Adelaide's Fate (Her Fate Series Book 1)

by G. Bailey

  “Look, we don’t want the wrong people seeing you and telling the hunters. I’m sure you want the same thing, so let us go. It’s only one day and then you have the bracelets, and you can go wherever you like,” he says to me, sounding reasonable which is so hard to argue with.

  “Alright, fine. Is there anything I can do around the house to repay you for going?” I ask.

  “Well first off, you can write a list and text me it. Hand me your phone a sec,” he asks, and I slide it out my jean pocket and hand it to him.

  “Password,” he asks, with a little smile.

  “I’m not telling you that. Just turn it to look at me. It has that face scanner thingy,” I say, and Rick turns the phone, which unlocks after I slide it open.

  “It was worth a shot. I want to get to know you, and people’s passwords usually say a lot about them,” Rick says, typing numbers into my phone.

  “How so?” I ask.

  “Say the person’s password is their pet’s name. You know the thing they love the most in a second. Say it was their children’s, you know their favourite or only child means the most…but what if it was a brand name? Like the name of their car make. You then learn that person cares more about his car than anything else,” he tells me, never looking up once.

  “What is your password?” I ask.

  “It’s a secret, Red. One I might tell you one day,” he winks at me before handing me the phone back, locking his blue eyes on mine.

  “I’m going to get a bottle of water while you make a list. Then maybe you could help me with something,” he tells me and walks off after I nod. I quickly type a list and search for Rick’s number. I laugh when I see he has put his number as “Rick, the one I fell for.” I send him the list just as he walks back to me.

  “I like it when you smile, Red,” he remarks and nods his head towards the stairs. “Come up.”

  “What exactly do you want me to do?” I ask, following him up the stairs.

  “I need you to watch someone. We don’t ever leave her alone in the house…not after last time,” he pauses, looking like he was going to tell me the situation and then changes his mind, and waits for me at the top of the stairs. “Anyways, Nath and I will go to the store. Mich and Josh are out, so we need a babysitter of sorts.”

  “Babysitting I can do,” I say. I wonder how old the child is and if any of the guys are the parents. “Which one of you is her dad?”

  “Oh, none of us, but she is kinda like our child,” Rick laughs, walking down the hallway with cream painted walls and dark wooden floors. “We are all recently single if you were wondering.”

  “All of you at the same time are recently single?” I ask.

  “We like to share sometimes,” Rick says, winking at me as I stare wide-eyed at what he is suggesting. Rick doesn’t seem to notice my shock as he opens the third door in the corridor, and walks in. I follow him into the room that is clearly his bedroom. There are clothes on the wooden floor, which he quickly picks up and throws in a washing basket.

  “Sorry, I don’t usually have company,” he admits, picking up more clothes.

  “I’m usually messier, so don’t worry,” I say and freeze when I hear a light snoring noise.

  “What is that?” I ask, staring at the little pink creature sleeping in Rick’s dark wooden bed. The creature is so small that her whole body is on the white pillow, and she has the sheet tightly wrapped around her. I move closer, staring at her sparkly pink hair that matches her light pink skin. She has little pink wings that look like the wings from a butterfly. Oh my god, she reminds me of Tinkerbell, only not blonde. Is she a fairy?

  “Tay, a pixie. Please, for your own sake, don’t let her get hold of any alcohol while we are gone,” Rick warns me, picking up his wallet off a box at the end of the bed.

  “Why?” I slowly ask, staring at the innocent creature. She is so cute.

  “You don’t want to know, Red, you really don’t,” he chuckles, walking out of the room. Well, that isn’t worrying at all. I run and catch up with him just before he goes downstairs.

  “Don’t you need my bank card for the food?” I ask, going to find it in my bag.

  “Nope. Consider it a moving-in gift,” Rick says and runs down the stairs before I can even say no. Nath comes out his room, a pair of keys in his hand, a white shirt covering his chest up, and grins at me.

  “Good luck with Tay,” he laughs. I look back at the small creature. How could anything that innocent looking be that hard to watch?

