Jane Wallace Knight The Wolves of Gardwich 2 Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

The Wolves of Gardwich 2

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

After learning that his brother is a vampire/angel hybrid, Kieran
O'Callaghan has some trouble adjusting to the new and strange

world he's being dragged in to. If it weren't for Joey, the werewolf
who has seemingly taken it upon himself to be Kieran's friend and
guide, Kieran wouldn't know how to handle it all.

Joey Taylor was born and raised in Australia by a deeply religious,
and prejudiced, pack of werewolves. Some people might think him

a little unusual, but Joey is nothing if not loyal. When he meets
Kieran, he instantly knows that the man is his fated mate. It

should be the best day of his life, only Kieran is completely
straight and just out of a long-term relationship. With Joey

resigned to the fact that he can only ever be Kieran's friend, and
Kieran determined to fight fate every step of the way, can they
find their way to each other before it's too late.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Paranormal,
Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 41,000 words

FATE IS A SERIES OF CHOICES

WE MAKE

The Wolves of Gardwich 2

Jane Wallace-Knight

EROTIC ROMANCE

MANLOVE

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IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make
Copyright © 2013 by Jane Wallace-Knight
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-565-2

First E-book Publication: October 2013

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Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

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DEDICATION

I want to thank everyone who bought, and championed, the first

book. I couldn’t have dreamed of such a wonderful response. Thank
you.

FATE IS A SERIES OF

CHOICES WE MAKE

The Wolves of Gardwich 2

JANE WALLACE-KNIGHT

Chapter One

The mother of pearl and silver carriage clock that sat on an old red

brick mantel in a three bedroom, semi-detached house in the suburbs
of a town called Gardwhich ticked off the seconds loudly in the
otherwise silent sitting room. Joey Taylor felt that the intrusive
ticking in his ears wasn’t a million miles away from a form of torture
he was once forced to endure. He sat as still as he could for as long as
he could, which was always something of a challenge for Joey, as he
and his alpha mate’s foster mother continued to stare at each other
from across the dimly lit lounge.

The annoying clock let Joey know that it was getting late, and that

what had been an undoubtedly awful day was quickly coming to an
end. Joey’s day had started with Sam, the foster son of the lady whose
house he currently sat in, using his freaky mind powers to knock Joey
unconscious, which was just embarrassing seeing as the kid had the
build and physical strength, of a runt. He didn’t hold it against Sam
though. Joey would have tried to stop the kid from going after the
psychopath who had kidnapped his foster mother. That was his job as
beta after all, protecting the pack. Thankfully, Sam had gotten there in
time to save Rita, though it hadn’t been without its consequences.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“So,” Joey began, finally cracking after a good five minutes

without either of them having said a word. “Crazy night, huh?”

Rita frowned at his question, the action defining the thin lines

around her tired-looking eyes. Her shaking hands still gripped hold of
the fine bone china cup and saucer. She had made it instinctively upon
arriving home, although the tea had long gone cold without her so
much as taking a single sip. Joey huffed the wavy, dirty-blond mop of
hair out of his brown eyes and studied the traumatized woman.

“You were a wolf,” she finally choked out, her voice raw from all

the screaming she had done earlier that night as she watched her
foster son bleed out. Joey had suggested she put a raw steak over her
bruised and swollen cheek when they had finally let themselves into
her rather small, but charming, home, but Rita hadn’t had one in her
refrigerator.

Thinking about steak reminded Joey that he hadn’t eaten since

breakfast. As a wolf it was unheard of for Joey to skip a single meal,
let alone two, in a day.

“You were a wolf,” Rita tried again, this time her voice was a

little sturdier. “And then you were a man.”

Joey nodded and crossed and uncrossed his legs, simply for

something to do. This whole playing babysitter thing, it wasn’t really
his area of expertise. Joey was the guy you called upon if you needed
someone to have your back in a fight, or to taste the cake you had just
baked. His pack mates claimed Joey fought like a wounded, starving
dog who had nothing left to lose, lashing out at anything and
everything that got close enough. When you went through the things
that Joey had gone through, you learnt to survive at whatever cost.

“Yes. Did you have questions?” he finally asked when it appeared

that she was going to leave the sentence hanging. He felt curious as to
why he had offered to take the old lady home. She had a faint
lingering scent on her that made him want to sniff out the source, a
distant scent of wild grass and burning cherry wood. Joey was also
known in his pack for having the best nose and while most wolves

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probably couldn’t smell the extra layer that clung to her clothes, as it
was so faint, Joey could.

“You’re a werewolf. You and Jackson and those other men,

you’re all werewolves. My son is in a three-way with a werewolf and
a…a…” She looked to him for help.

“Vampire,” Joey supplied helpfully. His alpha, Jackson, despite

his fifty-year-long relationship with Alek, his vampire partner, had
finally met his fated mate, Sam. Although there seemed to be a few
bumps in the road at the beginning the three of them appeared to be
making it work, at least they had until it all went to shit tonight.

Rita let out a choked sob and, taking pity on her, Joey slid off the

sofa and got on his knees beside her. He took the rattling china out of
her hand and placed it down on the ugly, coral pink carpet with the
faded swirl pattern. Being an Australian, Joey was well aware of how
important a woman’s china set was to her. It seemed that whether in
Australia or England, where the pack was currently living, the
tradition of making a cup of tea in a crisis was one that was ingrained.

“That man, the one who kidnapped me, he was a werewolf, too?”

she asked, her hands cold as Joey took them in his own. It was funny
really. He was never usually very good with people. In fact, most
people, and even wolves, found him a little odd, but he liked Sam so
he found himself wanting to offer his mum comfort. Besides, the
closer he was to her, the stronger that wonderful smell got. In fact,
Joey had been overwhelmed when he first walked into her home and
found the scent clinging faintly to most of the absorbent surfaces,
such as the sofa and the carpet.

