Fearing Fate

by C. C. Dado

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1: Another Move

  Chapter 2: Strangers in the Night

  Chapter 3: Someone Stole My Hammer

  Chapter 4: Tracker

  Chapter 5: The Catch

  Chapter 6: Mine

  Chapter 7: Welcome to Easter Valley

  Chapter 8: Life in Easter Valley

  Epilogue

  More from C.C. Dado

  About the Author

  By C.C. Dado

  Visit Dreamspinner Press

  Copyright

  Fearing Fate

  By C.C. Dado

  A Series of Fates: Book Three

  He is a fearless protector by nature and in his heart. But nothing’s ever simple with love… or fate.

  At nearly seven feet tall, Zeus’s role had always been to protect the pack—but his newest charges need him more than most. Kimber and Kron are transplants from another pack, and they have a dangerous stranger on their tails. Zeus is determined to do his duty and drive the human out of town. But when he confronts Toren, his wolf has other ideas….

  Something isn’t right, but should a huge, tattooed wolf with a secret soft heart fear his fate—to love a man with secrets of his own?

  Never let your fear decide your fate.

  —AWOLNATION

  Chapter 1: Another Move

  ZEUS STOOD against the wall with his arms crossed, watching Max and Seth pack. It was like déjà vu, listening to them banter back and forth like a pair of irritating younger brothers.

  “Is he still making you shift for him?” Max asked Seth, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

  Zeus shook his head in exasperation.

  “He doesn’t ‘make’ me shift.” Seth glared across the bed at Max before glancing up at Zeus. “He’s just intrigued by it all still.”

  Zeus respected the way Jack, despite the fact he was human, had embraced their pack. He was sure it had to be a lot to take in, but Jack was an environmentalist and animal lover, so Zeus wasn’t all that surprised he was fascinated with their culture. And since they were the first human-shifter mates in their pack, everyone was fascinated with him as well. They were dependent on legends passed down from the elders on how a mating like theirs worked. Jack’s life-span was now interwoven with Seth’s—his natural human aging would slow. The impact Jack had on Seth’s self-confidence was the best side effect as far as Zeus was concerned. It was like night and day. It was a good thing that Seth was moving into Jack’s place next door.

  “What are we going to do about you now?” Max said, closing up a box and handing it to Zeus.

  “Me?” Zeus asked, even knowing he shouldn’t ask.

  “Yes, you. You’re mateless.”

  “Max!” Seth scolded, looking like he was going to slap Max upside the head.

  “What? I didn’t say he was unmateable. I mean, look at that big hunk of shifter. I just don’t want him to be alone. We need to work harder to find him the perfect mate.”

  “He’s not alone; he has us, and now he has Rosetta too.”

  Zeus thought about the rabid shih tzu that was probably chewing holes in his couch at home. “I do not want or need your help,” he assured them, opening up another box and placing it on the bed for them to fill.

  “Harrumph,” Max grunted his disbelief and threw Seth’s books into the box.

  “Are you sure it’s okay to leave the apartment empty?” Seth asked Zeus for the third time since they’d started packing.

  “Yes. I told you I have surveillance cameras on the bakery. Nothing’s going to happen to it. Now, they’re on their way back, so you might want to do less talking and more packing.”

  Christian and Jack had taken a few boxes next door. Zeus could hear them heading up the stairs. Christian came in first, walking up behind Max and wrapping his arms around his waist. Zeus was happy for his friend, his alpha. Max made Christian lighter. Zeus hadn’t been sure if he would ever see that side of him again after the loss of his parents.

  “Did you tell them yet?” Christian asked.

  “No,” Max said, sounding a little nervous.

  “Tell us what?” Zeus and Seth asked in unison.

  “Umm… we’re having a baby,” Max said.

  Zeus waited with bated breath for the joke. The same skeptical look crossed Seth’s face.

  “Congratulations,” Jack said, reaching his arm around Seth’s shoulder, completely oblivious to Max’s previous made-up pregnancy.

