Fates | Book 2 ✔️

[25]

I look up at the sky, noticing it beginning to lighten as the sun rises. All night I had been thinking about what the men there had asked of me and before I realized it, it became morning. There was only one answer I kept coming back to no matter how I looked at it. It was a simple decision to make. I don't why it has taken me this long to figure it out. I'd tell him. No more secrets.

As soon as I turn the corner, I see Yorin tapping away aimlessly at the ground with his foot. He looks up at me before turning his attention back to whatever he was staring at before. There was a crowd of Northerners bustling to and fro. Yorin looks anxious just watching them or, perhaps, was it because of the answer I might give him instead?

"Yorin."

"I hope your answer is what I think it will be. If it is not... "

I lick my lips and nod.

"... I cannot do it... because Lance's trust is what I have been working hard towards for so long and to lose it... I do not think I could live with myself if I did. You must understand this."

Yorin sets his gaze on me then.

"If we just..." He gives me a soft smile and nods approvingly.

"I get it. So that means you will tell him everything then?"

He knows?

"Were you just... " I trail off already knowing the answer to the question.

"Lance doesn't have time to be wasting on you over a matter that can be easily solved like this. I gave you a choice and you simply chose. And what a wise choice you made." Yorin sighs and gives me a small smile. "However, I did not think it would take so long and he would go so quickly... "

"He lied to me."

"He did not lie to you. He just, uh... omitted some things."

I scratch my head roughly, not knowing what to do or whether to panic. I was up all night just thinking, which distracted me from everything else. Really, I did not think he would go and do something so reckless as this. What makes it worse is that he's not doing it for them or for himself. He's doing it for me.

"Where are Kaj and the others?"

Yorin continued to stare at the ground.

"He went with Lance? You let him go with him knowing--"

"Yes! Yes, I did. I would like to say I am sorry for what I had done and how I tricked you, but I'm not. You would have only gotten in the way."

I bite down on my lip until it bleeds.

"He has no time to be worried about your problems when he has his own to deal with here, but I could not convince him no matter how much I pressed. Lance is hell-bent on ridding you of that past you so wish to forget. He knows it haunts you. The thing that keeps you awake at night."

"And the problem here?"

Yorin raised his hands and then points to me. "It is the reason you and I are here. He gave his power over to you, so it is your decision on what to do next. Should we go after him... or stay here and protect this pack while he is away?"

I scoff and narrow my eyes away from him. He very well knows what answer follows that question. It's hurting my heart just thinking of him away from me like this. If something happened to him--"

"Those thoughts going through your head right now... I am sure those are the same thoughts that have been going through his head since you and he reconciled. They are just eating away at you aren't they?"