Page 8 of Forsaken Fate

Thirty years ago, most of the land surrounding Lake Bliss in upstate New York belonged to my father. Theo Dorran Sr. had led one of the oldest, most powerful packs in New York before the war broke out. Before the fae came in and decimated our kind, claiming our lands for themselves and for the government who wanted to control us. Before we lost my mother and sister to the tigers. It was strange to be back here now. My father’s hunting lands didn’t belong to me anymore. They belonged to Diana. She’d made her deals with various devils during and after the war, leveraging her traitorous position with the fae. It had been a way to keep my father in line. The land…and me.

Now…there was just me. I stalked the edge of the woods. We’d once owned four hundred acres of pristine woods and hunting land around the lake. At the height of his power, my father had led a pack of a dozen wolf shifters. My adopted uncles. My foster brothers. All but Doyle and his father were dead now. Hunted. Captured. Killed. Or worse. But my father had got me out. Exiled, sent to live with the Wild Lake wolf packs of Northern Michigan. An outsider, an outcast, alone, but alive.

As the stars came out, I carefully slipped out of my jeans and tee shirt. I took a cleansing breath. The scent of the woods and the lake beyond triggered a sense memory in me, nearly driving me to my knees. The last time I’d hunted here, my father was with me. His powerful black wolf would fell the largest of prey.

My fangs dropped. Muscles and sinew snapped. I was reborn. Free. I howled at the stars and ran through the trees. The deer were easy to find. For a generation, the wolves who’d hunted them had been driven out. The deer had grown fat and lazy. It barely seemed like hunting. Still, adrenaline coursed through me as I found a monster buck and gave chase.

I let him live longer than I needed to, passing up chance after chance to pounce. I wanted to draw it out. Run for a while. Let my wolf be totally free. It had been so long. For so many years I’d had to hide how strong I really was. I couldn’t be seen as a threat to the other Alpha pack leaders of Wild Lake. They were good to me. Probably better than I deserved. But I knew they were watching me. I knew my position there had always been precarious. When the war ended, no one came out and asked me to leave. But I knew many of the packs wanted me out. By then, my father was gone. There was only Diana.

If it weren’t for Sebastian Lanier, Alpha of one of the largest Wild Lake packs that I had a home at all these last five years. But it came at a price. For five years, I worked as a friend of Lanier’s pack, helping all the wolves of Wild Lake reclaim lands that had once belonged to them before the fae came in. Helping repatriate other wolves who had gone into hiding for so many years. It was the only way a rogue Alpha like me could coexist with wolves as strong as Lanier’s pack. He told me someday he would repay me. But the years were long. There was nothing left for me anymore. No home. No people. It was the way I liked it.

I’d seen too many Alpha wolves have their mating bonds used against them. It made them weak. Easy to control. My own father had been one of them after the tigers killed my mother. When Diana came into his life, he was vulnerable. Half-mad. It only got worse.

I would never let that happen to me. Never. I would keep moving. Never stay in once place for too long. Never let any woman get too close to me. And I would survive.

This land though. It stirred something in me I hadn’t felt for a very long time. It called to me. It felt…like fate. Though I hadn’t hunted here since I was a boy, I knew every hill, every valley, every bend in every creek as if I’d dreamt it all my life. As if it was part of me. Maybe…just maybe…I could stay for a little while.

Finally, I brought down the buck, leaping on his back. I sliced through his jugular with one lethal swipe of my razor-like claws. My next howl shook the trees.

It was good. The most I’d felt like my true self in years. Still, grief washed over me. I wished my father could be here. I wished he could see that all of his sacrifices had kept me alive, at least. Though I don’t know how well I’d been living.

When morning came, I washed in the stream and got dressed. It was time to see Doyle’s father. The last surviving member of my father’s once mighty pack.

I met him downtown. Adam Burnett kept offices in one of the newest Albany high rises. In addition to running with my father’s pack, he had also been his lawyer once upon a time.

Adam Burnett was nearing seventy now. The last of his blond hair had turned silver, his face was creased with deep lines. Most of the shifters of his generation were long gone. He was a relic. Still, his back was strong, his grip sure when he pulled me into a deep embrace. I could sense the strength of his wolf. His eyes glinted silver.

“It’s good to see you, Theo,” he said.

“You too, Uncle Adam,” I said.

“Have a seat,” Adam said, perching himself on the edge of his large wooden desk. His corner office had a glorious view of the Hudson River. “How long are you staying in town? Aunt Margie would love to have you over for supper.”

I smiled. Aunt Margie was Adam’s wife and Doyle’s mother. She and my mother had been like sisters a million years ago. Her venison stew was legendary, and I hadn’t had it since before my mother died.

“I’ll try,” I said. “A lot of that depends on what you have to tell me today.”

Adam nodded. He took a deep breath and his head dipped down. Something about his posture raised an alarm in me. Adam stood and rounded the corner of his desk. He sat down hard and shuffled a stack of papers in front of him.

“Theo,” he started. “A lot has happened. You won’t like any of it.”

I leaned back in my seat and crossed my ankle over my knee. “You know why I’m here. The war’s over. Shifter packs all over the country have been able to reclaim their lands. They’ve been coming home. You know that’s what I’ve been working on in Michigan and parts of Ohio. I’ve worked with the Wild Lake packs reclaiming hunting lands for displaced shifters. In many cases, it’s been a simple legal matter. I understand it’s like that here. Or at least, it can be. I know my father would have had you keep all his paperwork in order. I’d like to assert my rights under the Repatriation Act.”

I hadn’t truly intended to say it. Part of it felt like someone else speaking through me. The words just came out. But the moment I uttered them, a fierce longing rose in me. My lands. Lake Bliss. Home.

“Is that what you want?” Adam asked. “To come home?”

Home. Albany didn’t feel like home. But I couldn’t deny the peace it gave me to shift and run free on my father’s former property.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just want what’s rightfully mine. If there’s anything left of it.”

“It’s complicated, Theo,” Adam said. “Have you had a real conversation with Grayson since you got here?”

It was an odd question to ask.

“Diana was powerful. Connected. She was the governor, the most powerful magic user in the entire state. She’s one of the only elected officials who managed to stay in power after the war. She made shrewd alliances that your father benefited from. That you benefited from during the war,” Adam said. “But now? Everything’s different. Yes. Shifter packs and clans have been able to reassert their rights over a lot of land and property seized during the war. But…your father signed everything over to Diana before he died. At the time, he thought it was the best way to protect it. Diana owned everything that had been your father’s. Now, it all belongs to Grayson. He’s half-wolf so his claim will likely stand. If he were human, it might be different. Diana made no provisions for you. I’m sorry.”

“This isn’t what my dad wanted,” I said quietly. “Piece by piece, year by year she dismantled everything. And you know I don’t give a shit about money. It’s just, I have nothing left of my life before my mom and Jenny died. The land? It belongs to me. It’s meant for an Alpha wolf. Grayson is a beta at best. A halfling. He’s part mage for God’s sake.”

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