Fate Fixed (16 page)

“When everything stopped, it was so silent. My hand

reached for him but we were folded up under the

dashboard.

Final y, I felt for him and found his warm shoulder. I held on and concentrated on not letting go. But, the blackness that swam around me pul ed me under.”

Lexie’s voice trembled as she recal ed the finality of that night. “You know Torin, the worst part is – I don’t know if he was alive then, if he felt me holding him, or if he was trying to say something.” She blinked back the tears in her eyes, before they had a chance to spil . “I didn’t know he was leaving me, that he wouldn’t be okay. He was taking his final breaths and I let myself black out.”

Torin kissed her head and hugged her against him. “I’m sorry.”

“So many times over the last year I’ve thought – If I had just stayed home, or even let him drive, he would stil be here. I wouldn’t have taken away my mom’s husband or my

sister’s dad. I’ve been trying to make it up to them ever since – I try to make their lives easy without complaint. I guess it’s my own penance. I never did get my license.”

She knew the pain had become a part of her and something she learned to live with. But the experience taught her early on that life was short and it could end without warning.

She looked into his pained blue eyes and tried to smile.

“I’m stil working on forgiving myself. Maybe you could, too.”

“I’m beginning to.” He leaned in and brushed his lips over hers. “It’s hard to be cynical when I am around you.”

She liked the way the light streamed through the trees and cast a glow over him. The warm tones in his hair were the color of mocha in the sun. His deep blue eyes and chiseled features were flawless. He truly was beautiful and it was amazing that he wanted to be with her. She could feel the definition of his hard muscles under his clothes. He was her Adonis.

She twisted around so she could face him. It was time to learn the truth. “Do you believe in magic?”

“Yes,” he didn’t hesitate. “My entire family is Irish, it’s who we are. We al believe in magic.” His expression relaxed with the change in subject.

She sat with her legs crossed, his knees bumped hers.

She pul ed at her sneaker laces, twisting them like strands of Twizzler licorice. “Why do I dream of you? I mean…” She almost didn’t continue. She gaged his expression; his

sincerity was encouraging. “I started dreaming of you last summer. It was after my dad died when I was sleeping a lot.

It was al I had to look forward to at the time. I thought the dream was a figment of

my imagination, until I met you.” She searched his eyes, looking for the answer. “I’m not crazy, am I?”

Torin pul ed the hand she was twirling her laces with into his lap. He opened her palm and traced his finger across her lifeline. “You’re not crazy. In fact, you’re perfect. Everything about you couldn’t be more so if I made a list of al of the qualities I wanted in a partner and special ordered you.” His voice spoke so quietly, she had to strain to listen.

Her body zinged with a flush of desire. Hearing him say that was such a relief. She wanted to embrace him, but

wondered why he stil seemed so melancholy. She looked down at her open palm as he ran his finger over the long crease.

“This is hard to say, but I’m not like other people. My family
– we’re different. We have to be.” He opened his own hand and held it out to her. She placed her palm in his and he shifted her up and onto his lap. She paid no attention this time to the roof’s steep slope or aged shingles. The

intimate embrace Torin held her in was so perfect she felt as if her heart might burst.

Torin brushed his smooth lips over her ear. “Wil you trust me?” he asked simply.

Lexie nestled her body closer to his, enjoying the sensation of his mouth against her sensitive skin. She held tightly to his arms, bracing herself against him. “Yes.”

He swept the hair back from her neck and trailed his lips down her sensitive throat. “The dream means that we are meant to be together. It’s fate…” His voice was husky.

She tilted her chin back, releasing the sigh that had been building. Each spot his lips touched burned with pleasure.

Closing her eyes, she touched her hands to his face and guided his mouth back to her own. His hands pressed her against his firm body. Never before did she imagine she could feel so complete.

Torin froze, his lips hovering over hers. His warm body held perfectly stil . Bewildered, she took a few deep breaths, trying to steady the hammering in her chest. Lexie heard what he spotted first – dirt bikes.

Alerted, she whipped her head around in the direction of the driveway just as two bikers pul ed in.
Torin’s friends.

Perfectly horrible timing.

Dismayed, she turned back to Torin and met his gaze.

Her heart leapt in her chest.
His eyes. His face.
It wasn’t him.

She pushed herself off of him. Dread shot through her veins like sheets of ice.
His mouth
. She scrambled to get on her feet. He reached forward – trying to steady her. “Get back,”

she hol ered.

Awareness spil ed across his dark features, “Lexie wait – I can explain.”

Her body shook as tears fil ed her eyes. She jetted

backwards. She needed a way off the roof.

“I won’t hurt you,” he insisted. “Don’t get near the edge!”

Before he even said the last syl able, she felt the cracked shingles breakaway under her feet. Losing her balance, she flung forward and grabbed the smal railing at the edge.

As her ful weight slammed into the rotten wood, she could feel the piece in her grip tear from the frame and she plunged right off the edge.

She clamped her eyes shut; her scream frozen in her throat, expecting to hit the ground.

Strong arms crushed around her mid fal . Opening her

eyes, her brain couldn’t process how Torin was holding her.

He was standing on the ground ten feet from the house. His eyes and coloring were back to normal, but his incisors stil protruded.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

She clambered from his arms and stumbled backwards.

She glared over at Braden and Teagan who just sat

watching them. Turning back on Torin, she begged, “What are you?”

Torin’s shoulders heaved, “I’ve been trying to tel you.”

His arm was soaked in blood, but it wasn’t hers. The

wooden rail she broke off the roof was lodged straight through his bicep. She pointed at it in horror. “You’re hurt.”

Torin grimaced as he inspected his shredded muscle. His cousins dismounted their bikes and strol ed over. Lexie couldn’t stop her body from trembling as they approached.

