Fated Hearts

by Garrett Leigh

  “But you believe them, don’t you? These people are your family, and you know Luca and I would never lie to you.”

  “You didn’t tell me that an unfulfilled bond could physically harm me, though, did you?”

  Dash’s gaze was steady. “I didn’t know it could. As long as I have been alive, I’ve only seen such things in wolves.”

  “So you knew about the risk to Zio?”

  “Yes, I did, which is why your orders were to stay with him—orders that, no doubt, along with your baser instincts to protect him, drove you to follow him here and save so many lives.”

  “I got shot, Dash.”

  “I know. Luca destroyed the shifters wielding the guns himself.”

  “What happened at the hospital? Zio’s told me some . . . but I can’t remember most of it.”

  “You think you will remember if I tell you?”

  “Maybe. Yes. I think so.” Devan sighed and turned away from the window. The ache in his chest at being apart from Zio for even an hour was becoming unbearable. “I feel like I need to know everything before I can put it aside and move forward.”

  Dash kept his gaze on the frosted glass. “The tale from the hospital is not a pleasant one.”

  “And what happened here is?”

  Silence. Then Dash cleared his throat. “My point is that what happened at the hospital is far from over. The ramifications will live with us for generations.”

  “Zio seems to think the other side had human assistance.”

  “They did. Zio was right to suspect the hospital as a staging ground for infiltration, though not all human participation was willing, from what I understand.”

  “Not all, but some?”

  Dash shrugged. “It’s not yet clear. What we do know is that doctors from a laboratory in London were recruited to work in the hospital and, over time, develop a stimulant that would enhance the strength and resilience of shifters. While they worked, shifters from the south used a shield to enter the north and live in the flats across the road undetected by Gale and his unit.”

  A shudder passed through Devan. He hadn’t known Gale’s people as well as he’d come to know Zio’s, but they’d been kind to him when he’d joined their pack. Warm and welcoming. “What was the plan? To build an indestructible army?”

  “I’d imagine so, but it seems they acted before they were entirely ready.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Luca didn’t kill everyone. We kept some of the lower-ranked soldiers alive, and they seemed to be surprised the raid had happened so soon. A unit leader let slip that something had triggered it.”

  “What?”

  It was rare that Devan ever saw his alpha uncomfortable, but as Dash shifted his weight from one foot to the other, horror washed over him. “They saw me and Zio together, didn’t they? When we left the camp before the raid?”

  Dash nodded. “Drone footage. To them, it confirmed that it was inevitable that Shadow Clan would join forces with the northern wolves sooner or later, and they knew that not even chemically enhanced shifters would be enough to resist us, at least not on the scale they had planned here.”

  “They might be one day, though. If they take this madness elsewhere. Continue to use human weapons against us.”

  “Maybe. We must prepare for the worst, and perhaps we should’ve done a long time ago. If we had, the conflict may have been over before your lifetime, and you’d have been free to bond with Zio from the start.”

  Devan allowed his mind to take an instant detour from pain and war. To imagine simpler times where alliances and loyalty to anyone but each other didn’t matter. Would he have found Zio without clan orders throwing him into Zio’s path?

  Only the gods knew.

  “What happens now?”

  “To who, Devan?”

  “Anyone. Everyone.”

  “That’s entirely up to you.”

  “Is it?”

  “Of course.” Dash’s tone deepened. “Luca is taking our forces south to drive the enemy back into the mainland. From there, we will fight until they are defeated. But Varian’s pack—your pack—needs time to regroup and recover from what has happened here. Any northern wolf who wants to fight can join us, but we expect many to remain here. Perhaps you should too, if only to keep your mate safe. I can’t see him leaving you ever again.”

  It was a lot to take in. Devan couldn’t imagine being apart from Zio either, but it was also hard to picture Zio allowing the war to continue without him. “I don’t know what Zio will do. He will want to avenge his brothers and sisters, though. Of that, I am certain.”

