Chapter 20: Fate Is an Asshole

Elias

I’m making pot roast.

Clara

Let me guess. 5pm,Friday. Don’t be late. Bring pajamas?

Elias

Good girl.

I couldn’t help the flutter in my stomach as I reread our very simple text conversation. I could hear Elias’s deep voice rumbling the words every time I read them.

“I have it freaking bad,” I muttered, shoving a pair of pajama pants into my bag next to the toothbrush and hairbrush.

I actually bothered to pull out my makeup bag and put some on. A second ~real~ date called for a little more effort on my part, I figured.

I curled my hair and applied just a dab of the perfume I’d gotten from my mom’s belongings when she died. I’d always admired the pretty bottle when I was a kid.

The drive over was easy, and again Elias was waiting for me on the porch.

I waved as I pulled up, the smile on my face so wide it almost hurt.

He hurried over and opened the door for me like a perfect gentleman.

He extended his hand and for a moment, I hesitated. The transformation scene flashed through my mind again.

Then I realized I’d already made up my mind between fear and longing. If I couldn’t trust Elias at least a little, I wouldn’t have come back. So I intertwined our fingers and let Mr. Shirtless lead me inside.

The scent of pot roast and potatoes struck me so hard that I nearly dragged Elias into the kitchen.

“Do you not eat when you’re not around me?” he asked in an amused tone, and I was highly tempted to admit that no, I really didn’t.

But I had gotten paid, so at least tomorrow was grocery day.

I settled on a slant-truth.

“Not as much as I’d like to,” I replied, taking my usual seat at the table.

Elias eyed me as if he caught on to my semi-avoidance of the question, but chose to let it go. He served up two heaping plates, and we both dug in.

“Do you ever go into town?” I asked after a few bites had calmed my appetite a little. “Or do you just have your brothers bring you stuff like you did the other day?”

“That’s what a pack is for,” he said.

I stared at him like I always did when he didn’t actually answer my question—which, for the record, I know is totally unfair as he let my half-answer slide. But he completely ignored my stare and returned to eating.

I lowered my eyebrows a few millimeters and tried again.

“I was just wondering, because as lovely as your cabin and cooking are, it would be nice to go on other kinds of dates too.”

“You’re using a lot of gas to come see me every time.”

He looked at me questioningly, and while I hadn’t ~exactly~ been thinking of that factor, it was true. Mostly I was tired of driving an hour each way and thought it might be nice to see a movie or something.

A normal date, you know? Without wolves and wandering the forest at night.

“I could come to your house instead.”

One thought of Elias standing in my apartment with my “new” secondhand couch and little else had my head shaking vigorously.

“Actually, on second thought, I’m perfectly happy to hang out with you here.” I took an extra-large bite of potatoes in an effort to get Elias to realize I didn’t want to talk about it, but it didn’t quite work out.

“You don’t want me in your house. You worry I might…cause problems.”

His voice went uncharacteristically soft, and guilt took up residence where my food was supposed to be going.

“No, that’s not it at all! I just have embarrassingly little furniture, and I didn’t want you to see how pathetic my life is. Except…now I’ve just gone and told you, so I guess that cat’s out of the bag.”

“How little?”

I felt the blood rising in my cheeks, but I couldn’t lie to him.

“I just got a couch yesterday. It was the first night I wasn’t sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag.”

The look of fury in Elias’s eyes caused me to scoot away from the table a few inches.

“It’s ~his~ fault, isn’t it?” he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

I nodded, not having much other response.

His lips curled back from his teeth like a snarling dog. I remembered the conversation about transforming against his will when his emotions were too strong, and for a moment I considered locking myself in the bathroom.

Instead, he took a deep breath and set down the fork he’d slightly bent in his grip.

“But leaders like ourselves don’t ask for help. We solve the problem on our own.” I could see the anger draining out of his muscles, taking my nerves with it. “That was fine before. Making sure you have what you need is ~my~ job now. Not because you can’t do it, but because I want to.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Elias put up a hand.

“Clara. You are a powerful woman who can take care of herself. You’ve proven that. Letting me help you does not diminish your strength.”

My shoulders slumped, but my heart raced.

“My coworker told me the same thing,” I mumbled.

“So you should listen. I’ll have the pack bring one of the spare beds up from the barn and bring it to your house. I don’t think the mattresses are any good, so you’ll still need one of those, but we can go buy one together. Would that qualify as ‘another kind of date’?”

It sounded more like a married couple activity to me, but the thought of having my own bed again was a siren’s call. The Goodwill guy couldn’t promise me one for another week, maybe two.

“If we also go somewhere to eat, then yes.”

“Deal. Tomorrow we’ll go into town.”

