Page 33 of A Curse of Fate (Shifter City Fated Mates #1)

Chapter

Thirty-Three

I ’d been trying not to laugh ever since Kellan suggested a board game day. For multiple reasons, but mainly it was the look on Slade’s face.

His expression indicated that he’d rather have his fingernails removed with pliers than take part in their games, but from what I’d gathered, Hunter was completely inflexible with these mandatory family events. No one skipped unless they were dead or dying. End of story.

After breakfast, Kellan ushered everyone into the games room off the side of the cinema. During my explorations of the house, I’d only ever viewed this room from the doorway.

It was so much larger than I’d thought. There was a pool table, air hockey table, multiple pinball machines, and other old school arcade games, along with three massive screens on the far wall, that looked to be hooked up to every gaming system imaginable.

“Hunter’s a closet nerd,” Kellan whispered near my ear. “Before the company exploded into this worldwide conglomerate, he used to play Call of Duty for days with Soren, and we’d have to pry his fried ass out of the chair to force him to eat and shower.”

As hard as I tried, I simply could not picture their entitled alpha as a gamer. The Hunter I knew was the epitome of polished businessman in a suit, always stern, bossy, and responsible. Although, every now and then he showed me a brief glimpse of his more primal side. A side which tattooed his claim and teased me to the edge of sanity.

“I have no doubt he’s an amazing gamer.” There was very little Hunter couldn’t deal with to an expert level. Whatever issue arose, he had it covered, while the rest of us—okay, except Slade—floundered around with our heads up our asses.

Today, for the first time, he was dressed casually in sweats, which gave less gruff bossman and more Daddy Alpha vibes.

Crap, now I sounded like Kellan.

All the alphas wore sweats, but at least none of them were gray, meaning I might even be able to concentrate on the games.

Yeah. Probably not.

We ended up near the wall of screens, next to a large table and a shelf of colorful boxes. Kellan perused them with a serious expression, tapping his finger against his lips as he walked up and down before finally grabbing a green box. “Let’s start with Scrabble,” he said, and I was fairly sure I didn’t want to know why he sounded so gleeful.

I also had no idea what Scrabble was.

“Uh, just as an FYI… I’ve never played a board game before.” Might as well tell them now. Once it got started, they’d definitely figure it out.

Four alpha gazes rested on me, and I was hit with a spotlight in shades of green, blue, charcoal, and whiskey. Not to mention the dominance and scents that surrounded me.

It felt like a swift kick to the vagina, and I had no idea if I would survive boardgame day.

Thankfully, two of the four hated me, so they removed their stares just as fast, giving me a reprieve from the overwhelming intensity.

Kellan dropped the game in the middle of the table and reached out to pull me to his side. “I figured, which is why I chose a game with only four players. You can be on my team.”

“The others don’t need a team?” I asked, looking between them.

Finley remained expressionless, his arms crossed over his chest, stretching his white shirt to the full extent of its capabilities. The massive bear didn’t give much away, but his scent was bitter, indicating he was more than a little unhappy to be here.

Today, his eyes were flat, without the chasm of pain I’d seen on that first night.

“Kellan’s the only one who needs help,” Slade said, his tone so dry I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. “All brawn and no brains.”

The dragon shifter sprawled into a large chair on one side of the table, and I noticed Kellan discreetly flipping him off when he wasn’t looking. I barely managed not to laugh, because the last thing I wanted was to draw more attention to myself. Or get Kellan murdered.

Slade settled back, the legs of the chair groaning, and if there was ever an advertisement for the strength of furniture, it was this piece holding up to a near seven-foot-tall, buff-as-fuck dragon.

Finley reluctantly took the seat opposite Slade, leaving Kellan and I to sit across from Hunter, who was ignoring us all and unpacking the game.

I studied the board, noticing that it was separated into squares which were different colors, and some even had words written in them. It took a few seconds of silently sounding out, but I managed to figure out they said Double letter score and Double word score .

