Fate Mate

Chapter 50

Nolan didn't ask questions. He didn't so much as shoot me a confused look as he offered me his sweatshirt and brought me to the porch of the pack house, where Dominic was already waiting. I stepped beyond the threshold, and my mate stayed inside. I murmured my thanks, which earned a devastatingly gentle smile from the Black Lupis Alpha.

"I'll see you in a bit," he promised, and closed the door, leaving me alone with Dominic, just as I'd requested.

With Nolan gone, I finally turned to face the Rogue Alpha. His broad figure eclipsed the moon that shone just above horizon of trees in the distance, casting a shadow across the wooden porch floor. In the darkness, I couldn't make out his features, but his eyes were glossy and reflected the lights in the packhouse. Dominic had been crying.

My heart simultaneously accelerated and throbbed in my chest. I cleared my throat, fingers fidgeting behind my back. "H-Hello, Dominic."

"Charlie," Dominic's voice cracked on my name. "I'm s-so sorry. I--"

I immediately held up my hands, a silent request for him to not continue. "Wait, I didn't come out here to make you apologize. I mean, thanks. For the apology. But, well... Can we go for a walk?" I glanced back at the windows behind me. Any werewolf with enhanced hearing would be able to hear our conversation.

Dominic cocked his head to the side, no doubt bewildered by my request. He probably didn't think that I would want to be alone with him after... well, everything. Eventually he nodded and led the way down the porch steps. "Is everything alright?"

I followed him, careful to sidestep around the spot on the ground where I'd bled out only two weeks before. "Yes," I answered, glancing up at the stars that shone overhead. I thought about Sarah and Lyra and Sophia and wondered if they were watching us right now. "There's something I need to tell you, Dominic. Something I need you to know."

Dominic's scar puckered out, the way that it always did when he was concerned about something. "I'm all ears," he replied, not taking his eyes from me as we walked away from the packhouse and toward Nolan's private cottage. My private cottage.

"When I died," I began slowly, choosing my words carefully. "I saw Sarah. She found me, actually. In the afterlife."

Dominic was silent. In fact, I thought that he might've stopped breathing for a moment. Finally, he nodded, and I noticed his throat bob once, swallowing his emotion. "Did you... speak to her?"

I nodded, glancing down to navigate my way into the purple orchid garden that lined the front entrance of the cottage. In the floodlights of the cottage's front porch, the garden looked like a fairyland. It was perfect. Sarah had planted the orchids, after all. I smiled at the memory of seeing the young, deceased mother for the first time. I felt closer to her here.

I sat on one of the two little steps that led to the cottage's front porch, illuminated by a single, glowing light that was swarmed by moths. I patted the spot beside me, and Dominic descended beside me. Now I was ready to tell him the truth—the whole truth that he and Nolan had been robbed of.

"Sarah guided me back to the talisman. Without her, I'd likely still be wandering through the afterlife." I shivered, recalling the nightmares that had plagued my every slumber. Dominic looked like he was about to wrap his arm around my shoulder, but then thought better of it. "I would have never made it back to you all if it weren't for her. And baby Lyra, of course."

"Baby?" Dominic echoed, eyes wide. "T-The baby is there?"

My smile widened at the thought of Lyra, curled against her mother's breast. "Yes, and she's darling. You're her Uncle Dom," I teased, leaning my shoulder against his playfully.