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

Chapter 31

Chapter

Thirty-One

I woke up later than usual on Sunday, feeling refreshed and strangely calm. As I rolled over, coffee and cocoa drifted up from the sheets, and I tried to recall what happened last night. I’d worked at the club, and then Kellan brought me home, and…

A quick feel under the sheets revealed that I was in my underwear, and I might not be able to remember it, but I knew exactly who’d undressed me and put me to bed. Hunter Reeves .

I must have fallen asleep in the car, exhaustion and the weird trust I had for these alphas, knocking out my usual security system. I’d have to be dead to the world to not rouse when Hunter removed my pants and tank.

I waited for the anger and sense of violation to strike at his audacity of undressing me without my permission, and it was faintly there, but mostly I was annoyed by my vulnerability around them. The issue here was that my wolf trusted them implicitly, and she was no longer a viable warning system. Not when it came to Reeves Pack.

At least, from what I could tell, he’d done little except strip me of my shoes and clothes—which had stunk from the club, and I wouldn’t have wanted to sleep in them anyway—before sliding me under the sheets.

Still, at some point I probably needed to have a quick chat with him about consent.

Pulling myself out of the bed, I padded over to the window and lifted the blinds. A dull light reflected back, and for my first time in Golden Claw, their bright fall weather had been replaced by rain. Heavy and ominous clouds hung low in the sky, the wind blowing fiercely through the mass of trees across their acres of land, and I wondered if they’d still head to the track.

Not to mention, there was no way family bonfire night could go ahead if this weather persisted.

Fighting the urge to crawl back into bed, I almost fell onto the soft surface, until a waft of stale booze drifted off my skin. More than one drink had spilled on me last night, and I couldn’t wait another second to shower.

In the bathroom, the bright lights reflected my freckles and clear blue eyes in the mirror. I was surprised to see that any makeup I’d been wearing to work was gone. If Hunter had removed it, it was strangely thoughtful, for that snarly alpha.

Though, it had been Kellan who’d dusted the powder off my nose as soon as he’d arrived at Luxuria. Your pretty freckles are never to be covered, Shortcake. They’re mine to keep.

He had a way with words that stayed with me long after he’d finished speaking.

Twenty minutes later, I strolled out of the bathroom, scented in a new strawberry lotion I’d found in the drawer, and not even a minute later there was a knock at the door.

“Pretty girl, you awake?”

I was only in a towel, and we did not need a repeat of the last towel incident. “Yep, give me a second to get dressed.”

There was a thud, as if Kellan had dropped his head against the door while he mumbled, “I’d rather not.”

Biting back a laugh, I hurried into the dressing room to find some clothes. There was no pain in my feet from last night, and overall, it’d been a pretty great first shift. After Slade dropped me off, and half the club fawned over him from a distance, he’d sat in one of the high tables with his laptop and proceeded to work.

Work and stare.

His biting gaze had me stumbling around like a newborn pup who hadn’t quite gotten her legs under her yet. The dragon shifter confused me, and when he’d packed up and left a couple of hours into my shift, I couldn’t figure out if I was relieved or disappointed to no longer have his green gaze on me.

It wasn’t a soft gaze, by any means, more calculating and predatory. But I’d missed it.

Kellan, on the other hand, had been the best addition to my night. He’d shown up after practice and the media call, hair still wet, casually dressed in jeans and a black fitted shirt that showcased every single one of his nicely honed hockey-boy muscles.

His distraction was similar but also vastly different to Slade’s.

Kellan was comforting in a way that felt like home. Or how I’d always dreamed home would feel. Albeit a home I wanted to strip naked and explore for hours. Kellan was an alpha who made my resolve to run from this pack harder than I’d ever imagined.

During my shift I’d kept drifting by his table, needing to check in. Unlike Slade, he was closely surrounded by other shifters—everyone wanted to be Kellan’s friend. He was popular and charming, and he wasn’t even buying the drinks to make it so. That had been Christian, another hockey wolf, who was viciously hilarious as he ribbed his best friend all night.

Those two gave each other so much shit, and by the time my shift ended, I felt like part of their friendship group. It had taken a concerted effort to work all my section and not just drop my tray on their table to chat the night away.

Not that the club manager would have said a word, with Kellan being one of the owners, but I also hated for any of them to think I was lazy or unprepared to carry my share of work.

If anything, I’d worked that much harder than usual to do all the things , which probably explained why I’d passed out in the car on the way home.

Once I was dressed in jeans and a loose hoodie that smelled a lot like Kellan, I pulled on some socks and padded out of the wardrobe.

“You can come in now,” I called as I checked my phone, which had been plugged in to charge by somebody as well .

There were no new messages, but I was delighted to find almost four hundred bucks in tips stashed under the device. Kellan and his friends were excellent tippers, and while I felt a little guilty taking their cash, most of it would be going to pay the pack back anyway.

The door crashed open as Kellan bounded in and leapt onto my unmade bed, his massive body spread out to make the queen look positively tiny. “How’d you sleep?” he asked as I tucked my phone into my back pocket and held the money out to him.

“I slept great. And here’s some cash to start paying back what I owe.”

Kellan narrowed his eyes on my hand as if it were diseased and shook his head. “None of us will ever take your money, Shortcake. Let’s just start from scratch now, but please don’t stop me from buying you stuff on occasion.”

I felt stupid standing there with money hovering between us, so I quickly stuffed it into the drawer. “Thank you,” I said softly, determined not to make this a thing. Though there was one part I had to address: “Speaking of letting you buy me stuff… you wouldn’t happen to know where all my new clothes and toiletries came from?”

