Page 5 of Fated
When werewolves discovered their mates it was supposed to be the happiest event in their lives. Meeting your mate was like two halves coming together for a complete unit. But standing there, facing her for the first time knowing who she was to me was the worst moment I’d ever lived through.
I would never be complete.
She hadn’t just deceived me, she’d betrayed the people I loved as well. I gave her one last look of disgust and revulsion before I turned around and walked away. It had been the hardest thing I’d ever done.
I had walked back into the house and I just kept walking until I had faced the large gates at the end of Cade’s property. I had needed to get away.
Open the gates, I ordered the guards through the mind-link.
They had opened the gates without questioning me. I had shifted into my wolf and ran into the forest. I kept running with the trees blurred as I ran as fast as I could. It was like I was trying to outrun the heartache and loss that I’d felt at Keri’s betrayal.
Eventually I ran until my lungs burned and my legs ached. I stopped and shifted back into my human form. I had stumbled forward. Exhausted, I had sat down on the grass and leaned against a tree. There was no way to outrun the emotions that were flooding me from the inside and I had no idea how to deal with it.
We need to talk, I heard Cade say to me through the mind-link, pulling me back to the present.
I wanted to ignore him. I still hadn’t managed to wrap my head around everything I’d just found out.
It’s important.
I’m on my way, I informed him as I stood up. I took a deep breath and released it as I ran a hand through my hair.
There wasn’t a choice. I shifted back into my wolf and started the journey back. The journey back was longer. Maybe it was because I felt the dread of possibly facing Keri again. As I got to the gates, they opened up and I ran inside. Cade was waiting for me in the study.
“How are you coping?” he asked me as I took a seat on the other side of the table, across from him.
“How the fuck do you think I’m feeling?” I snapped back. I rubbed my hands over my face, hating my loss of control over my emotions. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you,” I said, apologizing quickly. Cade was my best friend and I knew he was worried about me. Hell, I was worried about myself too.
“I want to say I get it but the truth is I don’t,” he said.
I lifted my gaze to his and saw the sympathy he felt for me and the situation I was in. He was right. He had no idea what I was going through. He’d found his mate. But Scarlett hadn’t lied and betrayed us—she’d saved us. She was strong and loyal. I doubted Keri knew what loyal meant.
“What do you need to talk to me about?” I asked, sitting back in the chair. Dread and apprehension had settled into my stomach. I didn’t want to talk about Keri and everything else that went with that. Ignoring it wouldn’t make it go away but I would deal with it later.
Although I wasn’t sure I would ever get rid of the ache in my chest. Thank God I hadn’t touched her yet because whatever I was feeling would be amplified and it would have been nearly impossible to walk away from her.
“Keri.”
That one word made me stand up and start pacing.
“What about her?” I asked, not really wanting to know. The less I knew, the better. I stopped pacing and held on to the back of the chair as I waited for Cade to talk.
“I know you’re all tied in knots over the mate thing, but I have more to tell you and it isn’t going to be good,” he said, carefully wording his answer.
I cocked my head to the side. What could be worse than the fact that she’d betrayed us and that she belonged to Victor’s pack?
I held my breath.
“She is Victor’s daughter.”
It punched right through me. The ache now felt like someone had stabbed me straight in the heart. How could that be possible? Victor didn’t have any children.
“That’s not possible. He doesn’t have any kids,” I argued, not wanting to believe him.
“He hid her existence from everyone.”
I sank down in the chair, feeling shell-shocked. Not only had she betrayed us and lied, she was the daughter of a monster that had brought pain to all of us in some way. I thought about Scarlett and what she must be going through. Keri had been her friend and it had to be hard to hear that she was the daughter of the man who had murdered her parents. Even if by some small miracle I’d been able to forgive her for the fact that she’d lied to us, I wasn’t sure I could forgive her for being the daughter of a man we all hated with good reason.
There was that saying that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. It meant Keri would be the same as her father. His blood ran in her veins. I dropped my head into my hands. The news was crushing.
