A Twist of Fate: True Mates Generations Book 1

by Montgomery, Alicia

  And, when she was younger—much younger—she might have thought she had a crush on him, but had always admired him from a distance. After all, their orbits were so far away, they might as well have lived on different planets. There was that one time she was foolish enough to think otherwise … well, that was a whole other story. Besides, he was supposed to be living in London, as Fenrir’s COO over there.

  Which now begs the question, what the hell was he doing here?

  The glow in his eyes began to dissipate, leaving behind a cool pair of ice blue eyes. He blinked and he looked just as surprised as she was. “Uh, Astrid, right?”

  His voice was like soft velvet and she found herself unable to speak, so she just nodded. The years had been kind to Zac. No, they had been amazing—he looked like someone beat him up with a freaking handsome-as-sin-and-hot-as-hell stick. Several times. He’d always been tall, like his dad, but his shoulders were much broader, which strained against the suit he wore. He also sported just the right amount of designer scruff on his strong jaw, which added a hint of danger to his already handsome features.

  “Are you okay?” He held out his hand. She stared at it for a moment, then took it. A soft gasp escaped her mouth when she felt the electricity zing across her skin when they touched. Did he feel that too? She didn’t have time to check his reaction because he suddenly pulled her up. She was unprepared, so she stumbled forward. Strong arms wound around her to steady her, and she braced her hands on his chest.

  Oh, God, were his muscles really that rock hard? Better check again.

  “Uh, Astrid?” Zac’s tone was bemused and she quickly stepped away from him when she realized she was caught squeezing his pecs through his shirt.

  “Ahem.”

  She looked behind Zac. Oh fuck, her night couldn’t possibly get any worse. “Al Doilea.” She bowed her head in respect as she called Nick Vrost by his formal title. “Er, so, how’s it going?”

  “How’s it going?” The cutting tone in the Beta’s voice was unmistakable. “Young lady, do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?”

  “Dad.” Much to her surprise, Zac put himself between her and his father. “She’s hurt. That man attacked her.”

  “That man you sent crashing to the wall?” Nick said.

  “He had his hands on her,” Zac replied, his voice tight.

  “It was my fault,” Astrid said. “That confounding potion I used wasn’t enough to keep him down.”

  Nick ran a hand through his hair. “Confounding potion? So, you not only shifted in front of humans, but you also used a magic potion?” The vein on his neck looked like it was going to pop any second. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Well—”

  “Astrid!”

  She groaned and slapped a hand on her forehead. She was wrong; her night was going to get worse.

  “Astrid Ariel Jonasson!” Meredith stopped right in front of her, so they stood toe to toe. With their similar height and features, many people often mistook them for sisters. “What is the meaning of this, young lady?”

  Astrid rolled her eyes, a move Meredith hated. “It’s nothing, Mom,” she said.

  “Nothing? Nothing?” She waved her hands in the air. “I get a phone call from Nick saying that you had called the Lycan security office for help and that I should rush home. What the hell are you doing here, and why are you dressed like that?”

  “I work here.” Oops. She realized she hadn’t changed out of the peignoir, which was now partially open and showing a generous amount of cleavage.

  “At a strip club?”

  “It’s a gentleman’s club, Mom,” she corrected.

  Meredith’s face fell and she looked like she wanted to cry. “Oh. My. God. You know those jokes comedians tell about how when they see a girl dancing on a pole and they think somebody’s daddy fucked up with raising their child? Well, I’m that daddy!”

  “Stop being so dramatic, Mom! I’m not a stripper! And they preferred to be called exotic dancers.”

  “What will your father say?” Meredith ranted. “And what do you mean you’re not a stripper? Do they not think you’re good enough? You’re a hundred times more beautiful than any of the girls I saw in there.”

  “Mom.” Astrid wanted the ground to swallow her up. She was not doing this. Especially not in front of Zac Vrost and his father. “Look, it’s a long story, okay? Are you done with the cleanup?”