  “Well we’re not literally ‘having’ a baby. Sorry, Zeus,” Max said, apologizing yet again for the aforementioned fake baby.

  Zeus grunted in response, still not ready to completely forgive Max.

  “We’re going to adopt.”

  “Well, technically more like foster,” Christian corrected.

  “That’s kind of sudden, isn’t it?” Seth asked.

  Zeus totally agreed in his head.

  “We didn’t plan it this way,” Christian admitted. “But there are special circumstances. There’s a three-year-old little girl named Kimber and her six-month-old baby brother, Kron. They’re children of an alpha and omega who recently died. The elders of their pack are concerned for the kids’ safety. There is a lot of strife in the pack, and the new alpha hasn’t been decided yet. The circumstances surrounding their parents’ deaths make the elders believe they may have been murdered.”

  Zeus was a little annoyed that he was just now hearing about this, in a group. As the beta, he was head of security and had always been the first person Christian informed of new people coming into their town. He guessed he needed to accept that Christian’s inner circle had grown.

  “Oh wow,” Seth said, sitting down on the bed.

  “I’ve agreed to accept them into the pack and keep them safe. No one will be told they’re coming here, and there are no plans of them ever going back until they reach the age of maturity and can decide on their own whether to return and take their rightful places in their pack or to stay as part of ours.”

  “I still can’t believe this is real life,” Jack said in awe, shaking his head, his thick, wavy hair brushing his shoulder.

  “Yep, it’s all real. Better start planning those baby showers,” Max said, tossing more of Seth’s things into a box.

  As much as he tried, Zeus couldn’t hold back his grin. Life was definitely about to change for all of them.

  Chapter 2: Strangers in the Night

  ROSETTA CHEWED away at the bottom edge of Zeus’s jeans as he watched the video replay of the stranger sneaking out from the shadows behind the building. It was hard to tell his age from the video, but Zeus guessed maybe nineteen, twenty tops. He was definitely not on the up-and-up, that was for sure, Zeus thought, watching him slowly make his way along the wall before moving outside the camera’s range.

  Zeus’s job was to keep the alpha and everyone else in this town safe. And lately that job had become harder than normal. Here he’d thought all the recent town drama was finally over. He was only checking the video because he’d promised Seth his bakery would be safe left unattended.

  What is happening to this town?

  First Max’s dad had gone crazy and had to be put down by his own mate. Then Mrs. Stegal was murdered by her own nephew, leaving Rosetta homeless. Zeus felt like dealing with the psychotic ankle biter was his due punishment for not keeping Mrs. Stegal safe, although he had gotten the honor of making her nephew disappear. Pack law still ruled underneath the guise of polite society in Easter Valley. In this town Zeus represented the law, and he did not like feeling like he was losing control. It went against his very nature as a beta. And now he had two new babies to protect as well. He picked up Rosetta, ignoring her growl, and placed the satanic little
dog in his lap. She licked his arm, probably sampling the goods before she digs in, he thought.

  He needed to focus. The first order of business was finding out who the mysterious stranger was.

  “You’re mine, kid,” he said, tapping the monitor.

  Zeus stretched his wide shoulders, clicked off the tape, and headed to his truck with Rosetta. He’d run over to the building and see if he could pick up the kid’s scent before it went cold. Even in his human form he could track a person as well as most shifters could only do as their wolf. Then he had to get over to the alpha’s lodge; the new baby, Kron, was having trouble adjusting. And for some reason there was something about Zeus that soothed him, which was odd since most people feared him on sight. It was hard on Christian and Max, but it had been three weeks now since Kimber and Kron arrived. They were both past the point of caring about their own feelings and just wanted Kron to stop crying. Zeus tried not to let it show how great it felt to have the screaming baby instantly calm in his arms.