Hunter dropped a clinking bag in the middle of the board, and then handed out a small brown piece of plastic to each of the alphas.

“You guys know the rules of choosing the theme,” Kellan said, rubbing his hands together. “Emme, think of a number between one and twenty. We’ll each try and guess, and whoever is the closest gets to choose the theme.”

Against my leg, Kellan pressed seven times, and I barely caught another laugh that would have given us away. “Yep, no worries. I’ve got my number.”

Slade went first, in his raspy, slightly accented drawl that sent shivers down my spine. “Thirteen.”

Finley was next with a flat: “One.”

Hunter took a second to assess me before he drawled, “Eighteen.”

Kellan was last of course. “My guess from the beautiful Shortcake is six.”

Pressing my lips together to hide my amusement, I said, “My number was seven, so Kel is the winner.”

Finley’s calm broke as he groaned and rubbed a hand through his hair, sending the thick brown strands into disarray. “Ah fuck. Here we go. That bastard is always cheating. Every fucking games day. And now he’s even roped the omega into it.”

Kellan threw his head back and laughed, clutching his flat stomach. “Aw, come on, bro. It’s too early to be a sore loser. If you weren’t such a grouch, you could also have a mind meld connection with Emme.”

Finley opened his mouth with a snarl, but Kellan interrupted him to add, “And the theme for the day is Star Wars . May the force be with you.”

Hunter was the only one who looked pleased by this announcement, and I was reminded of his secret nerd-isms. “I don’t know why it’s necessary to have a theme,” Slade rumbled with a huff that was heavily scented in ash.

“Got to add some spice to life, S. You know that.”

Slade ignored Kellan, reaching out to pick up the clinking bag. He pulled out a square tile, and turned it around to show the letter “H.” The others did the same, and when Kellan pulled out a B for his first letter, I swear steam seeped from Finley’s ears.

His Grouchy Bear persona had never been more obvious and appropriate.

Hunter explained to me that whoever pulled out the letter closest to “A” goes first. I could only assume Kellan had cheated again, and I loved that he was riling them all up this way. Weirdly, I couldn’t wait to see how this day ended up, especially since no one generally fucked with alphas. It was about to be a great lesson in humility for them.

“Okay, the aim of this game,” Hunter continued explaining it all to me, “is to get the highest point score by using the letters you pick to form words across the board.” He pointed toward the center tile. “You start here, and if you don’t have a word initially, you can swap out some of your letters for others.”

I was following along easily enough, but as soon as he mentioned forming words, I had a mini-panic attack. Even if I were a proficient reader, letters always mixed around the wrong way when I tried to spell, leaving me looking like an idiot.

Thank the goddess I was on Kellan’s team and not on my own. The thought of demonstrating my stupidity to these alphas, half of whom hated me, had bitter shame rising in my body until heat infused my cheeks.

Hunter, who’d been in the middle of explaining how letters held different values, stopped suddenly, and I was once again the center of their attentions.

“What’s wrong, Shortcake?” Kellan took my hand, but I was too tense to unfurl my fingers. “Your scent went from sweet to bitter in seconds. What happened?”

My frazzled brain couldn’t come up with anything but the truth. “I’m not great with words, sorry. I’m not going to be much use to you.” Kellan’s eyes softened, and before he could offer sympathy that I really didn’t want , I added, “I’ve mentioned it before, but I haven’t had much schooling. The best I can do is moral support.”

Unable to meet their eyes, I stared at the board as if I were about to memorize it. In reality, I didn’t want to see their expressions, which would either be filled with disgust or pity. Each equally as bad.

“Omega!” Hunter’s command had my head jerking up to meet his storm-filled gaze. “You don’t need to feel shame about what was stolen from you. And you don’t have to worry about what you perceive as weaknesses. You were strong for far longer than most wolves would have survived. We see that. We see you. Now… if you feel uncomfortable, we’ll choose another game.”

