Fated (Forever Book 2)

by Regan Ure

  I let out a heavy sigh.

  Kyle would keep hounding me to tell Blake about my mom and I knew it wouldn’t change much so I decided that when I met Blake for lunch in a couple of hours I would tell him the truth.

  At least then I could prove to Kyle that it would change nothing.

  Blake

  Everything seemed to be going according to plan but I still felt nervous and guilty. I kept reminding myself of her betrayal so the guilt wouldn't stop me from doing what I needed.

  Even if I wanted to I couldn't walk away. Too many people were depending on me. Keri would be vulnerable if I left before we mated. She needed to be able to shift into her wolf if she was going to hold her position as the alpha of her pack.

  Time was running out. She'd already been attacked once and who knew how long before her ex-beta returned for revenge or someone else hungry for power preyed on her. I wouldn't admit this out loud but the thought of someone harming her had felt like someone had punched me in the gut. It was a relief that Kyle had been there to save her.

  I was having mixed feeling about Kyle. On the one hand I was glad he'd been here to protect her but the more I watched them together the more I wanted to pummel him with my fists. I knew I had no right to feel jealous but I was. It was an emotion I couldn’t stop.

  You can do this, I kept saying over and over in my mind, trying to pull myself back to the task at hand. I ran a hand through my hair as I contemplated what I was going to say to Keri to make her believe I was very serious about mating with her.

  But it was easier said than done. I felt a hollowness in my chest when I pictured Keri in my mind. I wished that our circumstances had been different and that we didn't have all this added stuff to deal with. Why couldn't it have just been as simple as finding out she was mine?

  If she hadn't been the deceitful and dishonest person she clearly was, I was pretty sure she would have made me very happy. Life sucked sometimes and no matter how much I wished, it wasn't going to change anything. It didn’t help that from the time I’d begun to feel something for her, no other girl had compared. Even now after everything she’d done I still couldn’t get myself to move on to another girl.

  I surveyed the romantic picnic I'd organized. I'd been surprised she'd given in so easily to the idea of us getting to know each other. She wasn't stupid and I knew she was suspicious of my intentions, and yet she’d still agreed.

  Ignoring my conscience, I checked my watch. It was nearly twelve and I needed to get myself together. If she suspected what I was up to then there would be ramifications for both of us. I didn’t want to be responsible for leaving my pack and friends vulnerable to a new alpha. It wasn’t just that, though. I didn’t want to leave Keri open to an attack. Even though we hadn’t connected as mates, I still cared for her despite my attempts to hate her. I took a deep breath and released it. I heard a knock on my door and knew it was Keri.

  “Hi.” I opened the door and invited her in. She gave me a brief nod as she stepped inside my room.

  Even after everything, I still couldn’t help my physical reaction to her. She was beautiful and I wanted to draw her closer. My eyes flickered to her lips and I had to suppress the desire to kiss her.

  I was careful not to touch her by accident. Even if I didn’t intend to touch her, she may have taken it as my way of forcing the mating and I didn’t want that. It was hard trying to gain her trust and if I made the wrong move it could all be lost and I’d be back to square one.

  Her eyes rested on the picnic basket on my bed and she looked back at me.

  “I thought it would be better if we got away from here. We could find a nice spot in the forest to have a picnic,” I suggested, almost convinced that she was going to refuse.

  “Fine,” she replied in a clipped tone. “As long as we don’t go too far away.”

  She probably wanted to stay close. The whole alpha role was still new to her and she probably wanted to be near enough so if something came up she could get back quickly.

  “Sure,” I said, giving her a smile. Her eyes dropped to the floor to avoid my direct gaze.

  “Let’s go,” I instructed softly as I picked up the basket. I followed her out and we walked to the side of the property to a set of gates that opened up on the forest.

  The guards at the gate opened them when Keri gave them a nod. In silence we walked about five minutes into the forest as I contemplated what we were going to talk about. If I wanted this all to work, I had to be careful not to offend or upset her. It wasn’t going to be easy.

  We came to a stop by a small grassy spot under a few trees.

  “This good for you?” I asked as I surveyed the spot.

  Her eyes held mine for a moment before she gave me a nod. Geez, I wished she’d actually say something. It was going to be hard to have a conversation if I was the only one talking. The silence continued while I laid out a blanket I’d found in my room for us to sit on. She sat down and pulled her knees to her chest as she watched me set the picnic basket down.

  I wanted to let out a frustrated laugh at how we were going to try and make small talk and pretend there wasn’t all this deceit and betrayal separating the two of us. Like I had predicated, she wasn’t very talkative and after eating a couple of sandwiches I finally gave up.

  “This isn’t going to work if you don’t let me in,” I admitted to her as I ran an agitated hand through my hair.

  She bit down on her lip as our eyes met. It was like physically she was here with me but her mind was somewhere else. She closed her eyes for a moment and then she opened them up again. “I need to show you something.”

  My curiosity was piqued. Keri wasn’t the type to share, so my imagination was going into overdrive trying to figure out what she wanted to show me. Whatever it was must have been pretty serious, if her expression was anything to go by.

