Chapter 59: Fate's Relentless Grip

OLIVIA

“Do you want to pack your things?”

The words kept replaying in her mind, but no matter how many times she heard them, she couldn’t comprehend them. Maybe she could.

Maybe she was choosing ~not~ to understand them because they didn’t make any sense. Alex.

Alex, who had been pursuing her this whole time, wanted her to pack her things and ~go~?

She tried to come up with an explanation, but she couldn’t think of one.

~Sure~.

There had been a lot of sex.

Like—a lot.

~A lot~ of sex.

But she’d never heard of that being a reason to ask someone to leave.

She blinked, releasing the breath she’d been holding. “You want me to leave?” She had hoped her voice would sound confident and steady, but even she could hear the tremor in it.

She watched as his eyes widened, as if he was just now realizing what he had said. “~No~.” His response was a resounding ~no~.

“Quite the opposite. I think you shouldn’t sleep in that room anymore. My room. It’s your room too.”

He had started with a question, but now it was more of a statement. Was it her uncertainty that had sparked his assertiveness? She couldn’t tell.

He was right, though. She hadn’t spent much time in that room, and she never really had the chance to make it her own. She wasn’t losing anything.

But his room? His room was just that—his.

He was correct. They were a couple. Mates? Lovers? She almost laughed. They were more than acquaintances. Mating was a lifelong commitment. They had seen each other in the nude more times than she could remember.

Wouldn’t it be logical for them to share a room?

She was always there… But she didn’t want to alter anything.

They were possibly bound to each other for life, but the way they had entered into a relationship wasn’t her usual idea of a relationship. Not that she had much experience.

“Hmm, yeah.” She agreed. “It makes sense.”

She forced a smile. “It’ll be easier if I have another heat wave, right?”

“Livy, did I say something strange?”

“Just now? Or since we met? That could be a long list,” she joked.

He laughed, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. “Earlier…did I mention…kids?”

A wave of heat rushed to her cheeks and her heart paused for a moment. He hadn’t really. Well, maybe a little.

~But it was embarrassing~. Did he really want her to say it out loud? “Why?”

Alex shrugged. “Something the guys mentioned.”

She blinked slowly. “What?”

“We’ve been trying to figure out why you had another heat wave. So soon.”

She had done the same with Maya. After the heat wave had passed, she had found him in the kitchen eating. She had joined him and eaten as well. Her first question had naturally been ~what happened~.

He had confirmed that it wasn’t a regular occurrence—which she knew—and that he was trying to figure it out. Later, she had brainstormed with Maya, but they hadn’t come up with anything solid.

She didn’t recall Alex demanding anything from her. Maya had a theory about birth control but…

Perhaps she should hear his theory before she shared her own—or rather, Maya’s.

“What did they suggest?”

“That I might have influenced you toward the idea of pregnancy.”

He said it so nonchalantly, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

She was aware of their recklessness—a mistake they had repeated in the heat of the moment, but it wasn’t like they were actively trying to conceive. They didn’t stay up late discussing baby names.

Their theory wasn’t too far off from Maya’s. In a way. Or at least, they were compatible.

“Maya believes…” She licked her lips.

“She thinks my body is forcing me into multiple heat waves to counteract my birth control.”

“Why?”

“Pregnancy? We couldn’t pinpoint a specific reason… Especially since I’ve been on the shot for a while, and it’s never done that before…”

“So possibly something would be causing your body to want to get pregnant.”

“Possibly?”

“~Damn~.”

She watched him run his fingers through his hair, his chest heaving.

“What?”

“I swear, Livy—I didn’t use—I wasn’t commanding you.”

She felt her body temperature spike and a lump formed in her throat, making it hard to swallow. “What are you saying?”

“At the party, I said—”

“~That it’d be a pretty picture,~” she finished for him.

She knew he hadn’t manipulated her or demanded anything from her. She remembered the feeling when he had, and this was different. It had been a moment. Olivia had enjoyed that night; they had conversed.

That was when she had learned more about him. He had been relaxed. It hadn’t been about trapping her or anything. At that point, neither of them had known if she was pregnant or not.

“I didn’t—”

“I know,” she interrupted him.

He might have assumed from their past that she wouldn’t trust him. But she did. This was all unplanned. No one saw it coming. “We’re in the dark here.”

The idea that her body was trying to override the birth control, thinking that’s what Alex wanted, was oddly convincing.

“Do you think if I say I’ve changed my mind, it’ll listen?” he asked, a playful smirk on his face.

