Page 41 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

“Listen,” I blurted. My hand reaching out reflexively for hers. “I want to tell you how sorry I am. I wasn’t thinking clearly when I said what I said. There were other variables that I hadn’t considered but I see them now. I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Sasha.”

“What?” She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you mean by variables?”

I shook my head, reluctant to reveal the possibility that the prophecy she had received was not from The Fates. The point of talking to her was to ease her mind, not frighten or upset her more. I had to think fast.

‘Why not just tell her the truth,’my wolf offered.

‘I can’t. It will make her think she’s some kind of vessel for evil still.’

‘You don’t have to tell her that truth,’he yawned.‘But there is another truth you can tell to help her understand.’

Images of her flashed through my mind then, a smile lifting a corner of my lips as I realized what it was my wolf was getting at.

“The way you used to help the kids at school. The little ones, like that little girl from the Portland Coven. Someone with darkness inside them would never have done anything like that. Or how you always make sure that your family is taken care of before you even worry about yourself.” I stepped closer to her, my hand reaching out for hers once more.

Her crossed arms and stance loosened, her hand drifting down towards mine.

“I didn’t stop to consider all of that. I was too wrapped up with the things that I knew about the darkness, I never thought about the things that show your light.”

She let out a choked sob as my hand finally wrapped around hers.

“Ayden,” she said between sniffles. “Ayden. It hurt so much more than you could know. Everything you said. I thought them too.”

I frowned and shook my head as I pulled her to my chest. I cradled her head against me, her tears soaking through my shirt quickly.

“Shh,” I coaxed. “It’s okay. Everyone has some dark thoughts. That doesn’t mean they’re right. Even when people speak those thoughts out loud, it doesn’t mean that they’re suddenly validated.”

I ran my hand along her arm, up to her hair and back, in gentle circles as she cried.

“The voice came back. It was so much clearer than it had been before. It’s like the static is lifting in my head and I can hear him even when I try to drown him out. He’s always there.”

She buried her face deeper into my shirt.

“I thought you had said you couldn’t tell what the voice was?” I asked, the hairs on the back of my neck rising.

“I couldn’t then but I can tell now. It’s almost like he is there with my wolf. Inside me. Watching through my eyes and listening through my ears.” She took a deep breath. “Ayden, I’m really scared. It was that voice that told me exactly what to do to the kelpie. It had urged me to use that magic. Convinced me it was my only chance to survive. What if….?”

“No,” I said sternly as I leaned back to look her in the eyes. “I already told you. You have too much heart to be evil. Too much empathy for others.”

I hugged her back against me, uncertain how I could help her against an enemy that lived inside her mind.

“Do you hear it now?” I asked, my voice low, as if it might stop the voice from hearing me ask her. “Can you feel the voice there?”

She paused for a moment, her hands clutching tightly to my shirt.

“No,” she sounded surprised. “I don’t hear or feel him at all. Neither does my wolf.”

She leaned back and looked up at me, her tear-filled eyes now sparkling with surprise and awe.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

I frowned. “How did I do what?”

“How did you get him out of my head? I’ve tried to shove him back, but the most I got was just the outskirts of my consciousness. You got him completely out of my mind.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t do anything. I only wanted to know if the voice was talking to you now.”

Her face fell into a mirror of my own confusion as her fingers dug deeper into the fabric of my shirt.

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