Page 30 of Resisting Fate

I let out a groan and rub my hand over my face. “Well, it’s not a pretty story,” I say, raising my eyebrow at Max.

He lets out a sigh of his own and sits down. “Look, I know I haven’t been really supportive of you and Hailey; but she’s my best friend. If she makes you happy then I’m going to try to like you, for her sake.”

I chuckle at his words because I know that he has been really, really trying to come around to the idea of Hailey and me.

“So, we woke up and started doing…stuff…” I say, still eyeing Hailey’s best friends warily.

They both roll their eyes and gesture for me to continue.

“Well, my wolf has been getting worse. He has been trying to fight for control and force the shift on me. He wanted to claim her, and I knew I fucked up and now we had to wait longer. So, he took the option out of our hands and claimed her,” I say.

There is silence around the room.

“You claimed her without her permission?” Ryker asks, looking pissed.

“I couldn’t control him. It’s like he shoved me back, but then when she pushed me away, he retreated. When he realised that she didn’t claim us back, he disappeared almost completely,” I tell them.

“She never gave the answering bite?” Jet asks in shock.

I shake my head. “I can’t say I blame her, but now I feel completely off.”

“I never heard of that happening before. I need to look into this,” Ryker says before getting up and rushing out of the room.

“Keep your phone on you and stay close; we have to see if there is a chance you will lose your wolf because of this,” Max says before also getting up. When he looks at me in question, I shrug.

“I really don’t care. Nothing else matters if Hailey won’t talk to me again,” I mutter, feeling hopeless. There is no coming back from this; I can already feel it.

I get up and leave the room, but not before I catch their worried gazes.

I already feel like a piece of me is missing because she’s gone, and I don’t know if she’s coming back.

Chapter Eleven

Hailey

I ran away like a coward.

I needed to process everything that happened.

Of course, Ryker and Pen were at Ryker’s when I got there. They were having breakfast.

They rushed after me once I went to the room I’m staying in and asked me what’s wrong.

I muttered something about a stupid mate, and Ryker left to probably go check on Isaac. Penelope stayed with me, and I ended up telling her everything.

She looks like she’s fighting an urge to say something.

She looks over at me worried. “I understand if you don’t want to tell me, but I’m wondering why you didn’t claim him back?”

I look at her with worried eyes. “Why? Is that a big deal?”

She locks eyes with me and gives me a serious look. “Yes, it has never happened before. That’s why Ryker left. He must feel the lack of connection to Isaac’s wolf. As the Alpha, Ryker can feel all of us in the pack. He needs to find out if this has serious consequences. It could be nothing for all we know, or…” she trails off. I nod my head, understanding what it is that she cannot say.

“It could mean something horrible,” I finish, and drop my head into my hands as a sob escapes.

“Do you know why you never bit him back? Your wolf must have wanted you to do it,” she says softly. She doesn’t look like she’s judging me, or even angry at me for making the choices I made. She just seems curious.

“I wanted to. I felt that my wolf wanted to. I just wasn’t ready for it. I went from hating him, to tolerating him, to wanting him around me as much as possible. I felt like I was just falling into everything between us and, if I gave into the mating, maybe I would lose myself too. I don’t know, it sounds stupid when I say it out loud, but I just got scared and then, when I felt the pain of his bite, it was enough for me to pull away,” I tell her.

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