Kellan offered his support in a squeeze of my hand, and to my surprise, none of the others looked disgusted by me. If anything, there was a complete lack of judgement from the table. No doubt they felt this way due to our scent bond, but it was my first real glimpse of support via a pack, and it was gloriously addicting.

I wanted more.

I wanted it all. And for a second I pretended it could be mine to keep.

“Thank you. I’m completely fine to watch you all play. Who knows, I might learn some new words, especially since I’ve never watched Star Wars .”

I had heard of it at least, so that was something.

As I calmed, Hunter also relaxed, and that press of his dominance faded around us. “Okay, let’s proceed.”

Each of them drew out seven tiles from the bag, and Kellan placed ours onto that piece of plastic Hunter handed out before. A stand . His letters were E, I, J, H, X, Q, and a D.

After he arranged them, he let out a satisfied whoop. “That’s a nice start.”

He hadn’t let go of my hand yet, not even when Finley made a point of glaring at our joined palms, his whiskey eyes finally swirling with emotions.

“Are you starting or not, pup?” Hunter grumbled. “You know I have the timer on, and you’re almost out.”

Kellan picked up four of the letters and arranged them on the center tile to spell out JEDI. When he was done, he sat back looking smug, while the other three shook their heads. “Oh,” Slade deadpanned, “you just happened to pull Jedi as your first word? Do you know the statistical probability of that happening?”

My lips were pressed together so hard they were starting to hurt, while Kellan looked adorably smug. “I’d say it’s a hundred percent probability based on today.”

“Has anyone figured out how he cheats so seamlessly?” Finley demanded, looking around the table to the other alphas. His irate gaze even rested on me for a second.

“It’s pure skill,” Kellan said around a chuckle. “You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it.”

“I know I’m going to put my foot in your fucking a—”

“Twenty-four points,” Hunter interrupted, jotting the figure into a little notepad I hadn’t noticed until now. “First word gets a double point score.”

Kellan flashed me a slow smile, leaning closer to murmur in my ear. “Who do you think will flip out first? Want to place a bet?”

A snort of laughter finally escaped, and every head snapped in our direction, leaving me barely able to resist pressing my face into Kellan’s neck to hide.

Thankfully, they moved on to the next turn without comment, and I leaned closer and breathed right into Kellan’s ear. “Finley.”

Kellan’s cheeks had to ache with how hard he grinned, and as he looked between his pack, he murmured, “Hunter.”

The entitled alpha heard him and pointed a finger straight in his face. “Don’t fucking start or I’ll let Fin free on you and you’ll be the one wearing the board this time.”

“It’s our third Scrabble board,” Kellan said in a pretend-whisper, like it was a secret.

Slade had the next turn, and he used the D in JEDI for the word DARK.

“Eleven points,” Hunter said, jotting his score down as well.

Both Kellan and Slade had chosen more tiles from the bag after their turns, so they always had seven on their plastic stand. After a while, I started to understand how it all worked. They used a combination of the letters on their stands and the free letters on the board to build words, with the aim to get the higher valued letters on the squares that were either double or triple points.

It astonished me how smart all four of them were, as they continuously found ways to create Star Wars words with seven random letters, half of which I’d never even heard of, though that might have been due to the theme.

They also argued. A lot.

Mostly about whether a word was acceptable under the rules, and in most cases Hunter had final say. It was enjoyable watching them play, and by the time they finished, Kellan was the winner by about forty points with the word TROOPER.

They moved on to game two, which was fantasy-themed Monopoly.

I’d heard of this game, and didn’t refuse when they asked me to join in this time. They gave me first choice of game pieces, and I had to ask, “Who usually picks the wolf?” There was only one wolf, along with a dragon, bear, unicorn, magic wand, cauldron, yeti, and a phoenix.

The alphas all looked at Hunter, and I wasn’t surprised. “I’m the entitled leader,” he said with a shrug. “I get the wolf.”

