Page 47 of Beginning Fate

“I was there, Lauren. We weren't afforded a large apartment, so we had to share a room. When he didn't comehome that night, I snuck out to look for him. I knew the back paths through the building where the cameras weren't. I used to sneak up to the rooftop and look down on the city. I wasn't supposed to be up there, but something made me go up there that night. I really don't know why, but that's where I saw them. While I cowered in the air vent on the roof, I watched my Alpha personally hit my brother and then toss him off the roof. There was nothing I could do to stop him. You have no idea how powerful he is. He killed my brother just for messing with his son. It was a funny, harmless prank. Leo had even laughed about it, but to his father it had been an embarrassment, and no one embarrassed the Savoie family name and lived to tell about it.”

I finally dared to look up and see the look of horror in her eyes.

“I've never told anyone that story before.”

“You just lived with it locked up inside? You must have been terrified.”

I shrugged.

“They found his body that next morning with a note in his pocket. It was declared a suicide, and I knew better than to say otherwise. If I had, I'd have been hitting the concrete next. The only part that gave me any peace was knowing that the Alpha had hit him so hard that I’m pretty sure he was unconscious when he went over the edge. I like to believe he felt no further pain in his final moments.”

She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “I'm so sorry you had to witness that. What a horrible man. An Alpha is supposed to take care of his Pack and protect them. No wonder you want to just stay here forever.”

I shrugged. There was a lot more shit that happened back home, but I didn't need to rehash it all. That was by far the worst. Being uprooted and moved to the basement after that had been nothing.

All these years I'd kept that to myself. There should have been relief telling my story to another person but there wasn't. Yet somehow, the weight of burden I'd carried from it, was more bearable now. It was like Lauren now carried just a bit of it too. I hated doing that to her, but it was nice, and I hoped someday she'd trust me to help carry the weight of her burdens too.

Lauren

Chapter 12

My heart ached hearing Denny's story. Somewhere along the way a switch inside me turned on and I felt the same possessive need to protect him that I had always felt towards Kylie. It caused me to stumble as we walked.

Denny's arm snaked around me, quickly righting me. I was starting to get used to the calm his touch caused within me. It was no longer freaking me out. Though the fact that it wasn't was probably freaking me out more than anything. Everything seemed to be moving so fast.

I thought back to our time alone in the hotel just hours earlier. I'd been so close to giving him my virginity. A part of me wondered why I had put the brakes on it. It's not that I didn't want it. He'd made me feel so good it was terrifying. Yet a part of me knew he was eventually going to take it anyway.

It was all insane and made my head spin to think about it.

How could this even work? After what he'd just shared with me, there was no way in hell I was moving to New Orleans. I would never allow Kylie to be exposed to such a beast. I didn't want Denny going back there either.

He had mentioned coming to New York. But that wasn't fair, not yet at least. He'd spent far too long here at the ARC to walk away without his degree.

Denny seemed lost in his own thoughts and memories. I had this ridiculous need to comfort him, so I took his hand in mine as we walked in silence. It was the most peaceful moment I could remember, maybe ever.

I was so lost in the moment that I didn't even notice when we stopped until he let go of my hand and wrapped his arms around me. I turned to face him excitedly awaiting the moment he would kiss me.

His head dipped towards me as I smiled up at him. This time I was ready for it, but instead of kissing me, he whispered in my ear.

“Time to get naked. We're going swimming.”

My jaw dropped.

“You were serious about that?”

“Of course I was. That's why we walked out here.”

I froze and then slowly turned away from him to see a large lake just a few feet away.

My heart started to race, and I stumbled backwards wanting to get as far away from that water as possible while also feeling like my body was suddenly made of lead or maybe like I was stuck in quicksand and unable to move.

I started breathing heavily and the edges of my vision were darkening as I began hyperventilating.

“Lauren? Lauren!”

Denny's voice sounded far away even though I knew he was right there next to me. For some reason his touch wasn't calming me down this time, which only sent me spiraling even further into an unknown void.

Nothing like this had happened to me in years. Not since my tenth-grade year when we were supposed to go to the Statue of Liberty. I'd frozen, much like I felt now, and could not get on that boat. In the end they'd put me in a cab and sent me home while the rest of my class went on with the trip.

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