  “Stop throwing things at me! You crazy little pixie!” I shout at her, ducking with a squeak as she throws a cup at my head and it smashes into pieces on the wall just above me. I run out of the kitchen and towards the sofa, hiding behind it. I glance around the sofa, seeing the pixie is looking for something else to throw at me. That cute little thing is evil. Since the—not so innocent after all—pixie woke up, all she has done is throw things at me. At first, I thought the pillow throwing was cute, but when she decided to pick up much heavier things, it wasn’t so cute after all.

  “Go!” the pixie demands, her voice sweet and sugary, and far too bloody close for my liking. I peek over the sofa, and she is flying, holding a sharp knife not far away.

  “Right, this has gone way too far! Damn Rick for not explaining you are psycho, pixie! I’m not leaving, and if you don’t put that knife down right now, I am going to shift and let my wolf eat you,” I say, standing up off the floor and holding my hands on hips. Tay looks at the knife and back to me, seriously debating my words.

  “Rick?” she asks, the affection for him clear in her tone.

  “Rick asked me to watch you while he runs to the shops,” I reply, and she drops the knife and grins, looking me up and down.

  “Be gone,” she retorts, and I can tell she is jealous. Am I really arguing with a tiny, pink, glittery pixie?

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I dryly reply, and she tilts her tiny little head to the side before raising her hands and transforming into an owl. The owl is white, with pink feathers laced into the fur. Tay, the owl, flies off up the stairs, and I collapse onto the sofa, resting my head back. I don’t know if I should be proud that I won a fight with a pixie the size of my hand, but I am. I so am. I pull my phone out and text Sophie to check she is okay, and I only get a simple thumbs up emoji as a reply. Nice. I glance around at the now trashed room and know I should clean it up. Even if it was their fault for not telling me about the crazy pixie who can throw like a quarterback. I pick the knife up and slide it back into the drawer that is left open in the kitchen. I find a broom resting by the back door and quickly start sweeping up all the broken cups, glasses and plates. Just as I finish getting it all into a pile, the doorbell rings. As I wonder if I should answer it, they ring again, and I sigh, knowing I should. I rest the broom against the wall. I run to the door and open it. A man resting on a walking stick stands completely still as he smiles at me. The man is older, about fifty I believe, with short grey hair and brown eyes. He has a brown suit on, and I glance at the walking stick that he heavily leans on, seeing a yellow crystal on top, cut out in the shape of a dragon. I scent him as completely human.

  “Hi! Can I help you?” I ask, holding onto the door.

  “I’m looking for Rick, Mich, Nath or Josh. Are any of them in?” he replies, looking behind me.

  “No, sorry. They just popped out,” I explain.

  “Who are you? I say, we don’t see many new people around here and none as lovely as you are,” he asks, and I laugh.

  “I’m new to town. My name is Adelaide,” I say and hold out a hand. He grabs my hand rather roughly to shake, just as a car pulls into the drive. Josh smoothly gets out the black sports car I haven’t seen before, his dark eyes locking on me for a moment before looking over at the man.

  “Josh. Perfect timing,” the man says as Josh runs up the path and stands next to the man.

  “Mr. Graves. I didn’t expect to see you at my home,” Josh says, and Mr. Graves slowly
lets my hand fall and pulls his eyes off me.

  “I wanted to check in on you after the mission this morning. I know it wasn’t easy capturing that family. The life of hunters can be a hard job. I should know, half my body is burnt due to a shifter,” Mr. Graves says calmly, but everything in me starts to panic as I try to process what he just said. I glance back down at the yellow dragon, and remember the symbol advertised everywhere since Paris fell. The sign of the Hunter’s Organisation. They are hunters. Why would these supernaturals be hunters unless they like to hunt their own kind.

  “Capturing?” I whisper.

  “Yes, a family of witches. Josh and the others are our finest hunters,” Mr. Graves muses, watching me closely. “Good hunters are always hard to find these days.”

  “I imagine. They need to be good at lying and keeping secrets, I suppose,” I say, keeping my eyes locked with Josh’s so he knows that sentence was meant for him and his friends. He looks more and more pissed off by the second.

  “Ah, I feel we could get along. How do you two know each other?” Mr. Graves asks.