  “We’re working on it,” Nick said. “Cady’s smoothing things over with the owner, and Daric’s administering the forgetting potion to those who saw you shift.”

  “Dad’s here too?”

  “We were in Madrid, having these amazing tapas when Nick called us,” Meredith said. “He transported us back right away.”

  Nick massaged his temple. “This is one big mess you left us, young lady,” he said. “This is going to require an audience with the Alpha. Get your things and be ready to leave in five minutes.” He turned to leave but stopped. “Zac?”

  “Yes, Dad?”

  “Are you coming?”

  Zac shook his head. “Right. I’ll uh, see you around, Astrid.”

  She stared after him as he followed Nick back inside the club. What the hell was Zac Vrost doing here anyway? Last she heard, he’d been living overseas in London. Did he move back to New York?

  “Astrid. Astrid, are you listening to me?”

  “What?” She whipped around to face her mother.

  Meredith’s expression softened. “Astrid, will you tell me what’s going on, please? What happened?”

  “I was working—” She suddenly remembered Petal. “Mom! There’s this girl. She was hurt pretty badly.” Panic gripped her. She’d been so preoccupied that she didn’t think about what happened to her friend. “Did they get her help? I told them to bring a doctor because I couldn’t let them call 911 and—”

  “That girl?” Meredith said, her expression going dark. “Yeah, I saw her. Don’t worry, Dr. Blake is with her. He’s treating her wounds now.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

  Meredith looked over Monroe and Jamal, who had both been secured by members of the Lycan security team. One of the bouncers was leading Leon back into the club. “Did they have something to do with that girl getting beat up?”

  Astrid nodded and gave her mother the short version of what happened. Meredith listened intently letting her talk.

  When she was done, Meredith wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You did the right thing, sweetie. It was stupid to shift and use your powers, but you were trying to help your friend and protect yourself.”

  “I know. But I had no choice.” She bit her lip. “What’s going to happen now?”

  “You’ll have to explain your side of the story to the Alpha,” Meredith said. “But I’ll be there to support you. And so will your father.”

  Astrid sighed. She was not looking forward to her audience with Grant Anderson.

  Chapter Four

  “Zac, did you hear what I said?”

  His father’s voice jolted him out of his daze. “Huh? I mean, what were you saying?”

  Cady sent her son an amused smile as she turned her head back to him where he sat in the back seat of his father’s Mercedes. After the excitement at the club, they had to come back to The Enclave to meet with the Alpha. “I hope you don’t think this is something we have to do on a regular basis,” she said. “I assure you, these days it’s rare we even have to call the police chief when an incident like this occurs.”

  “Oh, so she doesn’t cause trouble like this all the time?” he asked.

  “Her?” Nick’s brows furrowed. “Oh, you mean Astrid. No, she’s not a troublemaker or anything. But I’ve heard stories.”

  “You know Meredith works closely with your father,” Cady said. “And she’s always talking about Astrid.”

  “More like complaining,” Nick said. “She’s not a bad kid, but she’s obviously not focused or talented like her brothers.
”

  “Nick,” Cady admonished. “I’m sure Astrid has her other strengths. Not everyone can be like Cross Jonasson.”

  Ah, yes. Cross Jonasson. Zac knew all about the powerful hybrid—that is, half warlock, half wolf shifter—from Lycan and magical gossip. His own cousins from San Francisco were hybrids as well, and Cady was descended from a powerful line of female witches though she was fully human. But apparently, Cross was especially gifted, though he preferred to keep his talents a mystery.

  They’d met several times over the years of course, but they didn’t run in the same circles. Most Lycans lived in The Enclave, the clan’s compound on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but the Jonassons, along with the rest of their family, lived downtown. With his father, Daric, being a powerful warlock himself, they didn’t need The Enclave’s magical protection.

  Zac wondered, however, if there were other reasons why his parents and the Jonassons never hung out socially nor did their children. Because if they did, he was pretty sure he would have noticed how beautiful Astrid Jonasson had grown up to be.