Kellan’s smile was breathtakingly effortless and full of joy. I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever smiled that freely before. “It was definitely Florence. I thought I recognized one of my hoodies.” Sitting up, he reached out and grabbed a handful of the sweater and rubbed it gently between his fingers.

I was sure my expression was a mask of disbelief. “Are you trying to tell me that not only is Florence buying me items without permission, but she also stole your clothes and put them in my room?”

He laughed hard, and I was thrown off balance when he yanked on the hoodie, pulling me on top of him. “Would you believe me if I said yes?”

I pushed against his chest and he hit me with his puppy eyes, their deep blue color leaning toward that violet hue he got when he was happy. Or turned on .

“Not a chance,” I huffed, trying not to react to our bodies all tangled together on the bed. Holy goddess, this was bad, but it also felt so good . “Please stop buying me things. I really don’t need any extras, and I’m never going to be able to pay you back.”

Pushing against his chest again, I barely moved an inch in his hold, and then he started to run his hands up and down my spine in soft, gentle touches. “It makes me happy to leave you little gifts.” His voice lowered, and I found myself wanting to stay under his soothing touch.

The tension eased from me as I collapsed against him, deciding that I wouldn’t take away his joy when it didn’t cost me anything to be here with him.

Except for maybe small slivers of my soul, but hey, I could probably live without them.

“Okay, Golden. You can give me small gifts, but I want you to know that you never have to buy my love or affection. You will never buy anyone’s, you hear me. If they can’t appreciate you for all your non-monetary charms, then they don’t deserve you.”

His hands paused against my skin where he’d slipped them under the hoodie, and I felt tension ripple through him. “Will you freely give it to me?”

Not if I can help it . Though it was starting to feel like it might all be out of my control.

“Just keep being you. It’s more than enough.”

His shudder this time was stronger, and that soft touch turned firmer as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me so tightly into his chest that I couldn’t breathe.

I didn’t want to breathe.

Like the last time he’d hugged me, the sensation tore at my essence and destroyed flimsy repairs to old wounds. I barely managed not to sob.

My throat burned like a motherfucker, my eyes squeezed as tightly as his arms felt.

I wondered if hugs would always feel like this. I also wondered if I’d ever stop craving them with a burn that scorched whatever was left of my tattered soul.

Kellan held on for a long time, and I didn’t fight him, falling all the way into the two of us wrapped around each other, while the rain pounded the windows. It was dark, cool and cozy, as if we existed in our own world that no one could touch. Kellan’s heart beat strongly under my ear, soothing in its rhythm.

It’ll destroy him when you leave.

The thought was so loud, and I had no idea if I’d be able to make that decision in the end because it would destroy me too .

That feeling had never been as strong as it was today. After getting to know this pack, leaving them would irrevocably change me.

“Tell me about your life growing up.”

His hands tightened as I jolted, panic my immediate reaction to that question. “Why do you want to know?”

He started those gentle strokes along my spine again, as if soothing a wild beast. “Because I want to know you. I have so many questions, but I’m aware that asking them will have you running and screaming. So… just tell me one truth.”

One truth. Might as well start with a doozy. “I was a mistake, and my mom never wanted me.”

Kellan’s grip briefly bit into my skin before he relaxed his hold. His heartbeat was faster though, and that cinnamon caramel sweetness tasted slightly bitter as his anger took over. “She told you that?”

“Yep. She mostly showed me, because, you know, actions speak a million times louder than words. But my mom was thorough enough to also use words to really reiterate the facts.”

His fingers moved higher, near my shoulder, tracing over the end of the ropey scar.

I knew what his next question was going to be, but to my surprise he didn’t ask; he just kept brushing the scar tissue.

My honorable alpha was sticking to the one truth today.

“She gave me the scar,” I freely offered, “before my shifter healing was strong enough to counter it, using a pure silver blade. Her pack helped in her disciplines .” Silver didn’t bother alphas, but the rest of us were weakened by its effects.

Kellan’s chest rumbled under my ear, but he just kept up that soothing stroke over my skin. “As bad as it was to find her body,” I continued, the words pouring from me, “I was lucky she died when I was young. Her pack wasn’t interested in raping children, thank the goddess, but I’d been on the cusp of womanhood when she died.” Exactly around the time those four alphas had started to pay much closer attention to me with lingering stares and touches. It had only been a matter of time.

“I need to kill them anyway,” Kellan said in the deepest tone I’d ever heard from him, his dominance rising as his scent grew stronger.

Their deaths would only bring me joy and peace, but I’d never want him to risk himself in that pursuit. “I promise, for the most part, they left me alone. There’s no need to avenge me.”

His hands briefly stilled before moving again. “How alone?”

Entirely, completely, utterly . In every way that mattered. “Let’s just say that before I ran, they locked me in my room every day. My only freedom was when they left the apartment and I could escape out the window and hide in the garage downstairs.”

Kellan shot up in the bed, keeping his hold on me so I ended up sprawled across his lap. “What about school? What about your wolf? You would have been shifting by then, right?”

I nodded. “Yep, first shift was at ten, like most.”

It took him less than five seconds to figure out what that meant. “That’s why you ran circles in your room when you panicked. Your instinct wasn’t to race outside to the forest, but to hide in the only space that was yours. The only place you were allowed to run as a pup.”

Shame coated my insides, hot and bitter, as I tried not to reflect on those dark days.

“Being an omega helped. I—” I couldn’t finish as my throat tightened. Being an omega might have helped me through that part of my life, but it was also the reason I could never have my pack. A pack I’d have given anything to claim.

Even the ones who didn’t like or want me were a million times better than my mom’s old pack. It was unfair really.

A cruel curse of fate.