  “Adelaide is our…cousin…distant cousin who needed a place to stay,” Josh smoothly answers, only pausing a little bit to make up a lie. He must be used to lying to make something up on the spot and seem so convincing as he says it.

  “Now, I do like people who look after their own. Do you have a job yet, Adelaide? I imagine it is hard to find work in this small village, and it is such a drive to the main town,” Mr. Graves asks me, and I can only shake my head for an answer, pulling my eyes from Josh to Mr. Graves.

  “N-no,” I clear my throat. “No, I haven’t had a chance to look for a job yet, but it is my plan to find one soon.”

  “My receptionist is having a baby, and I need to find a local person for a replacement. What do you say to working with me?” he suggests. “I certainly pay well.”

  “You’re offering me a job?” I ask, a little thrown back in shock.

  “Well, I want to help the cousin of my best hunters. It might make them stay in my division a little longer and ignore those head-hunters who will likely pay them more,” he says, and both Josh and he laugh. Though Josh’s couldn’t sound more fake if he tried.

  “Can I have some time to think on it?” I ask, feeling more than a little nervous now. I’m a shifter. I can’t work for the hunters like my crazy ass neighbours.

  “Of course! Why doesn’t one of your cousins bring you in for a tour tomorrow, and you can decide if you like it,” he suggests.

  “Sounds perfect,” I say slowly, and he grins.

  “Yes, it does. I will see you at base, Josh,” Mr. Graves says. “Lovely to meet you, Adelaide. Such an unusual name you have there.” I smile tightly and watch as he turns, waking down the path. He gets into the white Jeep with dark windows I can’t see through before driving off.

  “You have no fucking idea what you just did,” Josh growls, and I cross my arms, growling low as his eyes glow.

  “Don’t threaten me,” I snap.

  “Or what?”

  “What the fuck is going on?” Rick exclaims, and my wolf turns her head, looking over at Rick and Nath standing in the doorway with bags of shopping in their hands. My wolf looks back down at Josh, who is underneath her and who she has been fighting with for the last ten minutes. Well, I wouldn’t say fighting, not when Josh has been pushing me away like I’m a puppy. Josh laughs, pushing me off him in one smooth movement.

  “Adie lost her temper, shifted and tried to bite me,” Josh explains, fixing his crumpled shirt.

  “And you didn’t knock her out?” Rick asks, sounding a little shocked. I growl, shaking my head as Josh smirks at me. I can’t be knocked out that easy.

  “I didn’t want to hurt her, so I let her play for a bit,” Josh states, and my wolf sits back, feeling more than a little annoyed.

  “Adie, your wolf…” Nath murmurs, and I remember how strange my wolf must look to them. My back is black with blue lines swirled into the fur. I have a strange circle of blue swirls on my forehead and my ears are pointy. Like seriously tall. It makes it so I can hear miles away while I’m in this form, but I don’t have a clue what the blue swirls are for or from. After reading that letter from mum, I’m guessing it’s a Fray thing. I glance at my foot, seeing that the red bracelet has stayed on and is attached around my leg, just before my right paw.

  “Is weird right?” Josh remarks, smoothing down his messy hair. My wolf steps closer, baring her teeth with a long growl.

  “Not weird. Just different,” Rick suggests, interrupting my wolf’s thoughts as she watches Rick instead. He puts the shopping bag on the floor, walking slowly over to me. “I’ve never seen a wolf that looks like you.”

  “The ears make her look like a cat,” Josh remarks, and I growl once again.

  “Josh, why don’t you go to Adie’s with Nath, and get some clothes for her,” Rick suggests, but it comes out as more of a growl. Nath opens the door, and Josh looks between us with an annoyed frown.

  “Whatever,” Josh replies emotionlessly and walks out the door after Nath, shutting it behind him.

  “Shift back so we can talk?” Rick asks and picks a blanket up off the back of one of the sofas and places it in front of me. “I will turn around and wait.” I pull my wolf back and shake off the light pain from the change before grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around me. When it’s secure, I reach and touch Rick’s shoulder, so he can turn. He goes to say something, but I put my hand up.

  “Oh, I can start off,” I growl out. “One, the wild ass pixie spent half an hour throwing things at me, and you could have warned me about that ball of crazy! Two, you are working for the hunters? Are you insane or do you actually hunt your own kind?”

