Page 88 of Fate Awakened

Don’t run from it.

Fate has to be Awakened.

And the one I still didn’t understand:

You’re the key to this war. The deliverance we need.

Dante’s head snaps up at the mention.

“You met Ghost? How?” he asks, puzzled.

I explain the cabin and Ghost finding me in the woods, the wolf, who I now know was Hudson looking for me, the meal, Snowball. He laughed at that for a long while, bringing a lightness to our conversation's somber mood. Me, I was a little irritated that he snuck into my room.

To protect me? But from who? Hudson?

My heart clenches at the memory of him. Hudson wouldn’t have hurt me. Maybe Ghost didn’t know that.

“Ghost isn’t part of our pack or Marlo’s. He’s a mercenary, and until two days ago, I thought he was dead.”

So no to Security Ghost.

“All I ask is that it’s not Cain. I can’t have him around me. Not yet,” I say, biting my lip to focus on that pain rather than the pieces broken inside me.

“If that’s what you want, but please consider talking to him; he wasn’t allowed to tell you many things. Others, he may have reasons you’ll understand,” he says, his sad smile back in place.

“Why don’t you get some sleep, and I’ll send the doc in just before lunch. I’ll let Keith take you home,” he says, and my jaw drops to the floor.

“Keith is part of your pack?” My mind spins on this new information. How could he lie to me for a decade? Longer. I never once suspected anything. Dante waves me off.

“No, he’s human, but we hired him to work with our engineering team since your kidnapping. He can’t know about us, Brielle. You can’t tell him. It’s his life.” The severity of his words hit home, and I nod.

I’d never do anything to hurt him.

Before Dante leaves the room, he turns back to me.

“I know this isn’t the life you asked for, but my pack is my family. We’d be lucky to have you.” With that, he walks out.

A family.

The tiniest glimmer of hope blossoms in my chest at the word. The one thing I never got to have. But if there's one thing I know about family, you can’t rely on them. The only one I can depend on is me.

Chapter 30

Bri

Thelasttwodayshave been a blur. If I’m being honest with myself, the last few weeks have. Everything in my life has changed, and yet, nothing has. I still have two weeks before finals. I still have to report back to my call center job after my birthday. I still have my interview in Boston.

Well, I guess that changed, too, since the doctor told me that flying on a plane probably wasn’t the best idea for another week or two with the whole brain surgery healing.

I tried to argue that I’d already been on a plane, so technically, wouldn’t that kind of nullify those risks? Apparently, the first flight only happened because they didn’t know I had a brain bleed and needed to get me to safety. In that instance, the reward of my survival outweighed the risk of the altitude making things worse.

Thankfully, Ethan was very understanding about the whole thing and was more than willing to move it to right after finals week. It gave me the chance I needed to get away. Think through all of the eventual significant changes in my life.

Dante mentioned that there were packs he was allied with in other places. I hadn’t thought to ask him if Boston was on that list. It would certainly make things easier if my life-changing career move was also my life-changing species shift.

In for a penny in for a pound, I guess.

I still hadn’t entirely wrapped my head around the idea that I was going to be Awakened. Everything about me, my whole life was ordinary. I’m not particularly athletic. I’m not a good runner. I’ve injured myself walking down stairs before. That didn’t mesh with the me that was supposed to be able to turn into a wolf.

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