Page 37 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

Baer laughed. “When have you ever known Sasha to be able to act that well? She’s the worst liar in the world. Awful tales, zero poker face.”

I stared at him as he laughed. It was as clear a message as I was going to get. I could see the strain in his face as he fought to tell me this much. The Fates were keeping him on a small leash with such an important fact.

The prophecy was only real in the fact that Sasha had received it. But she did not receive it from The Fates.

I felt the weight of that revelation settle on my chest. The hurt I saw in her eyes was coming back to haunt me.

It wasn’t just hurt. It was a complete betrayal on my part.

She had put so much trust in me. She’d overcome her own beliefs that I was the evil she faced. She had shown me her vulnerability, and I had attacked her further.

“Fuck,” I growled, as my wolf growled with me.

‘I told you to leave her alone,’ he snarled angrily. ‘I could feel her pain. Your words cut her deeper than you even know.’

I turned back to the way we had come. Baer called out for me, his strides catching up with me just as they had before.

This time, he walked silently beside me. My thoughts started to race over everything I had said to Sasha before and the new knowledge that Baer managed to share with me.

I thought about the voice she said she had heard weeks ago. I wondered if she was still hearing that same voice. Most of all, I began to wonder just what that voice could actually be.

“How many creatures do you know that can slip into the mind of someone?” I asked out loud, asking Baer and my wolf at the same time.

Baer frowned at the question. “I’ve read that some vampires can do that.”

‘Only ancients,’my wolf corrected.

“Ancient vampires, yes,” I nodded to both of them. “I’ve heard that some ancient vampires had risen from their sleep around the time the dark witches reappeared.”

Baer nodded again. “Yeah, my parents dealt with one before I was born. It was about a mission to revisit a time when vampires were in control and ruled over shifters.”

I nodded again. “There had been another time up in Alaska when we were kids. There was a ancient vampire that had tormented my aunt’s pack before Sasha’s grandfather went up there to help them. Somehow he seemed to know it would be there.”

Baer nodded as well. “The Rigel and Crete’s found a book that had names and last known locations for a lot of the ancients. We found it when we found Rory’s dad’s other research he had on the darkness. I think they only spent a few more years checking out the locations for ancients. They only stopped when it became clear that there were no answers as to why they were waking.”

I gave a snort. “Well, I’m sure my family would have loved to have known that much from the Rigel-Crete family.” I shook my head. “Maybe we could have helped one another out more before we got to this point.”

Baer smiled and bobbed his head from side to side. “Things have a way of working out in the exact way they were intended to. The ‘what ifs’ and ‘should haves’ serve little to no benefit to the here and now. All that matters, is that we are working together now.” He pointed towards the opposite end of the camp as we reached my tent. “And it would be even better if you could patch things up with Sasha right now. Then maybe we can sit and share a little more information that could help us figure out what the darkness is.”

I followed his gaze to the trees where Sasha and Rory had disappeared into. I could still smell her from the spot where we had talked. Where I had broken her heart. Where she had turned and ran from me.

“I’ll let Rory know you’re on your way,” Baer said. “She will give you space, even if she would prefer to beat you within an inch of your life.”

He chuckled as he said those last words, his eyes glazing over.

“Wait,” I blurted.

Baer gave me a strange look and tilted his head to the side.

“What’s going to stop her from shutting me out?” I continued. “I can’t face her right now. Not after the way she looked at me before running away. There’s no way that she’ll listen to me right now anyway.”

“Why not try?” Baer asked. “In my experience with Rory.”

“But Sasha isn’t Rory,” I cut him off. “Rory is forgiving. She’s sweet and levelheaded. Sasha is the complete opposite. Sasha won’t forgive me so easily. Not when the hurt is so fresh.”

Baer chuckled humorlessly. “I never realized how well you’ve gotten to know her in this short time we’ve come to this realm.”

I shook my head. “This is what I’ve known from long before that.”

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