Page 6 of Villainous Fate

She pulls back, her breathing heavy, eyes dazed, and a smile curling from ear to ear.

“I missed you. How come you didn’t come by last night?” she asks, fixing her uniform back to a modest coverage.

“I got sent out with the recon team to try and find the rogue they keep scenting in the area,” I answer before thinking.

Shit!

The clench in her jaw confirms her reaction, and I know she won’t be happy that I was sent on another mission, so I continue before she can start a fight.

“It wasn’t a big deal, Tails. I was with the team. We train for these things. They had my back.” I push confidence into my voice, hoping to reassure her even though the words taste like ash because they’re complete bullshit.

My Alpha has been steadily increasing my enforcer training and sending me out on more and more excursions with less and less support. If I was betting, I’d say he was trying to get me killed. It would solve his little problem before he has to face it. Last night had gone a bit sideways, but thankfully, I had avoided any serious injury as we pushed the hunting pack from one of the smaller Utah territories out of the boundary they had crossed.

Grace purses her lips, and her body language has turned rigid.

She’s mad at me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. Luca showed up in my room before you got off shift, and I didn’t have time.” I explore her eyes, pleading silently with her to understand that all of this is temporary and that in a year, I’d be leaving to avoid an Alpha battle, and she would come with me, leaving this place in the rearview. She deflates, tucking herself into my chest.

“I know you don’t get to say no to him, but I hate that it feels like I’m going to lose you,” she pulls back so she can look me in the eye. “You aren’t immortal, and I don’t know how I would survive if anything happened to you.”

Tears rim her eyes, threatening to fall, as she gnaws on her bottom lip. My heart clenches, and the protective instincts in me flare up.

I hate it when she cries.

“It’s not much longer. I leave for the retreat in under a month, and when I return, we can go anywhere. Soon, it will be just you and me, Tails.” With my declaration, I place a kiss on her forehead, my unspoken message that I will always be with her.

“Always,” she whispers back.

But always is a long time, and The Fates have a twisted sense of humor.

Chapter 3

Grace

Present

Whyisitthattime always moves faster when you don’t want it to? The last five weeks flew by, and now, we only had two days remaining. Deacon has been working even more hours training with the enforcers in preparation for his retreat. I know he’s completely capable and strong, every time he leaves, dread fills me, and I chew through my fingernails, waiting for him to return.

So far, he always has.

He always will.

Think positively.I chastise myself before returning to the counter to grab the pepper. The closing shift is always responsible for refilling the condiments on the tables, but it's been a ghost town around here all day with the pack events and everyone preparing for the retreats, so I have nothing but time. Time and anxiety.

I haven’t spent more than a day away from Deacon since the night he was Awakened. He's my right arm. My whole heart, and he’s leaving, off on a retreat for six weeks with a neighboring pack and then six months interning in Florida with the Amato Alpha.

Six months of letters in the mail, waiting to hear from him, and hoping Alpha Marlo isn’t shipping him there to be killed. The Alpha has been a tyrant to Deacon since his wolf revealed itself to be more dominant than Luca. More dominant than him.

Deacon almost didn’t survive the beating that night. I’d never seen so much blood. Alpha Marlo had waited until Deacon had shifted, run his wolf until he could barely walk, and then beat him bloody, not allowing him to shift to heal. Deacon was ten, and the Alpha left him on the edge of the territory, bleeding, unconscious, and freezing.

Eight years ago

I still don't know what made me walk in that direction that night. My wolf hadn’t been Awakened yet, and I was feeling restless. I’d wandered out to stretch my legs. I knew Deacon had his ceremony scheduled, and I was so excited for him, but I didn’t know how long it took, how long it was supposed to take. The pent-up energy drove me further into the woods than I had traveled since moving here, and it was then I heard them.

Alpha Marlo swinging over and over, vile profanity flowing from his mouth as Deacon moaned and whimpered. He never shouted. I didn’t understand how he could withstand his bones cracking, his flesh bruising and tearing, and not once did he call out for mercy, not once for help.

Silence fell after the last fist flew, and I feared my heartbeat would give me away. Alpha Marlo was breathing heavily and shaking out his wrist. I didn’t understand the last thing he said to him because he spoke the words in Italian, but the words burned themselves in my memory.

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