  “Have you talked to him?”

  “No.”

  “I think that maybe you should.”

  “Why? Do you have an inside line to Zio’s deepest thoughts?”

  “Not even close. Your mate is somewhat of an enigma.”

  It was the second time Dash had referred to Zio as Devan’s mate and the second time Devan had failed to correct him. His gaze drifted to the window again, seeking Zio out despite knowing he was on the other side of the compound with his unit, rebuilding lost homes. “Will it hurt Zio when I bite him?”

  After a beat of silence, Dash came closer and nudged Devan’s shoulder. “Our kind don’t have to bite to seal a bond.”

  “I know that, but . . . I want to.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Zio knew the moment something changed, even though they weren’t together. A veil of despair lifted. Fog cleared. The winter sun shone brighter, and somehow the darkness shrouding the entire pack seemed lighter.

  Varian felt it too. He pulled Zio into a fatherly embrace and kissed his head. “It won’t be long now.”

  He didn’t elaborate, but he didn’t have to. Zio’s wolf knew. My mate is coming for me.

  Zio leaned against Varian, selfishly enjoying the attention of his alpha before it occurred to him how such kindness had cost Varian. “Are you okay?”

  “That’s not something you need to worry about, Zio.”

  “Don’t I get to decide that?”

  “Not right now, no.” Varian pulled back and grasped Zio’s shoulders. “The only way we carry on is to continue to do what we’ve always done, to be who we’ve always been. My only regret from the last few months is that the choices I made kept you and Devan apart.”

  “But—”

  “No. I cannot speak for Dash and Luca, but my wolf knows I made a mistake.”

  Any further argument died in Zio’s throat. How could it not when Zio’s wolf had believed in the bond from the start? His human brain had fought it over and over, but not his wolf. Never his wolf, even if the man in him had failed to realise it.

  Varian released him. Zio stumbled backwards. Strong hands caught him, and Zio turned to find Gale behind him. Their eyes met, and loneliness poured out of Gale before he caught himself with a wry smile. “Something is in the air,” he whispered.

  Zio resisted a shit-eating grin.

  Gale laughed, and a trace of real humour danced in his sad gaze. “I take it you’re going to need me to look after your unit for a while?”

  “I wasn’t going to ask you to do that.”

  “Well, I’m offering. It’s not like I don’t have the time.”

  Zio couldn’t imagine how it felt to lose not only his partner but his entire unit too. Gale had been badly injured. Without Shadow Clan healers and human doctors, he wouldn’t have survived. Zio wondered if he wished he hadn’t, but Gale was a closed book. As reticent as Zio was volatile. We can’t let him suffer alone.

  “I won’t be alone, Zio. Your boys will take care of me.”

  Zio blinked.

  Gale’s smile widened a touch. “You’re doing that thing again where you think out loud. It’s okay . . . really. I imagine I’ll have my hands full trying to keep track of Danielo.”

  “Hey.” Danielo glanced up from laying bricks. “I’m a reformed man.”

  “Bullshit,” Shannon shot back. “You’ve
already knocked off one of the human doctors they brought back from the hospital.”

  “And that’s my cue.” Varian rolled his eyes and walked away, as ever the good sport, even with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  Gale watched him go, then turned back to Zio. “Did you hear what happened at the hospital?”

  “Some. It’s so fucked up, though, I can’t really make sense of it.”

  Gale nodded. “Me either. I mean, a stimulant that can withstand a shifter’s metabolism? That’s insane. I can’t even get over that they attempted it, let alone that they succeeded. Can you imagine if they’d held off their attack until they’d developed it properly? If they’d administered it to every enemy wolf in England right now?”

  “It’s my fault they attacked when they did.” Guilt twisted Zio’s gut. “They caught me and Devan together with a drone.”

  “Then you did us a favour. I’m the one who failed to notice a troop build-up across the road.”

  “They had a shield, G. No one noticed.”

  “Yeah, well—actually, never mind.”

