Burned By Fate

CHAPTER 007

| ETHAN |

"Again, Ethan!" My dad bellows from across the clearing.

I lurch forward and attempt to swing at him but my body is slack from exhaustion and minimal sleep. It's now been a few days since seeing Lucy at the party. A day since finally discovering her name.

I didn't want to know her name. If I didn't know that about her, it meant I could distance myself but now it makes it real, so incredibly real.

"What is up with you, son?" My father grumbles, storming towards me.

I place my hand to my forehead and I wipe back the sweat that is now beading there. "Sorry," I say pathetically.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just tired."

His dark eyes analyse my own. He's trying to find a way in to see if I'm lying but I've thrown up my guards. I hear him huff out a sigh and he retreats again.

My father has been training me since a young age. As my father is the beta of the pack, he's training me up to become next in line after him. He's always been quite forceful in his training sessions, wanting me to be the best.

Despite how brutal he can be, I wouldn't call him abusive. It's more like tough love.

He'll still hug me when I need one and tell me that he loves me. It's very bitter sweet.

It's been this way since I can remember.

My dad lunges forward and knocks me directly onto my back. f**k. I can't concentrate for a single second. I groan against the floor as my back muscles begin to spasm, I didn't even bother to warm up today.

He towers over me, blocking my eyes from the gleaming sun. "I don't know what the hell is going on with you, Ethan, but you need to sort it out."

There is no way I could tell him about Lucy. Not yet anyway.

Not that he's ever told me who I should be with, but because I know what he'll say and he's the last person I want nagging me about it. It's something I need to sort through by myself, in my own time.

My dad hasn't focused on me finding my mate like most parents do for their children, all he cares about is making me into a strong leader that will help the future Alpha. He wants his strong beta line to carry on and he wants me to lead as an example.

I've always feared letting him down.

Especially after all the effort he has put into training me, guiding me, supporting me. It's not like I even got a chance to decline the idea, it's set in stone what I'm destined to do and part of me is petrified because I don't think I'll ever be ready for it.

"I think I need to call it a day," I admit.

There is no point going on like this. It's just pathetic and I don't want my dad getting the wrong idea. I push myself up from the floor and stare into his eyes.

"Tomorrow," I heave out. "I'll be on form tomorrow."

He stands tall, at least three inches taller than me. We come from a family of giants and my dad has always looked like a warrior with his broad shoulders and black hair that has now started to grey. Despite his age, he's still one of the fittest and most determined in the pack.

This family means everything to him. He will live, die, breathe this pack until he has to depart and I admire him for his strengths at keeping us all together, even when times have become tough.

"Fine," he rasps. "Tomorrow nice and early. You're dismissed."

I bow my head and glance away before he changes his mind. I prowl through the woods back to the pack house, desperately needing to take a long hot bath and drown in anything that isn't my own thoughts.

As I walk through the back door and storm past the kitchen, I take one quick glance. I wish I didn't. My eyes latch onto Chris and his mate, Jada, laughing and kissing in the kitchen.

My stomach lurches at the sight of them.

Happy. They're so damn happy.

I am too happy for them but after everything that went down with Lucy, I can't help but feel jealous at how things played out. That meeting Lucy wasn't the walk in the park I thought it would be.

Chris rubs his nose against Jada’s and he kisses her again, deeply.

I sigh and rip my gaze away before I fizzle to nothing inside. Practically I feel like nothing inside because my heart has fallen from my chest and I am now without any feelings towards the matter.

When I get upstairs the first thing I do is run myself a bath and lock myself away.

No doubt Angel will be up soon to ask how I'm doing. She's been checking in an awful lot which I am grateful for but right now, I want to be alone.

Training with my dad doesn't take my mind off anything, it intensifies it because I can't focus on anything else but Lucy and those sapphire eyes with a hint of silver. Even when I close my eyes to sleep, I still see her in all her beauty.

I don't know how long I lay in the bath for but the water turns cold at some point and I realise I need to get out or I'll end up becoming part of the metal itself.

When I dry myself and get changed into something comfortable, I lay across my bed staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Hey. Are you there?”

Lucy’s voice floats into my mind and I curse to myself, turning on my side and wrapping my body up into a ball. I can't even deny that her voice makes me feel a certain way because it makes me feel like I am the only wolf to exist and that I am made for her.

I know that I am but inside I struggle with the idea. Not after knowing her past.

“Ethan”... she trails off quietly. “I don't know how to make this better.”

My lips purse painfully, squeezing my eyes shut. I want to block her out but I can't, I don't have the strength to right now.

“Please will you come and see me so that I can explain? Or I can come to you.”

I don't respond.

“If you come and see me once and you decide that you never want to see me again-“ she pauses as if the words are cutting straight through her heart. “Then I will respect your decision and stop mindlinking you. You can end it. But I'm just asking for one chance, one chance to explain. Please. Ple-“

“Alright.” I cut over her.

My eyes have begun to water because my wolf is shuddering at the sound of her perfect voice.

“Do you want me to come to you?”

And risk her meeting my father or anyone else for that matter? Absolutely not.

“I'll come to you. Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I'm busy right now.” I lie.

“Okay.” She then proceeds to tell me where she lives. “I'll be waiting for you.”

Nothing more is said and I roll onto my back again, digging my fingers into my eyes. Maybe this is what I need, closure.

Meet her again and decide that it's not going to work and we can both move on.

She asked for one chance and I'll give it to her.