“He was. He’s dead now, Alek killed him,” Joey told her with a

big smile, hoping that this would make her feel better. It certainly
made him feel better. He hated knowing that Ray had lived with the
pack for six months before any of them realised he was abusing his
young werewolf partner, Luka, lying to him that they were mates and
messing with the poor kid’s head. Finding a mate was the single most
wonderful thing that could ever happen to a werewolf, it was their

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

most sacred bond. He hoped that when Luka finally found his true
mate he could learn to trust enough to let the man, or woman, into his
heart.

“What did he want with my Sam?” she asked him imploringly.

“And where’s Sam now? The blond one, Alek, he made Sam drink his
blood. Will he be a vampire now, too?”

Joey bit the inside of his cheek while he tried to figure out how to

answer that. It really would have been better if one of the others had
taken the woman home instead of him, one of the women perhaps, but
at the time he had figured it would be better than being on clean-up
duty. The smell of a burning dead body tended to linger in your
nostrils for a while and with Joey’s keen senses it would be extra
unpleasant for him.

“Okay, first things first, Sam is going to be fine. He’s at home

resting,” Joey informed her. “To be honest, given that he’s already
part angel, we’re not really too sure if he can be changed into a
vampire, but either way, Alek’s blood should heal him.”

Rita gapped at him for a moment, clearly stunned, before standing

from her floral print arm chair and knocking Joey backwards a little in
the process. “He’s part what?”

Joey huffed his hair out of his eyes again. This was going to be a

long night. “Maybe I should make you another cup of tea.”

* * * *

Joey stood at the counter in Rita’s small kitchen, stirring some

milk into a cup of tea. He could never remember if the milk was
supposed to go in before or after the hot water, but then he supposed
with the state that Rita was in it wouldn’t really make much of a
difference, she would probably just let this one go cold as well. The
forceful woman was on her second cup of tea so far and in the middle
of another phone call with Jackson about how Sam was doing.
Jackson had told Joey he could come back to the manor if he liked, as

Jane Wallace-Knight

Rita’s other foster son, Kieran O’Callaghan, was on his way over, but
during the last few hours Joey had come to feel quite protective of the
tough, yet vulnerable, woman. In fact, she reminded him a bit of his
grandmother, a woman he hadn’t seen in nearly forty years. In a way,
Joey was glad she had died before she had a chance to see the weak
and timid woman her daughter had become.

Joey’s ears pricked up as he heard the sound of a key in a lock at

the front door. He quickly put the milk away in the refrigerator and
brought the cup of tea through to the living room. Several things
seemed to happen at once upon his entry, as the man who could only
be Kieran let himself into Rita’s home. Kieran rushed straight over to
his mother’s side, crouching down beside her chair, as Joey himself
had done earlier. The young man took Rita’s hand in his own and,
taking in Rita’s bruised face and swollen lip, asked, “What the hell
happened to you? Who did this?”

Joey was frozen on the spot, his eyes glued to the gorgeous man in

front of him. His nostrils flared as he took in lungful after lungful of
wild grass and burning cherry wood. This was his mate, the other half
of his soul, the one who was created just for him. Kieran was about
the same height as Joey, just reaching six foot, with black, neatly
trimmed hair and dark blue eyes like the ocean at night.

Joey remembered being a young cub and seeing all of the mated

pairs in his birth pack. He had grown up in the west of Australia, in a
small town near Perth. His pack was more like a commune than other
packs he had visited during his later travels, and deeply religious to
boot. They were kept pretty isolated from the rest of the world,
especially from the humans. At a certain age they would be sent off to
nearby packs in search of mates, but otherwise they stayed pretty
close to home. He remembered looking at all the mated pairs and
feeling like there was something wrong with him. He didn’t want to
find his mate if it meant he would be stuck with a girl for the rest of
his life. When he had told this to his father, the alpha of their pack,
the older man had just laughed and told him that would change when

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

he got older. His teenage years had been much, much worse though.
He developed a crush on one of the other boys and, during a moment
of weakness, confessed his feelings to his older brother, in hope of
guidance. What he got, however, was a severe beating and was
quickly sent off to a camp that promised to recondition him. After
several weeks in that awful place, Joey had escaped and never
returned home. Though he regretted that he would never again see his
family, particularly his little brother, who had only been a babe at the
time, Joey tried not to look back too much. He had spent many years
after that travelling the world, a lone wolf looking for adventure.
Finding Jackson and his makeshift pack of wolves had been like
coming home to Joey. Never in his life had he felt more like he
belonged. Now, with an open-minded pack behind him, he had finally
found his mate, and instead of feeling dread and fear, as he had once
believed he would, he felt warm and right.

“Are you the police?” Kieran suddenly asked him, turning to face

Joey and effectively bringing him out of his memories.

Not only could the werewolf not find the words to answer his

mate’s question but his hand also shook, the fine china teacup
slipping out of his hand. Joey watched in horror as the cup bounced
on the floor, amber liquid sloshing everywhere and soaking into the
coral-coloured carpet.

“Oh bugger,” he lamented before forcing a smile onto his face.

“Well at least the cup wasn’t broken, hey? And don’t worry about that
stain, you wouldn’t believe the bloodstains we get round our way.
Animal, human, octopus one time. We’ve got some really good
industrial strength, stain remover that gets rid of the lot.”

Joey became aware that Rita and Kieran were both staring at him

in that way that usually told him he had said something wrong. He
thought back over what he had said. Was it the octopus? he thought. It
was probably the octopus.

“Nothing weird or anything. A cooking mishap is all,” Joey

explained. “An interesting fact for you, octopus blood is blue.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

The two humans just continued to stare at him and Joey found

himself talking some more to try and fill the awkward silence. “They
also have nine brains. One in their head and one in each tentacle.”

“Sorry, but who are you?” Kieran finally asked again as he rose to

his feet and crossed his arms over his chest, making the muscles in his
forearms tense and distract Joey. Kieran had some nice muscles, not
those of a bodybuilder but those of a guy who liked to keep active.
His skin was quite pale, made to look more so by the darkness of his
hair. His arms were also coated in a fine, dark dusting of hair. Joey
swallowed as his jeans suddenly felt a little bit too tight.

