Unwanted Fates | Book Two ✔️

Thirteen | Fire

"Sylvie."

Kerensa dragged a bewildered Sylvie behind her and took on a fighting stance. "Stay back." The woman blinked, wiping a smear of brown from her bare chest, before pulling her long, fiery mane to cover her breasts.

"Wait," Sylvie tugged Kerensa's arm and walked around her. "Rosie?"

The glowing light of her eyes sparkled as she stepped back behind a tree along the roadside.

"What are you doing here?" Kerensa demanded, placing herself in front of Sylvie again.

"Running. I like to run."

Sylvie frowned. How was it that Rosie managed to appear exactly where she was twice? "Are you spying on us?"

"What? No! I just like to run. After all the attacks, I just need to get away sometimes."

The flash of fear in Rosie's eyes took Sylvie by surprise. "What do you mean, attacks?"

Why she cared about the wellbeing of Rosie's pack escaped her, but a slight furrowing of Rosie's brow shared she noticed the emotion.

"Vampires have been stealing our people for months now. One or two each time." She sniffled, hiding her body behind the tree as if it were a shield from her emotions.

"I shouldn't be here." Her wide eyes flitted between Kerensa and Sylvie, shifting foot to foot. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Wait. It wasn't us, if that's what you're thinking."

"No, no... I didn't- Crap." Without another word, Rosie morphed and dropped onto all fours, her skin coated in copper fur and disappeared into the woodlands, her bushy fox tail the last thing Sylvie saw.

"Well, that was interesting."

Sylvie sighed and ran a hand across her face. "I'm so fucking tired of this shit," she whispered. "And I'm so fucking confused!"

Kerensa scowled at the sudden shout.

"Would you be quiet? If she found us out here, the rest of her pack will likely be around. Now move your ass. We need to get back to the farmhouse."

They turned and jogged back down the path, Sylvie's legs and lungs screaming in protest with every step.

"Should... I... run away?" Sylvie rasped.

Kerensa scoffed and looked over at her. "And go where? You're the perfect target for demons and your mates' enemies. If any of them got their hands on you, it wouldn't just destroy them; it would put every fucking realm in jeopardy."

Sylvie scoffed, pushing her rising anxiety as deep as possible.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, Hart. The Fates put you with those men for a reason, whether you like it, want it, or think you can handle it, or not. I've spent enough time with you to know you're strong and don't let bad things define you. Unlike others I know, you turned your experiences into positives. Or at least neutrals. And that's exactly what the realms need."

"I can't..."

"It doesn't matter what you want, Hart. The sooner you accept it, the stronger you'll become, and the better life will be. For everyone."

"How?"

"The realms are dying. The shifter realm died after the division and wars, forcing the last of the six shifter bloodlines here. The Fae haven't had a birth in nearly three hundred years, and I'm certain the vampires are hardly better off. That is the only conclusion I can make from their kidnapping of shifters. And now you happen to be the mate of each species? This isn't a coincidence. You're here to fix this."