By instinct, I found myself holding the silver figure out to him. “I don’t want to take your piece. I’m happy with the unicorn.”

I was fairly sure that wasn’t the first time I’d been nice or compromised with these alphas, but they acted like I’d discovered gravity as they fell into silent shock.

Hunter wrapped his palm around my hand, gently closing it over the piece. “You’re the wolf, little omega.”

A buzz ran through our joined hands and up my arm, and I couldn’t find the strength to pull away until Hunter released me.

While I got myself under control, the others chose their pieces, and all of us started on the GO square. Hunter and Kellan explained roughly how this game worked, and it seemed straightforward enough. I had no idea why there was so much tension in the group as they eyed each other before the first roll of a die.

It started out normally enough, with everyone rolling, moving their figures, and if they landed on a property, buying them up. Kellan picked up a lot quickly, but so did the others, while I had two measly cards in my possession, and a dwindling cash pile.

It turned out that if you didn’t own the properties, you had to pay to stay there, which ate through your money fast.

After thirty minutes of intense play, I landed on one of Kellan’s properties that he’d just put two houses on, and counting out my money, for the first time I didn’t have enough to pay.

“Shit, does that mean I’m out?” I stared sadly at the board. “I’m really fucking bad at this.”

“You can stay for free—”

Hunter interrupted Kellan with a growl. “No cheating, even for our little omega. She’s out.”

Golden’s face fell as he reached out a hand for me. “Want to borrow some money, pretty girl? I’m sure we can work out a suitable arrangement for you to pay it back.” He waggled his eyebrows, and I snorted out a laugh.

Shaking my head, feeling stupidly happy even as the biggest loser of this game. “Thanks, Kel, but I’m fine to watch you all battle it out.”

His lips brushed across my cheek, and as heat coursed through me I completely forgot about Monopoly. My wolf whined, and I felt the other alphas flinch, even though I’d never made an external sound. Kellan pulled away with a low, purring rumble from his chest.

The game continued, and I was stupidly invested in the outcome.

After about an hour, only two remained with a real chance, and when Finley landed on Kellan’s property loaded with maximum hotels, he cursed loudly. “I swear to the goddess you’ve got this shit rigged.”

Kellan held his hand out and wiggled his fingers. “Pay up, buddy. You want to stay at Hotel de Kellan, you’ve got to pay your dues.”

Finley slapped the money into his brother’s hand. “It was a shithole anyway. I’m leaving you a one star on Yelp.”

By now I’d picked up on Kellan cheating once or twice. He was so fast that it was only from my angle beside him that you’d see his sleight of hand. He had it down to a fine art, which was driving Finley bananas.

Kellan spent a full minute slowly counting Finley’s rent as if to ensure he hadn’t been shortchanged, while the bear grew grouchier and grouchier. When it was Kellan’s turn, he rolled a six, which landed him on the final property he needed to own the full side of the board. The most expensive side. Which was the exact straw that broke the bear’s back.

Finley lurched to his feet, and as the bear launched himself across the table, Hunter was at my side, yanking me out of the way. An echoing crash rang in my ears, and by the time I looked around Hunter’s protective stance, Kellan was sprawled on the ground, and the whole table was on its side, pieces of the board scattered across the wooden floors.

Finley’s chest heaved as he stomped his foot right in the middle of the Monopoly board, tearing it in two. “If you keep fucking cheating, I will kill you, Kellan,” he raged, before snarling and marching from the room.

The other three were quiet for a beat, and then to my fucking surprise it was Slade who broke the silence with a rumbly laugh. Just one laugh, and it felt like he’d punched me in the gut. His low burst did things to me that I couldn’t explain, even as he immediately returned to his regular stoic self.

Kellan dragged himself up off the floor howling and looking pleased that he’d managed to achieve exactly what he’d been aiming for. Chaos and carnage.

Meanwhile, I was still stunned by the dragon shifter. I decided then and there that I wanted to hear Slade laugh one more time.

Just once before everything came to an end.