  “Okay,” I said before I stood up and held my hand out to her. It was only when she refused to take it that I realized I’d momentarily forgotten about the whole mate thing.

  “Sorry, I forgot,” I mumbled as I packed up the picnic and folded the blanket.

  It had been an honest mistake but she’d probably taken it as an underhanded ploy to get her to touch me. I followed her back to the property, lost in my thoughts of how I was going to gain her trust. My eyebrows lifted in surprise when she headed to the medical center. I left the picnic basket outside beside the door and then I followed her inside.

  I don’t know why I felt nervous as she came to a stop outside one of the rooms.

  “Any questions you want to ask or anything you want to say, you wait till we leave the room,” she insisted tersely.

  My forehead creased in confusion but I nodded my agreement. I had a feeling whatever she was going to show me was a way of her allowing me closer.

  The moment Keri stepped through the doorway, she became another person. She smiled at the older lady who lay in the hospital bed.

  I followed her in.

  “Hi, Mom,” Keri said, greeting the patient, and I felt like the carpet had been pulled out from beneath my feet.

  Mom. From the time I’d found out that Victor was Keri’s father I’d never once wondered what had happened to her mother. I think I’d just assumed she’d died. Standing there watching their interaction of love, I felt like I was intruding on a private moment between a mother and her daughter.

  “How are you feeling?” Keri asked with concern as she touched a light kiss to her mom’s forehead.

  I could see some resemblance between the two. They had the same blue eyes, and although her mom’s hair was going gray, I could see they had the same shade of blond hair.

  “I’m good,” she whispered, but you could tell that she had a deathly color to her face and she looked like she was having trouble taking in and releasing each breath.

  “Mom, this is my friend Blake,” she said, introducing me to her mom.

  I wasn’t a friend, I was a fraud. Her mom’s eyes met mine and she smiled
at me.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Blake,” she whispered and I felt something—an uneasy feeling—stir in my stomach.

  I had a feeling that what I was about to find out would change everything.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Blake

  A bout of coughing racked her mother's body and I watched as Keri stood helplessly beside her.

  "It's okay, Mom," she soothed as she brushed some hair from her mom’s forehead. Something in her tone pulled at my heart.

  From the time I'd discovered who she was, I'd built her up to be a heartless bitch in my mind and what I was seeing didn't fit with that. After a minute of more painful coughing, it died down and her mom's chest rattled as she breathed.

  I watched Keri look down at her mom with concern, which gave me a glimpse at another side of Keri that I hadn't seen before. There was no mistaking that look; she loved her mom and, from what I could tell, her mom loved her too. It was hard to believe that they were Victor's family.

  In my mind it was hard to imagine Victor and Keri's mom together. Actually it was hard to imagine anyone with that monster. At times it was still hard to even comprehend that Keri was his daughter.

  Unable to keep my emotions from filtering through onto my face, I decided it was a good time to leave. I remembered Keri's words. She didn't want me to upset her mom so I backed away quietly, leaving the two of them alone in their own little bubble.

  Once I got out of the room, I rubbed my hands over my face as I tried to get my thoughts together. The image that I'd built up of Keri had cracked, and the more I'd watched her interact, the bigger the cracks had gotten. The image had crumbled and I was left reeling.

  I'd liked Keri before I found out who she really was, and then I'd hated her, and now I just felt numb.

  Fuck!

  I began to pace, trying to work off the nervous energy building up inside of me.

  "So she finally told you," I heard Kyle say and I swung my gaze to find him standing with his arms crossed over his chest a few feet away from me. I felt my blood boil.

  "You knew about her mother and you didn't say anything?" I asked him incredulously.

  "Yes." He gave a brief nod.

  “Why didn't you say anything?" I asked.

  He let out a sigh and dropped his arms to his sides.

  "She asked me not to," he explained.

  To me there was really only one reason he'd do that and it made me angry. I just saw red. Before reason or he could stop me, I stepped forward and swung my fist. There was a hiss of pain as my first connected with the side of his face, the momentum of the hit making him stumble backward.

  My breath was hard. Anger consumed every cell of my body as I took another menacing step forward.

  “What the fuck was that for?” he yelled at me as his hand went to the side of his face.

  “I know what you’re doing and I won’t allow it,” I yelled back as my fists tightened at my sides. The urge to hit him again was almost impossible to fight.

  “You’re an idiot,” he stated as his hand dropped from his face.

  He wouldn’t be an easy opponent to defeat because, like me, he was an alpha, but just the thought of hitting him made me feel slightly better.

  “You don’t know everything because if you did, you would understand why I didn’t say anything,” he explained calmly.

  I had no idea what he was talking about and I felt my temper rise even further.

  “If the two of you can’t play nice, get out of my medical center,” Curtis barked. My glare shifted from Kyle to Curtis and for a few moments I wanted to smack him too.

  “I’ll leave,” Kyle offered.

  “Come find me when you know everything and then you owe me an apology,” he instructed with a fierce look before he turned on his heel and walked out.

  I was shocked and stood there still wanting to hit someone to ease the anger building up inside of me. What was he talking about?

