Filed to story: The Alpha She Chose Instead (Serena & Ethan)
“I see you take my point.”
“So why does everyone say mates are fated?”
“Well, I mean, in a sense, they are. In a biology as destiny sense. It’s almost impossible to have a pup with anyone else.”
Almost impossible, but there are stories about it happening. In other packs. A long time ago. I always thought the stories existed as an excuse for insecure assholes to accuse their mates of sleeping around.
“But the Fates are also-complicated.”
“Are they like sports drinks?”
“No lip from you, little missy,” but Abertha smiles as she says it. Some of the worry that’s been haunting her face since she found me in the thicket disappears. “But yes. They are like sports drinks. And tea.”
Abertha relaxing helps me let go a little. Breathe a little deeper. I take a sip from my cup. It’s sweetened with honey. Just how I like it.
“First off, it’s not Fate, it’s Fates. Plural. And they aren’t necessarily working together. You’ve got the sports drink Fate who is all about the results. Hydration by whatever means necessary. Pups, pups, pups. That’s all she cares about. But then there’s the tea Fates.”
“Tea Fates?”
Abertha is warming to her analogy. Her gray eyes start to dance like they do when she’s enjoying herself. “Uh-huh. Tea Fates are about the journey. Pups are great, but they’re interested in the bigger things-love and destiny and balance and justice. Destroying all sentient life and returning the world to its natural state. That kind of thing.”
“Sounds like a mess.”
“Oh, yes. It is. Look around. Obviously, the powers that be have to be working at cross purposes, right?”
“So why do we all believe that mates are fated?”
“‘Cause they are.”
“And when they’re not? Like Jimmy and Dierdre?”
“They still are. The story’s just more-complicated. But people don’t want to think about that too much. Strains their little pea-sized noggins.”
“My little pea-sized noggin is strained.”
“I bet. Drink something.” She smiles wickedly. “Your choice.” She taps the plate of muffins. “And eat.”
“So Ethan and I are fated mates?”
“Yes.”
“But he doesn’t think we are?”
“Appears so.”
“And we’re not anymore. You severed the bond.”
“I did sever the bond.”
“So I’m good with the Fates. None of them have any interest in me now, right?”
“Wouldn’t say that.”
“Abertha.”
Abertha shrugs. She’s got a mouthful of baked goods.
Mates or not-fated or not-it doesn’t really matter. I can’t bear the thought of going back to camp.
“Can I stay here?”
Abertha takes a moment swallowing. “I don’t do roommates.” She pats my hand to take the sting away. “I don’t like people eating my food.”
“And yet you’re pushing these muffins pretty hard.”
“They’re three days old. If we don’t eat them, they’ll go to waste.”
“Wouldn’t want that.”
“No, we wouldn’t.” Abertha grabs another one and carefully peels the paper cup. “Don’t worry. Ethan will be sorry before all is said and done.”
“I don’t want him to be sorry. I just want to never see him again. Or if he was eaten by bears. That’d be okay.”
“No bears around here. Just wolves and rats.”
Abertha stands and crosses the kitchen to the fridge. A wave of exhaustion crests over me.
“It was humiliating,” I confess to her back. “He asked what I’d done to earn the rank I claimed.”
He’s an asshole, but in the end, he’s right. I’ve won no challenges. Matter of fact, I’m zero for one.
Abertha snorts. “For all that Ethan Kelly’s a thousand times smarter than his father was, he still knows nothing. He’s gonna learn, though. Or maybe I should say ‘remember’.”
I can’t follow her mysticism right now. I eye the plate, but instead of taking the offering, I lay my head in my hands. I don’t have enough energy to grab the butter, and I can’t eat a three-day old muffin dry.
“He’s going to live happily ever after,” I mumble into my elbow, yawning. “Getting pawed at by females and barking orders from a metal folding chair.”
“I doubt it.” Abertha plops a crock of home-churned butter in front of me and drops into a chair with way too much oomph for a sixty-seventy?-year old woman. “I yanked the mate bond out of you.” She waggles her arched eyebrows. “Didn’t touch his now, did I?”
***
Abertha lets me sleep in her bed-just this once, she’s careful to say-and in the morning, I’m stiff and sore, but the scalding humiliation is-well, it’s freaking awful, but at least it’s a little less visceral. I’m not glowing red anymore.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?