She couldn’t help but chuckle. “I doubt it’s that simple. It’s always easy to get into trouble…” Olivia sank onto the bed, letting out a sigh.

“Things rarely go my way… As evidenced by the fact that I can’t show my face in the human world anymore.”

~Just in case I’m a wanted woman~.

A silence fell between them, but Alex’s gaze remained fixed on her, as if something was amiss. Something he needed to address. It wasn’t like him to hold back his thoughts or desires.

Seeing this unfamiliar expression on his face sent a shiver down her spine.

“Can I ask you something?”

Alex was always direct; he asked, even when it made her uncomfortable.

The fact that he was asking for permission was ~new~, to put it mildly. And it made her heart race, wondering what was coming next.

“You’ve been away for some time now. You didn’t call anyone, you didn’t—you never mentioned anyone. What about your family?”

Right. She’d asked him about his family but she never shared about hers. Mostly because there wasn’t much to share.

Her ~family~, as such, ceased to exist a long time ago. After more than a decade, she’d come to terms with that.

“They’re gone. My parents, I mean. They died when I was ten.

“My aunt took me in—not out of desire, but out of obligation. I had no one else. We didn’t—we didn’t have the best relationship. She didn’t want kids. Then, when I was 16…well.

“I started to act out, behave oddly, run away from home…so when I turned 18, she kicked me out.”

Olivia didn’t hold it against her. She’d become an even more challenging child after she was bitten.

Their relationship, already strained, deteriorated further. It was best that way.

“That’s when you started living on your own?”

She grimaced slightly before pressing her lips together. “I lived with Will—for a few months.” She cleared her throat. “Until I found a place of my own.”

It was clear that he was clenching his jaw, probably disliking the fact that she’d depended on him for so long. She couldn’t blame him; now that she knew the whole story, she wasn’t thrilled about it either. But what’s done was done.

She couldn’t undo it. “Then I worked a lot, finished school, and became a nurse.”

“How did they die?”

She smiled faintly. “You’re wondering if that’s why I became a nurse?”

“Possibly.”

“It was a car accident, the car exploded. I was asleep. I woke up in the hospital, they were gone. I don’t remember any of it.”

They said she must have been thrown out of the window. Her seatbelt was intact though, and she was ~certain~ her parents wouldn’t have overlooked it.

Perhaps she’d unbuckled herself before the accident. She’d been young and the details were blurry.

“Did you always live around here? Or did you move because of your aunt?”

She shook her head.

“We’ve always lived around here.”

“What happened to the car? Did they crash?”

She didn’t spend her nights mourning their deaths.

Yes, she had spent years grieving their loss, especially since it had led her to live with her aunt who was somewhat lacking in the affection department. But thinking about them no longer brought her to tears.

Still, she had to admit, his questions were unsettling; why was he so interested in their deaths? Why did it matter?

“I’m not sure. I can’t pinpoint what led to the crash. But, the car… it ignited. Burst into flames. They said it exploded.”

Olivia observed his widening eyes, his mouth slightly agape, his complexion turning a shade paler. What was happening to him? “Alex? Are you alright?”

Shouldn’t she be the one distressed about recounting this tale? Why was he the one affected?

“A blue Honda.”

“A—”

“A blue Honda near Bishop road. Out in the open fields.”

“How do you know that?”

It was that ridiculous pastel blue shade her father was so fond of. It made the car appear aged and shabby, but he cherished that car.

“Alex? ~How~?”

Why wasn’t he responding?

A heavy sensation settled in the pit of her stomach, causing it to churn and the bile to rise in her throat. As if her life wasn’t already filled with enough calamities.

Was she about to discover something suspicious and unnatural about her parents’ demise? She wasn’t sure if she could bear it. Perhaps ignorance would be bliss.

He swallowed hard, his throat moving noticeably, and he raised his gaze to meet hers. “Livy…”

“Please.”

She was already grappling with the idea that Alex could have known this, that he could be involved in any way.

Her heart felt like it was about to burst, each beat straining against her chest. How? Her life was a series of unfortunate events intertwined, and this took the cake. She had healed from this. She had moved on.

She didn’t want to be plunged back into the abyss.

He ran a hand down his face, swallowing hard again. “I was there.”

Her heart plummeted. “What does that mean?”

He exhaled deeply, his chest deflating. “I witnessed it. I was in the woods. I’d crossed the boundary…”

Olivia moistened her lips. “You ran? Like…”

“In my wolf form.”

