Page 132 of Villainous Fate

Grace always wanted a big family. Four kids, maybe five, she’d said a year after our mating. I’d wanted it too. The more little pieces of Grace running around in this world the better. She was a great mom. Patient, nurturing, understanding, but firm. She made it all look so easy.

“You just have to love them. That’s all they need,” I remember the words as she cleaned up the giant collection of Lego bricks off the carpet in our living room one night after a tantrum from Dante when he didn’t want a bath.

“Well, it's harder to love him when he smells like that,” I replied, laughing as I scooped her up and carried her into his room.

She made all of it easy.

And now I’m on my own.

I was supposed to have more time.

Chapter 65

Deacon

Lightfiltersinfromthe oversized windows despite the curtains being closed. Her body is set on the bed in the center of the room, the king-sized bed dwarfing her petite frame. Her fire-red hair stands out on the ivory-colored pillowcase, making her seem alive—as if she’s just resting.

Each step I take feels involuntary as if my body is being pulled to hers by a giant magnet. I can’t stop myself from reaching for her hand and grasping it gently between mine.

Grace.

My eyes drink her in. There are fine lines around her lips, wrinkle creases by her eyes, and more freckles than she had the last time I’d seen her.

All signs of a life she lived without me.

“Why? Why’d you give up? You and I both know you’re stronger than some disease. Stronger than cancer. Why didn’t you fight, Tails?” I say, knowing she can’t hear me.

“I always thought we would find our way back to each other once some time had passed. Once the big plan you told me The Fates had for me happened. When we could laugh and say, ‘It was all worth it,’ but it’s not. None of the pain, the loss, the fucking emptiness was worth it. They took you from me, and now they took you from him. We all lost.” By the end of my sentence, it’s barely a whisper.

“I would have chosen you, chosen to save you. Nothing would have mattered more. How could he stand by and let you die?” A tear falls down my cheek, and I flick it away, hating having to remove my hand from hers.

“She didn’t give me a choice,” a voice says behind me, and I don’t have to turn around to know who it belongs to.

My eyes memorize her face for another moment before I release her hand, turn, and face him.

He stands in the doorway in a tee shirt and shorts, with no shoes on his feet. It may be the least put-together I’ve ever seen him, and it only makes me angrier.

“And here I thought you were an Alpha,” I say, my tone anything but friendly.

His eyes narrow, and his jaw ticks.

“Why are you here?” he asks, anger mixing with confusion.

“You know why I’m here. For her. There has never been a day that has gone by that I haven’t put her first. You and I had a deal. You keep her safe, I stay out of your territory, I don’t kill you,” I practically growl, accusation heavy in my tone.

He laughs.

Not in the ha-ha, it’s funny way, but a dark, irritated chuckle.

“Put her first? That’s laughable. She never gave up on you, and you ignored her every attempt to fix what happened between you. ‘There for her’ Fuck you. The only times she felt sadness in the last fifteen years were because of you,” he seethes.

What the fuck?

I step toward him, shaking my head as I advance.

“I haven’t seen or spoken to her since you took her from me.”

“Oh, I’m aware. Despite her every attempt to talk to you, all the letters she’s sent, she even showed up there at the pack house to talk to you, and you wouldn’t even see her!” he yells.

---