Page 21 of Crossed Fates

I’d followed him on the twisted offer, and he’d rewarded me at Blood Thirteen by having his minions lock me up with Violet.“I want to make him watch this time.”

Demented jackass,I thought. Part of me had wanted to prolong his death when I’d found him, but I hadn’t wanted to risk him going all fire monster on my ass again. So I’d shot him before I could rethink the situation.

“It’s not been broadcast,” my father replied, referring to Gloria. “But no one has seen her in five days, and it’s not like her to just disappear.”

No, it wasn’t.

But she hadn’t been in the hybrid’s lair earlier, only Makayla. Had she seen her at some point? It was on the tip of my tongue to ask, but my mother’s whimper drew my focus to her.

“Can we do this elsewhere?” she asked softly. “I… I don’t want to have this conversation…here.”

“Right, of course,” I agreed, coming forward to kneel beside her at the bed. “Sorry, Mom.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered, leaning into me as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

I glanced at my father, noting the concern in his gaze. He could handle a lot, but my mother’s grief was not one of those things. Which meant I had to help in his absence.

He couldn’t console his mate and the pack all by himself.

That was why he wanted me here.

To live up to my responsibility as an alpha, and not just any alpha, but an alpha destined for this pack.

I’d turned my back on everyone when I’d left Tyler in charge. Because my wolf had been the strongest of the two of us. I should have challenged him. But I couldn’t. He was my brother. My flesh and blood. The oldest of the Calder boys. He was supposed to be the stronger one, the one meant to lead, while I moved on with my life and one day found my own pack.

Except I’d never found a pack because my wolf only wanted Silver Lake.

I swallowed, the rightness of being here soured by the wrongness of this situation.

Silver poisoning.

How the hell did you let someone poison you?I wanted to demand.You’re better than that. You’re an observant motherfucker, too. So what the hell? How could you allow this to happen?

All unfair questions.

What I should really be asking was howIhad let this happen.

Had I been there, maybe I would have sensed something—anything—that could have prevented this. Because clearly it happened during their meeting. Maybe they ingested the poison through a meal or a drink? Or had it been airborne? It definitely hadn’t been injected, a fact my eyes had already confirmed, but knowingthreealphas had been taken down confirmed the gut instinct that it’d been inserted via another method.

Would I have noticed it had I been there?

Fuck.

Fuck!

I wanted to scream, to rip the damn room to shreds, to demand the physician to do something more useful than just stand there and wait to call the time of death.

This was ludicrous.

Bitten wolves could die as easily as humans, but we healed quickly. My shoulder was proof of that. I hadn’t used that arm to hold my mother, but I could at least move my opposite limb now. In a few hours, I’d be able to swing it around, too. And after that, it’d be good as new.

Mostly because of Makayla’s nursing.

I found her still lingering in the hallway, her expression blank as she watched me through the open door. Hardt studied her intently, his hazel irises pulsing with interest.

I nearly growled at him.

Wolves could sense mating bonds, and while I might not have scent-marked Makayla yet, our connection would be crystal clear to everyone nearby.