  Zio spun around as Devan stepped out of the trees. Somehow, despite Zio expecting him, he’d snuck up on them.

  A slow tattoo thudded in Zio’s chest. His breath caught, and he waited with painful anticipation as Devan greeted the whole unit with warm, lingering hugs—Bomber first, then Shannon, Danielo, and Michael, ending with Gale until he finally had eyes only for Zio.

  Gale said something. Bodies disappeared. Grief and responsibility faded, and the universe narrowed to just them. Just us.

  Zio drank Devan in, absorbing his scent, his slow smile, and the fact that he looked a world away from where he’d been a week ago. The grey skin and sunken gaze were gone, replaced with hair that shone like a halo and eyes so dazzling Zio wondered if they’d always been like that or if Devan had emerged from his brush with death brighter than he’d ever been. “You look . . .”

  “Better?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not the right word.”

  “Then what is?”

  “Dunno. Words aren’t my thing.”

  “What is your thing, Zio?”

  Before Devan, Zio might’ve said war, that he lived for the fight, for the defence of his pack, but his perspective had shifted that fateful night in the club, and he’d long ago accepted that it would never shift back. That perhaps meeting Devan had opened his eyes to the man Emma had seen in him all along. “Family is my thing. I lost sight of that for a while and thought I was alone in the world, but I never was. Haven’t been since Varian saved me.”

  “We are lucky that even without each other we are loved.”

  “Without each other? Fuck off. That’s not what I meant.”

  Humour flickered in Devan’s hypnotic gaze. “I know what you meant. I wasn’t suggesting that we should be apart—”

  “Good. Because that’s not going to happen.”

  “No?”

  “No. And that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Why you’ve come to find me? Because you want what I want.”

  “How do I know what you want?”

  In a flash, Zio had Devan pinned against a nearby tree. “You’ve always known. It’s me that took too long to see it.”

  Devan’s gaze darkened. “See what? Be clear, Zio. I need to hear you say the words.”

  “I love you.”

  Devan blinked. “What?”

  “I said, I love you.” Zio pressed impossibly closer. “Fuck the bond. Fuck biology, I love you.”

  He hadn’t realised how true it was until he spoke the words aloud, tracked them through the cosmos, and registered the moment they collided with whatever Devan was thinking. But it was true. Every fucking syllable. Shifter fate had brought them together, war had kept them that way, but nothing on earth could keep Zio from Devan now. Nothing could keep him from claiming his mate. That he was lucky enough to be head over heels in love with him already? He’d thank the gods for it every day he lived.

  Devan cupped Zio’s face in his magical palm, seeking out his gaze. “I didn’t know you loved me. I knew your wolf wanted the bond, felt it from the start, but I didn’t think you’d ever— Gods. I love you too, you know that, don’t you?”

  A rush of joy flooded Zio’s veins. “I do now. Devan, I-I almost lost you to this bond bullshit. I had no idea it could put you in danger like that. If I had—”

  “What? You’d have disobeyed your alpha’s orders and completed the bond? I knew, Zio, and I couldn’t do it.”

  “You knew not being together could weaken you?”

  “No. I knew it could weaken you. Michael told me. It’s why I didn’t let you out of my sight when all I wanted to do was run and run and run until my heart didn’t hurt anymore.”

  Puzzle pieces clicked into place. “I knew Michael was hiding something. And I knew you were unhappy too. I thought it was because you were homesick, not that you were trapped by a misguided responsibility to me.”

  “Misguided?” Devan moved like a snake and reversed their positions before Zio could blink, forearm pressed to Zio’s throat . . . the way Zio liked it. “There was nothing misguided about it. I was unhappy because I couldn’t handle the thought of a bond you didn’t appear to want putting you in danger, and because I knew on every level that bonding with you was everything I’d ever wanted.”

  “You want the bond?”

  “Of course I do. I want to claim you, bite you, and bond us forever. Loving you just makes it easy.”

