Fated Hearts (Echoes of Darkness Prequel)

26

Logan

F uck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

A weighted silence fills the air after my sister’s sudden appearance. With everything that happened and then the mating bond snapping into place, I got completely lost in Ava, and I totally forgot about the fact that I was supposed to get engaged to Grace today. I haven’t seen Grace since the ball, but my mother convinced me she would be perfect as my chosen mate. I promised I would marry Grace on my twenty-fifth birthday and get engaged to her a month prior to that. My mother has been organizing the engagement party and the wedding for weeks. Even if I felt like I was betraying my fated mate, I went along with it because it was the only solution I had to strengthen the pack. For the children to wake up, I had to do my duty as Alpha.

I’m such a fucking idiot.

I swallow hard when Ava whispers my name. The saliva goes down my throat like a boulder, sinking to the bottom of my stomach. Even though I know I should say something…anything, I can’t utter a single word. I don’t even know how to start explaining this to her. What a fool I’ve been, thinking I had more time. I’m sure she feels like the rug has been pulled from under her.

The moment the words register in Ava’s head is clearly written on her face. I can feel her heart breaking as if her pain is my own. It slashes through me like a serrated blade. “Ava, I can explain. Please hear me out,” I tell her softly, but I don’t think she hears me because, in the next second, a sound so full of sorrow leaves her chest it almost brings me to my knees. Before I can react, she’s already out the front door in her wolf form.

Emily’s eyes widen in shock. “What in the actual fuck? Was that Ava?” she shrieks, but I don’t pay her any attention as I shift and start running after her.

“Ava, please! Stop running; I can explain,” I say through our mental link, following her scent through the pine trees, my paws sinking in the melting snow.

“Go to hell, Logan! And stay there,” she snaps venomously, and then I feel her through our bond getting further and further away. How the hell is she running so fast?

“Care to explain what that was, Lo?” my sister asks, following right behind me.

“Not right now. Help me find Ava first, and then I’ll tell you everything.”

“ Fine, ” she grumbles. I feel she wants to ask more questions, but she doesn’t push me. Not now. Not when she hears the desperation in my tone.

Only, we don’t find Ava. We follow the scent trail until it ends abruptly near a creek. We circle the perimeter over and over again for hours, but nothing. Somehow, without training, she managed to mask her scent and block me mentally. The absence is an all-consuming void inside me, cleaving my heart in two and filling my chest with lead.

“We have to go, ” Emily says as the indigo sky gives way to purple and the cottony clouds get drenched in pink.

“I can’t leave her here, Em, what the fuck?”

“We’ve been at this for almost seven hours, Lo. She might have already left the national park for what we know. She clearly found a way to mask her scent, and we need to smooth things over with the pack. I haven’t even had the chance to tell you the good news.”

“Just give me half an hour more to search for her, please, and you can tell me later. I need to concentrate on finding her.”

“’Kay,” she relents. “But after that, we need to go and sort things out.”

One hour later, we are fully dressed, and we get into my truck without Ava. This time, Emily doesn’t insist on driving, probably sensing how on edge I am. The responsibility toward my pack wraps around my lungs like barbed wire as the desperate need to find my mate twists my insides into painful knots. I feel trapped between a rock and a hard place.

I can’t believe how quickly everything crumbled. With a sharp curse, I punch the steering wheel. It doesn’t lessen the anger bubbling under my skin, ready to seep out of my pores and consume me. I could blame Emily, of course, for barging in with no filter on her mouth and ruining everything, but I know it’s only my fault I’m in this position because I didn’t tell Ava everything about me.

“The kids woke up,” Emily says, looking at me from the passenger seat with a bashing grin. “That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier.”

My eyes widen. For a few seconds, I forget about Ava completely. “What?”

“The children touched by the weakness all woke up Monday night. I tried to contact you, but you were out of reach. It was the weirdest thing. They just opened their eyes and started calling for their parents. They’re all good. It’s like nothing happened to them.”

Of course, they woke up. I found my fated mate, and we completed the mating bond. The pack is at full strength again. I just haven’t thought about this at all; everything and everyone seemed to disappear when I was with Ava. “It’s because I have found my fated mate, Em.”

This time, it’s her turn to look at me like I’ve grown two heads. “What? But who?” She tilts her head, and a weird expression takes over her face. “No…don’t tell me…”

“Yeah, it’s her. Ava’s my fated mate.”

An incredulous laugh bubbles out of her. “You’re joking, right?”

I shake my head and sigh. “No, I’m not joking.”

“But, I don’t understand. How the fuck is that even possible? I’m so confused…she wasn’t a wolf shifter when I met her. I would have smelled her immediately. And then I saw her shift right before my eyes. What the hell is going on, Lo?”

