Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

I had just left Oswin and was heading home when a car started honking at me.

The road was fairly deserted, so hearing someone honk like that immediately scared me.

Thankfully, I was already far away from Oswin, so I knew it couldn’t be him.

I moved completely to the side of the road, thinking maybe I had somehow been blocking the way.

But the moment I stepped aside, I finally saw who was inside.

The brothers.

The Alpha King brothers.

They had probably spotted me and decided to honk to get my attention.

Theodore was behind the wheel, Ragnar, for once, sat in the passenger seat, and Jaguar was in the back.

”Oh. I thought it was some crazy kidnapper,” I uttered as the car stopped beside me.

Jaguar rolled down his window. ”Get in. We’ll drop you home.”

Theodore nodded in agreement, while Ragnar remained stiff in his seat, staring straight ahead.

”Um, okay. Thank you,” I replied, climbing into the back and settling directly behind Ragnar.

Honestly, it was better this way. All I could see was the back of his head and his shoulders.

”So, where were you? We didn’t know you’d gone out,” Theodore asked first.

”Yeah, I was feeling very...” I trailed off when I realized I couldn’t come up with a lie I would actually be able to back up.

There was only one thing I could do.

I shifted the conversation instead. ”I’m not sure why my wolf isn’t speaking to me so I came to the woods thinking that will prompt a transition.”

And just like that, I had found the perfect topic for the rest of the drive.

It would save us from an awkward silence and, more importantly, from anything that might make Ragnar’s ears perk up.

”It’ll take time,” Ragnar finally said.

The entire car fell silent.

”How is Gigi?” I asked Jaguar, turning in my seat toward him.

”She’s still upset with us. I mean, we don’t know how to comfort her. She’s upset because she didn’t get to see her brother one last time or speak to him before he fell into a coma,” Jaguar explained.

I nodded, realizing just how hypocritical Gigi was being.

When something similar happened to my brother, I hadn’t been given a chance to comfort him either.

He had been accused and punished without anyone even bothering to ask what he’d done or why he’d done it.

”And she’s acting so different. I’ve never seen Gigi act this way,” Theodore complained.

I noticed Ragnar reach for the rearview mirror and adjust it.

That was when I caught on.

His big-ass hand was impossible to ignore. He was trying to see my reaction.

What the fuck was wrong with this man? Could he, for once, not notice everything?

I quickly straightened in my seat.

”Could it be the wolfsbane?” I mumbled.

On the surface, I was trying to come up with excuses for Gigi’s behavior.

Deep down, though, I was pointing out the holes in her story.

Ever since O had told me not to trust Gigi and planted the possibility that she could be lying about Rocky too, I had started questioning everything.

Especially after realizing that what she accused Rocky of sounded disturbingly similar to what I had seen in the thumbnails of those videos they had made of my brother.

I had decided to look deeper into it with an open mind instead of immediately assuming Gigi was innocent.

She had been involved with Rocky when Jenna was being hurt, after all.

So, could Rocky have gotten angry with her and decided to hit her afterward?

That would still be wrong, of course, but I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Something was missing from her story.

”What was that?” Theodore asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

”Remember, she said Rocky had given her a lot of wolfsbane so her wolf wouldn’t come out and she wouldn’t transition to fight back? That’s why her wounds stayed. That’s why she still had all those injuries after eighteen days. Otherwise, she would’ve healed if she’d been able to transition.”

I continued before anyone could interrupt.

”And you know what happens when someone tries to control a werewolf. They want to make the wolf feel pain first. So maybe she was given wolfsbane repeatedly to torture her and stop her from transitioning or fighting back. Maybe it’s still affecting her ability to react normally to things.”

I had done my best to defend Gigi, but I noticed Ragnar shift in his seat.

”Oh, yeah. That could be it.” Jaguar snapped his fingers, then glanced toward Ragnar.

So Ragnar clearly had a problem with Gigi’s behavior too.

For the rest of the drive, no one spoke.

Ragnar had somehow managed to make the entire car uncomfortable without saying much at all.

But I knew why.

When I’d gone through Ragnar’s laptop, I’d found Gigi’s hospital reports.

They had run multiple tests when she was first brought in, and none of them had detected any drugs or other substances in her system.

There was no wolfsbane found in her system either.

The only thing they found was alcohol, and even that was in a very small amount, something she could easily have consumed on her own.

When we reached home, we all got out of the car in silence.

That was when I heard Ragnar speak.

”Theodore, come to my room. We have something to talk about.”

Goosebumps rose across my skin.

I expected it to be about Gigi, but that couldn’t be right.

Ragnar never shared anything about Gigi that quickly, so what could it possibly be?

Just as I was about to head inside, I turned around.

Theodore glanced at me briefly and smiled.

There was something strange in that smile. A kind of hope.

And that couldn’t be good.

At first, I went straight to my room.

But after a while, anxiety started creeping in. What could they possibly be talking about?

What was so important that Ragnar had called Theodore to his room so urgently?

Then I received a text from Theodore.

Theodore: Hey, if I get lucky with my brothers tonight, tomorrow we can finally tell everyone. We can officially start dating.

My heart sank.

So that was what they were talking about.

Me.

”Shit,” I cursed under my breath.

My hand started trembling as I typed a reply but couldn’t send it, the realization settling heavily in my chest.

Of course Ragnar had noticed. Of course he had figured something out.

What the hell was I supposed to do now?