“I’m Joey, like the baby kangaroo. And yes it was cruel for my

mum to name me Joey when we lived in a country overrun with the
little bastards,” Joey babbled. “And I’m not a copper, I’m a friend of
Sam’s, sort of.”

“Sam? Is he okay? Will someone tell me what the hell is going on

please?” Kieran demanded frantically as he looked once again to his
foster mother for answers.

While Rita filled Kieran in on the night’s events, Joey escaped

back into the kitchen to fetch some paper towels for the tea soaked
carpet. He couldn’t stand there watching his mate’s face as he learned
from Rita what Joey really was. He didn’t think he could bear it if
Kieran looked afraid of him, or worse, disgusted. He couldn’t believe
that he had finally met his mate and he had blathered on like an idiot.
He felt like his heart was racing and he wanted to laugh he felt so
giddy.

He took a guess and opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink,

finding a bucket and some carpet cleaner inside. It wasn’t as good as
the industrial stuff they had back at the manor but it would do in a
pinch. Besides, Joey had put rather a lot of milk in Rita’s tea so he
was sure Rita’s commercial carpet cleaner would do the job.

He stood at the sink, waiting while the bucket filled up with hot

water. Joey was never one to read instructions, he much preferred to

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

figure things out for himself, so he just opened the bottle and after a
little trial and error, poured a good amount of the gloopy liquid in.

“Damn safety caps,” he muttered to himself.
“Listen, I don’t know who you are or why you’re here but my

mum seems to think that you’re a werewolf and that my brother is an
angel. She’s clearly having some sort of breakdown,” Kieran insisted,
suddenly, from the kitchen doorway.

Joey had been focused on his actions and so hadn’t heard Kieran

come in, so he startled at the sudden noise and sloshed hot water over
his hand. Joey hissed and reached for a cloth to dry himself before he
turned to face his mate. He leaned against the counter while he waited
for Kieran to continue talking and took a good long look at the man
destiny had chosen for him. Kieran looked so perfect to Joey’s eyes,
just like a mate was supposed to. His eyes were such a deep blue and
they sparkled like a precious jewel. Joey felt a funny flip flop
sensation in his stomach as he looked into them. It was similar to
eating a lot of junk food before riding the Tilt-A-Whirl at the fair,
except better because he didn’t feel like he was going to be sick. Joey
smiled at the thought and became aware that Kieran was just staring
back at him, his eyebrows raised in question.

“Well?” Kieran prompted. “Who are you?”
Taking a deep breath, Joey left the bucket of carpet cleaner in the

sink and walked over to the back door. “I’m exactly who your mum
says I am. Come with me and I can show you.”

Joey didn’t look back or wait to see if Kieran was following him,

he simply slipped out the door, leaving it open as he made his way out
into the night. He wandered to the middle of the small garden,
deciding it was as good a place as any as there were trees blocking
both of Rita’s neighbours’ views, and began unfastening his jeans.

“Look, mate, maybe you should just leave, yeah?” Kieran

suggested as he came to join Joey outside. He couldn’t possibly know
what it did to Joey, hearing Kieran refer to him as mate, even though
Joey knew Kieran meant it as no more than a throwaway term for

Jane Wallace-Knight

friend. “I don’t know what’s going on, or why you’re here, but I think
it would be best if you go.”

Joey stripped off the rest of his clothes, unusually nervous that his

mate was going to see him naked for the first time. Most werewolves
grew up without ever learning about modesty. It seemed to Joey that
he had seen every single member of his pack naked at some point or
another. This was different, though, this was the one person fate had
chosen to be perfect for him, to be his other half, and he wanted
Kieran to like what he saw. Joey allowed himself to smile at Kieran
reassuringly before he dropped to all fours.

“I won’t hurt you,” Joey promised. “I would rather cut off my left

testicle than ever hurt you, okay?”

Kieran took a few steps back from him and Joey knew his mate

was about to make a run for it, so he bit the bullet and let the change
take him over.

* * * *

Kieran O’Callaghan’s night had not started out so good, so he

guessed he shouldn’t be surprised that it had only gotten worse as the
night wore on. After another intense argument with his girlfriend,
Amy, over how many hours he spent playing video games, Kieran had
agreed to take her out to dinner to make it up to her. They hadn’t been
living together all that long, just six months or so, and it seemed that
he ended up staying at his foster brother’s flat more often than not
after yet another fight about some seemingly unimportant shit. They
had even broken up a couple of times, most recently a month ago, but
they seemed to have a nasty habit of falling back into each other’s
arms. Amy was the first serious girlfriend Kieran had ever had, the
first woman he had ever loved, and sometimes he wondered if it was
fear of the unknown that kept them together. How did he know if he
would ever love anyone else the way he loved her? He knew that they
were young, both being just twenty-four, but how was he supposed to

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

know if he was with the one? Kieran didn’t want to lose her for good
only to realise that he would never love again.

He had really tried to make an effort with Amy tonight, he had

booked a table at the restaurant she had been talking about the day
before, thinking it would score him some serious points and maybe
even get him laid later. Except, that when they got to the place, Amy
had furiously pointed out that the only reason she had been talking
about the restaurant was because they were rated last in an article
about the best places to eat in the local paper.

This had been yet more proof to Amy that Kieran never listened to

her and that he had been too focused on shooting aliens in his video
game to pay her any attention. She had refused to eat there so in the
end they wound up driving to the hotel where Kieran’s brother, Sam,
worked, knowing that the food there was always good. Unfortunately,
just as they had sat down at an intimate table for two, Kieran got a
phone call from Rita, asking him to come home at once as there had
been an emergency. Rather than being understanding and offering to
come with him to make sure his mum was all right, Amy had kicked
off, claiming that he always put his mum and brother before her. They
had stood out in the parking lot for a good ten minutes arguing about
yet more seemingly unimportant shit. Finally, Amy had started
crying, which always made Kieran feel bad whether he had done
anything wrong or not. She told him that she couldn’t deal with being
second best with him anymore, dumped him, and left. Since moving
in together, they had broken up more times that Kieran could
remember, perhaps it was time to face facts.