  Gravel crunched under the wheels of his truck as Zeus pulled into the alley beside the bakery. It was late enough the town was void of tourists. Hopefully there would be some lingering traces of this stranger. In Zeus’s experience, people who were up to something didn’t smell the same as someone shopping for knickknacks.

  Zeus started making his way along the wall, Rosetta following behind him. That dog might hate shifters, but she knew who fed her and stuck closely to him. Zeus touched the bricks where he had seen the stranger brush up against them. He held his hand to his nose, inhaling. The subtle intoxication took him by surprise. He stopped walking, testing the scent again. It smelled human, but there was a hint of something else there too; it was unlike anything Zeus had smelled before.

  Zeus’s phone rang, bringing him back to reality.

  It was the omega.

  “Where are you? I thought you were coming over. You’re still coming, right?” Max said rapid-fire, sounding half-panicked.

  Zeus could hear Kron in the background. That baby sure had some lungs.

  “Kimber is refusing to go to sleep too, as long as her brother gets to stay up crying,” Max continued, his exhaustion loud and clear through the phone.

  Kimber was a firecracker. For a three-year-old who had experienced a trauma like losing her parents, she was doing amazingly well. She reminded Zeus a lot of Max, a natural-born survivor. And they both did it with such vibrancy, their light was almost blinding.

  “Pone. Pone.” Kimber hollered in the background.

  “Yes, honey, I’m on the phone with Uncle Zeus.”

  “Big Unca-Eus, Big Unca-Eus,” she chanted, making Kron cry louder.

  Zeus adored those kids so much already. He had always been part of a pack, but Seth, Jack, Christian, Max, and now those kids made him feel like he was part of a family. That was why he had to get his town back in order. He had to keep his family safe. It’s all Zeus had ever wanted to do. He used his size to protect his pack because he cared about them.

  After his first shift, the alpha at the time, Christian’s father, seeing the potential of his size, had requested he meet with the elders. He knew the alpha was concerned that he would eventually fight for Christian’s position. The concerns were drastically unwarranted; he was fated to be a beta. Zeus had always known he was a protector. He didn’t have the characteristics of an alpha. He would never want the pressure of having to make the hard choices that a leader like that had to make. He put up a pretty good front, but he didn’t have the tough shell that was needed. His feelings were his strength and his weakness.

  Max and Seth were prime examples of his weakness. Zeus was the same age as Christian, and they were close friends growing up, so Zeus had watched Max and Seth grow up, always smaller than the others, Max constantly getting them both into trouble. Like beacons to his protective side, those two were. He wanted to keep them safe, even though they drove him completely nuts. He had failed Max. He should have stepped in a long time ago against Max’s dad, but he had allowed the tension between himself and the previous beta to keep him at a distance. And now the new baby and Kimber had his protective instincts running on overdrive. He would not fail them. He’d had to walk outside after he held the baby for the first time and the screams had turned to quiet snores, because the feelings were just too overwhelming.

  “I’m on my way,” he said, ending the call and hopping back into his truck, Rosetta jumping up onto his lap. He headed to the lodge, already planning tonight’s stakeout in his head.

  HE HEARD the cries as he walked up to the door of the lodge, not sure if it was the baby or Max. Zeus chuckled to himself.

  He saw Kimber in the window.

  “Pup,” she said, pointing at Rosetta standing at his feet, as Max opened the door.

  “Oh no, baby, that’s Satan’s lapdog.”

  “Pup, pup, pup,” she demanded, hands stretched toward the dog.

  She was Max’s child now for sure, all in with no fear.

  “Let her smell you first, Kimber,” Zeus said, grabbing the furball’s collar and pulling her back a little. “Put your hand out and let her smell it.”

  Kimber stretched her hand out, her brother still losing his mind in Max’s arms as he adjusted him on his hip.

  “If that evil mutt eats my baby, I will eat you.” Max glared at Zeus, obviously wishing he could pull Kimber back.

  Rosetta instantly started growling at Max.

  “Pup, pup, pup,” Kimber continued.

