Page 20 of Fated to the Alpha Warrior (The Wolf’s Forbidden Mate #1)
Aurora
I can’t sleep.
Even with the heat of the fire mere feet away, my skin feels cold. The touch of the water spirits, vicious and strange, lingers everywhere. And I can’t shake the image of the disappearing lake from my mind.
If the fae are able to bring that much magic here from their realms, then they’ve invaded our lands more thoroughly than we suspected.
Under the cover of my sleeping bag, I pull out my phone and check the signal. There’s a faint hint of a single bar that disappears as soon as I blink. No messages are going through, and my text to Gran is marked UNDELIVERED in big red letters.
She must know what’s going on. Even if she doesn’t, she’d know what to do about it. All I have are my fumblings from her teachings and a waterlogged bike.
Resigning myself to a sleepless night, I wriggle out of my sleeping bag and glance over at the fire.
Kieran was sitting on a log by its flames, but he’s moving out in the darkness now, scouting something.
Even if I couldn’t see his silhouette, I can feel his presence like a raw, open wound in my chest.
I move to the fire and sit down on the bare log, appreciating the warmth on my skin, which chases away the attack by the water spirits.
I’m still wired, adrenaline coursing through my veins.
Eventually Kieran joins me and sits down on the other side of the campfire, looking equally alert, his ice-blue eyes reflecting the faint orange glow of the flames.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I ask, and he grunts in return. “Me neither.”
“This fae thing…” He pauses for a long moment, weight in the silence between us. “It feels bigger than it should be. Much, much bigger.”
I agree with him, but I’m afraid to voice the thought aloud and make it real. “We should talk about what we’ve learned,” I suggest, breaking the tense silence between us. “Compare notes, see if we missed anything. Since I know about fae lore and you know about the packs.”
Kieran nods, his expression guarded. “Might as well. Where do you want to start?”
“This madness… it’s affecting the shifters in a way I’ve never seen before.” I think of my own pack, my long-lost family, and my heart constricts. “You said that Waylon couldn’t feel Gage through the pack bond. Has anything like that ever happened before to any of the other packs or alphas?”
“Not that they’ve mentioned, although I’m not sure they would tell an alpha-to-be,” he admits. “Something about these fae attacks feels… desperate. Less planned than any I’ve heard of before, almost like…”
“Like they’re clawing for their very survival?
” Glancing out into the darkness where the lake was, I feel a foreboding deep in my chest. “I had the same suspicion. None of the stories Carrie told me about the old fae involved destroying entire packs. They would come here, have a little fun, leave their calling cards behind, then go back to their realms and forget about it. This time…”
“They’re acting like they’re going to move in,” he says, his jaw clenched. “Like they’re clearing space for themselves or something.”
I shiver at the thought of the fae coming in from their realms and staying put. The things they would do to humanity, the resources they would carelessly destroy with their magic—well, it doesn’t spell out good things for us or for them.
“Tell me everything you know about the fae,” I tell Kieran, “and I’ll tell you everything that I know from Carrie.”
As we trade information and take notes, the emergency lantern propped up between us for light, I feel a strange sense of nostalgia.
This feels familiar, reminiscent of the study sessions we used to have back in school.
Kieran is relaxed, almost boyish again as he tells me about an alpha who shared a fae legend with him.
“I’m serious,” he says with a grin, his white teeth flashing against tanned skin and a few days’ worth of stubble. “Alpha Eron swore up and down that the fae could make it bigger, cure impotence, the whole nine yards. Or nine inches, I suppose.”
Snorting, I write it down, although I’m skeptical. “I just don’t know why they would bother. What do they get out of it?”
“A phenomenal lover?” He shrugs, shaking his head. “Some of the stories about the fae are so dire and horrifying that they don’t bear repeating. Others… it’s like they’re just messing with us to prove they still can. It makes me feel like we’re missing something.”
Humming, I chew on the end of my pencil, my gaze going out of focus. “If there are water spirits, and there are the regular fae, the ones who look like us and humans, what if there are even more types we’re missing? Some who play pranks, and others who do far worse things.”
“That would explain why the stories out of the other packs are all different,” Kieran says thoughtfully, scratching a spot near his mouth where the scar ends. “Maybe we’re dealing with a type of fae we’ve never dealt with since… since Pack Onyx.”
Since my people, my family, the shifters who would’ve raised me and given me my wolf, all died in a horrible and tragic manner.
If these fae are the same ones who killed my people, not just different fae using similar methods, then I want to know.
So I can have answers—and give peace to my family beyond the grave.
“Whoever they are, whatever they’re up to, I just want to know what happened in the past,” I admit. “I’ll never have a family or a pack again. But maybe I can at least know where I come from.”