They know
what he is, they aren’t even concerned.

Teagan let out a whistle. “That was a close one. Good thing you caught her in time.” He laughed and gave Lexie a wink.

“Just kidding. We knew he wouldn’t let you get hurt. He’s too quick.”

“I thought you might be here.” Braden’s expression was cautious as he regarded Torin and Lexie. “Things get out of hand between you two?”

“I would never hurt her,” Torin looked down at the ground.

Lexie eyed them as her paranoia grew.
They are all the
same.
Even though they al had different coloring and facial features, there was something about them that was different just under the surface. An energy or something, she didn’t know why she never realized it before.

Braden inspected the entry point of Torin’s wound. He

placed both hands on the railing piece. “Teagan, hold his arm down.”

Teagan chuckled. “Wel , guess we can final y say Torin got wood – goes great with the fang-erection.”

“Shut up.” Torin muttered.

He let out a groan as Braden yanked the lodged wood from his bloody arm. Lexie watched in wonder as Torin’s wound sealed in front of her. It was impossible, even a surgeon couldn’t close up such an injury. She glanced up in

disbelief.

Torin had never taken his eyes off her the whole time. He eyed her beseechingly as he reached out to her.

Lexie stepped back, shaking her head no. She couldn’t

touch him right now. Not until she could think things through.

She darted over to Teagan’s bike. “I want to go home.”

WOLF

The wolf’s muzzle searched the smel s around the den.

The others had been so close, leaving a trail of their musk over the pine needles, rocks and limbs.

His anger flared that they stole his trophies – taking away his kil s. The carcasses were his. He hunted the feeble prey down until they could run no more. He granted them death.

To celebrate, he marked them as his, spreading his

secretions over them in an arousing display of his mastery.

He was the superior.

His head popped up, his hackles stiffened as he listened to the distant sound. She was on her balcony crying again.

Her tone carried through the woods to him like a mournful howl. His eyes narrowed, he knew the pack was waiting for her to come around. They would dominate her and make

her submit, but she was for him.

He was in the yard when she returned from being alone with the freak’s cousin. He would have torn the red head’s throat out on the spot if the moon was up. He could tel the boy found her attractive although he didn’t linger around. If he had – the fool would have ended up like the bitch he found
in the woods.

The officer had no right entering his territory and opening her big mouth.

The wolf paced with his tale horizontal and ears back. He could smel the alpha pair as they mated. His tongue could taste the pheromones omitted during the act. He hated that it aroused him, but it did. He would service the old female if he could.

He thought of copulating with the whore at school. He didn’t care who she blamed. She was prey like anything else.

He hurried deeper into the woods, staying along the

perimeter of the town. He didn’t care to wait any longer for the rest of them to join in the hunt. His knew who to pursue this night.

Torin felt miserable. Sitting on his bed, he peered around the smal carriage house he had been staying in after

graduating boarding school in Nova Scotia. None of the large room’s contents held his interest. He had been given a good life. His parents were wel off enough to provide him
with whatever indulged his hobbies over the years. He had shelves of music, books, camera equipment, and his paints. None of it meant anything to him.

Furious with himself, his shoulders slumped and his head dropped into his hands. Why did he put her in that

situation?

When he decided to share his favorite place with her, the last thing he wanted to do was frighten her. Braden warned him that she wouldn’t be ready – that they needed more time together.

From the look of horror on her face, that was an

understatement.

Reaching over to his bedside stand, Torin grabbed his

ragged copy of
Atlas Shrugged
and pelted it across his room, splintering the plaster as it slammed against the wal .

He ruined everything.

How could his features have transformed while kissing her?

Was he so lost in her that his body revealed his needs?

The sensation of her touch and taste was al he could feel.

Seeing his inner monster – no wonder she wouldn’t stay.

Torin walked over to the indentation in the wal . As he trailed his fingers over the damage, he remembered seeing his father’s face change for the first time. He was six years old – unaware of the curse that set his family apart from others.

He had been sitting down by the water, playing with his plastic dinosaurs as Endel ion worked in her garden. A midsized black bear came scampering out of the forest

right at him. Usual y the animals avoided humans, but

adolescent males could get carried away with their

curiosity. He just stared in wonder as the massive beast began circling, not recognizing the imminent danger.

Endel ion let out a piercing scream as she ran towards him with her garden sheers swinging in her grip. Through his young eyes, he recognized her fear but not the cause. It was then that his father burst through the air, landing between him and the bear. Donovan’s eyes were no longer their twinkling blue. The

iris had changed to bril iant white, contrasted against his dilated black pupils. Frightening him more were his father’s sharp teeth.

He used them to tear the predator’s throat open. His father didn’t resemble a man.

What did Lexie see when she looked at him?
A monster?

Their shared dream entered his mind. After discovering Catherine Barry’s remains in the woods, he feared

whatever creature stalked the forest could be the source of Lexie’s danger.

It was me.

He was the reason she turned and screamed each time

they found each other. She could see what he was. He

didn’t want her to be scared of him, even if the rejection kil ed him.

He could head north. Maybe in time the magic they shared would fade and she wouldn’t dream of him. She would

never slip from his consciousness though – he wouldn’t want her to. He looked at the overstuffed duffle bag on his bed, packed with the bare necessities.

I don’t want to go.

He asked her to trust him. How could she if he didn’t trust himself, at least not completely. She was strong – the tragedy of the accident would have destroyed anyone else.

She had forgiven herself and wanted him to do the same.

As he listened to her, he began dreaming that he could believe in

himself with her by his side as their futures unfolded together.

She made him feel human and alive.

While remembering Lexie’s beautiful innocence as she

explained it was after the accident that he entered her dreams, something Endel ion said earlier clicked in his mind. His mother suggested they were both in need of one another. Was he looking at it wrong? Maybe the