Page 19 of Fated
I dropped my duffel bag beside the small single bed. I let out a sigh and rubbed my hands over my face.
Being deceitful wasn't something I was used to and it was exhausting trying to pretend. I didn’t know how lying came easily to some people. Hiding one's true feelings and saying things that weren't true was hard. Being honest was so much easier. With the lying, I had to remember the lies that I'd told to be convincing. But somehow I'd managed to pull it off.
At one point I thought I'd failed and I thought Keri was going to send me packing, but she'd surprised me by offering me a room to stay in. It wasn't going to be easy to try and convince her that I'd changed my mind but I hadn't expected it to be this tough. She was still suspicious of my intentions, but the fact that she was still prepared to talk to me was a good sign.
I had my work cut out for me. Just words weren’t going to do it; it was going to take more than that. If she knew my true intentions she would be hurt and she'd probably never speak to me again—mate or not.
Seeing her again was hard. I sat down on the bed and tried to reorganize my thoughts. I was tired. I'd gotten the call early that morning from Cade telling me I had to get here as quickly as I could. My time was up, he'd told me. There was no more time to contemplate or get my act together. He'd told me there had already been an attempt on her life and Kyle had saved her. We couldn't risk something happening to her, so I had to try and convince her to mate. The quicker, the better—for all of us. I'd felt a protectiveness and concern at the thought that someone had tried to hurt her.
Mixed emotions. It was like loving and disliking the person at the same time. It was difficult to make sense of those feelings. I let out another sigh as I looked around the small room she'd shown me to. There was nothing other than a single bed and a door to a small bathroom. The room was a dull gray, and a little depressing.
Their living quarters were drastically different from the setup I was used to. It also reflected the different way the pack was run compared to my pack. The rooms were just basic like what you would get in an army, whereas our pack members had small apartments with a living room and a kitchen. Our pack members weren't just soldiers, they were family. It was hard to imagine being brought up in this type of environment and I couldn't imagine Victor being a loving father, either.
Each time I thought about her, I felt the pain of her deceit. We'd all trusted her and look what happened—she'd betrayed us all. Even though she'd cared about me—and I'd felt the same—she'd been working for her father, trying to squirm her way into our lives. As soon as she'd gained our trust, she'd helped Curtis kidnap Scarlett and handed her over to her father.
She knew what Victor was capable of and what he wanted from Scarlett but she'd done nothing to help her. The truth of the matter was that she'd gone along with her father's plans. She didn't have to, she could have run away from him and the pack, but she hadn't. That told me she was no better than her father.
I felt a pang of guilt when I thought of how I was betraying her now. It didn't make me any better than her. Did my betrayal mean any less because of the reasons behind it? I wasn't betraying her to gain power; I was betraying her to keep all of our packs safe—hers included.
A knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts. I knew who it would be before I saw who it was. Kyle filled the doorway when I opened it.
"I thought we should talk," he said as I invited him in.
I knew Kyle well. Cade, Kyle and I had all been alphas of our own packs so we knew each other. It didn't mean we got on well and we had plenty of run-ins over the years. It was my fondness for Scarlett that made me try and keep our interaction friendly. He was Scarlett's brother and Scarlett was family to me so that meant he was as good as family too.
He sat down on the bed and I stood across from him.
"Who attacked her?" I asked. I wanted to know exactly what had happened.
"She'd relieved the existing beta, Richard, of his duties and he retaliated by leaving her pack and trying to kill her."
It took a massive amount of control not to show my anger at the thought that some asshole had put his hands on her and tried to hurt her. There was a fight inside of me of what to feel. My heart and what I felt for her were fighting in my mind.
"Why did she meet up with him alone? Aren't you supposed to be with her when she is having meetings with pack members?" I asked, sounding a little accusatory. That had been a condition of her release.
"She didn't tell me about it," he answered with a shrug.
Why, after everything, was she still being deceitful? He didn't seem to be so concerned about the fact that she'd been deceitful or less than honest.
"I got there just in time," he added, watching me carefully for a reaction.
Was he hoping I'd act like a protective mate? I had to pretend in front of Keri but I wasn't going to pretend for anyone else.
"Good," I replied with a shrug. He studied me for a few more moments before he stood up.
"Look, I know that she did some things that hurt you," he began, "but don't judge before you know all the facts."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, feeling annoyed that he seemed to be taking Keri's side.
"It's not mine to tell," he replied cryptically and I didn’t like it. Although I wasn't sure there was any reasonable explanation that could explain away her betrayal and deceit. But that was my opinion.
"You don't think that I want to believe that there is an explanation to explain why she did what she did?" I said, my voice rising with anger. "If there was, I'd be the happiest guy on earth because it would mean I wouldn't have to hate her."
My anger had risen and I was breathing hard, trying to hang on to my temper.
"You have no idea how much this is tearing me apart," I stated to him.
He held my gaze.