  “He’s right,” Curtis added as he studied me for a moment. “You’re going to feel like an ass when you find out everything.”

  I glared at him. Why did everyone but me know what was going on? He turned and left me standing there confused and angry.

  I took a few deep breaths before I managed to calm myself down. How was meeting her mother going to change everything I’d learned up to that point? But no matter how much I wanted to push away Kyle and Curtis’ warnings, my gut was telling me that they were right.

  By the time I heard the faint click of the door opening and my eyes shot up to meet Keri’s, I was ready to find out everything. There was no more hiding and it was time to talk.

  I pushed off the wall and walked up to her.

  “We need to talk,” I stated. I don’t know if I expected her to fight me on it or not.

  She nodded and I followed her quietly out of the medical center back to her room. Once inside her room, she turned to face me. She seemed agitated and nervous. I was feeling confused and frustrated but I remained quiet, waiting for her to start talking.

  “There is a reason I did what I did,” she said while holding my gaze.

  She had my undivided attention.

  “Victor made sure I had no choice.”

  The puzzle pieces inside my mind began to knit together and the picture started to become clearer.

  Fuck! I thought when the picture that I had was different from what I’d been thinking all along.

  I felt a wave of remorse and self-disgust crash over me. At the moment, I felt I was no better than the monster who had fathered her. Her eyes dropped to the floor for a moment as she bit down on her lip.

  “He kept her prisoner,” she said softly, and I felt the ground move from under my feet. “He knew that I would do anything to keep her safe.”

  Keep her safe, echoed through my mind as I tried to comprehend the full impact of what she was telling me. She looked so vulnerable, I wanted to reach out to her to console her but I stopped myself. The revelation left me standing speechless.

  I knew Victor well enough to know he was capable of what Keri was telling me. She hadn’t deceived us and betrayed us because she was like her father. I rubbed my hands over my face. She’d done it to keep her mom safe. Even with the revelations, I was still left with questions.

  “After he died, why didn’t you tell anyone?” I asked softly, sounding a little hoarse.

  She studied me for a moment.

  “I was scared that you guys would use her against me, too, if you found out about her,” she admitted softly, and I felt the pain of a knife turning in my chest.

  I wanted to tell her that we wouldn’t have but I stopped myself. The truth was I’d been prepared to lie to her to get her to mate with me to keep my loved ones safe. It made me no better than Victor.

  I thought about Kyle and Curtis’ warning. They were right. I felt like an ass. It also explained Kyle’s protective nature toward her because I felt the same. He hadn’t been trying to put the moves on her; he’d been trying to be her friend—something she didn’t have a lot of.

  Saying sorry wasn’t going to ease the guilt that I felt. No words would be able to rectify my behavior. I felt a physical pain when I thought of how I’d first reacted when I’d found out she was my mate. This time when I looked at her I didn’t see a cold-hearted bitch that was like Victor. I saw a girl that most of us had judged without giving her a chance to explain. We’d failed her.

  “What changed?” I asked softly. There had to be a reason why she’d decided to tell me about her mother now.

  “She’s dying,” she revealed, and I saw her eyes glisten.

  Just when I didn’t think I could feel any worse, I did. Instinct pushed for me to touch her. I wanted to hold and protect her so no one would ever hurt her again, but after everything I’d done, I had no right to.

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. Words wouldn’t make it better but it was all I had.

  Keri

  Blake rubbed his hands over his face and let out a he
avy breath. It was good to see his reaction to the truth.

  I could see the guilt and the sympathy in his eyes and it pulled at my heart. I hadn’t told him about my mom to get his sympathy or to make him feel bad. I’d told him the truth so he would be able to understand why I’d done what I had. It was the first step in being honest with each other so we would be able to put the past behind us and be able to mate with consciences that were clear.

  I bit down on my lip to keep my tears from spilling out and sliding down my face. Saying the words aloud about my mom dying had made it more real than before, which made it a little more difficult to deal with.

  I swallowed hard and took a deep breath to keep myself together. I still didn’t trust Blake even though I’d told him the truth, and I didn’t want to cry in front of him. Feeling vulnerable around him wasn’t a good thing. My mind couldn’t be distracted around him, it would be too easy to depend on him and I wasn’t ready to do that yet. He needed to earn my trust first.

  “You need to tell me everything,” he said as he walked over to the bed and sat down.

  I studied him for a moment. Telling him about my mom was one thing but opening up about everything was totally different, and I wasn’t sure I could.

  “Please,” he said softly as he patted the empty spot beside him. “I need you to tell me everything.”

  He was my mate and that was the only reason I considered his request. After a few more moments of silence I relented and went to sit beside him but made sure to leave enough space so we wouldn’t touch accidentally.

  “Where do you want me to start?” I asked as I clasped my hands together.

  “At the beginning,” he suggested softly.

  I think as hard as it was going to be for me to lay everything out in the open to him, it was going to be just as hard for him to hear it.

  “I didn’t have the type of childhood you had,” I began to explain and he watched me. “Victor was a hard man that used people in his pack like soldiers and I was no exception. The fact that I was his daughter made little difference.”