  Rosetta slowly moved forward, Zeus still holding on to her collar. Rosetta looked up and gave another growl toward Max before sniffing Kimber’s hand, followed by licking it, causing her to giggle.

  “She’s going to bite her,” Max said, reaching for Kimber.

  “She’s not, look at her,” Christian said, coming up behind him. “She likes Kimber. Kimber’s shifter scent is still very subtle at this age. Rosetta can’t tell.”

  “So you want to let our baby give her heart and childhood memories to an evil furball that will one day turn its jagged little teeth on her when it realizes she’s a shifter?”

  “Do you think you’re being a little dramatic?” Christian asked.

  Zeus let go of Rosetta, who instantly went to Kimber and let her pick her up.

  “Pup. My pup.”

  “Fuck,” Max said.

  “Don’t swear around Kimber,” Christian scolded him.

  Kimber sat down on the floor and crossed her legs. Rosetta climbed up on her and spun around two times before settling in the middle of her nightgown, her head resting on Kimber’s knee.

  “Pretty,” Kimber said, touching Rosetta’s collar, which was covered in giant fake diamonds.

  Zeus could feel the glare Max was giving him before he looked over. He should be thankful Christian and Kimber were in the room—Max’s face was almost as red as the screaming baby he was trying to gently bounce to quiet.

  “Here,” Zeus said, reaching for Kron, and Max reluctantly laid him in Zeus’s arms. And as usual the cries wound down to small shaky breaths before Kron passed out, turning and snuggling into Zeus’s chest.

  The heartache was plain on Max’s face—that he wasn’t able to give this baby the comfort he wanted was almost too much for Zeus.

  “I’m sorry, Max.”

  “I just don’t get it,” Max bemoaned, throwing himself on the couch. “I’m the freaking omega. I’m literally made to calm people. And I can’t calm my own child.”

  Zeus loved that Max already considered the baby his, even knowing Kron still had family out there, family he might one day return to.

  “Your brand of calming might only work on adults,” Zeus said, still not quite understanding how Max was an omega. He had met a few over the years, and they were by nature usually calm and collected, basically nothing like Max, their little firecracker of an omega. But Max’s exuberance brought smiles when you wanted to do anything but smile; the weight on your shoulders lifted when you were around him. Zeus could see how t
hat overwhelming personality might be hard for a small baby to take in.

  “I don’t know what it is about you,” a very tired-looking Christian said in awe at the sleeping boy in Zeus’s arms.

  “Do you want me to put him down in his playpen?”

  “Please. Thank you, Zeus,” Christian said, glancing at the saddened expression on Max’s face. Max was staring at the baby as well.

  Zeus placed Kron in the playpen and covered him with the tiny blue blanket, tucking it in under him.

  “Can I speak with you?” Zeus asked, turning back toward Christian.

  He looked at Max like he was torn between his duties as alpha and his need to comfort his mate.

  “It’s okay.” The defeat was thick in Max’s voice as he tucked a couch pillow under his head and watched Kimber play with the world’s worst pet.

  “Give me just a minute,” Christian said, gesturing for Zeus to go into the office, obviously having decided his mate needed him.

  ZEUS RAN the video back through his head as he waited for Christian to join him. The smell of the stranger still lingered in his mind. His wolf stirred at the memory.

  The sound of the door opening behind him pulled him out of his haze. The worn-out alpha sat down in his office chair; looking older since the kids had arrived.

  “You going to make it?” Zeus asked, not entirely sure he was joking.

  The pause before Christian’s response concerned him.

  “Yeah, it’s just hard. I’m sure it’s tough for all new parents, but Max is struggling with not being able to bond with Kron.”

  Zeus didn’t think Max was the only one being affected by the lack of bonding with the baby.

  “You have to give it time. They’ve lost everything they know.”

  “I know. This whole parenting thing is harder than when I became alpha,” Christian admitted with a slight chuckle, rubbing his hand through his messy hair.

  Zeus wondered how much sleep Christian was getting.