I still didn’t know exactly at what point we had become “we,” but I was A-okay with it.

I shot Elias a smile and finished my dinner, quietly justifying the evening’s events in my head.

“Hey, Elias?” I asked, and he perked up, looking me directly in the eye. “Can we talk about what happened last week?”

“In the clearing?”

I nodded, and while his jaw tightened, he nodded.

I took a deep breath and just dove right in. “There are some things I’ve been wondering about. How long has this fighting been going on?”

“We’ve been rivals for generations.”

“I see. So it has been going on for a really long time, then.”

Elias gave a single nod.

“Has something stirred it up lately? Two plus two is looking like the bodies turning up at the edge of the woods are casualties of whatever is going on between your guys and his. But from the human side, the bodies are a new development. And I heard Xavier blaming you.”

Elias’s muscles tightened, and I could see the pulse in his neck.

I quickly waved a hand and assured him, “I haven’t told anyone what I saw, I swear. But after I interviewed Marius for work and then heard this Xavier guy talk about him…I couldn’t help putting the pieces together that way.”

I could tell by his reaction that I was right, and I guessed he was grappling with how to respond.

“You are correct,” he finally admitted. “Xavier is convinced that the long-standing prophecy is finally being fulfilled, and it has made him reckless. Insane, even.”

I frowned and decided to push my luck. “I heard him mention the prophecy too. But what is it?”

“An old bullshit wolf legend. It states that someday, a ‘Moon-Chosen’ will appear who has the ability to heal the rift between our two packs through a ‘lunar bond.’ She’s supposed to be ‘marked with the moon’s favor’ or something ridiculous like that.

“If anyone ever knew what that meant, the knowledge is long lost. And it’s just an accepted fact that the Moon-Chosen is even female. I don’t believe a word of it.”

“That sounds like a good thing, though,” I said, confused.

Surely uniting the packs and stopping the fighting would be good for everybody, right? Especially with things coming to death!

But Elias shook his head, and my frown deepened.

“Xavier believes that whoever finds and mates with this prophesied luna will gain the power to crush the other pack, and that’s how she’s supposed to bring ‘peace.’ But honestly? I’d rather the whole thing just stay a legend if that’s what it means.”

Elias’s disagreement made more sense now. “I see. You’d rather things go back to the way they were?”

“I’ve seen too many people killed in the name of this ‘prophecy.’ And I have no desire to force ‘destiny’ on anyone. Especially not someone who had no say in her fate.”

He looked at me pointedly, and for a moment I was confused. Why would he stare at me with so much meaning?

And then it dawned on me. “Xavier thinks I’m the Moon whatever, doesn’t he?”

Elias’s sigh proved it. What had I gotten myself into?

“I’m five hundred percent just a normal woman whose life has gotten ~really~ weird since I moved here. I’m sure the whole prophecy thing is a load of nonsense and Xavier is a nutcase. Just like you said.”

But that same odd force that had initially drawn me to Elias began whispering to me again.

Somewhere deep inside, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that what he was saying resonated with me.

I could have moved literally anywhere when I divorced Grant. But I moved ~here.~

I could have been put on any article, but I was sent to interview Elias.

Had some asshole named Fate been playing me like a puppet?

Elias shrugged and draped his arm across the back of the couch.

“I believe that even if you aren’t the prophesied lunar mate the wolves have been waiting generations for, you ~are~ someone ~I’ve~ been waiting for.”

Was it too soon for a line like that? Maybe. But I felt a warm thread between the two of us, which was slowly wrapping me in its gossamer strands.

The longer I spent with Elias, the stronger the connection became—and I had no will to fight it.

“Maybe you’re someone ~I’ve~ been waiting for as well.”

For the very first time, Elias ~smiled~.

A full, wide smile.

And let me tell you, his stone face was handsome. But when this man smiled, I felt like my entire world exploded into the brightest colors I’d ever seen. My heart raced in my chest as he reached for my hand, but then he stopped.

“I believe that you are the person I’m destined to be with. But even as alpha, I have no desire for you to feel trapped. I’m not the kind of wolf who believes that ensnaring their fated mate is a matter of conquest.”

I stared deep into those golden eyes of his, and that damn thread wrapped itself tightly around my heart.

“I appreciate that, Elias. You allowing me to maintain my power, I mean. I haven’t had that for most of my life.”

“A man who strips his mate of her power in turn reduces his own. Such a man is a fool.”

“That’s a polite way to describe him,” I replied, grabbing Elias’s hand. “I would have gone with ‘abusive asshole’ myself—or something more colorful, depending on the company.”

Elias chuckled and curled his large, warm fingers around my own.

In that moment, I knew my fate was sealed.

Fate really was playing me like a puppet, I suppose.