Page 58 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

My eyes widened as I realized who stood before me. Though I still did not know his name, I knew him. He had saved my life and sent my mind spiraling with questions for weeks now. Ever since the moment we came to this realm.

As air filled my lungs, I felt an overwhelming urge to speak and finally obtain the answers I had hoped for. The man smiled as he watched me gasp for air, my body rejoicing in the oxygen as it rushed through my veins to revitalize my strength.

“You,” I gasped out as I stared up at him. “It’s been you all this time.”

He smiled and kneeled beside me, his fingers tracing my jaw with such gentleness, I had almost thought he was the shadows themselves stroking me.

“Yes,” he said. “It’s me. It has always been me and it will always be me. I am the only one who will ever be able to give you all that you truly need. The only one who will ever truly understand you.”

The part of my head where my wolf should be vibrated with his words. The tone of his voice setting off alarm bells in the rest of my mind as the oxygen helped my brain register his tone.

I jerked back from his touch and glared at him as I shook my head. “You can’t manipulate me that easily. Who are you?”

He chuckled and leaned back on his heels as he regarded me with a tilted head. “Who do you believe me to be?”

I looked around us at the darkness, the thought of how sunny and warm everything had been with Ayden and how dark and cold it had turned the moment my mate disappeared. I frowned, looking around for any sign of my mate or where he could have gone.

“You are darkness,” I said, my eyes still scanning the shadows for Ayden. “You’re the one we are after.”

He chuckled again, the sound darker than it had been before. “I thought you were after Minerva.”

I shook my head. “No, she’s just a clue to lead us to the darkness that The Fates warned Ayden’s uncle about. That’s you. You are the darkness. But who are you?”

I could see his eyes roll at the mention of The Fates, the back of my neck tingling the more I watched him.

“The Fates should learn to not interfere so much into matters of mortals. They can’t prevent tragedy any more than they can create it. Their words, their crutch. Their hill to die on.”

My skin prickled at the distasteful tone in his voice as he spoke of the very beings who controlled our lives. The ones who decided our fates from the moment we all were born. The goddesses I had been raised to respect and follow.

The man’s lips quirked into a smirk as he noticed my glare. “You don’t have to be afraid to speak your mind of them here. After all, can you really say they had your best interest at heart when they are forcing you to mate with your enemy? The one who will cause you and all that you could be to fall? Don’t tell me you actually believe that you love that fool?”

I growled, though my wolf’s impact was missing behind the sound. Where was she?

“He’s my mate. He’s saved me and believed in me more than anyone else ever has,” I said.

“More than me?” he asked with a tilt of his head. “Wasn’t it me who warned you of the blood wisps? Creatures that even the tales of your world have forgotten their danger. Was it not me who urged you to use your power to fight off the kelpie? If it wasn’t for the interference of that mark binding you to what The Fates deemed your destiny I could have helped you fight off the griffin, but I was there still. Watching over you after that fool insulted you yet again and sent you running away with tears in your eyes.”

A flash of the doorway from the city came to the forefront of my mind. The feeling of being watched and the shifting of the shadows in the building. Just like the shadows now shifted around this man now.

“Why?” I asked cautiously. “Why would you even care?”

He cupped my chin in his hand and leaned in towards me. “Because you are so much more than you allow yourself to be.”

I shook him off and backed away from his touch with another glare pointed in his direction. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

He smiled and merely shrugged as he stood and slowly turned away from me. “All in due time, Sasha. You aren’t quite ready yet.”

The shadows began to swirl again, and the air ripped from my lungs as I watched him disappear into the void. I clutched at my chest, my body retching as I tried to bring in air. I was drowning in the darkness again, the distant echo of voices sending me through a spiral of panic as I tried to pinpoint where he was.

“Sasha! Sasha wake up! It’s just a dream! Wake up!”

My eyes flew open, then quickly shut at the burning light filtering through the windows and door. As I squinted, letting in a little light, I found a very anxious face of Ayden peering down at me.

His moonlit eyes were wide with panic as he searched my face. I felt myself holding my breath, the burn of my lungs as real as it had been in the shadowy void. I released the breath with a shuddering cry and felt my body collapse against the ground and the soft plush of Ayden’s sleeping bag beneath me.

Ayden’s face fell to relief as I took in a breath. His body fell over mine and he held me close against his chest.

I could feel his body shake against me as his adrenaline seeped through his body.

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