you and your sisters?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Wow.” Griffin shook his head. “That’s…”

“Fate?” Nova finished when he trailed off. “That’s what you were going to say right? Fate?”

“Yeah.” he nodded.

“Because you think fate set all of this in motion, everything that happened with Maddox, just to bring us together.”

“Maybe not just us… maybe Maddox had to happen for everyone in your family to find their mate.” He winced when she frowned. “Hear me out because this is what I’ve learned since being here… Maddox sent Leo fleeing to Moirae territory where he met Darius. They brought Michael to Crescent territory where he found Luna and realized she was his mate. Now you’re telling me that Maddox is the reason Rafe came back to town and found out his mate was Zoey, who coincidentally enough has a brother who is now mated to your other sister, Maya. That’s a lot of cause and effect for it not to be fate, don’t you think?”

Nova scratched her temple, “When you put it like that, it’s hard not to believe it.”

“So explain to me why you went to talk to Zoey the day after I showed up here. Did it have something to do with what I was saying? Cause and effect?”

“Kind of. Maybe. It’s more that…” Nova twisted her lips, “I don’t think you’re going to like what I have to say at first but if you listen to me, I think you’ll see we are arriving at the same point.”

“Okay.” He narrowed his eyes.

“The thing about Zoey is that, before that night Rafe showed up back in Noir, everyone that knew her, everyone in the entire Moirae Pack, knew that she was in love with Michael.” He knew his eyebrows winged up in surprise because Nova rushed on, “They’d been best friends since they were kids. Inseparable. They’d been absolutely convinced that when they came of age that fate would mark them as mates because of the connection between them… but it didn’t happen.”

“And they stayed friends after that?”

“They did. Best friends. Still inseparable.” Nova confirmed. “Zoey loved him and Michael loved her but they could never be together because they weren’t fated. It was a terrible situation that they’d gotten themselves into but for Zoey, it was worse.”

“Because she was human?”

“Because Michael told her that he couldn’t just let her go, let her leave Noir and the pack, even if it would make her life easier not to be around him. He still felt connected to her but it wasn’t like a mate bond.” Nova focused on his face and spoke slowly, “He told her that it felt like his wolf saw her as a sister.”

Griffin furrowed his brow, trying to figure out what that meant and why Nova was making such a point of it. Michael had loved Zoey but not like a mate should. He had loved her like a sister. That was the connection they’d shared. And that was what finally made it click in place for Griffin.

“Because she was Rafe’s mate. Even if they didn’t know it yet. She was always meant to be Rafe’s and being mated to his brother would make Zoey his sister.”

“Exactly.” Nova nodded. “So earlier, when you said that maybe the connection I felt to Maddox was real, that maybe he really did feel it too, I understood what you meant because I’d already talked to Zoey about it. It was the first thing I thought about after I got over the shock that fate would make the brother of the man I hated most in the world my mate.”

Griffin gazed at her in shock and awe. She had figured it out before he had. She had put the pieces together and gone to the only other person she knew who had dealt with something similar. She had done her best to make sense of her conflicting feelings and then she had come back to the pack, and to him, and she had promised to give him a chance.

She was even more incredible than he had realized.

“So you see, I didn’t love Maddox. Not the way you think.”

“The way I think?” He blurted out, surprised by her words.

“I can feel your jealousy whenever I talk about him. It’s the bond. It’s so much stronger after the vision the other day and it’s getting stronger all the time. Strong emotions are easy to sense. Jealousy is a strong emotion but there’s nothing to be jealous of when it comes to Maddox or my silly childhood crush.” Nova snorted, “Trust me, that ended a long, long time ago and the only reason I’m even remembering how I felt about him before everything boiled down to hatred is because of you. It’s because you’re here and it’s bringing it all back up and making me face my past and realize things that I had forgotten or pushed down so far that I didn’t have to think about them.”

“I’m sorry I bring up all the bad memories for you. I wish…”

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