AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What important stuff? My ass?”
“No, I’ve seen about enough of your ass when you were first able to shift and spent most of the summer as a nudist. I’m talking about how you are going to fix this with your mate.”
I straightened my back, my eyes wide as I looked to my uncle for guidance. There was a mysterious force that attracted me to pay him a visit. He always held the answers, his visions nearly as powerful as my own. He held the title of Crete Oracle, just like his mother before him, and it was his responsibility to be the voice of The Fates for our generation.
“How? What am I supposed to do?” I asked.
“Simple. It’s what all mates must do,” he said as he took another long gulp of his drink.
I sat with bated breath, waiting for the answer I longed to hear. The answer I knew in my gut that my uncle could provide.
“You have to earn her trust,” he said.
My body deflated. It was exactly as I had already known. An answer that answered nothing at all. It was the first in all my years of coming to my uncle for his advice.
“I already knew that. I just don’t know how.”
“That’s your problem,” Miles said. “You are so busy looking for how to earn it that you aren’t earning it. It takes real action, Brady. You are an excellent researcher. While you’re skilled at finding solutions, this problem demands action rather than words. After all, they speak louder than any words you might think to say.”
I frowned and turned back to my beer as my uncle waved to his wife. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand how I would go about earning her trust.
Miles was right, I had looked and studied all the way that might earn me Madie’s trust, but nothing stuck out to me. As I observed her from a distance, I couldn’t figure out what actions would make her trust me. Of washing away all of our history to start over new.
“You’re doing it again,” Miles said, his voice cutting through my thoughts.
I looked back over at him, both he and his wife watching me with sparkling eyes. “You will not figure it out by sitting around here with us. You have to be there. Hiding away only keeps her in her own mind. She’s a wolf, Brady. Think like a wolf, not a witch. Listen to that part of yourself that is all beast and imagine what it would take for someone to earn your trust and respect. Once you do that, you’ll know exactly what you have to do.”
Betsy nodded her agreement before patting my hand. “Your uncle is right, Brady. But it’s not just she-wolves who like action. All women will see the actions of a man far more than hear his words. Show don’t tell. Sometimes words can become tangled in our minds and lose their meaning. But actions are so much harder to overlook. Even history shows it. The actions outlast the words which change over time.”
She gave my hand a quick squeeze before she returned to her work around the bar. I didn’t move from my stool, my gaze now staring off into the settled foam of my beer.
“Don’t worry, Brady,” my uncle said with a slap to my back. “You’ll know it the moment it happens. You won’t even give it a second thought. Just stay ready, and don’t give her space for much longer. Maybe another day or two, but trust me, any more than that, and you’re going to have a raging she-wolf on your hands. That bond is sealed, and you both will be unstable creatures until you both fully accept your fates.”
I finished off my beer and nodded. “Thanks, Uncle Miles,” I said. “I knew I could count on you.”
“Anytime, kid,” he replied. “It’s what I’m here for.” He took another deep gulp. “Oh, and Brady.”
“Yeah?”
“You aren’t going to find anymore answers in that library. The shadows aren’t ready to be known yet, and they’ve not been remembered for far longer than those books have been written.” He slowly turned to look at me, his eyes completely white and voice distorted. “It’s not your path to take.”
Chapter Thirteen
Madilyn
Edwardo and I had decided to take an extra patrol after Brady had disappeared. I had no clue where he had gone off to. A part of me had been relieved that he had chosen that moment to leave the house. I had been feeling completely unhinged since we marked one another, waking in cold sweats and being forced to sit in my shower until the heat tampered off and I was able to get some form of rest.
Yet another part of me felt compelled to search for him. The moment I sensed him leave the pack territory, an urge nearly drove me to shift and chase after him. Edwardo’s suggestion to patrol was a welcome distraction, offering a way to channel the pent-up energy and, hopefully, alleviate the intense heat that took over in the dead of night.
The grass felt soft beneath my paws as I ran along the border’s edge, completing my second round before the scheduled shift change at the packhouse. The crisp night air flowed over my golden fur, carrying the fresh scent of the forest and whisking away the stress and worries that had accumulated from resisting my bond with Brady.
I had talked to Paige again just before I left for the run. She had told me that first night that I had to find a way to trust Brady. She even reminded me of what had happened to her when she failed to trust Nyte, after feeling he had betrayed her trust.
While in the end it was all part of The Fates’ plan for her, she encouraged me to learn from her experience and avoid something terrible happening.
“He is your mate, Madie,” Paige had stressed. “The Fates would not put you with someone you couldn’t handle. I’ve never heard of a pair of mates who weren’t a perfect match in every way. And from the sounds of your library rendezvous, you are most definitely a match in that department.”
I pushed myself faster to drive out her voice in my head. It was easy for her to say it. Despite the way Nyte had tricked her, he was protecting her the entire time. He had never tormented her. He had always treated her well, even before he knew she was his mate.