I tell Emily everything that has happened since I left her in charge of the pack Sunday night, and her emotions change from devastated to completely shocked.

“I can’t believe Tony is gone. He was my favorite person to work with, and he was such a good friend,” she sniffles and wipes at her tear-streaked cheeks. “What a clusterfuck. I’m sorry for barging in, Lo, but you got us so worried. You left abruptly when we were hunting, and you only texted me once to tell me you’ll be off with some Conclave business. That’s so not like you. Then you wouldn’t answer any of my calls. I had to hunt down Malik to tell me where you were, and he refused to let me know what was happening. He said it wasn’t his place.”

She pauses, biting her lip. “And Mom was going crazy, then the party started, and everyone arrived but you. Conrad almost blew a fuse when Mom told him we don’t know where you are. Half of his pack arrived yesterday for the engagement party, and they are still here. Mom managed to calm him down eventually, telling him that the Conclave business is of utmost importance and that you wouldn’t miss your engagement party if something major didn’t happen. Mom said we’ll just resume the celebration when you get back. What are you going to do?”

I roll my neck until it cracks, trying to get rid of the tension that accumulated in my muscles since Ava ran off. “I’m going to tell them the truth, that I have found my fated mate and can’t get engaged to someone else. Then I’m going to get Ava back.”

I tap my foot on the hardwood floor of my study, grinding my teeth as I look for the thousandth time at my watch and start to pace the room like a caged animal. Conrad was supposed to be here an hour ago. He is surely punishing me for missing the engagement party. Fuck diplomacy and pack politics. I’m about to lose my shit because every single minute I spend not looking for Ava deepens the gaping hollow in my chest. Even if Emily and the pack are scouring the national park looking for her, it’s not enough. I need to be there. Being separated from her cuts me deep, like someone ripping my heart from my chest with their bare hands. If Conrad doesn’t show up in the next five minutes, I’m going to wring his fucking neck.

The sound of the front door closing and three sets of footsteps coming in the direction of the study echoes through the quiet of the house. I heave out a deep sigh, ready for this meeting to be over already. My mother enters the study first, her disapproving gaze settling on me as her lips draw into a thin line. It’s clearly written on her face that my absence has angered her. Grace follows quickly behind my mother with her father at her back. Her ocean-blue eyes glimmer with hope when they meet mine. I lower my gaze and gulp nervously because I know I’m going to break her heart, and she seems to be such a sweet girl. Even if I never felt an ounce of attraction to her, she still doesn’t deserve to have her hopes and dreams crushed.

“You better have a good motive for missing the engagement party and making fools out of me and my daughter in front of both our packs,” Conrad grits out, and a muscle feathers in his jaw.

My mother’s nostrils flare as her head whips toward Conrad at her back. “Now, now, Conrad. I told you my son would never miss such an important event if not for a good reason.” Her tone is short, clipped. She might be mad at me, but she will always put me and Emily above anything else.

“He’s here now, Father. That’s what matters most,” Grace says softly, trying to placate Conrad. “We can get engaged tonight, right, Logan?”

Clearing my throat, I gesture for them to sit, guilt coiling in my gut when Grace smiles sweetly at me. She’s wearing a flowery sundress, and with the halo of blond hair on her head and ocean-blue eyes, she looks downright angelic, but my heart beats only for Ava. “There’s something that we need to discuss. If you could please take a seat.”

Grace’s eyebrows draw together. My mother sighs deeply and takes a seat in front of my desk at the same time as Grace. I’m still standing, waiting for Conrad to sit, but he simply stalks forward, embedding his fingers in the back of Grace’s chair, white-knuckled.

“What is it now?” Conrad snaps, looking at me through narrowed eyes.

I choose to stand since I don’t want to give him the opportunity to look down on me. I’m still the Alpha of my pack and the representative of the wolf shifters within the Obsidian Conclave. Conrad shouldn’t forget that. Still, I go for pleasantries because my mother raised me and Emily well, and honestly, I don’t have time to get into a fight with the Alpha of the Ironclaw pack at this moment. With how unstable I’m feeling, I’m afraid I might kill him and start a war.

“I’m deeply sorry for not announcing my absence and for putting you and Grace in such a dire position, Alpha Conrad. But there is a very good reason I couldn’t attend the engagement party.” I pause and then look at Grace. Even if I don’t want to see the hurt on her face, she deserves the respect of being looked at in the eyes when she hears the news. I suck in a deep breath and say, “I have found my fated mate.”

Grace’s eyes widen, and when the realization kicks in fully, her lower lip starts trembling, a silent tear going down her cheek. She tucks her chin into her chest and gingerly wipes at her damp cheek. Fuck. I didn’t want to hurt her, but what could I have done? She needed to know the truth.

