Page 86 of Fated to Her

What does she mean, her sister? I never saw Taylor.

“Go, son. I’ll look after him, I swear to you. I would never harm my grandson,” Maverick says, but I hesitate.

It’s one thing being beside him when he has a hold of my son. I can hear Cyrus chasing her before hearing her wail loudly, her scream filling the night. I can just make out Cyrus trying to calm her, and I look at my son in my father’s arms. He nods, handing him to me, and I take his tiny body in my arms, cradling him to my chest to keep him warm, though he’s a hybrid.

“Want some help with her?” he asks.

I look at him.

I gaze down at my son in my arms; he’s right. She might attack him in her devastated state, and I’m about to hand him over when I feel the wind brush past me, and he is suddenly gone from my arms.

“Addie, no,” I tell her, panic kicking in.

She’s so much faster now. I can feel her tumultuous emotions destroying and eating away at her, my son clutched in her arms. I catch up to her, and she stops, looking at me.

“She is dead because of me. I killed her. Took her from Maya,” she whispers, tears slipping down her face. Then there’s movement behind me.

My father steps toward Cyrus, who has Taylor’s blood-soaked body in his arms. My father takes Taylor from him.

Addie is crushed at the loss of her twin. Her guilt is so strong, making even me feel guilty as her body trembles, and I stare at my son worriedly as Cyrus approaches her. She pulls him closer, kissing his head, and Cyrus’s hands grip her arms. She sighs, handing our son to him. She then walks off, heading toward the village. Cyrus and I stare at her, watching her leave, and my father stops next to us. I look at Addie’s carbon copy in his arms. Now that she has gained weight and is healthy, they are indeed identical.

“She is a twin,” my father says, shocked.

I nod, looking in the direction Addie has gone.

“Is she going to be okay?” my father asks, looking at Cyrus and me, but we both shake our heads.

Addie is anything but alright. I can feel how broken, confused, angry, and guilty she is, and every emotion, along with some I can’t even name, is swallowing her. It is only a matter of time before she snaps. She needs blood, but she is denying her nature, denying herself, and the longer she goes like this, the worse the bloodlust will get. I understand she fears it and can’t accept that she is alive while her sister is dead.

Chapter 23

• Maverick •

My son follows Addie, carrying her twin back to the village. We killed Sam, but it cost Addie her life and her sister’s. I’ve never envisioned this happening, and I can’t believe I fell asleep. I was listening for her return, but exhaustion took over me, and now it’s too late to fix that mistake.

Porter comes over to me, staring down at Addie’s sister, shock registering on his features as we walk back toward the village.

“You need to send someone to retrieve Emery. She is with her boyfriend Calum,” I tell Porter.

“Anything else?” he asks.

“Have someone open the stables so I can lay this one’s body down, so Addie doesn’t have to see until we figure out what to do next.”

He nods, jogging ahead.

Addie is standing in the middle of the field, staring around. It has to be hard to be fine one minute and lose everything the next, only to be awoken to a world that looks different. Everything is sharper and more defined. The bond will be ten times stronger for her now.

She looks lost, like she doesn’t know what is going on, only knowing pain.

She stares at me as I get closer, her eyes on her sister in my arms. Cyrus now has the baby, and despite just shifting, losing her sister has put her in shock. She should be trying to rip into everyone’s veins right now, not just standing idle. Eli tries pulling her in the direction of the house, but she either doesn’t hear him or is ignoring him. Any other time, and if she weren’t my daughter-in-law, I would be worried about having a newborn vampire within my pack, but she is family, and Eli and Cyrus are better men than I ever was or could be. I know they will protect her from herself, protect their son, something I couldn’t do. My biggest regret is believing the insanity that was my wife.

I see Claire open the stables and light one of the torches on the wall as I approach. Walking into the stables, I go over to one of the hay bales, placing down her sister’s body. I roll her on her side. I pull the tire iron out of her stomach through her back before rolling her flat.

“I’ll get a blanket or something to cover the body,” Claire tells me, running out of the stables.

I tug her blouse down, making her a little more presentable, when I notice the wound from the tire iron looks smaller. I push it back up. Blood coats her stomach, and I realize it must be from the tire iron being pulled out. Claire returns. She passes me a green woolen blanket, and I’m about to toss it over her body when I see the hole is now completely closed.

I roll her on her side.