Escaping Death

Chapter 43

Dean

"That's it? Just like that?" Hunter is incredulous. "We don't get a say? She  doesn't get a say?" By now his volume has risen such that he's shouting.

There's a heavy cloud of regret that descends like a fog around Ace and it weighs on him heavily. But I can't say exactly what he feels regretful for.

Is it regret that he put Solana in this position or that he's not giving her a choice in any of this? Regret that Eli and Hunter couldn't have their fated mates? Maybe it's regret that of all people she is his mate considering she was engaged to Hunter and was set to bear his mark.

"It's the right thing to do and you know it," Ace says coolly. "I won't let her fly off with our baby to live alone in Shadowmoon's ruins."

"And if it's my baby she's carrying?" Hunter is beside himself feeling like the closer he gets to her the faster she slips through his fingers. "Does that make her mine to claim?"

"This," Ace gestures around our circle, "this is exactly why I wanted to wait until she was gone before I told you she's my mate. You are my pack mates, you are my family. She never wanted to be here and I never wanted her to be what drove a wedge between us."

The pack silently takes in Ace's words. That's the heart of the issue right there. Ace won't accept her unless we do. She'd have to become pack. She'd belong with us — all of us. And that hinges on so many factors aligning perfectly.

Ace would have to fight his mate bond to allow us to accept her, Hunter would have to cope with her being Ace's mate and then we'd all have to accept her into the pack. And that all depends on whether or not any of that is what she wants.

"May I please be excused?" Eli grits out, his jaw is clenched so tightly I'm impressed he hasn't cracked a molar.

I manage to keep him from hyperventilating but the parallels between this situation with Ace, Hunter, and Solana and that of him and his fated mate are drowning him in painful memories.

Ace dips his head down once granting Eli permission to leave and in the next blink Eli is gone, already halfway up the stairs.

Emotions are all over the place but without my gift you'd never know it. The remaining four of us sit in silence mulling over the new situation we're facing. Hunter is oscillating between hope and despair. He wants so badly to have Solana in his life, to father her children, to get back what was stolen. But Ace is Alpha, Ace is Solana's mate, and Ace could just as likely be the father of her child if she even is pregnant.

Ace is better at controlling his emotions, he's always been rather even keeled. But when it comes to Sol he loses that control. Watching her go head to head with him is as entertaining as it gets because of how much she rattles him from his usually calm, cool, collectedness.

And then there's Tate. He's feeling resentful, but to be fair that's pretty much baseline for him. He doesn't see the problem in letting her live her life on her own, baby or no baby, if that's what she truly wanted. I think a part of him that he'll never admit to also envies our lupine brethren for practically being guaranteed a mate.

Someone who loves you unconditionally, who would be pained to be apart from you. I suspect it's because that's a love we never got from our mother, and then she was gone. So when Ace acts like this is any ordinary Friday, and that Solana is any ordinary woman, that bothers Tate. Because deep down where he thinks he's hidden his feelings deeply enough to hide even from me I know he resents those who take that kind of love for granted.

I don't sense fear of rejection or abandonment from Tate, but that's not to say it hasn't affected him. Rather than risk that pain again he simply shuts everyone out. Can't get hurt if you don't let anyone get close.