Fate Mate

Chapter 24

Three days had passed since the massive celebration at the Broken Valley Pack, and I still hadn't told anyone about the apparent 'curse.'

I wanted to share the foreboding news with someone at least fifty times a day. But every time I opened my mouth to inform Dylan, Sophia, or even Raegan of their Alpha's impending doom, I couldn't find the words. I mean, what was I supposed to say? So, I think Alpha Nolan is cursed. No, I don't know anything else. Sorry.

I needed to speak to Angelina, the young witch that had let it slip that she sensed a curse on Nolan in the first place. But I had a sinking feeling that I wouldn't be seeing the beautiful prodigy again until I delivered their coven's talisman back to her mother...

And we were having no luck on that end either.

As soon as we returned from the Broken Valley Pack, we leapt into action. Sophia took to the internet and one-hundred year old books to learn more about magical talismans and the capabilities they possessed. Dylan spent his days and nights investigating the borders, intent on discovering the Golden Walker's patrol schedule in case we needed to sneak into their territory.

Nolan and I, on the other hand, worked together to ensure that no force would be necessary in retrieving the talisman.

He tried calling Alpha Sehan, but the rival Alpha consistently 'missed' Nolan's calls. At first, Sehan's assistant picked up the phone and promised a call back shortly, but, eventually, even she stopped answering. Nolan and I weren't surprised, given my cold conversation with Sehan at the party.

When contacting Sehan failed, Nolan asked me to reach out to my father and brother. I pretended not to be hurt when, either by chance or on purpose, my family never picked up. I was too ashamed to leave a voicemail.

We hunched around Nolan's desk for hours at a time, conjuring up a dozen plans for retrieving the talisman. I sketched a map of the Golden Walkers' pack house, highlighting the various places where the old ring could be hidden or on display. I had a gut feeling that the ring remained nestled in Sehan's own bedroom, in that damned jewelry box where I'd seen it years before.

At one point, after countless hours of plotting, I groaned and threw my head back in defeat. "What if we just ask Sehan for the talisman?"

"You think he would just hand over an immensely powerful object to his least favorite pack?" Nolan smirked up at me, from where he had been studying some of Sophia's notes about talismans.

I plopped down on a nearby armchair and threw a pillow at the top of his head.

At least all of this plotting and planning offered me the opportunity to monitor Nolan, day and night, for any signs of a 'curse.' I watched him like a hawk during the first few days. Every time the male sighed, my attention snapped to him to ensure that unseen force wasn't suffocating him to death. If Nolan spent any time training with Raegan or Dylan, I joined the men under the ruse that I wanted to learn from their techniques, just in case the fighting might trigger the curse.

But Nolan was perfect. No, not perfect. He was healthy, strong, and certainly not suffering from some unseen curse! I came to the conclusion that Angelina must have been wrong.

While our research may not have led to many successes, I did discover one thing in my time spent alone with Nolan... I liked him. I actually liked him.

I discovered that he loved reading, offering to pick up any book that Sophia didn't want to research in her studies on talismen. He preferred doing work in quiet solitude, although he never protested when I asked him a question or wanted to take a break from our planning. Nolan cared about his pack--immensely. So much so that he sacrificed key elements of his own life for their happiness. And gods, he was funny!