  He had been initially perturbed that his father and mother’s work brought them to a strip club downtown. It wasn’t a seedy place, but it was obvious what was going on in there. And when they got to the scene, he saw that man approaching his mother and his instincts went into overdrive. The man didn’t get to Cady, but instead went after the woman she was talking to.

  Save her, something urged him. And so he grabbed the man and tossed him to the wall, barely containing his Lycan strength. His wolf gave a primal howl inside him, something he had never experienced before.

  Then he looked into the depths of those whiskey-colored eyes and got lost. Who was this woman? The face was familiar and it all clicked into place. His mother and father were talking about her on the way here, after all.

  His reaction to first seeing her still shook him to his very core. He racked his brain, trying to remember the child she had been. He recalled seeing her running around as a toddler at someone’s—maybe his cousin’s—birthday. As an awkward teen at Adrianna and Lucas’ graduation. And maybe some Fenrir company picnics. But for the life of him, he didn’t know why he hadn’t seen her lately.

  And here she was, dressed in that ridiculous red robe. The silk material clung to every luscious curve and the front gaped open to show him a generous hint of her breasts. With her golden hair tumbling down her shoulders she looked like some kind of siren, tempting him to come closer and …

  He shook his head. He wasn’t a stranger to beautiful women, but Astrid seemed to have stunned him. Dumbfounded, he offered her his hand and the moment they touched, his skin lit up with electricity. As if it wasn’t bad enough, when she stumbled against him, he felt her body press against his and he went instantly hard.

  But it was her scent that drove him wild. Sweet, like the summer flowers that grew in his great-grandfather’s Hudson Valley mansion. It sent his wolf on a frenzy, reveling in that scrumptious scent.

  What was she doing here? Dressed like that, a dreaded feeling came over him. He wanted to tear something apart, knowing that other men had looked at her, probably wearing much less than she did at the moment. He felt this strange urge of possessiveness over a girl he hardly knew and could barely remember. It was a good thing Meredith arrived and his father had called him away, because God knows what he could have done.

  “Zac?” Cady’s voice shook him out of his reverie. “Are you all right, son?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then kindly stop destroying the upholstery? Your father just had them redone last week.”

  Zac looked down at his fingers, which had dug holes into the plush leather seat of the Mercedes. “Sorry, Dad.” He gave his father a sheepish look through the rearview mirror. “Have them fix it, I’ll pay you.”

  Nick harrumphed. “It’s fine. We’re here.”

  Zac looked around and realized they had arrived in one of The Enclave’s private garages. He got out of the car and opened the door for his mother, and soon they were in the elevator and headed back into the Anderson’s apartment.

  Unlike when they had left, the Alpha’s apartment wasn’t filled with people, and only the half-empty glasses and hors d’oeuvres platters scattered about were evidence that there had been a party at all. Most people were gone, except for the hosts, plus Adrianna and Lucas, who were seated on the couch with their mother. Grant Anderson stood in the middle of the room, a stern look on his face.

  It seemed that the Jonassons had beaten them to the apartment, as Astrid was seated in front of the Alpha, Meredith behind her, an equally severe look on her face. Off to the side, silent as a stone, was Astrid’s father—the powerful warlock, Daric. He leaned casually against the fireplace, his hands folded over his chest. When he turned to look at Zac and those eerie blue-green eyes landed on him, a strange sensation washed over him. He shook it off and followed his father and mother into the room.

  “Now that we’re all here,” Grant began. “Anyone care to tell me what happened?”

  “I received a call from the Lycan Security Officer in charge,” Nick said. “Miss Jonasson called our hotline and explained that there had been an incident where she had accidentally exposed herself in wolf form to humans.”

  “And why would you do that, Miss Jonasson?” Grant said. “You know our laws.”

  “Of course I do,” she said impatiently. “But it wasn’t my fault.”

  “And whose fault was it?” Nick asked. “Why would you need to shift in such a place?”

  “What place?”

  “A strip club,” Nick added.