  “If I hunted my own kind, do you really think I would be protecting you?” he asks, not seeming bothered about my outbreak. “And I am sorry about Tay. We will go back to that one later after I’ve had a word with her.”

  “What are you doing then?” I ask, needing to understand why they are working with hunters. Hunters are nasty people. The videos on YouTube of what they have done to my kind, it is horrible. Hunters take pleasure in hunting us and have the backing of a world full of scared humans.

  “How do you know we are working for the hunters?” he asks.

  “Mr. Graves came here and told me. He offered me a job…and I have to go into the base to be shown around tomorrow,” I tell him, and his eyes widen in shock.

  “Fucking hell,” he mutters, rubbing the back of his head. The front door opens again, and this time a guy I haven’t seen walks in, stopping when he sees me in just a blanket. He raises his dark eyebrows at Rick.

  “Adie, this is Mich,” Rick introduces us, pronouncing Mich like Mitch. Mich has short brown-nearly-black hair and dark eyes. He has a business looking suit on, that goes well with his serious expression. He has a smoothly shaven face, and he is just as good looking as his friends. I can’t scent him as anything other than human, and even then he smells good.

  “The wolf?” Mich asks, his voice is husky and deep, and not impressed. “Sleeping with her already? I thought you were sending her away from here, not keeping her. Now is not the time to be fucking around, Rick.”

  “I’ve just met you all, and you think I would sleep with any of you that quickly?” I ask.

  “You are in just a blanket,” he responds.

  “I shifted…and ripped my clothes over there,” I point at the pile of clothes, and he doesn’t even bother looking.

  “You are going to be trouble for us all,” Mich remarks, looking at me like I stole his steak off his dinner plate before literally disappearing into thin air.

  “What the hell?” I ask, staring at where Mich literally just was.

  “Witches. Well, Mich is a half witch, half shifter,” Rick explains. “Do you not know about other kinds?”

  “I know witches, angels, shifters and vampires exist. Just not their powers,” I explain.

  “Well, we are al
l half breeds here. I’m half shifter and half vampire,” he tells me. “The others you will have to guess.” He winks.

  “Do you drink blood?” I ask, curious if he needs it.

  “Yes. Only once or twice a month,” he explains.

  “I didn’t know half breeds were a thing, but it makes sense,” I say, and Nath walks through the door with a pile of clothes and is rubbing the side of his head where a cut is healing.

  “Your sister wasn’t happy about us coming over, and she threw a shoe at my head,” Nath explains, handing me the clothes as I try not to laugh.

  “The bathroom is down there, under the stairs,” Rick points and whacks Nath on the arm. I walk away but still hear Rick speaking quietly to Nath. “You got beat up by a tiny girl, seriously, man? Way to look cool.”

  I chuckle as I pull the bathroom door open and step inside, shutting the door and taking a deep breath as I make a mental plan. Get changed. Find out why they are working for hunters. If they are the bad guys…run.

  “Thanks,” I say as Nath hands me a cup of tea, and Rick offers me a chocolate bar from the bags of shopping. I’ve already eaten Rick’s Oreos, which Nath seemed really surprised that Rick would share them with me. These last few days have just been insane, and I literally have no idea how to process it. Mum and dad aren’t my real parents. There is somewhere safe for shifters to live. Pixies are real, cute and crazy. I wasn’t born on Earth, and my neighbours are hunters. Safe to say, I need more than a cup of tea and chocolate to get my head around all of this. Being at university and studying history seems like years ago now.

  “Chocolate always makes things better,” Rick explains. I’m surprised that he knows that. Guys don’t usually seem to care.

  “Do you want some?” I ask as Nath sits next to Rick on the sofa.

  "My stepmum, Winter, loves chocolate too. We learnt very quickly that no one comes between a woman and her chocolate... not unless you want an angry, crazy person chasing you,” Rick says, and Nath nods his agreement, a look of fear crossing over their faces. “So, it’s all yours.” This Winter sounds awesome, and I can’t wait to meet her. I pop some more chocolate in my mouth, trying not to laugh.