Katherine's Fate

Chapter 18

I could feel Kate’s anger as if it was my own. Her blood was boiling; it didn’t surprise me when her eyes started glowing. She was confused and didn’t know how to fix it. She told me to fix her but she didn’t realize that she was not broken. As soon as I touched her I felt the fire start and then it turned into this warm tingle throughout my whole body. I would guess this is the mate bond settling in. I spoke into her mind, ‘Calm yourself, rely on my strength, count on me as no other, and believe that I will love and cherish you above my own life.’ I touched my forehead to hers as she opened her eyes. I saw her eyes widen as she realized that I hadn’t said the words out loud. We stayed like that for a few minutes before I stepped back but slid my hand down her arm to intertwine our hands together. 

She looked around and said, “Well are they still glowing?” Liam smiled and said, “No they aren’t. This is an interesting development, you know what we are, don’t you?” Kate went to say something but I said, “Yes I do. Just as you know exactly what me and my cousin are.” I made sure there was no room for argument. He simply nodded then did the last thing I expected him to do. He knelt before me and lowered his head in acknowledgement of me. As he did, so did Will and Chad, the only difference was that they put a hand across their chest in respect of who I was. Kate looked at me and said, “Just what are you? Why is it that everyone seems to know something I don’t?” I could see the frustration on her face and knew that the time was coming when I wouldn’t be able to delay telling her the truth. I just hope that she can accept it without it costing me everything. 

Liam, Will, and Chad all stood up and looked at Kate as Liam said, “You already know what we are, and you have known your whole life. I will not tell any others secrets, but what I will say is that we will all be here for you when you need us. Simply call upon us and you will have the support of the pack.” Kate looked at him and said, “Yes I know that already, you guys have always been there for me. Which reminds me, Chad everyone else has said their piece I called you in here so you can tell me how you feel about the situation.” She whirled around to look at me and said, “And don’t think you are getting out of telling me the truth. You owe me answers, and yes I know that right now is not the time for that. I can deal with that, but here very soon you are going to answer all of my questions without any hesitation, are we clear on that?” 

I felt a compulsion to obey her at the same time Chad whined a little and said, “I wish you had asked for help before now. We have missed you and I have been frantic about your safety. I’m sorry I have not been the person you needed and I’m even more sorry about failing Austin in this way by allowing you to be hurt. You are like my little sister, and I made a blood oath to Austin to protect you when he was gone. I don’t know how he knew but somehow he knew he wouldn’t make it to age 23. I just wish that you had more time with him then you did. You are still the princess here and no matter what happens between you and him,” He motioned to me, “You will always be part of this pack and have more power over us than anyone else, even Liam, our Alpha.” When he began to speak she turned to face him and said, “I didn’t even realize that you guys considered me a princess at all. It kinda made sense to me with how you guys always treated me, but I didn’t know the rest of it. But I do have a question about two things you said; first off what is a blood oath? Secondly, how did you fail Austin? It wasn’t your choice. I made my own decisions.” 

Chad looked down and said, “A blood oath is a pact made between brothers. It’s a pack thing babe; it is a type of thing we do when one is on their death bed. We promise to look after someone for the one that’s about to die. And I failed Austin when I didn’t get you out of that atrocity you call a relationship before now. I wanted to get you out the first time it happened but I was told no that you had to leave on your own. I’m surprised it took so long for it to happen, and that is why I failed both you and Austin.” Kate had a look of confusion on her face as she asked, “How did this blood oath work if Austin was not on his death bed? You were nowhere near us when he died.” 

Even as I noticed that Chad wanted to answer, Liam spoke first as he said, “I allowed for an exception.” Kate looked at him with unshed tears in her eyes as she said, “Why? What did you all know about my brother that I didn’t?” I felt for her so I spoke into her mind, “Kate calm down just let them explain. It is not doing any good for you to get upset again.” When she turned to face me I realized my mistake. She spoke in a very harsh tone as she said, “Don’t ever tell me to calm down when it comes to Austin. All three of these men knew something about my brother. MY brother. Yes I know he was pack and was basically a brother to all of you but he raised me. He was everything to me, EVERYTHING. How could you guys just do nothing? Why didn’t anyone tell me that he felt like he was going to die? I would’ve said why don’t we go to the movies or somewhere other than that stupid place.” The tears she had been holding back began to stream down her face.

 All three men got down on their knees and said, in Romanian, at the same time, “We implore your forgiveness and please don’t cry.” She looked at them and said, in Romanian, “Please stand up; I won’t have you kneel to me. I do not deserve that much, not when I’ve been acting like a petulant child. Stand my friends, my brothers.” They stood and all wrapped their arms around her to get her crying to stop. Once most of her sobs had stopped they stepped away and I had to resist the urge to move up to her and wrap my arms around her, just to make sure that she was ok. She must have caught that thought because she reached back to me and grabbed my hand. That little bit was enough to keep me calm. It amazed me that she would care about my feelings when we only just started hanging out together and she didn’t know me that well.