Cronan is angry. Angry that after years of waiting, he's mated to the one wolf he never wanted.
Fen is stuck. Stuck in a state of purgatory that he doesn't know how to escape from.
After learning of his mate's crimes, Cronan never expected to see h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Fen and I sat in the living room with the bottle of alcohol sitting between us. I had expected him to back out, given the fact that he couldn't hold his alcohol, but he didn't.
"This was your idea. You start," he said, his eyes challenging mine as he leaned back into the couch.
"Alright," I said, grabbing the bottle and pouring us both a shot. "Why did you come to Oakwood originally?"
Fen's eyes narrowed, but he didn't hesitate. "Reuben asked me to come back when he was still trying to end his relationship with Eli."
"And that's the whole truth?" I pressed, raising an eyebrow.
He sighed, looking away for a moment before meeting my gaze again. "And I wanted to see Eli. I hadn't talked to him since I left."
"Why'd you stay afterward then?"
He shook his head. "You'll have to wait."
"Fine," I conceded. "Go ahead."
He seemed to think about it for a moment before asking, "Why did you leave your pack?"
I hesitated, the familiar knot tightening in my stomach. "I left because I couldn't stand my parents' expectations. They wanted me to be something I'm not, and it was suffocating. So, I ran."
Memories of Dad's loud voice replayed in my mind. I could remember the way he would shout at me if I did something wrong or how Mom would constantly tell me I wasn't behaving the way an alpha should. I could remember the expressions on their face when they found out I was staying in Oakwood and saw me with Arlo and realized I would never be the "strong alpha" they had envisioned.
"I'm sorry for bringing it up."
"It's fine. That's the point of this," I shook my head. "My turn. Did you really try to kill your alpha?"
Fen frowned and ran his hand through his hair. I could see the cogwheels moving around in his mind as he tried to formulate an answer.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," I reminded him and gestured to his cup but he vehemently refused.
"We're never going to move forward if this is always weighing over our heads," he muttered more to himself than me. He took a breath and met my eyes again. "Yes. No. Kind of? My original goal was to never try to kill Nixon. Rough him up a bit? Maybe, but I fully expected him to walk out of that fight perfectly fine in a few hours. Things got complicated when others wanted to use the opportunity to get revenge on him for other things that happened in the past. I take the blame for it because it was my fault he was put in that situation, but no. I didn't plan to kill him that day."
I nodded, not really sure how to respond, but I was glad he was opening up about it in general. "You can go now."
"What were your thoughts after Eli told you about everything that happened between him, Reuben, and me?"