“I don’t give a shit!” Conrad bellows, making Grace flinch. “I promised my daughter to you, and you will marry her and take her as your mate.”

“Careful, Conrad. Did you forget fated mates are sacred?” my mother says, and her tone drips with venom.

My wolf rages at him. I have to suck in a sharp breath in order to settle the anger simmering in my veins before it boils over, prompting me to do something I’ll surely regret after the dust settles. I keep my tone as steady as I can when I say, “That’s not possible. We already completed the mating bond.”

“What?” Conrad’s fingers are fisted at his sides, and spit flies from his mouth with every word that comes out. “You better do as I say, boy, or I will challenge your Alpha position and take your pack from under you. You’re a disgrace. You don’t deserve to be Alpha. You put your fated before the wellbeing of your pack for years, and now you’re going to humiliate us further after I made my daughter wait for months to get married to you?”

“Enough!” my mother snaps and sits up straight, her shoulders squared and her posture regal as she turns toward the Alpha of the Ironclaw pack. If looks could kill, Conrad would already be a pile of bones on the floor. “My son is a much better Alpha than you will ever be, Conrad. How dare you act so high and mighty when the only reason you are so desperate to marry Grace to my son is your gambling addiction and the debt you owe to the demons you took money from to fuel it.”

Conrad sputters and turns ghostly white, his mouth gaping like a fish.

My mother arches a perfectly trimmed ebony eyebrow at him. “What, did you think I wouldn’t find out eventually?” She laughs, but it’s all jagged teeth and sharp edges. “I suggest stopping these foolish idle threats if you don’t want every single wolf shifter in the country to find out about the money you owe. You will lose your Alpha position at the snap of my fingers.”

Grace stands up on trembling legs. Anger flashes in her eyes like lightning as she turns toward her father. “Is that true?”

Conrad’s shoulders slump, his anger leaving him like a deflating balloon. “Please, they’re going to take my daughter from me if I don’t pay them by the end of next month.”

Anger slithers through me at his words. I ball my hands into fists at my sides so I don’t pummel him into the ground. “You promised me your daughter’s hand even though you knew they would come for her?”

He shrugs nonchalantly. “Well, you would have had no choice but to give them the money when they came. You couldn’t let them take your Luna, now could you?”

“You piece of shit,” I spit out and see red. The only thing holding me back from throttling him is his daughter standing in between us.

Grace looks like she’s about to faint. “You sold me to demons?” Her voice trembles as she presses a hand in the center of her chest.

I take a deep breath through my nose. Looking at Grace, I make my decision. She had her heart broken, and her world tilted on its axis on the same day, and even if I think her father is a piece of shit, I can’t let her be taken by demons. She doesn’t deserve that. “I’ll give you the money to cover your debt. But don’t be mistaken, Conrad. I’m only doing this for Grace and for the fact that she waited months to be my fiancé. I can’t mate her anymore, but I won’t let your mistakes ruin her life,” I grit out. “There will be conditions, though. I will draft a binding document, and you will sign it. You will relinquish your Alpha position, and if I catch you gambling again and putting your family at risk, I’ll let Kaiden Black deal with you. Do you understand?”

The vein on the side of his neck looks like it’s about to burst. “Fine. I’ll sign your contract. Just give me the money,” Conrad says with disdain.

I shove my hands into my pockets. Another attempt at resisting the urge to strangle the scumbag. “You’ll have it by the end of the week. After you sign it, I’ll wire you the money.”

He nods stiffly and turns on his heel. “Let’s go, Grace. There’s nothing left for us here.” He walks out the door hastily, not waiting for his daughter.

Grace surprises me when, instead of following her father, she rounds my desk and envelops me in a warm hug, her lithe body dwarfed by my big frame. I hug her back. “Thank you so much, Logan. I will find a way to repay you, I had no—”

I swallow hard and step back, cutting her off. “You don’t have to repay me, Grace. Consider this a consolation gift. I’m sorry about everything. I never meant to hurt you.”

She tilts her head, and a soft, bitter smile tugs at her lips. Then, her forehead crinkles with anguish. “I didn’t know my father intended to use you for your money. If I had known, I would have never accepted the engagement.” Her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “I’m happy for you, Logan. Finding your fated mate must feel like a dream come true. She is a lucky woman. I wish you both all the happiness in the world.” She gives me one last smile before leaving the study.

I stare at her disappearing back.

My mother’s voice breaks through my thoughts and the guilt that claws at my gut. “So, you finally found her.”

“I did…and then I lost her,” I tell my mother. The raw pain of being separated from Ava hits me like a ton of bricks, suffocating me.

“Then go get her back, son. The pack needs its Luna.”