On the short drive over to Rita’s house, Kieran’s mind had

conjured up all manner of horrible things that could have happened to
his family. Practically every scenario imaginable had crossed his
mind. Well, almost every scenario.

That was how Kieran’s evening had gone so far. He had argued

with his girlfriend and been dumped, yet again, and now he was

Jane Wallace-Knight

watching a muscley, naked, Aussie bloke get down on all fours in his
foster mum’s back garden.

“Listen, mate, I don’t want to have to call the police, okay? I just

want you to go,” Kieran told him as he slowly inched backwards
towards the kitchen door. If he could run back inside and lock the
door then he could perhaps finally get some sense out of Rita about
what had really happened to her. It was almost like the crazy that had
infected Rita was catching. Just as he had made his mind up to make a
run for it back to the house, the man in front of him started to change.
It all happened very quickly and it was almost like Kieran’s brain
refused to believe his eyes. Joey had, in seemingly the blink of an eye,
morphed from a naked man on all fours to a pretty humongous,
sandy-coloured wolf.

“Holy fuck,” Kieran breathed. He felt as though he was unable to

move and strangely, he didn’t feel the need to. His instincts weren’t
telling him to run or to shout for help, they only told him that he was
perfectly safe, which in itself was weird. “Rita’s not had a breakdown,
which means that Sam’s actually part angel?”

The wolf nodded his large head once and Kieran let out a near

hysterical laugh. Suddenly his legs felt very heavy and tired and he
quickly sat down on the slightly damp grass before they could give
out. He watched, almost as though he were watching a movie where it
was all happening to somebody else, as the wolf slowly stalked
toward him before sitting down beside him. Impulsively Kieran
tentatively reached out his hand and scratched the wolf behind the ear,
like he would do with a dog. Joey groaned and leaned into the touch,
his tongue lolling out of his panting mouth. Despite the extremely
strange and stressful night Kieran had endured thus far, he felt a sense
of calm go through him, and for the first time since leaving his flat
that night, he felt relaxed.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Two

“Ow, you bastard,” Joey swore as he brought his hammer down

on top of his thumb for the second time that morning. It had been a
few days since Sam had woken from his transformation from human
to vampire and Jackson had yet to leave his side, which meant that
Joey and Billy, as betas of the pack, had to take over where their
construction business was concerned. They had so far been working
solely on the manor and the surrounding pack buildings, making them
liveable for the pack, which had the added effect of advertising their
business to their new area. Their first client was a middle-aged
divorcee who watched them from her window as they built her a new
conservatory on the side of her kitchen. Although the lady had at first
looked disappointed to find out that Jackson wouldn’t be joining
them, she soon perked up once the men got to work. As a gay man,
Joey could look at Billy, and Billy’s oldest son, Jason, and see what
the woman saw in them. Though the father and son looked more like
brothers, and to the rest of the world that’s what they pretended to be,
there was no denying they were both extremely good-looking guys.
Not that Joey could ever fancy them. They were far too much like
family to him.

Joey put his sore thumb in his mouth, as though he could

somehow suck away the pain. He had considered taking his shirt off
to give the paying customer a real treat, but as it was January she
probably would have just thought he was crazy. Joey certainly did
love to be ogled. It didn’t matter to him who was looking, as long as
someone was.

Jane Wallace-Knight

“What’s with you?” Billy asked him as he continued laying the

framework. “That’s the second time you’ve gotten distracted like that
today.”

“I think he’s in love,” Jason piped up in his smooth Texan drawl.

He was moving glass panels from the truck and stacking them on the
tarp they had placed down on the grass. “I think he’s finally gone and
fallen in love.”

Joey contemplated throwing his hammer at the kid but there was

too much glass lying about and Jason’s dad probably wouldn’t be
happy about it. “Shut it, junior.”

“Come on, seriously,” Billy said, crouching down beside him.

“What’s wrong? Talk to Uncle Billy.”

“You know it’s creepy when you call yourself that, right?” Joey

asked, cringing at his old friend. Along with another wolf, Davis, the
two of them were Jackson’s right-hand men and as such they had all
grown close over the years. Typically it was fathers, sons, brothers,
and cousins who held the position of the pack’s inner circle, but as
their pack was made up of mostly strays, they were as close as it got.

Billy just gave Joey an impatient look and Joey huffed in defeat

before placing his hammer down on the ground. “It’s Sam’s brother,
Kieran. I met him when I took their mum home that night.”

Billy nodded and when Jason went to make a lewd remark, gave

him a gentle shove to be quiet. “Go on.”

“He’s my mate,” Joey confessed quietly. He looked over at the

window and saw that the woman was still attempting to watch them
covertly. He quickly picked his hammer back up so that it looked like
he was actually doing some work.

“Shit, man, I thought your head was all messed up ’cos of some

dude you were screwing around with,” Jason confessed. “But you’ve
found your mate. That’s awesome, right?”

“Yeah, of course it is,” Joey replied quickly. “Only, he’s not a

wolf, so he has no idea what we are to each other.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Billy whistled and shook his head. “Yeah, that must be rough.

Isabelle and I knew at first sight. The night we met I claimed her and
she came to live with me and the pack the very next day.”

“I’m going to puke if you mention claiming my mom again,”

Jason said with a grimace. Billy tapped his eldest lightly on the back
of the head.

“Stop complaining or I’ll tell you about the nights you and your

three brothers were conceived,” Billy threatened.

Jason quickly stuck his fingers in his ears and hurried back over to

the truck, to get more glass panels, saying, “La la la la la la.”

Billy and Joey both laughed at the younger wolf’s actions and

Joey felt his heart lighten a bit. “That always gets rid of him,” Billy
told his friend with a wicked smile.

“It gets worse,” Joey confessed. “He’s straight. He only just split

up from his girlfriend. The night we met, after I changed back from
my wolf, he told me all about her and how the two of them always
end up back together.”

