Fates Entwined

67

“I’m now the alpha female and I belong with the Cancer pack. Adriana is still a Pisces and Aiden’s child. She always will be, and no one will ever take that away.” I clenched my fists. It shouldn’t have gotten to the point where Wesley threatened to make Adriana a Cancer, but he’d been angry in the moment. “But Adriana is also my child, and I will not let my child be taken away from me.”

I turned to look at the other alphas, trying to gauge their reactions. There still wasn’t any outright sympathy, but everyone seemed a little wary to jump to conclusions.

“I know that Ruth and Kevin are doing this out of grief. I understand because I feel that grief, too. I lost my mate and the father of my child, just like they lost their son. I have no intention of keeping Adriana away from the Pisces pack or from her grandparents. I would like to visit them as much as possible, and Ruth and Kevin are also welcome to come to the Cancer pack as well." Thinking of Aiden's death made me clench my fists as I added, "Isn't that what we fought the Sun Witches for? A chance for us to be united again—not packs fighting against each other, but living in harmony, sharing resources, working together. Adriana doesn't need to be a Pisces or a Cancer. She can be both."

With those words, I sat back down, and Wesley put his hand on my thigh and gave me a proud smile. I had no idea if what I said would get through to the other alphas, but I'd made my case as best as I could.

Ethan stood up again. "Thank you, Fisher and Mira, for showing us both sides of this issue. This is a matter we all needed to talk about, that goes beyond the Cancer and Pisces pack, and beyond this current conflict. Many of us have been discussing how families have been torn apart and recreated among the different packs because of the severing of the fake mate bonds and the emergence of new ones.”

I raised my eyebrows. It made sense, I supposed. Lots of people were under the fake mate bonds, and lots of them had decided to break them. Some of them had probably even lost their mates during the last battle, like I had.

“We need to decide how to handle this before we start fighting again,” Ethan said.

“Surely you don’t plan to take a child away from her mother,” Jordan said.

Madison, the Virgo alpha, cleared her throat. “That’s not going to happen."

“That isn’t the solution,” the Aries alpha said, frowning. “But it isn't right for a Pisces child to be raised away from her pack either. What separates her from being a Cancer then?”

The Sagittarius alpha rolled his eyes. “You’re thinking too black and white, as usual.”

The Aries alpha visibly bristled, and the tensions rose. A few other alphas started muttering, and to my right, Wesley tensed. I grabbed onto his hand as the arguing grew louder, and panic started rising inside of me. This was exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I was so sick of fighting, of having these conflicts, and of nothing ever being truly solved.

"Perhaps the Zodiac Wolves need to stop worrying so much about pack divisions," Clayton said, rising to his feet as he spoke for the Ophiuchus pack. "Mira's right. This is what our people fought and died for."

“I agree,” Wesley said. “It’s time for the packs to stop being so isolationist, and start being one united nation. Wasn’t that the whole point of breaking free of the Sun Witches? To prove that we weren’t the angry, rabid animals they thought we were? We need to encourage our people to travel between the packs. We need to start building alliances instead of starting wars.” Wesley looked over at Fisher. “The Cancer and Pisces packs used to be great allies, and I hope that can be true again now.”

"I agree," Ethan said. “If you think about it, very few people these days truly belong to one pack. They may have grown up in one but found their mate in another. Some have even moved to a third pack. But the thing that unites us is that we are all Zodiac Wolves.”

The Scorpio alpha piped up. “This is all good and wonderful, but the distance between the packs is a big problem. We can’t all teleport around like the Sun or Moon Witches. We’re so spread out, and I don’t see a way to resolve these problems until we can find a viable solution.”

I sat up straight as I remembered Larkin talking about the problems the Moon Witches were having with obtaining money. “I think I have an idea,” I said. “But I’ll need to talk to Larkin first.”

CHAPTER TEN

The ocean breeze whipped through my dark hair, drawing it back from my face as I turned to stare out at the sea. I smiled and closed my eyes briefly, soaking in the feeling of being back by the waters where I'd grown up. If I got to spend every day down here, I wasn’t sure if it would ever be enough.

The warmth in the air promised that spring was here, and today was beautiful and sunny, especially out on the beach. The breeze was still a bit chilly, but it definitely wasn’t cold enough to be off-putting to the Cancer pack, or the Pisces for that matter.

An excited shriek caught my attention. Adriana toddled unsteadily toward me on the beach, wearing a pink onesie with a big number one on it. I scooped her up and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.