Page 30 of The Sacred Wolf

“If you loved her, and, I’m assuming, wanted to mate with her…” I began and then stopped, raising an eyebrow.

I knew that his tense nod was the only response I would get to that one.

“How did she end up with my father?”

Mateo’s eyes returned to the world outside, but his gaze grew distant. “We were close to declaring our intention to mate. Neither of us had found a fated, and I was going to be instated as the Manhattan Beta soon when Max took over for his father. I would have had the means to provide her a luxurious and stable life. But there was a dispute between the packs over handling aggression from packs in northern New Jersey. They were eating into our manufacturing businesses, stealing distribution partners and agreements with the major ports downriver. We wanted to negotiate a settlement, but Phelan’s father wanted to fight them. During our meeting with the Alphas from Newark and the Oranges, the Bronx pack arrived, including your father, who was soon to be Alpha himself. There was a minor battle. Nothing but a typical shifter scuffle, but several injuries and a few casualties.”

“What in the name of Leto was my mother doing at an inter-pack brawl?”

A tiny smile flickered over his lips, there and gone. “She’d followed us because she was worried about me. She saw right away that I was fine, but she took one look at your father and…” He took a breath and sighed, meeting my eyes. “That was that.”

I leaned against the windowsill, my formerly whirling thoughts falling into place. My parents had been fated. No matter how Mateo had loved her, or what he’d done for her, he hadn’t stood a chance once they’d seen each other. Meaning that if Sebastian and I weren’t as fated as he believed, and the real thing finally showed up for him…

Shit.

I bit my lip. “You never mated.”

“No. I never wanted to mate anyone but your mother.” He said this quietly, without embarrassment. A mere statement of fact.

“Didn’t you resent my father?”

“How could I? It wasn’t his fault. Fated mates are exactly that, and I could have chosen another. I decided I could serve better as Beta on my own. Your mother lived a life of happiness… while she lived.” He paused, his eyes sliding towards me and flinching. “She used to write to me.”

I swallowed squeakily. “She did?”

“Yes. She told me how happy she was to be becoming a mother. How one day she knew her pup would love her Uncle Mateo.” His smile was warm. “That was why I gave you the picture, in the end. It was less about the Children than it was to let you know you had an ally in our pack.” He inclined his head. “I know how hard it was for you to be torn from your family.”

Tears pricked at my eyes. He was such a good male. No wonder my mother had been drawn to him before she’d met my father. And given up everything she loved.

“Thank you,” I said, standing up and covering his hand with my own before going on tiptoe to give him a gentle kiss on the cheek. “For sharing some of my mother’s story with me. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

He shook his head, patting my hand in return. “It was long overdue.”

I turned to leave, still turning this new information over, searching for clues that would help me fill in the gaps in my story. As I got to the door, I stopped. Because I wasn’t so sure I liked the version of the story where Sebastian and I weren’t fated anymore. If someone swept in who didn’t understand him, and he had no choice but to admit I’d been nothing more than a terrible misunderstanding with the gods…

“Mateo?”

He’d returned to his desk and started to take a seat, but paused. “Yes?”

“Is there a reason one shifter would feel fated and another would not? Is there anything in our history or prophecy to explain such a thing?”

He sat heavily and frowned. “I don’t think so. There wouldn’t be any reason for fate to want to confuse our choices and bloodlines.” He thought for a second. “But maybe someone else would.”

I waited for him to say something more, but he returned to his brooding silence, and I left, pondering his words. Who would have the desire, or the power, to affect a fated bond?

Chapter Fifteen

My white wolf slid sideways, and Evan’s snapping jaws just missed my right flank. Having left Mateo and his cryptic statements about fate bonds behind, I was back to pup-sitting. It was a good distraction. But I couldn’t stop ruminating about what he’d said, which annoyed me. I had already solved the puzzle. Sebastian and I weren’t fated, and if some gorgeous, elegant female with enormous—

Evan launched himself off the wall, as per usual, and I met him, chest to chest, sending him skidding with a puppy yelp.

I shot a glare his way. “Don’t initiate if you’re not ready.”

“I thought I was.” He shook himself as he got up, ears flapping loudly.

I pulled back my lips, tongue lolling in a wolf version of a grin. His smokey gray wolf was as aesthetically attractive to my wolf as his human form had always been to me. Neither of us had any desire to mate with him, but we did have eyes to appreciate his strength, which was lean and sleek rather than bulky, with a darkness around his mane that mimicked his deep charcoal-colored human hair. A companionable arrangement wouldn’t be the end of the world on our end if Sebastian’s one true love arrived and he left me high and dry.

“Well, you have to expect the unexpected.” I edged toward him. “Your victim could choose to rush you to create surprise. Don’t let it be.”

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