Page 117 of Fated Obsessions

And the only person I wanted to help ease that was Tucker.

I glanced out the large window of the small cabin that was used for meetings concerning new constructions on the property. The pack was thriving, but our numbers weren’t thatgreat, seeing as no one ever left, and that meant mates weren’t being found and babies weren’t being born.

I didn't want that for my life. I wanted to explore the world for the simple fact that I didn’t know if I’d ever find my fated mate within the pack. On the heels of that thought, I thought of Tucker, imagining him working on the new longhouse in nothing but a pair of jeans, a tool belt around his waist, all his muscles flexing and moving under golden, sweaty skin.

“Mia, sweetheart, are you even listening?”

I snapped my head in my father’s direction and nodded, although I had no clue what he’d just said. “Yeah. I understand. Sounds good.” I felt my cheeks heat as the lie rose up my face and I blushed.

He lifted a brow and leaned back in the chair, the leather creaking. The desk in this little cottage was huge, and I swore it was half the size of the cabin itself. But then again, males in the pack were massive.

“What did I just say?” His lips twitched as he asked the question, and I looked at his desk, seeing if there was any clue to what he was talking about.

“Um,” I murmured. “The longhouse?” It was a good place to start, since that's what was the most pressing thing happening in the community right now.

“What’s on your mind?” He leaned forward and braced his forearms on the table, this gentle look crossing his face. “I’ve noticed for the last month you’ve been distracted. What's wrong?”

The last month… since the moment I turned nineteen and something changed in me. The moment I felt desperate for Tucker.

I smoothed my hands down my jean-clad thighs and shook my head. “I’m fine. I’m good. Just distracted by all the work going on.” I licked my lips, trying to keep the lie believable. Myfather stared at me with knowing eyes. He didn’t believe me. He knew me too well, knew my mannerisms and could probably scent the lie in my words as clearly as I had.

He cleared his throat and leaned back again. “Okay. If you say so.” He steepled his hands in front of his face, watching me.

Even though my father was in his forties, he looked like he was in his late twenties, as did all the males in their prime in our pack. They wouldn't start really aging until much later in life, wouldn’t start showing signs of a decline in their health until they were almost ready to pass on from this world.

And at the thought of that, of losing my only parent, my father who’d also had to act as a mother to me after mine died giving birth to me, the very thought of him leaving had my heart aching.

I wanted to tell him about this exciting change in me, but I was afraid. As the Alpha of our pack, my father couldn’t—wouldn’t—show emotion in front of others, and sometimes that extended to me by default. He couldn’t, because it would be mistaken as weakness, and that was a dangerous, slippery slope. He had to always be strong, stoic... powerful.

And I hated that.

I hadn’t known my mother. But I knew he loved her very much, that they were fated mates, and I also heard from other pack members who’d known my parents that he’d been different before she passed away. He’d been full of life, had a joking personality, was playful. Then after the fact, he changed. He’d grown hard and cold toward anything light, happy, anything that would make him smile. I knew losing a fated mate was the worst thing to happen to a shifter, whether it was a bear, wolf, or any other creature in our world.

I knew he was missing his heart, and I wished I could make things better.

“Sweetheart,” he said low, deep, and I blinked a few times, realizing I’d zoned out as my thoughts consumed me. “I can smell your sadness. I know what you’re thinking about.”

I kept smoothing my hands up and down my thighs, feeling nervous. I didn’t want to think about these things in front of him, because even if it had been nineteen years since my mother passed away, I knew, to him, it still felt like yesterday.

“After your mom died, I wanted nothing more than to follow her. It was the most natural reaction after losing a mate.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and glanced out the window, the chair squeaking when he shifted slightly, his profile now the only thing I saw. “And then I heard your tiny cry, and I felt that darkness in me ebb away. I felt it get pushed back even more when I looked into your little face, when I saw your mother in your features. I knew I couldn't give up, because you were all I had left, and it was my duty to protect you.”

He looked at me then, and I tried to not cry, but whenever we spoke about the past, about my mother and her death, the emotions were too powerful. I heard his pain laced in his voice, but what I heard more, felt even harder, was the love he had for me.

I walked over to him and embraced him right away. He stood to his full height of over six and a half feet, wrapped his thickly muscled arms around me, and just held me. I smelled his sadness, his despair, and the longing he still felt for my mother. A part of me wished shifters could have two fated mates, and that way he wouldn't be alone, that he could love again.

Maybe it was possible—maybe there was someone out there for him, a second chance to be happy. Because my father deserved it. He deserved to have love in his life again. And in that moment, I wanted to tell him how I’d started to feel things for Tucker, how I wondered if he was my fated mate.

Even if female shifters couldn’t actually shift into our animal forms—not like the males.

Even though females in my pack didn’t feel that connection as strongly when we saw our other half—not like the males did.

I wanted to believe my father would be happy for me no matter what. I wanted to hope and pray he’d see what I was starting to feel for the Beta and embrace me and say he was happy.

But a huge part of me didn’t think that’s how things would play out. The biggest part said I might just have a massive fight on my hands where my father’s acceptance was concerned.

Chapter 3

Mia

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