  Nothing about the two of them together had ever been easy, but as Devan sealed his words with a brush of his lips over Zio’s, the shackles of everything that had come before this moment fell away. The kiss deepened. Tree bark dug into Zio’s back, and he lost himself in all that was Devan—his scent, his taste, his unyielding body holding Zio hostage against the tree.

  Zio’s teeth ached and his neck arched of its own volition, desperate for the bite. “Now, Devan. Please. We have to do it now.”

  Devan pulled back, eyes wild. “You never said you wanted it.”

  “I love you.”

  “That’s not the same as wanting this bond. You can’t take it back. It’s forever until one of us dies.”

  “I know that. I want it. Please.”

  “You want me to bite you?”

  “Yes.”

  Another kiss, sweeter than before, and though Zio’s blood still boiled red hot, a sudden calm blanketed him, the itch in his heart soothed. Devan kissed him one more time, then pulled back. “I knew you wanted it . . . just had to hear you say it.”

  Zio bounced on the balls of his feet. “And I’ve said it, so bite me already.”

  Devan laughed. “We should probably have a conversation about what happens after—”

  “We’ve had a thousand conversations. What difference would another one make?”

  Another slow smile spread across Devan’s insanely beautiful face. “I’m trying to be sensible, but maybe it’s time I stopped. I want this, Zio. I want you, like, right now, but—”

  “But what?”

  “Is this how it’s going to be for the rest of our lives? You interrupting my every sentence?”

  Zio opened his mouth. Shut it again. Then shook his head to clear it. “Sorry. I just . . . I don’t know. I feel like we’ve wasted enough time, you know? I nearly lost you. I honestly thought you were dead when we found you in that cage, and the whole world stopped. It was worse than when Emma died.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Why? You were only there because of me. If you had died, it would’ve been my fault.”

  “No, it fucking wouldn’t.”

  As ever, the coarse words slipping from Devan’s velvet tongue sent a bolt of heat sluicing through Zio. He tried to ignore it. Failed, and flexed his hips enough to make himself groan.

  Devan pressed his forehead tight against Zio’s, gaze fierce. “I followed you into battle because you’re my mate and I couldn’t be apart from you, but even if I’d never me
t you—if all we have had never existed—I’d have followed my pack. It’s the only reason I was ever here. It’s who I am.”

  “You’re my brother,” Zio whispered.

  Devan smiled. “I am.”

  Silence stretched between them, broken only by thudding heartbeats. The declaration wasn’t new. Devan had sworn himself to the pack many times over, but somehow as they gazed at each other, every nerve yearning for that final connection, their bond grew ever-stronger.

  Zio swallowed. “What was your but?”

  “Hmm?”

  “You were trying to say something when I interrupted you.”

  “It seems unimportant now.”

  “Say it, please?”

  Devan glanced around. “I want to bite you and for you to bite me, but . . . not here. So much death and heartache, I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right.”

  It was on the tip of Zio’s tongue to remind Devan that much love had been born and nurtured on the very ground they stood. Instead he smiled and held out his hand. “Come. I know the perfect place.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  They raced through the forest. Zio led, and Devan let him, happily losing himself to the thrill of the chase. The ground beneath his paws was damp with morning dew, the wind cold in his face, and the warmth of the morning sun was second only to the heat of anticipation heating his veins.

  From time to time, Zio glanced back, dark eyes gleaming. Devan wished he could smile in return. Then their connection sparked, and he remembered he didn’t have to. Zio already knew how happy Devan was, how much he was loved, and soon enough, the crackle of instinctive empathy would solidify enough to become permanent.

  Forever. Devan liked the sound of that, and he liked the sound of Zio’s excited howl even more. Wherever they were headed, they were close, and Devan couldn’t wait.

  Zio finally came to a stop at a crystal-clear loch in the highlands of Scotland. An area known for its harsh weather, somehow the sun prevailed, bouncing off the water. Even the rocks at the shoreline glittered.