Page 1 of Conflicted Fate
Chapter One
No. It wasn’t possible.
“W-what did you say?” I somehow managed to stammer as the world-shattering shock descended over me.
Blue eyes gazed down at me, regret dulling their brilliance into something pale and diffused. Eyes that belonged to a man I’d fallen hard and fast for. A man who wasn’t the man I thought he was. He was something else. Something from the deepest, darkest past of our people.
“My name is Callistus. Once Alpha of the Calli pack.” He sighed, shoulders sagging as something intangible left him. “And all this is my fault.”
I stared at him blankly, my mind trying to process what he was telling me and meld it with what I knew of the man in front of me.
“You’re Callistus?” I could hear the disbelief in my voice. “That’s impossible.”
“It’s not.”
“Callistus the Betrayer. Alpha of the Ninth pack, the ones who supposedly stabbed the others in the back? They were wiped out centuries ago when the Alphas bound Fate to the stones. Everyone knows that story, Kiel. Theydied, including their leader. Now, he’s nothing more than a bogeyman used to scare children. You aren’t that man.”
“As a matter of fact, I am. I was there. Ididstab them in the back in a last-ditch attempt to stop them from destroying our culture as we knew it,” he said, his voice never wavering. His eyes, however, were not there. They were seeing something that had happened in the dustbin of history as far as most of our people were concerned. Something only he remembered.
Trying to reconcile everything I knew about Kiel with everything I’d been told about Callistus gave me a headache. Or maybe it was the fall down the mountainside to avoid the giant wolf statues that had nearly collapsed on me after our wild flight from within the mountain. A mountain within which we’d left one of the immortal Alphas, one of Callistus’ contemporaries.
“No.”
Kiel—nay, Callistus frowned, his entire handsome face wrinkling. “No what? Jada, I am Callistus. I was there. Should we go dig up Lycaonus from under the cave-in and ask him? He’ll tell you the same thing.”
“I’m well aware,” I said, my mind jumping to something Arcadus, another Alpha, had tried to taunt me with just before I tore his throat out. He’d made a comment about Kiel that hadn’t made sense. Not until right then.
“So, then, you do believe me.”
“I believe maybe youwereCallistus,” I said, gathering my hands under me and getting to my feet, rock dust settling around me. “Once upon a time, but you yourself have told me the truth. That the Alphas are not our saviors. Rather, they’re tyrants, ruling us to further their own gains. I haveseenthat, with my own eyes. I havealsoseen the person you are. And that person is not the nightmare of bedtime stories for children. He isnotsomeone to be afraid of or to run away from. You arenot that person. Perhaps youwereCallistus, but right now? Right now, you’reKiel. That’s who you’ve become. That’s what matters.”
“No,” Kiel said, also standing. He towered over me, his arms crossed, biceps and pecs flexing as he struggled to contain his emotions. “Jada, that’s wrong.”
“No, it’s not. The person I know, the person inhere”—I tapped that thick chest, my finger hammering hard into the rock-solid muscle—“that person is kind, giving, and selfless. He’s no tyrant.”
He flung his hands in the air in exasperation. “Don’t youget it? I agreed with them! I was there. I helped forge the stones with those megalomaniac assholes!I let it happen. How can you possibly love someone like me who’s responsible for so much? You can’t, and you shouldn’t. I’m not worthy of the love of someone like you.”
“I knew you were hiding something,” I said, ignoring his outburst and trying to keep my voice calm so it didn’t betray the flutter of my heart. “Something big. That much was fairly obvious. Too many hints. I should’ve picked up on it earlier. The way you could best the Nehringi assassins and even the other Alphas in a fight. You never seemed to be seriously wounded. Not to mention you played matchmaker with my mother and father, which must make you a lot older than you look. In hindsight, it’s all so obvious.”
“As I told you, I am him. Do you doubt me?”
I snorted heartily, adding a roll of my eyes, just in case he didn’t pick up the first part of my answer. “You left that person behind a long time ago. You became someone else. You became Kiel.”
“It’s not as easy as that,” he protested. “Think about it. There’s no way all of this—the rebellion, the throwing-off of the Alphas—that the truth will not be revealed.”
“So, why tell me now, then?”
“Because I wanted you to hear it from my lips. You deserve that much, at least.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “So, youdocare about me.”
“Of course!” he shouted, throwing his arms up again. “Damn it, Jada. It was never about howI feel about you. It has everything to do with howyou feel about me. Or how youshouldn’tfeel! There will never be any peace with me. Never any happiness. I will be banished. Even if we stop the Alphas, free Fate herself, and undo all the damage they’ve done, it won’t be enough. Tales of me have spread for too long, the legends are too strong, too ingrained in the culture. Nobody will want me around. I will be banished. And you along with me. You have to let me go.”
“No,” I said, baring my teeth in challenge. “I won’t go.”
“Jada …” he moaned, running his hands over his face and through his short hair.
“I will tellnewstories,” I countered. “Stories about Kiel. The man who led the rebellion and freed our people from the Alphas. The man who fought back from the very start against them. Those are the stories they’ll hear. That’s the person they’ll come to know. They’llremember you as I know you now.”