  “Gentleman’s club,” Astrid corrected. “And if you just let me talk, I’ll clear everything up.”

  “All right, then,” Grant leaned down to look her in the eyes. “Talk.”

  “Well, you see, I was working—”

  “Oh my God, do we have to talk about how my daughter works as a stripper—”

  “Exotic dancer, Mom,” Astrid interjected. “And for the last time. I. Am. Not. A. Dancer.”

  “Then what are you?” Zac suddenly said. All eyes turned to him, and he suddenly felt exposed for some reason.

  “If you must know,” she began. “I’m a bodyguard.”

  “Bodyguard?” Frankie asked. “Bodyguard for whom?”

  “The dancers, of course.” She took a deep breath. “Look, I got my part-time job at the library, but that’s not exactly enough to pay my bills. So, I took on this extra job on weekend nights. Mr G.—that’s the owner of The Vixen Den—hired me to look out for the girls. Not on the floor or anything, that’s where he’s got the bouncers, but sometimes some of these slimeballs try to sneak into the dressing room and cause trouble for the girls. And at the end of the night, I walk the girls to their cars, Ubers, or the subway. I just put on my hoodie, and since I’m taller than most of them, I look like a guy.”

  “Okay, so we’ve established your employment,” Grant said. “Tell us what happened tonight.”

  Astrid’s demeanor changed. Zac could see how her body tensed and lips tightened into a thin line. “One of the girls, Petal, she had an old boyfriend sniffing around. She’s been extra worried about him showing up at home or at work. She came in for her shift tonight, but I was late and I didn’t see her. Then …” She swallowed and her voice shook as she continued her story. “I found her outside. Those three men beat her up good and … they said they were going to do things to her.” Meredith’s hand clamped down on her daughter’s shoulders. “They came at me, and I defended myself. I knocked out one guy, and then used a confusion potion on the other.” She glanced at her father and gave him an apologetic grimace. “But Leon—that’s Petal’s boyfriend—he pulled a gun on me.”

  “A gun?” Grant asked. “What happened?”

  “I poofed out.” She made exploding motions with her hands. “And then I ended up behind him and—”

  “Hold on.” Grant scratched his temple. “What do you mean, poofed out?”

&n
bsp; “You know … I poofed.” She repeated the motions, spreading her fingers wide.

  “Explain?”

  She let out an exasperated breath. “Like this.”

  A soft pop filled the air and much to Zac’s surprise, the only real way to describe the sound was indeed, poof. A moment later, she reappeared behind Grant. “And this.”

  Grant let out a growl and quickly spun around. Nick moved toward the Alpha, and so did Lucas. Zac knew why; the Alpha’s wolf was taken aback by Astrid’s sudden appearance that it sprang close enough to the surface for all of them to feel it. The ripple of power in the air was apparent, and Zac realized he had just witnessed the Alpha’s power.

  “I’m fine,” Grant said, waving his son and Beta away. His eyes returned to normal, losing that glow all Lycans got when their wolves were making their presence known. “But, Miss Jonasson, please don’t do that again.”

  “What the hell was that?” Lucas exclaimed. “Are you like Daric? You can transport across spaces too?”

  “Only short distances,” Astrid said. “The most I could do is maybe, six feet away? Right, Dad?”

  The warlock nodded. “We experimented and that is about her maximum for now.”

  “Maximum?” Grant echoed.

  “When she was about five, she started poofing through doors,” Meredith said. “Scared the shit out of me when I was leaving the house and she just appeared by my feet.”

  “We bound her powers after that,” Daric continued. “As we did all the hybrids, until they were old enough to start learning how to use their abilities. You all remember the accident Cross caused when he was just an infant.”

  “When I was about twelve, just before my first shift, Dad removed the binding spell,” Astrid said. “He taught me how to use my powers. It works a little differently than his. I don’t have to learn about anatomy or biology unlike him; I just seem to know how to transport my body. But I can’t transport anyone with me like he does or move other things from one place to another.”