Kieran’s quiet for a long moment, the firelight dancing across his skin. “You do have a pack.”
“Not like that,” I remind him, shaking my head. “It isn’t the same.”
He stares off into the distance and admits, “You’re right. It isn’t.”
We’re quiet for a long moment. My gaze keeps catching on his face, on the lines that are there that weren’t before. Wanting to change the subject, I ask, “How’d you get that scar? I don’t remember it.”
He flinches at the subject. “The usual way.”
“But your healing?—”
“Let’s talk about something else,” he says gruffly, the subject change anything but smooth. “It was pretty amazing, watching you and Dana spar together. How’d you learn to move like that?”
“It’s called MMA. Dana taught me—she learned when she was at Pack Amethyst.” My heart hurts for a moment as I remember, “Alpha Tylin insisted on it.”
“Ah, right. His whole ‘fighting in human form is just as important’ thing. Yvette used to complain about the pre-dawn training workout.” Kieran says in a low, complimentary voice, “You’re pretty good at it.”
“Well, I didn’t really have a choice, once I moved to the outskirts.” The mention of my life after his rejection of me stings. “It’s dangerous out there, and as a lone shifter without a wolf, I don’t have much protection.”
For a moment we’re silent, the rejected bond simmering between us, reminding me of the pain I’ve endured.
Then Kieran dryly says, “If it’s protection you need, I’ve heard Marvin is offering up his services again.”
“Seriously? That old dog?” I laugh at the mention of his name. “Remember that time he tried to beat up your father?”
“Remember? I’ll never forget. Pretty sure they were putting him back together for weeks afterwards.”
“He was always a bit of an oddball. Could’ve sworn he left for Pack Emerald, though. Or was it Pack Amethyst?”
“Nah, he’s still with Jade.” Kieran shakes his head. “Dad tried to kick him out, but Marvin pulled the old ‘we’re family’ trick again. Never mind that he’s a second cousin twice removed at best.”
I chuckle. “Maybe I will hire Marvin as my bodyguard. I remember him offering to beat you up after you rejected me.”
Kieran’s eyes shimmer with warmth as he dryly says, “If he’d tried, I probably would’ve let him get a hit in, just to find out if his knuckle sandwich tastes as good as he says it does.”
I can’t help it—I cackle, the instinctive laugh turning into a full-on belly laugh as Kieran joins in.
Maybe Marvin is easy to laugh about, given all his antics, or maybe it’s just the stress and anxiety of this trip getting to me.
It feels good to laugh, and as the sound of it fades, our eyes meet over the fire.
I’m reminded of happier times, when we felt like friends.
Kieran’s ice blue gaze is full of warmth, with crinkles at the corners of both eyes. His hair, normally carefully styled away from his forehead, falls forward to brush against his brows. For a moment, the air between us is charged with possibility. My heart races, hope and fear warring within me.
His eyes drop to my lips. Instinctively, I lick them, and his gaze follows the movement.
I look to the space between us, realizing we’ve both moved to the ends of our respective logs. There’s so little space between us that our knees graze each other. He’s turned toward me, his hips and shoulders oriented in my direction, his body language relaxed.
I can smell cedar and pine in the air. Can feel the warmth of the fire on my skin. I wonder what that warmth would feel like if I licked it off Kieran’s skin.
“Aurora…” His voice is so low that I almost don’t hear my name on his tongue. “Have you ever thought… I mean, did you ever wonder…”
For an excruciatingly long moment, I wait for him to finish his sentence. His words hang between us like so much wasted potential. Finally, growing impatient, I ask, “Yes?”
It feels like anything could happen.
He leans toward me, his lips parting, words crowding his tongue.
There’s a moment where I think he might kiss me.
But the moment is shattered by the snap of a twig nearby. I’m up on my feet almost as fast as Kieran is. He growls, his back pressed to mine as we spring into defensive positions.
“It came from the trees,” he says in a low voice, catching my wrist in one hand. “Stay close, just in case.”
My heart races from more than just fear. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.”
I’m acutely aware of his warmth against me, his scent filling my senses. Even the bonfire smoke is nothing compared to the intoxicating smell of him. Every one of my nerves is on edge, my muscles tense, my whole body prepping for a fight—but I still feel his nearness like a balm to my broken soul.
We face the darkness together, waiting for another twig to snap, for a growl or a sign of…
something. The broken bond thrums between us, a bittersweet reminder of what could have been.
His denial of it is the only thing keeping it from snapping back into place, but I’m sure, in this moment, Kieran can feel its ache.
And I swear I can hear his heart race just as fast as mine.