Billy clasped him on the shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze.

“We both know that doesn’t mean anything, not when he’s your mate.
The mate pull is too strong to resist. It doesn’t matter if he’s gay,
straight, or asexual, if he’s your mate then he’s going to want to be
near you.”

Joey nodded thoughtfully and felt his heart flare up with hope. “I

guess I just have to bide my time and not give up.”

“Atta boy,” Billy told him, giving him a quick swat on the behind

before getting back to his work. “How about we hit a bar tonight? We
can have a few beers, play some pool, eat delicious, greasy bar food
and not talk about your love life.”

“I can’t tonight,” Joey told him, looking a little sheepish. “I said

I’d go see Rita and Kieran to give them a progress report on Sam.”

Billy gave him a knowing smirk. “Sure, buddy. Rain check?”
“Absolutely,” Joey promised. Before he could say anything more

his phone began to ring. He slipped it out of his pocket and looked at

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the screen, smiling warmly as Kieran’s name flashed up. “It’s
Kieran.”

“He’s calling you already? See, the mate pull. What did I tell

you?” Billy told him with a friendly smile as he moved away to give
Joey some privacy.

Joey coughed to clear his throat before answering his phone. He

would never admit it to anyone else but he was feeling a little
nervous. He had given Kieran his number in case the young man
needed to talk to someone about the revelation that he was living in a
world inhabited by werewolves and vampires. Although Joey already
missed his mate and had longed to hear his voice, he hadn’t actually
thought that Kieran would call him, especially as he was seeing him
that night.

“Hello?”

* * * *

“Oh, um, hi,” Kieran stuttered into the phone, feeling like a total

prat. “It’s Kieran, Sam’s brother. We met the other night?”

There was a gentle chuckle down the phone and Kieran felt

himself relaxing. “Yes, Kieran, I remember you.”

Kieran sighed in relief and slumped down in his chair. Everyone

else in the office had gone out to lunch already so Kieran was on his
own. His colleagues had wanted him to go across the road to the pub
to eat lunch with them but Kieran didn’t think talking on the phone to
a man about werewolves and vampires would go down well in front
of them, so he opted to stay behind.

The office wasn’t a large one, as there were only twenty people

who worked there. They occupied the third floor of a five story
building and it was pretty much all wall-to-wall gray, filled with
cheap, standard-issue, metal desks. Kieran had worked for the
graphics design company since he got out of college two years ago
and he was still at the same desk, in the corner of the office, that faced

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

a pitiful looking fake plant someone had brought to work in an effort
to brighten up the dreary space. Kieran had named the thing Bob and
every morning when he sat down at his desk he would nod and say,
“Morning, Bob.”

He needed to get out more.
“Kieran?” Joey pressed.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. Um, I hope it’s okay that I called you,” Kieran

said as he fiddled with a pen on his desk. “It’s just, I guess I needed to
talk to someone about what happened and you said I could talk to you
if I needed to.”

“Of course it’s okay, you can call me anytime,” Joey assured him.

“So what specifically did you want to talk about?”

“Oh you know, the part where you’re a werewolf,” Kieran said,

trying to sound breezy.

Joey chuckled again and once more it made Kieran smile. Joey

had a good laugh, it was carefree and easy and it had a wonderful
calming effect on Kieran.

“Look, I get that you’re a werewolf but I don’t really know

anything about it, I mean other than what they put in films,” Kieran
told him. “So I have some questions if you’re not too busy.”

“I’ll always make time for you, Kieran,” Joey insisted seriously.
“Um, thanks,” Kieran replied, unsure of how to respond to that.

He guessed that Joey was being so patient with him because he was
the brother of Joey’s alpha’s mate. “Okay, so the full moon, does that
make you change into a wolf?”

“No,” Joey answered. “Only the very first time we change.

Though we usually do like to change on the night of a full moon. We
often make a night of it as a pack, because the moon makes us feel
like we want to change, though we can fight it easily enough if we
wanted to.”

“So you can fight it but you don’t because it feels good?” Kieran

asked.

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“Exactly, it’s like being drunk on life. This feels kind of like

doing a quick-fire round on a game show,” Joey told him with a
laugh. “Next question.”

Kieran laughed, too, and tried to remember all the questions that

had gone through his head on a loop last night as he had laid in bed
alone in Sam’s empty flat. “Can silver hurt you?”

“Yes.”
“Really?” Kieran asked with a frown as he sat forward in his

chair. He quickly thought about the silver watch he had bought
himself as a treat when he got his Christmas bonus last month and
made a note to never wear it around Joey. He couldn’t bear the
thought of accidentally hurting the man.

“Yes, but only if it touches an open wound, or pierces the skin.

Our blood is seemingly allergic to it, but not our skin,” Joey told him.

“Huh. Okay then,” Kieran mused. “Are you still you when you’re

a wolf? I mean do you think like you?”

“Yes and no,” Joey answered cryptically. “I’m still me, like the

other night after I changed, I still knew who you were and I can think
like me, but my instincts and desires become more wolf-like. I mean,
as a man, I don’t usually see a rabbit and have the urge to chase it, but
I do as a wolf.”

Kieran shook his head at the absurdity of their conversation. Last

week his life had been so ordinary and now he was talking to a
werewolf on the phone.

“Did you have any other questions?” Joey asked him patiently.
Kieran tried to remember but he couldn’t think of any more

questions. He didn’t want to stop talking to Joey yet though, so he
quickly leaned forward and brought up a search engine on his
computer. Placing his phone between his ear and his shoulder, he
typed in Werewolf myths and selected the first page that came up.

Reading the very first question he said, “Um, if I’m being chased

by a werewolf will it help if I climb up an ash tree or run into a field
of rye?” he asked, only realising how ludicrous that sounded as he

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

was saying it. He cringed as he waited for an answer. Joey was going
to think he was an idiot.

Joey, however, just laughed. “Where the hell did you get that idea

from?”

