Fate’s Design

Truth

Mason POV

I made sure the conversation stayed light during breakfast. We didn’t need to have Kelsey’s first pack appearance turn into a fight. But once we were done here, I was going to get some answers. That line about the bond was nonsense and she know it. Whatever she wasn’t telling me was big. I wasn’t surprised that the others had dropped it. Uncle Adrian and Uncle Rufus had the tact to not outright contradict my mate, and Seth wasn’t exactly talking. I considered using an Alpha command to break Kelsey’s, but I was curios to see how long it lasted. Eventually, Kelsey took pity on him herself.

“You can talk, Seth.” She said in an annoyed tone, as if he were just being quiet out of shyness. It was honestly a little funny. We definitely needed to have a talk about how she had used that particular skill for something so petty. Not to mention the existence of said skill to begin with.

‘Our mate is badass.’ Caspian said.

‘She’s reckless.’ I responded. ‘Wherever she got that power, she can’t abuse it like that.’

‘Yeah, yeah. But it was still cool.’

‘She might have less concern for protocol and propriety than even you, Cas.’

Caspian seemed to think that was a good thing. I tuned him out for the rest of breakfast.

Once everyone was done, I turned to Kelsey. “We’re going for a walk. We need to finish our conversation from last night.” It wasn’t a command per se… but it was as close to it as possible.

Thankfully, she didn’t argue. She let out a deep, annoyingly dramatic sigh, then said,

“Yeah, might as well get it over with.”

The other three exchanged uneasy looks, but they all knew better than to say anything.

“The rest of you, meet us in Dad’s office at 10. We’ll need to all be on the same page about the near future.” That seemed to bring some measure of assurance. I needed answers and a plan, but so did they.

I took Kelsey’s hand and led her outside. “I get impression you prefer the outdoors to modern conveniences. I have a place to show you.” He said.

Kelsey POV

I just nodded and let him lead me away. The feeling of my hand in his was not like anything else. I would have thought by now I had felt everything a guy could make me feel… but this was different.

He led me to a stream, which we followed to a waterfall. He glanced over at me with a little smirk, then we walked into the stream towards the waterfall. I was curious about whatever place he wanted to show me, so I just followed. When we stepped into the water, I closed my eyes for a moment. The cool water of the stream felt nice in the summer heat. When I opened my eyes, he was smiling at me with that dorky grin again.

“What?” I asked.

“You look happy.” He answered.

“It’s water.” I said.

He smirked. “So you like water. Good to know. Come on.” He said, pulling me towards the waterfall. I followed and he led me to a cave past the waterfall. It was insanely loud… but as he led me further in, it became quieter. And dark. Really dark. But before I could coment on that, he told me, “Sit here. I’ll have us some light in a moment.”

I did as I was told and cautiously sat down on what I could barely see as some sort of bench. True to his word, in moments, Mason had a torch lit. I raised an eyebrow.

“A bit old fashioned, isn’t it?” I asked, wondering why he didn’t just use a flashlight like a normal person.

“I thought you might appreciate a less electronic touch.” He said.

He was right. Not that I was gonna tell him that. T was not being helpful right now, either. ‘He is so romantic! The waterfall, the old fashioned touch. He’s tryna give us a proper date around this whole awkward conversation.’

I rolled my eyes at both of them.

With the torch lit, he took my hand again and led me deeper into the cave.

Mason POV

I couldn’t help a little smirk. I know she’d never admit it, but I could tell she was impressed, both by my forethought and the cave itself. It was a fairly large cave, if you didn’t mind a few tight spaces along the way between ‘rooms’. I led her to a large inner room where I had left some firewood and kindling, and a few simple supplies. I started a small bonfire with the torch, then put out the torch and set it aside for later.

“Seth and I found this place when we were pups. It’s been our hideout ever since. I thought you might like it.” I explained.

“Only you two know about this place?” She asked.

“Most of the pack doesn’t go past the waterfall. They know vaguely that something’s here, and every once in a while you’ll get some teens just past the waterfall. But I don’t know of anybody else that comes this far in.”

“So it’s like your own secret hideaway. Neat.” She said.

I smiled, but soon remembered what we were here to discuss. I say down and patted the spot next to me. I wasn’t surprised when she instead sat on the other side of the campfire.

“Kelsey… we really do need to talk.” I said after a moment. She looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt.

“How about we start easy. You said our forest was sick. What did you mean by that?” I asked.

“It’s not right. The trees… something’s wrong with them.” She said.

I studied her for a moment. “We’ve had some issues with root rot in the forest.” I said slowly, watching her reaction. “But it hasn’t gotten bad enough that you can see it from where we were. How did you know?” I asked.

She hesitated a moment, then shrugged. “I felt it. I feel what the earth feels.”

“You… ‘feel what the earth feels’? How?” It didn’t make sense, but I couldn’t deny that she had known something she couldn’t have normally known.

“I don’t know how. I just know that I do. Always have.” She sounded annoyed. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was asking questions or something else. I raised my hands, deciding to drop it for now.

“Ok, so you’re a tree whisperer. We’re working on it. We want to keep the forest healthy, don’t worry.” I told her. She looked skeptical, but mostly appeased for now.

“So… Alex… and the others.” I said, in a much more serious tone. “You said you had some pretty bad experiences that led to all that. I know you don’t want to talk about it. But, can you at least tell me if whoever hurt you is still out there?”

She looked up at me with a hardened expression that I rarely saw from anyone other than our more seasoned warriors. “No. They’re not.”

I had an uneasy feeling about her response, but I decided not to pry. They weren’t going to be a threat to my mate, so I would leave her to tell me in her own way and her own time.