Page 11 of This Fate That Guides Us
The rocky sand is hot beneath my feet, warmed by the late May sun. Sweat drips down my back beneath the white cut-off shirt I threw on this morning. A light breeze blowing off the lake helps to combat the humidity soaking the air around us.
I love the summer, but damn could I do with living somewhere where it doesn’t feel so wet when it gets hot.
Leaning back on my hands, I glance to my side and study my sister, Elizabeth. Her platinum blonde hair hangs limp against her neck. The usually glossy strands dull and ratted. After she’s enjoyed the sunshine for a bit, I’ll convince Mom to help her wash it. Maybe a little self-care will bring some life back into her eyes.
“I saw Brock Farrow in town today,” I tell her. Brock used to go to the same school I did until his parents forced him to attend a private school a few hours away. Elizabeth always liked him more than my other friends because he didn’t care if she went swimming in the lake with us.
“You should see him now. He’s not the tiny boy I knew in elementary school. He’s got to be seven feet tall!” My sister doesn’t react, but I keep talking. “If he stays home for the summer, I’ll invite him over and we can race around the lake like we used to. I bet you could still outswim him!”
I bite back a sigh, used to her silence but still frustrated by it. Last fall, she started her first year at a university in Virginia where she planned to get a dual degree in archeology and environmental studies. She was bright and happy, thrilled to be out of the Omega Academy and working toward her dream of world exploration.
Then she met him.
Her Fated mate.
He was touring the school when they bumped into each other and their Fated connection snapped together. With her so far away, we hadn’t even known she’d met her mate until it was too late. The piece of shit alpha mated her, bonded her, and then rejected her. His harsh words and hatred had shattered my sister.
Someone nearby had caught the entire rejection on video and shared it on social media. My parent’s lawyers, along with the staff at the University, had gotten it taken down within hours of its posting, but it was already too late. Everyone on campus had heard what happened to my sister. The humiliation drove Elizabeth home.
The first few weeks she was back she would rarely leave her nest. I could hear her sobbing inside. Her heartbreak enraged me. No one deserves to be treated so callously.
Elizabeth had always been so considerate and kind. Caring more for the people around her than herself. To watch her be tossed aside so easily by an alpha so undeserving of her love, I couldn’t handle it.
One day, when I’d caught my mother forcing her out of her nest to shower, I snapped. The dark circles beneath her eyes and her gaunt figure broke me. Sneaking cash out of my mother’s purse, I’d driven into the heart of Nashville intent on catching a bus to the Northeast to teach that asshole a lesson.
Outside of the bus station, my father had stepped up beside me, one hand resting on my shoulder. I don’t know how he found me. Some parental instinct I couldn’t understand, maybe. We stood there together in silence. Him letting me seethe and me trying to understand why he wasn’t scolding me for trying to do something so reckless.
After a while, he followed me back to my car and asked me to meet him at the gym. Together, we’d worked through all of the anger, sadness, and frustration churning inside of me.
Since then, I have dedicated all of my free time to my sister. After school, I sit outside of her nest door and do my homework. Reading the questions out loud or telling her stories about my day. Then, deep in the night when they’re both asleep, I sneak back in and lay beside her. Offering her the comfort of my presence and my words.
For months we’ve watched her fade away. The therapists and omega experts warned us she won’t survive. Omega’s who face rejection rarely do. My parents swear we just need to get her back out in the world. To show her there is still a life worth living away from the mate who rejected her. A task that’s increasingly difficult when we can barely get her to leave her nest, let alone the house.
Sometimes, on sunny days like today, I can drag her to the shore to watch the waves. She’s always loved the water.Swimming, boating, diving. Any reason to be in the water was good enough for her.
They say water can be healing, so maybe we should take her somewhere far away where she can be surrounded by water on all sides. One of the islands in the Caribbean or the Mediterranean maybe.
“We should go on a trip. Go find an island to explore. Would you like that?” I turn my face to the sky, letting the warmth of the sun heat my skin and hide the tears burning in my eyes when my question goes unanswered.
I need her to get better. It hurts too much to watch her wither away and know there is nothing I can do to save her.
The elevator dings when we reach the ground floor, shaking me from the memory. It was only days after that shoreside conversation she left this world. The pain of her loss still strikes like a knife in my heart each time I think of her. The ghost of her memory haunts me, reminding me of how I failed her.
“I’m starving!” Nexus groans as we walk out the front doors toward the parking garage. “Feed me before I turn into a hangry rage monster.”
A laugh bubbles from my lips at my mate’s whiny demand. Even if my sister isn’t here with me, I know she’s out there. Somewhere in the universe her soul has been watching over me and helping Fate guide my mates to me. My bonds glow within my chest, warm and bright just like she used to be.
CHAPTER FOUR
NOW PLAYING: DYWTYLM- Sleep Token
After spending the past week packing, then putting everything into trucks this morning, we finally have everything unloaded in our new apartment. Having the Powell pack and some of their friends from the DAU here to help us move makes the entire process easier and faster.
Placing the last box in the bathroom, my stomach growls loudly. Laughter booms from the kitchen and my face heats as I turn to scowl at whoever is there, but the twist falls from my lips when I see one of the heads of the DAU, Donovan Griffith, holding a massive stack of pizzas.
Donovan is an alpha in his sixties with salt and pepper hair, cut longer on top and shorter along the sides. His well-trimmed facial hair adds a rugged touch to the giant marshmallow he really is.
We met right after I was brought to the DAU. Given my birth family’s public influence and their role in the rising aggression of the anti-designation movement, my case was considered high profile enough to warrant a face-to-face meeting. He helped ease my anxiety experiencing life as an omega who was meeting an alpha for the first time after presenting.