Kieran laughed along with him, still feeling like a total tool. He

switched his phone to his other ear and leaned back in his chair. “I
don’t know, I just looked it up on the Internet and that was the first
question someone asked.”

Joey only laughed harder and Kieran figured it was okay that he

seemed like an idiot, as long as it made Joey laugh.

“The Internet is a dangerous and scary place at times,” Joey told

him once he had stopped laughing. “I can’t be certain as I’ve never
heard of it, but I’m pretty sure that one’s not real.”

“That’s good,” Kieran told him. “Because I don’t think we have

any rye fields around here.”

Joey chuckled again. “Listen, if you’re done asking me questions,

I’ve got one for you.”

Kieran sat up straighter in his chair, feeling a little nervous at what

Joey’s question might be. “Okay, sure.”

“Your name, Kieran O’Callaghan. That sounds pretty Irish for an

English bloke,” Joey commented, making Kieran smile in relief. For a
moment there he thought that maybe Joey was going to ask him to do
something for him, something supernatural in nature. Although he
was comfortable talking to Joey, he felt like he had to take baby steps
as he ventured into this new and strange world that was opening up to
him.

“Yeah, my dad was Irish,” he told him quickly, not really wanting

to go into too much detail about his family just yet. He thought that he
should probably let Joey go, and get on with some work himself, so
he reluctantly said good-bye. “Listen, I’ll see you at Rita’s tonight,
right?”

“You will,” Joey answered with a smile in his voice. “I’ll see you

then.”

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“Yeah, bye.” Kieran hung up with a small smile. It would be good

to see Joey again, it would certainly beat sitting in Sam’s flat by
himself wondering if he was just fighting the inevitable by leaving
most of his stuff at Amy’s rather than moving out for good. This was
perhaps the fourth time they had split up over the last year. Really, it
should have been enough of a sign to stop them moving in together at
all, but it was easier to lie to yourself, sometimes, than to face the
truth.

He sighed, rubbed his hand over his face, and looked over at the

rubber plant. “Sorry, Bob, I’ve made a new friend. You no longer
rank as my second best friend anymore.”

Yeah, Kieran definitely needed to get out more.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Three

Over the two weeks that had followed Kieran and Joey’s first

meeting, Joey had acted like a liaison of sorts between Kieran’s
family and the wolf pack. He had been over at Rita’s house nearly
every other day with progress reports on Sam and had happily
answered any questions that Kieran asked. After their first phone
conversation it quickly became a daily occurrence for them to talk.
Kieran wasn’t usually this desperate when it came to making new
friends, but he found himself trying to think up questions to ask Joey,
just so he would have an excuse to call him. He was sure that Joey
must be fed up with him by now, calling at least once a day with
questions that randomly popped into his head.

“Could you turn into a wolf when you were a baby? Because a

baby wolf, now that would be pretty damn cute,” Kieran asked Joey
down the phone as he walked the short distance from the football club
to Rita’s house. It was a Sunday morning, exactly two weeks since his
foster brother had been turned into a vampire, and this was going to
be the first time either he or Rita had seen Sam since. It had been a
rough two weeks, that’s for sure. In that time, Kieran had talked to
Amy a couple of times on the phone but no resolution had been made
between them. They had started their conversations well, admitting
that they missed each other, but it had, as always, ended in them
arguing. He was lucky that Sam’s lease was paid up until the end of
the month, even though Sam no longer lived there. Some of Sam’s
things were still at the flat and Kieran found their presence a comfort.
It did make him feel as though he had a deadline though, a countdown
to when he and Amy needed to decide once and for all if they were

Jane Wallace-Knight

going to try again. Did he move back in with Amy and give it another
try, or did he sign the lease for another six months and move in to
Sam’s permanently?

Kieran forced the thought of Amy out of his mind and focused on

the here and now. He had woken up and been so nervous about seeing
his brother again that he had gone to his usual Sunday morning five-a-
side football match in an effort to work off some his nervous energy
on the pitch, but it hadn’t really worked.

“Aren’t you on your way over? Sam, Jackson, and Alek are

already here,” Joey told him.

“Yeah,” Kieran answered. “I’m just round the corner. It’s just, I

guess I’m a little nervous and I thought that talking to you might
help.”

Joey was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “No, we

don’t turn into wolves until we reach puberty. No baby werecubs
running around I’m afraid.”

Kieran smiled as the now-familiar voice soothed him. Over the

last two weeks they had seen each other several times and talked on
the phone even more. He didn’t know what it was about his new
friend, but he always felt better when Joey was around. It was strange
really, given how Kieran didn’t usually trust people all that easily. It
typically took a casual acquaintance months before they got bumped
up to friend status, and Joey already held the title of good friend in
Kieran’s life. Kieran kept telling himself that if Joey was a good guy,
then Jackson probably was, too, which meant that his sweet, too-kind,
and too-loving little brother was going to be just fine. He had always
been protective of Sam, from the frightened little boy he had been
when they first met as teenagers, to the playful and kind young man
he had grown into. He remembered the fights he had started with all
those who had bullied Sam in the past and Sam sobbing in the night
from the fact that he was so different. Now they had a name for that
difference, Sam’s father had been an angel. It was too much for
Kieran to get his head around. Having a werewolf friend was one

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

thing, but having his little brother be an angel-vampire hybrid was
something else entirely.

He stopped as he reached his destination, his hand fiddling with

his key. “How is he? I mean, I know you keep saying that he’s fine
and that he had to stay away for our own good, but I mean, how is he?
Is he still him?”

He heard Joey sigh before saying exactly what Kieran needed to

hear. “He’s your little brother. He’s been through a lot and he needs
you right now. So get your arse in here.”

Kieran pressed the “end call” button on his phone and took a deep

breath before opening the front door. There was a small hallway
between the front door and the door to the sitting room, but it was
open and straight away Kieran could see Joey sitting in Kieran’s
favourite arm chair. He shrugged out of his coat, hung it over the
banister, and walked into the familiar room. It seemed so strange to
have supposedly mythical creatures in his foster mum’s sitting room
of all places.

