The broken mate fated de.., p.1
The Broken Mate: Fated Destinies #2, page 1
Copyright © 2023 Heather K. Carson
www.heatherkcarson.com
Courtesy of Blue Tuesday Books
Cover Design by Fay Lane at faylane.com
ISBN: 9798391346128
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of brief quotations.
Please do not encourage or participate in the piracy of copyrighted materials. Piracy is theft.
Table of Contents
Chapter One – Coral
Chapter Two – Skoll
Chapter Three – Coral
Chapter Four – Skoll
Chapter Five – Coral
Chapter Six – Skoll
Chapter Seven – Coral
Chapter Eight – Skoll
Chapter Nine – Coral
Chapter Ten – Skoll
Chapter Eleven – Coral
Chapter Twelve – Skoll
Chapter Thirteen – Coral
Chapter Fourteen – Skoll
Chapter Fifteen – Coral
Chapter Sixteen – Skoll
Chapter Seventeen – Coral
Chapter Eighteen – Skoll
Chapter Nineteen – Coral
Chapter Twenty – Skoll
Chapter Twenty-One – Coral
Chapter Twenty-Two – Skoll
Chapter Twenty-Three – Coral
Chapter Twenty-Four – Skoll
Chapter Twenty-Five – Coral
Chapter Twenty-Six – Skoll
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Coral
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Skoll
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Coral
Chapter Thirty – Skoll
Chapter Thirty-One – Coral
Chapter Thirty-Two – Skoll
Chapter Thirty-Three – Coral
Chapter Thirty-Four – Skoll
Chapter Thirty-Five – Coral
Chapter Thirty-Six – Skoll
Chapter Thirty-Seven – Coral
Chapter Thirty-Eight – Kera
To my husband who supports everything I do and wrestled our monsters on extra Dad duty while I finished this book up, you’re welcome for me choosing to write in a genre that requires fun field research.
Book one recap from Coral:
Do you remember what happened in the last book? Here’s the most important part:
I turned into a freaking wolf.
But I guess we should start before that because there are some key points that I don’t want you to forget.
My sister, Sage, and I grew up in Ethica where humans are trying to keep the bloodline pure. After we found out my blood definitely wasn’t pure, we had to leave before they locked me in a government research facility.
Thankfully, the supposed toxic lands weren’t so toxic after all, and the Cerberus pack where my mother was from welcomed us. Well, not exactly. The old Alpha Apollo, my friend Kera’s dad, was a total jerk. No wonder my mom rejected him and left all those years ago. The other packs around the region didn’t like Apollo either and banished our pack after he accidentally married his brother’s fated mate, Delilah from the Fenrir pack, and killed him.
But I hate to say it, his Beta Bruce who’d come from the Fenrir pack too was even worse. Bless science though, because both of them are dead and Kera is leading the Cerberus pack.
Oh, and for the record, I always knew my sister was a witch. I’m glad she found her fated mate, Maddock, even though he growls all the time. Now if I could only get my own wolf to cooperate with me, we’d be golden…
1
† Coral †
“Coral please come back to me.” Sage’s voice was soothing as she ran her fingers over the furry skin that trapped me in this prison.
The wolf sighed in content as she settled down in front of the fire burning in the wood stove.
The wolf.
Not my wolf.
Because if this was my wolf then we would be on the same page. That’s what they all said, right? That I’d set this bitch free and we’d work together as a team like nature intended.
Except nature must have gotten her wires crossed and forgot there was a human in here too.
Me.
The human.
The one this stubborn wolf had been conveniently ignoring. My own eyes filled with ghostly tears that didn’t fall, because I didn’t actually have eyes. The wolf had eyes. And ears. And teeth. And a hunger that didn’t seem to abate.
I was an echo of myself, only able to hear my thoughts and voice, but the wolf didn’t hear me.
To make sure, I screamed again, “Let me the hell out of here!”
The wolf snorted and buried her snout into her paws, closing her eyes and blocking out my view of the world. At this point, I decided she was just screwing with me.
My other theory was too terrifying to admit.
“She’s going to be okay,” Maddock’s voice drifted into the cabin from outside the front door.
The wolf that had kidnapped me snarled, baring her teeth with her eyes still closed. The only human forms she tolerated were Sage and Kera. Even so, she preferred Kera as a wolf. Sage got a free pass because the feral beast trusted her. She protected us when we couldn’t protect ourselves.
Sage scratched behind the wolf’s ears and rested her chin against the soft white fur. “I love you both, but I miss your human side.”
“I miss you too!” My cry was lost to deaf ears. The wolf turned to lick my older sister’s face.
“I hear you, Coral. Keep trying. She’ll come around eventually,” Maddock spoke to me through the pack link. That was one of the perks of being a part of the oh-so-glorious Cerberus pack that I was so keen to join. Forgive me if I wasn’t celebrating now.
The wolf growled again at Maddock and Sage backed away to the comfort of his arms.
“Take care of her,” I whispered, wondering how much more of this I could take before I lost even my own voice to the wolf.
