Page 5 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

I clenched my fists to hold back from him, taking control. I could see his plan in my mind’s eye. If I lost control for even a moment, he would have her up against the wall with no regard for her cousin and Baer’s unconscious bodies beside us. His instincts were to take what he deemed his, and his mate was absolutely his to claim. Even if I had no intention of ever doing so.

“Rory!” Sasha suddenly called out, my eyes ripping from her to Aurora as she began to let out a soft groan.

Baer beside her pressed his hand to his forehead and let out a groan of his own. At the sound of Aurora, he turned and pulled her into his arms protectively, only his eyes giving way to the ache he still felt in his own body.

“What happened?” Sasha asked nervously. I narrowed my eyes with suspicion. Her body language was clear that she had some idea of what had happened to her cousin.

Rory let out another groan and pressed her hands to her head. “Shh, give me a minute,” she whispered. “Your voice is really loud right now.”

Sasha pursed her lips but waited as the two seers slowly pulled themselves together. I turned in the direction of the forest, my teeth gritting again with impatience.

This was taking too long. Too much time had passed, and we still had to get to the portal before that witch closed it off and we would all be back to ground zero.

There was a chance that maybe I could find Alkmene and get her to open a portal to the Forgotten Realm for me, but those chances weren’t good. I never actually met the witch myself, and even if she was my ancestor, she was still a dark witch herself. From what my uncle and aunt had described, she came to them and she lived in the Forgotten Realm.

“The portal won’t close,” Baer said, startling me as I looked back at him.

“What?” I asked.

“It won’t close. The witch can’t close it, she wasn’t even the one who opened it. She just uses it to travel back and forth. So, there is no rush to get to it. It will be there when we get there.” He said as his body seemed to relax and the pain in his eyes began to fade.

Sasha looked between the two of us, her brows drawn. As she looked at me, I couldn’t help but see the suspicion in her eyes. Suspicion she had held against me for years now.

Growing up, she just disliked that I wouldn’t submit to her. That I was just as smart as her. That I fought her tooth and nail for the top of the class at school. But there was also a small amount of admiration in her eyes when we would challenge one another. That is, until graduation night.

Ever since then, she viewed me with nothing but distrust, and it was for that reason I never visited the school as an alumnus. I was no longer welcomed there.

“Sasha, he has to come with us,” Aurora said then, Sasha’s attention on me broken as she looked dumbfounded at her cousin.

“What? What do you mean? What did you see?” she demanded.

Aurora shook her head. “You know I can’t say much. I can only tell you that we need him, and he needs us for both of our quests to be fulfilled.”

“But…” Sasha began before looking back at me once again with suspicion. “Can we really trust him?”

Aurora and Baer both looked at me, Aurora’s eyes bright and shining. Neither of them held any doubt in them, both giving Sasha a nod.

“It’s the only way,” Baer said.

I frowned at the two. Not that I minded them joining me. Obviously, we were both after the same witch, but I could tell that Sasha wasn’t convinced, and it’s not like I could blame her. After all, it was The Fates who told her not to trust me.

“No, you had to have gotten something wrong with the visions. There is no way that The Fates want us to work with him here. I refuse to believe it.”

Baer let out a growl. The first I had ever heard him utter towards his mate’s cousin. He stood and towered over her, my wolf letting out a growl of his own as he fought to protect Sasha from the other alpha male.

‘Calm down,’I assured him.‘He won’t hurt her.’

Even as I told my wolf that, I couldn’t help but step closer to her side, watching Baer closely in case he did more than intimidate Sasha. Baer’s eyes didn’t miss my movement, his eyes conveying something that resembled respect.

He looked back at Sasha.

“I have never cast doubt to any prophecy given in the name of The Fates. Not even from those who had never shown signs of being gifted with the seers’ gifts. It is not my place to judge whomever The Fates choose to speak through. That being said, I will not tolerate anyone who casts doubt on the word of The Fates simply because it doesn’t correlate to their personal views.” He stepped back a single step and pulled Aurora to his side. “We both were in the realm of the gods. We stood face to face with The Fates and heard their words through their own lips. They told us to travel with Ayden and to trust in him to help us see through to the darkness. Without him, we will not stand a chance.”

I looked over at Sasha and watched as a vein in her forehead pulsed. She narrowed her eyes at Baer, not at all as intimidated by his presence as I would have expected. Her alpha energy protecting her from his, though I could feel him holding back on it, mostly.

She turned towards Aurora, who simply nodded and gave a small smile to her cousin.

“He’s right, Sasha,” she said. “There is no point in continuing if we don’t have Ayden with us. There is a reason we all came to this alley at the same moment. The Fates designed it so.”

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