“Hi,” he said, uncharacteristically quiet for him. Rita was busy

pacing up and down in front of a chagrined-looking Sam, who
glanced up at his big brother’s arrival and offered him a small and
hopeful smile. The smile would have usually helped to calm Kieran’s
nerves, only he could see the fang teeth that hung down a little lower
than before and he felt himself go cold. Sam was sandwiched between
two men, whom Kieran assumed were Jackson and Alek, so Kieran
went to sit on the arm of the chair where Joey was.

Almost subconsciously, Kieran moved closer to his new friend as

he studied the differences that he could now see in Sam. His brother’s
skin, already pale, was now alabaster and his eyes were brighter and
lighter in colour. Those eyes held a look of genuine fear in them as
they traced Rita’s every movement, still pacing as she was.

For a woman in her sixties Rita certainly had some stamina, and

she looked to Kieran as though she were gearing up for a fight. He
had once taken Sam out drinking with him in what used to be an

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abandoned private forest, but was now owned by the wolf pack. Rita
had found out about it and had paced, like she was doing now, for a
good ten minutes before finally letting them have it. They had both
agreed that the waiting was far worse than any punishment she could
have dished out. Both of Sam’s men were pretty big guys but they
were both hunched down, their eyes glued to the floor rather than
daring to meet Rita’s occasional intimidating glare.

“Two weeks,” Rita finally yelled as she came to a halt right in

front of them. “You put me through hell with worry for two weeks. I
haven’t heard from you, haven’t seen you. You could have been lying
dead somewhere for all I knew.”

Kieran resisted rolling his eyes at that statement. They all knew

perfectly well that Jackson had called her a few times before
seemingly chickening out and having Joey do all his dirty work for
him. Rita was intimidating to everyone it seemed, even big, bad, alpha
werewolves. Kieran saw his little brother smirk at Rita’s drama queen
act and quickly turn his head away in hope that she wouldn’t notice it.

“Oh you think this is funny, do you?” she asked Sam, her hands

going to her plump hips in a familiar manner.

“Look I’m sorry, okay. It’s not like I did it on purpose,” Sam

insisted. Kieran noticed straight away that his brother’s voice was a
little different, too, softer and more melodic. “I was asleep for the first
day or two and then apparently I would have wanted to attack you and
drink your blood afterwards. If it makes you feel any better, you two
are the first humans I’ve seen since my transformation. As soon as we
realized I could probably be in a room with you, without wanting to
kill and eat you, we came straight here.”

Sam looked up at her with his patented puppy dog eyes. That look

had gotten Sam out of trouble so many times when they were kids. He
was always so good at it that if Kieran had ever wanted something he
would always convince Sam to ask for it instead. His brother’s choice
of words had Kieran leaning forward a little, looking at Sam, and for
the first time meeting his eyes.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“I’m sorry. Probably? You came here on a probability that you

wouldn’t kill and eat us?” Kieran finally piped up. “If you were a
betting man what odds would you actually put on that happening?”

Sam rolled his eyes and sat forward with his arms on his knees

making Kieran flinch back further against Joey. “Oh calm down, you
big girl. If, on the very unlikely chance I went for you or Rita, then
Alek and Jackson are both under strict orders to do whatever it takes
to stop me.”

Kieran and Sam held eye contact for a moment before the

ludicrousness of the situation hit Kieran and he felt his lips start to
twitch. They both burst out laughing at the absolute absurdity of the
topic of conversation. Kieran watched as his brother giggled, just like
he had always done when they were younger, and felt as though all
the tension in his body had suddenly been drained out.

“Fuck me, Sammy. You’re a sodding vampire, an actual

vampire,” Kieran laughed somewhat hysterically. He looked over at
Joey and found his new friend grinning at him, which just made him
laugh even harder. Joey joined in with their near-manic laughter while
Rita, Alek and Jackson all looked at them like they had a collective
screw loose.

“Yep, and don’t forget the part where I’m also part angel and that

when I get overexcited big, white, fluffy wings sprout out from my
back,” Sam reminded Kieran which just made him laugh even harder.

“Knock it off,” Rita suddenly scolded them, while Alek and

Jackson both looked on silently. “And stop swearing.”

Kieran let out a deep calming breath and nodded. “Sorry, Rita.”
“Sorry, Rita,” Sam mimicked, drawing her gaze back to him. “Not

for swearing, for the other thing.”

Kieran saw Rita’s eyes soften a bit as she studied Sam’s face. He

had always been a pretty boy, had actually looked like a girl until the
latter half of his teens, but now as a vampire he was beautiful. Kieran
realised it sounded a little gay to think a man was beautiful, but he
was sure it didn’t count when it was your brother.

Jane Wallace-Knight

“The other thing?” Rita asked. “You mean the fact that you’re in a

relationship with two men? Or the fact that I was kidnapped and held
hostage? Or perhaps it’s for the fact that I spent two hours making
you your favourite nut loaf only to have you tell me that you can’t eat
it.”

Jackson and Alek looked at her in astonishment, while Joey

simply snickered beside Kieran. “Your nut loaf?” Alek asked in his
faintly Russian accent. “How can that even be on a list with
kidnappings and threesomes? Besides what did you think it meant
when we told you he had become a vampire?”

“Well I don’t know, do I? They can eat food on that vampire show

with the two brothers,” was Rita’s retort, which Kieran could tell she
believed sounded like a valid point.

“No food, only blood,” Sam told her. He was watching her face

carefully as though looking for signs of disgust or fear. “I’m still me,
just physically different.”

Rita nodded thoughtfully and smiled before reaching down to cup

his cheek. Kieran froze as he watched them. He had trouble
reconciling the fact that Joey had warned them Sam would need time
before seeing them in case his thirst for blood was too strong, with the
sweet little boy he could see sitting in front of him. It was funny
really, if ever there was someone you could describe as being an
absolute angel, it was Sam.

“Well don’t expect me to eat your nut loaf, mum,” Kieran told

her. “And I don’t think the two werewolves will want any either.”