“I’m here.” Kera raced through the door of the cabin we–or she and the wolf–shared. “Sorry that took so long. Everyone at the meeting had something to say and I barely got through half the agenda.”
My friend slumped onto the couch and called the wolf to her side. The wolf perked up, loving her Alpha and wanting to be close again after the separation. Kera scratched under the wolf’s chin as she looked to my sister. “Any change today?”
“It’ll come soon.” Sage was about to cry. I wished I could do something to ease her worry, but this selfish wolf didn’t understand. She was satisfied with ear scratches and hunting around the cabin and generally ignoring me.
“They need both of our forms,” I gritted out the words, trying again to make her see reason. “You have to let me shift back.”
The wolf huffed and laid her jaw on Kera’s lap as she closed her eyes.
“You guys go have your alone time.” Kera waved Maddock and Sage away with a teasing laugh.
My wolf didn’t bat an eye, but I cringed internally. It was still odd that Sage was so in love with her mate. I was happy for her. Really, I was. But we should have been enjoying the freedom of our new adult space while Sage made a life of her own.
Instead, I was at the mercy of the wolf who’d claimed a spot on the couch and curled up next to Kera, waiting for the nightly ritual she’d come to love of listening to the Alpha talk about her day.
*
“Coral, are you with me?” Kera spoke through the pack link and jerked me awake. Through the wolf’s eyes, I looked out at the forest and the noon sun high in the sky filtering through the branches above. The air was warmer now and the wolf panted in the slight midday heat.
Not again.
I was losing track of the hours and days. Time was irrelevant when you had nothing to measure it by and a foreign being that didn’t count numbers was in charge of your body.
I growled with awareness, not sure if the wolf could even hear me anymore.
“Oh good. You’re feeling feisty today.” Kera squatted down in front of the wolf and rotated her head from side to side. “I thought of something that might work. I’m challenging you to a woman-on-woman fight. Come out and show me what you’re made of.”
The Alpha power of her command washed over me and I clung to the flicker of hope that it would be enough to get this wolf to recede.
But the stubborn beast sat on her ass and showed her neck, letting her Alpha know that she’d do anything to protect her. Which meant she wasn’t letting out the weak human threat.
Or at least that’s what I interpreted.
It wasn’t like I understood the beast.
Groaning, I closed my eyes again and tried to reason with her. “You have to let me out someday.”
Kera fell to her back on the earth with a tired sigh and stared up at the sky. “I know this is hard, but if you don’t learn how to control your wolf then I don’t know how much more I can do. She’s not an errant pup I can command and she’s too stubborn to listen to me. There’s something deeper going on here that defies the laws of nature.”
“I told you she’s feral,” I sent out the voice through the pack link that I hoped was my own since I hadn’t heard the sound of it in who knows how long. “The wolf is a bitch and makes her own rules.”
To prove my point, she laid down next to Kera and licked her own paws like we had all the time in the world. One of her longer nails got stuck in her te
Gag me. If I had my own mouth back, I might have thrown up.
“That could be it,” Kera continued with all her infinite wisdom. “You don’t see her as a part of you yet, so your beings can’t merge when you tell her to.”
“I tried that,” I grumbled, ignoring the slurping sounds the wolf made cleaning her paws just like she was ignoring me. “It doesn’t even seem to understand language. I’ve been working on basic commands and she does the exact opposite.”
“Maybe that’s your problem.” Kera stretched her arms, yawning, and pulled her shirt over her head.
“What problem?” I was all ears.
Literally, two big and fluffy ears that didn’t listen to shit.
Kera kicked off her pants and folded her clothes into a pile by the tree. The girl was ripped. I’d kill to have abs like that.
“You keep calling her an it when she is you and you are her.” Kera’s words were Zen-like and I nodded along, even though I’d thought this through before. “There shouldn’t be a separation. Your wolf is an extension of you.”
Logically, this made sense. But there wasn’t anything logical about it. I blew out a breathless sigh and tuned back into the wolf who controlled our body. She’d found a stick and was shredding it with her back teeth. Dental hygiene I could get behind.
“Okay, my wolf. You heard the Alpha. You are me and I am you. Now let me out of this cage.”
The air rippled with magic around us as Kera’s bones broke and she shifted into her wolf. Her voice came through the madness in my mind. “Not like that. You still don’t get it. Stop demanding for a while. Let’s go have some fun.”
*
The freedom of the run vibrated through us both and we were eager to keep up. Because I wasn’t able to control the wolf, we’d been forced to stay close to the cabin since the night of my eighteenth birthday.
Some party, right?
The wolf had devoured Sage’s cake and then crawled under the mattress, lashing out at anyone dumb enough to get close.
I jostled along with the wolf behind Kera as she panted through the exertion and tried to figure out how long ago that was. “How many Luna ceremonies have I missed?”
Kera’s wolf slowed to a trot and scanned the forest around us. We were a long way from the cabin and my wolf ached to go further, but she fell in step beside her Alpha.
“A few,” Kera said, leaving it at that.
I closed my eyes, not really wanting to know the truth. “Like more or less than five?”
“Less,” she hurried to explain.
But even that was too much. “I can’t keep going like this.”
