Page 21 of Forsaken Fate

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Theo

Adam picked me up at the hotel the next morning and drove me the eight blocks to the Crane Law Firm, Diana’s lawyer’s office.

“This should be quick,” Adam said. “I hope. You wanna say anything about your mother’s jewelry?”

“Tell me what kind of legal standing I have on that again?” I still had my mother’s engagement ring in my pocket. I knew Brynna stumbled upon the rest of her jewelry the other night. It was there, no matter what Grayson had to say about it. The question was how much I wanted to push.

“Pretty much none,” Adam said. “Unless your father had put something specific about it in the terms of his trust. He left his personal property to Diana. I told him a long time ago if there was anything ... anything of a sentimental nature he wanted to leave to you, the best thing would have been for him to just hand it over to you when he was alive.”

“I know,” I said. “He didn’t want to give it up. He didn’t believe Diana was spiteful no matter how many times I told him. It got so any time I brought it up we’d end up arguing so I finally just quit. Then his mind started to go and he didn’t remember. I honestly thought all that stuff was long gone or I would have pressed more. But in the end, I know they are just trinkets. The land though...”

When we walked into the lobby, Grayson leaned against the reception desk with a sly smile on his face that I instantly didn’t like. What shocked me though was who was sitting in the chair next to him. Brynna sat against the wall with her legs crossed, her hands folded in her lap. She looked immaculate in a stunning green suit that matched her eyes. She had her hair pulled back in a tight bun. I don’t notice clothes much. But she was put together so differently than the last two events I’d seen her. Covered. Professional. She was killer gorgeous.

Her eyes met mine and flashed in that way I now knew she meant for me. The skin under my collar went hot but I managed to control myself. I gave her a half smile and a wink. Color came into her cheeks, and it almost undid me. She blushed like that the other night ... alone ... with me ... under me. My heart pounded inside my chest. Beneath it, I felt the low vibration of Brynna’s pulse. It matched my own.

Mine!

My wolf raged inside of me. I wanted to take. To claim. Devour her.

No. No. I would not become my father. I would not risk anyone using someone like Brynna against me. To control me. I would not.

Focus.

“They’re ready for us,” Grayson said. He gestured with his chin and pulled himself away from the reception desk.

“Wait here, baby,” he said to Brynna in a tone brusquer then I thought was necessary but she just smiled and nodded.

I wanted to look back at her, give her another sly smile, but I knew that would start crossing the line. She knew what happened and I knew what happened. No reason to stop acting like a grown-up.

We filed into a conference room down the hallway. I noted it looked nothing like your typical lawyer’s. This one was all glass walls and tables. No pretentious law books that no one ever uses anymore lining the walls.

Diana’s probate lawyer was probably a few years older than me. Early forties. His name was Kyle Earnest which I thought was maybe an oxymoron for someone in his profession. He had thinning brown hair and a tailored brown suit. He slapped a leather portfolio on the desk and pointed to two identical brown cardboard accordion files laid out on the table in front of us.

“In the interest of transparency, I’ve made copies of the important trust documents for your convenience.”

My hackles went up immediately. Nobody ever tells you they want to be transparent unless they are getting ready to fuck you over good and hard.

“Mr. Dorran,” he said. When Grayson and I both looked up he started again. “Theo. You understood the terms of your father’s trust when he passed away, correct?”

“More or less,” I said. “We talked about it quite a bit when he was setting it up. He wanted to make sure Diana was taken care of during her lifetime.”

“He did,” Earnest said. “And she was. But he also named her the successor trustee. He gave her very broad powers of appointment. Which means that he trusted her judgment when it came to major decisions concerning the corpus of the trust. Its assets.”

“Okkayyy.” I felt my left eyebrow go up.

“Kyle,” Adam spoke up. He’d opened the brown folder and had been leafing through it while Kyle talked. “Explain this last accounting. There’s an item here that I think is in error. It was my understanding that Theo Senior had left a reversionary interest in his real property to Theo. The lands Theo Sr. owned before the war should go to Theo Jr. Why am I seeing a transfer to Grayson alone?”

“Well,” Kyle interjected as I started to see black spots of rage fill in the space where Grayson’s head should be. “If he intended that at some time, that was never written into the trust document he executed. We can only assume he changed his mind. Diana was free to transfer trust assets as she saw fit. Like I said, he gave her that power.”

“My father was an Alpha pack leader. Those lands were his hunting grounds. My family’s hunting grounds for four generations back. They’re my birthright. They belong in the hands of another Alpha.” I said it in as calm a voice as I could, but I know Grayson heard red menace. “Pack law supercedes human law when it comes to lands taken during the war. You know what I do for a living, don’t you? I’ve spent the last five years reacquiring lands taken from the Wild Lake packs up in Michigan.”

“Fuck you, Theo,” Grayson said. “You’ve been slinging that Alpha shit since our father married my mother. In the eyes of the law and in the eyes of our father ... I was just as much his son as you were.”

“He’s right, Theo,” Kyle said. “Your father adopted Grayson before he became a legal adult. And while you’re right about pack law, that only applies if the lands were taken by non-shifters during the war. That’s not what happened here. Your father retained ownership during and after the war. And…well…Grayson is part wolf. You can’t…”

I turned to Adam. “How. The. Fuck. Didn’t you know about this or fix the language?”

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