“And you saw?”

“The car veered off course. I don’t know why. They hit the barrier pretty hard… I was about to leave… Shit. I was only sixteen, Livy.”

~Okay. Okay. Breathe~. He wasn’t involved in the accident. Not at all. He could even be mistaken. There were other blue cars, right?

Her dad’s wasn’t the only one. “Maybe, maybe it was another family.” On the same road.

“The little girl—she had pigtails and a purple bunny.”

~Mr. Button~. Her bunny. She lost it that day.

“You—did you—” Her mind was struggling to comprehend that they had crossed paths before that fateful night in the hospital. “Did you recognize me?”

He shook his head. “No,” he admitted honestly.

“You’ve changed so much, you don’t look like a ten-year-old anymore. I didn’t—I didn’t realize. Until you mentioned…that it exploded. That seemed specific enough.”

“So are you… They said my seatbelt must have been fastened incorrectly, and that I probably got ejected through the window on impact…”

He responded by shaking his head again. “You were in the car when I arrived.”

“You—did you rescue me?”

“I was about to leave. Didn’t want any humans to discover me. Your—your dad kept repeating ~my little girl, my little girl~…he was already fading…”

Her dad…had been concerned about her. ~Oh~.

He was on the brink of death, and he thought of ~her~. Her world started spinning, and her lungs ~ached~ as she tried to inhale, but it was as if she had forgotten how to do it. Her vision became blurry, and she reached out for him, hoping it would keep her steady.

“I didn’t—I couldn’t risk transforming. Just in case.”

She managed to utter, “You remained a wolf?”

“A naked teenager by the roadside didn’t seem like a good idea—and what if someone, any of you, remembered? Couldn’t risk it.”

He reached out to touch her face, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Managed to pry the door open, unfastened your seatbelt… it wasn’t easy.”

That explained why the seatbelt they found didn’t appear to have been cut.

It hadn’t been.

“You yanked me out by the collar. Maybe that’s why my face was a bit bruised…” His lips pressed together, uncertainty flickering in his eyes. She could tell he was debating whether to continue. But she ~had~ to know more.

“Alex,” she pleaded.

“I saw the fire… I knew… so I bolted. I bolted and I took you with me…” His right cheek hollowed out. “After the blast, I brought you back, left you close enough that it might seem like you were thrown from the car…”

His hand slid down until his fingers found hers, and he laced them together.

“Got back to the pack house and then… thought someone might have heard the blast, but I dialed 911 just in case…”

It wasn’t a miracle. There was no magic that had saved her.

~He~ had discovered ~her~.

He had been there.

He’d witnessed her dad’s death.

He’d seen her mom’s demise.

He’d whisked her to safety… and she had survived.

The weight in her chest intensified, her throat raw, and she didn’t know how she was holding herself together. She buried her face in his chest, and instantly his arms enveloped her, pulling her closer.

“It’s okay,” he murmured into her hair, planting a kiss on her crown.

It took her a moment to realize that he was saying that because she was ~weeping~. The first hint was the dampness spreading on his shirt.

Then it was the tremors shaking her chest as she sobbed. She hadn’t even noticed. It probably started when she felt his warmth, his embrace around her. Everything had surged back to the surface.

Now that she was conscious of it, it was worse. She clung to his shirt, her fingers curling around the fabric as she pulled it down. Her sobs grew louder, her own heart shattering at the sound.

“Did—do you think they suffered much?” she managed to ask between sobs.

“They were gone before the car exploded.”

She’d always imagined her parents dying in a fiery blaze. But they hadn’t. They hadn’t endured as much as she had always believed. Good, good. That was a relief.

It was peculiar, how destiny played out. All those years ago, they’d crossed paths, and he had saved her life. She recalled Maya telling her she might be too young to identify her mate. Alex was probably too young to know too.

After all, he did mention he didn’t make the connection. If he’d felt it then, he would have recognized her at the hospital. But he hadn’t.

Still, she couldn’t help but ponder if he was destined to be there, at that precise moment, to rescue her.

If he hadn’t been there, she would be dead. And he’d never... they would have never reached where they were now.

“Thank you.”

He didn’t respond, but his hold on her tightened.

For a moment, she forgot about her oddly behaving heat, body, and pregnancy. She didn’t want to think about anything else. She wanted to cling to this sensation.

She wanted to cling to ~him~.

For a moment, she could have sworn her heart missed a beat as warmth radiated through her.

That was a new sensation.