A low growl came from Kera’s chest and the entire forest seemed to still in the power radiating from the Alpha. “You can and you will. As my closest friend, I’m going to need you to get your shit together. Soon.”
The wolf holding me captive whined as if she didn’t like to hear Kera’s reproach. Aaapphhaa.
I froze. She was trying to speak again. This time I was almost certain it was a real word. “Alpha! Yes! She’s your Alpha, but she is also our friend.”
Images of my memories came to me, distorted somehow like they weren’t remembered right, of kids in school passing notes. Holes in my clothes. Sage holding my hand in the communal gardens when we walked to the park to play.
I groaned as the wolf pawed at the ground. It was the first time she’d directly communicated to me since the night of her shift, but she was getting it all wrong.
“No. Friend is like Mia.” I tried to focus on my best friend’s face who I’d left behind, thinking that if the wolf had seen my life, then she definitely knew Mia. The wolf snorted, shaking her head, but stopped with the images as if she was listening to me.
Heck yes. We were getting somewhere. “Kera is our friend and I don’t want to hurt her anymore. Maybe you should let me out now.”
I swear on my life that the wolf rolled her eyes. Then again, it was kind of shady for me to sneak that last part in. But you can’t blame a girl for trying.
The western breeze shifted and my wolf’s nostrils twitched as she raised her snout to sniff the air. All thoughts of friends were gone and, in that moment, I felt her compulsion to protect.
It was the same feeling she’d pushed out the night of our shift, but they’d held her back because I’d screamed that she was feral.
She really didn’t like being chained.
Same, girl. Freaking same.
“You want to check out the western part of the territory,” I said, pushing my voice out over the pack link so Kera would know this plan and not herd us back like she’d been doing.
The wolf’s hackles rose as her tail swished and she sniffed again.
“If we go, you have to listen to everything Kera says. I’m going to trust you to follow your Alpha and our friend.”
The wolf glanced over her shoulder at Kera and nodded. Huh. That’s new. It’s like she really understood what I was saying…
I knew it.
She’d been screwing with me.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Kera asked.
“No.” I laughed. “But I figure it can’t hurt to try. She won’t leave your side unless you tell her too. But maybe if I start acting like her friend, she’ll stop hating me.”
*
The wolf took off at a steady trot, staying to the left of Kera’s flank. I could physically feel the restraint in her bones. Every part of her wanted to run, but she was smart enough to not misbehave with this newly given trust.
Finally, we were getting somewhere.
Her anxious energy was racing through me and I was almost giddy with her excitement.
“Kera, can we go a little faster?” I tried to push the boundaries a bit, hoping to please the wolf. If she thought we were on the same side, then we were one step closer to becoming friends and letting me out of this fur suit.
“Are you sure?” Kera asked hesitantly. “If she goes on a wild chase, it’ll be that much harder to catch her.”
“You’ll be fine, right?” I whispered to the wolf.
In answer, she swelled with happiness and pranced around with her tail wagging. Kera laughed with me as we urged the wolf to run.
She took off flying through the forest. Adrenaline surged through our veins. I was lightheaded with the freedom of the chase. Through her eyes, I was able to see the wild of nature as it was supposed to be.
The trees weren’t barriers in her way. They were places of shelter and shade. The brush didn’t hinder her steps. It hid games to play and food to hunt. The rich decay of the forest floor was vibrant and earthy and alive. Clean air filled her lungs and gave her enough power to continue at this thrilling speed. She belonged out here, not in Ethica.
My thoughts turned dark as I remembered everything we’d lost. I’d been working my ass off to get good grades so I could attend the university. I hadn’t told Sage because she’d probably freak out and make me go to counseling or something, but I was thinking about studying medicine like our father.
Like my mother who I never got to meet.
The cloud of bitterness grew thicker around me and I started to retreat in my mind. All my friends were gone. My life wasn’t mine anymore.
Tainted. Impure. Mutant.
The wolf panted as she ran faster and anger surged through our shared bond, but she didn’t seem angry at losing my future. It was like she was pissed at me.
I sensed her slipping away, trying to disconnect, and I knew if I didn’t rein her in then she’d do that feral wolf thing again.
“Don’t go,” I whispered, worried Kera would somehow find out. The wolf ran faster. Her muscles were burning. She was trying to get away from me.
“Stop!” I screamed. My voice rang in my head as a broken and painful cry. “I get it, okay. I’m sorry. But you have to understand that I never even knew you existed.”
The wolf slowed down and tried to communicate with another image. I had a clear vision of the cryptic cage made of iron bars that sat in the basement of Apollo’s mansion. It made me shiver.
Trapped. The word came to me without any of the wolf’s creaking sounds. I softened my tone as I tried to understand. “You felt trapped inside of me.”
The wolf made a huffing noise that sounded a lot like I was stupid as she pushed out images again. The pain when I’d touched the fence outside Ethica. Pictures of the research facilities near the southern gates. Burying our father’s ashes while I held my sister’s hand. Seeing the tears in Sage’s eyes that she never let fall for fear of being discovered. Nightmares of the system taking me.
