Page 23 of Bear Your Fate

15

Carrick

I went from fury to elation in what felt like the blink of an eye. When I first saw Selene and Audra in the yard and realized what they were doing, I would have given anything to make them stop. But it had been too late because the spell was working its magic already.

Audra rushed over as I rose to my feet. I stood stock still with my eyes closed, refusing to even take a breath because as soon as I did I’d know if my greatest wish had been granted and Audra was my second chance at a fated mate. And then I realized it didn’t make a difference. Even if the end result of the spell was that I was paired with someone else, it would be no different than the situation with Audra’s intended consort. I’d still choose her, just as she’d chosen me.

When I opened my eyes and breathed Audra’s scent into my lungs, I knew. Fate, helped by magic, had finally gotten it right.

“Congratulations.”

I’d forgotten that Damien had been behind me. He’d called my phone when I’d been dropping Alasdair off at his house and told me I needed to get to Selene’s house quickly. We’d arrived there at the same time, coming from opposite directions. I had a sneaking suspicion he knew more than he’d let on about, just like usual with him.

I pulled Audra into my arms and turned to face the dragon shifter. “Did you know that it was going to end this way, with Audra as my newly fated mate? Did you have a premonition about us or something?”

Damien offered us a mysterious smile. “Who said anything about the two of you being newly fated?”

Dammit. He’d known all along, hadn’t he? “It was that damn prophecy again, wasn’t it? There was more about our family in there, and you didn’t share it with us last year?”

“If I had, nothing would’ve turned out the way it was supposed to. There were choices that needed to be made without undue influence. Ones that meant true sacrifices. For Carrick, it was loving Audra despite knowing he might lose her to a consort someday.” He shook his head and chuckled softly. “Although being the show-off that he is, he had to take it a step further and give up his chance at having a fated mate if it meant the possibility of losing Audra.”

My mate looked up at me with wide, green eyes. “You did?”

“I’m not sure why she sounds so shocked when Audra’s sacrifice was loving Carrick so deeply that she’d risk her own happiness to give him the chance to have a fated mate again. There was no guarantee it would be her, but she didn’t allow that to factor into her decision.”

“You did?” I echoed her reaction.

“And Selene knew there would be a magical price to pay for working a spell that powerful. It could have been much steeper than merely losing her water magic, but she wanted Carrick to experience the same joy she found in being Camden’s mate. She was willing to make the sacrifice for him because he’d become more than her father-in-law. More than the grandfather to her beloved child. Carrick is the man who she’s grown to see as a father.”

“I thought that’s what the price might have been.” We all turned to find Selene at the bottom step of the porch stairs, running her fingers lightly over a drop of water that remained on the railing. “Which is why I changed all the tweaks my mom made to the spell because I can afford to lose my water magic since I still have earth, air, and fire. But if my mom had paid that particular price, she’d be left with no magic at all and I wasn’t willing to let that happen.”

“Oh, my darling girl,” Audra cried out, tears streaming down her cheeks as she left my embrace to wrap her arms around Selene.

“But why?” I asked. “Why was all the emotional suffering necessary?”

“All those sacrifices made Selene’s spell so strong that she was able to realign the threads of Fate to where they would have been in the first place...if your family hadn’t been needed to accomplish the nearly impossible feat of bonding the shifter and witch communities together.” His gaze swirled with fire as he looked at Selene. “She did the impossible. Demonstrated a magic so great, those who were conspiring against us have backed down. At least for now.”

“Only because they’re too scared of the amount of power my daughter yields. They’ve never seen anything like it before,” Audra said as she moved closer and pressed her body back against mine while Selene went to pick up the baby monitor.

“For the shifters it’s a mixture of fear, but also respect because family is the foundation of our culture. Wolf packs, bear clans, feline prides, dragon holds...by any name we call them, the underlying meaning is still family. And it means everything to us.”

I offered my daughter-in-law a proud smile. “And Selene proved it means everything to her too.”

“Yes, and it doesn’t hurt that both witches who’ve mated with shifters have proven themselves to be as dedicated to their mates as any shifter could ever hope their own mate would be. You’ve proven it wasn’t a one-off with the bond between Selene and Camden. That you’d go to the same lengths for Carrick as well.”

“And for the witches, there will be a healthy dose of awe because they understand magic. They’ll respect her power,” Audra added.

“I still wish you’d filled me in on this particular part of the prophecy since it was about me.”

“Quit grumbling and enjoy the fact that you’ve found your fated mate.”

My fated mate.

Audra.

I turned to her in awe and growled out the mating words of my clan, “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.”

“And that’s our cue to leave before we see something I’ll never be able to un-see. There isn’t enough brain bleach in the world to remove the image of my mom and Carrick having sex.”

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