Page 16 of Forsaken By Fate

Victor sits back, his eyes returning to normal as he understands my reaction now.

I almost shake my head, but I stop myself, biting on my lower lip. Considering my response carefully, I answer. “I willbe worthy of the Texas Apexes,” I vow firmly. “I’ll show you I’m worthy of this pack, even as a prey shifter.”

Victor chuckles, shaking his head. “Prey shifters are just as important to the ecosystem as predator shifters,” he says. “We all have our roles to play. Aren’t their prey shifters in the Oklahoma Apex pack?”

I shrug and dart my eyes down. “I don’t know,” I answer truthfully. “I didn’t spend much time with others—Apex or otherwise. I grew up in foster care as a child, around humans mostly.”

All three brothers gawk at me like I’m speaking a foreign language, and I shrug, determined to bare it all, before they can appoint me part of their pack.

“I was raised amongst human families, and when I had my first shift at fifteen, I thought I was having a psychotic episode. It was only because there was a witch in my class who told me what was happening that I learned about shifters. Her coven took me in for a couple of years, and then the Quartz pack when I was eighteen. But I wasn’t really ever good at any of it—human, witching, shifting.”

Zane’s fingers trail over my arm, creating goosebumps as I talk. I meet his warm, hazel stare willingly.

“That’s rough,” he tells me sadly. “What happened to your parents?”

I purse my lips. “They died when I was four. Car accident, I’m told.”

“Ours died a little later,” Zane murmurs, casting his brothers a quick look. Fenris and Victor avoid his gaze as he closes his hand around my arm. “But still too young.”

“At least we had a pack,” Fenris adds.

Victor grimaces, and I realize that he was leading the pack, however young he was. The door connecting the kitchen to thedining room swings open, and the staff march forth with our lunch.

I munch on a salad and pasta with roasted garlic and tomatoes as the Alphas devour steaks with silver knives.

All three cast me furtive glances throughout the meal, and I wonder if they’re communicating telepathically about me. Can they do that? I have no clue, but I feel like they can by the way they’re eying me.

“You’ll commit to us, then?” Fenris finally says, setting his fork down, breaking the silence over the table. “You’ll join the Texas Apexes.”

“Yes! Of course I will,” I concede. “I have no interest in ever going back to Oklahoma, now or ever. Even if I hadn’t ended up here.”

Victor also sets his cutlery down and drops his elbows on the table, peering across the surface intensely, his yellow gaze piercing my soul.

“Do you know what that means?” he asks, the question taking me aback slightly.

My eyes dart toward the other two brothers, who stare at me with just as much intensity. Zane’s usually gentle hazel eyes seem harder, more scrutinizing, Fenris’s blue irises boring through me.

“I… I think so?” I murmur, setting my fork down and wiping the edges of my mouth. “I swear my allegiance to you and run with your pack, just as I would have with my pack back home?”

“It’s a blood oath,” Fenris intones flatly, cutting to the chase.

My heart leaps into my throat. “A… blood oath?” I repeat slowly.

“There will be a ceremony in the estate temple,” Victor explains. “You will bond yourself to the pack… and to us. You cannot break that bond.”

My heart skips as I take in their faces, one by one.

“But it would have to be your choice, Aurora,” Victor tells me seriously. “This isn’t something that we force on you. It’s not something we could make you do as a prisoner. If you need to think about it, or if you have any doubts…”

My shoulders straighten as I look at them, shaking my head. “I don’t feel forced,” I say firmly. “I want to do it. I don’t need time. I want to be a part of your pack.”

Wind chimes beyond the open windows tinkle, and sparrows chirp sweetly to match their pitch, a gentle breeze whispering through the dining room to ruffle through their dark hair in unison. A rush of attraction surges through me as I look at each of them, my fear of them long ago diminished and replaced with something far more appealing.

“Good.” Fenris reclaims his fork and grins genuinely, maybe for the first time since I’ve met him. The sight of it warms me as he meets my eye. “We’ll do it after lunch, and then I’ll confirm with the Oklahoma Alphas. I want to make sure there aren’t any surprises with them.”

I follow his lead and finish my lunch alongside them, sneaking sidelong glances at my handsome captors.

But they’re not my captors, not anymore.

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