She turned and gave him a familiar, reproachful look, making him

smile. All of a sudden a funny thought came to him, about how Sam
had always been a vegetarian, and he snorted loudly. “Sorry, but let
me guess, Sam wouldn’t eat animals when he was human, but now
he’s fine with drinking blood from humans.”

Sam stuck his tongue out at Kieran, much as he had when they

were kids. “Humans don’t have to die to give me blood like animals
have to die to feed you, and besides I haven’t actually tried that yet.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Tried what, human blood?” Kieran asked. Surprisingly he didn’t

feel grossed out by the thought, merely curious.

Sam shrugged and looked over at Alek. “I’ve drunk human blood

from a blood bag but not from a vein.”

Now Kieran did feel grossed out, in fact he felt like he might be

sick. He thought it was the word vein that did it as it reminded him of
having a needle jabbed into his own, something he hated with a
passion. “Do you steal blood from hospitals?” he asked, appalled by
the idea.

“No we don’t. There are people willing to sell their blood to our

kind,” Alek informed him casually. “There are even those willing to
sell it to us straight from the source.”

Rita had apparently heard enough as she quickly made her way to

the adjoining kitchen, shaking her head as she went.

“What, like blood hookers?” Kieran asked.
Something happened then, very quickly, too quick for Kieran’s

human senses to really register. Kieran didn’t know why, but all of a
sudden, and without saying a word, Sam jumped to his feet and ran to
the kitchen faster than Kieran’s human eyes could follow. He leapt up
and ran after his brother, wondering what had happened and trying
not to be freaked out by how fast Sam could move now. He reached
the kitchen in time to see Rita with her hand over her mouth as the
bowl she had just dropped floated effortlessly in the air. Sam had
seemingly stopped it with his power of telekinesis just before it hit the
floor, and was now floating it back up onto the counter.

Rita slowly lowered her hand and turned to stare at Sam like he

was an alien, like he was a thing she couldn’t understand. Kieran saw
his brother’s face fall at their mother’s reaction, and he wanted to go
to him, to hug him, but he still didn’t feel totally comfortable himself.

“Thank you,” Rita mumbled, quickly turning away from them

both to go back to transferring the nut loaf from the bowl to a plastic
container. Sam turned slowly to look at Kieran, his face full of
cautious hope that he would find acceptance there. Kieran couldn’t

Jane Wallace-Knight

take it anymore. He had spent most of his life looking out for Sam,
trying to make him feel safe and loved, and that wasn’t about to
change now. He walked closer to his brother and threw his arms
around him before kissing the top of his curly head.

“You’re still my pain-in-the-arse little brother,” he whispered,

making Sam smile and snuggle into his embrace.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Four

After Sam, Alek, and Jackson had left, Rita had insisted she

wanted to be left alone, so Joey had offered to walk Kieran home,
much to Kieran’s amusement. Joey hadn’t told Kieran that they were
mates yet, because he didn’t see what good could come from it. Not
only was Kieran decidedly straight, but he also had an ex-girlfriend he
hadn’t given up hope on yet. Joey wasn’t much of a catch at the best
of times, in his opinion, so god knows why someone as gorgeous and
nice as Kieran would ever choose to be with him over the girl he had
loved for over a year. Joey knew he was good looking, he was told so
often enough, but no amount of good looks were enough to turn a
straight man gay. Besides, under that permanently sun-kissed suffer
dude look of his was a slightly crazy, oddball that no one really got.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking,” Joey started as they made their

way down the road. “How old were you and Sam when you went to
live with Rita? It’s just that sometimes you call her Rita and then
other times you call her mum.”

Kieran smiled at him a little sadly as they walked. “Sam was six.

Rita was his second foster family, and I was put into care when I was
fourteen. Luckily I went straight to Rita’s.”

“And Sam’s a year younger than you right?”
Kieran casually shrugged a shoulder. “Almost two, but he was in

the year below me at school, yeah.”

They walked on in silence for a while as Joey uncharacteristically

tried to stop himself from saying whatever came into his head. He saw
Kieran look at him out of the corner of his eye and the human
laughed.

Jane Wallace-Knight

“It’s okay, I can see you’re dying to ask. Why was I put into

care?” Kieran guessed correctly.

Joey cringed, feeling ashamed of himself. He should be talking

about nicer things with his mate but that saying about curiosity killing
the cat had always been true of him. “If you don’t want to tell me, I
understand.”

Kieran shook his head but kept his eyes dead ahead as they

continued their walk. “No, it’s okay. Both my parents were drinkers.
They weren’t mean drunks, not really, just neglectful, I suppose. My
brother is four years older than me, and he always picked on me a bit,
I think for attention. He’d pinch me hard on my arm or leg, sometimes
so hard that it would turn black, or he’d shove me into things. He
never used to hit me though. My mum was too drunk to care and my
dad would laugh and say it was boys being boys. Now and then if he
thought my brother had gone too far he’d give Dom a slap or
something,” Kieran said, glancing over at Joey, who was frowning at
what he was hearing.

Somewhere out there was someone who had hurt his mate. His

instincts told him to hunt them down and rip them apart slowly, limb
by limb, before strangling them with their own intestines.

“Anyway,” Kieran continued, downplaying it as though it were no

big deal and unaware of the murderous turn that Joey’s thoughts had
taken. “My dad died when I was fourteen and my brother started
working. He was the only one bringing in any money and he was
feeding my mum’s addiction, as well as developing one of his own.
He started hitting me then, properly, more and more. Eventually one
of my teachers at school got social services involved, and as Dom was
eighteen at that point and technically an adult, it was considered child
abuse and I was sent to live with Rita.”

Joey watched his mate carefully as Kieran finished his story with

a dismissive shrug. It was clear to Joey that Kieran was used to being
the strong one in his foster family, the one that looked after everybody

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

else. Joey wondered if Kieran ever actually let himself see his
childhood for the horror that it truly was.

“Do you maybe want to get a cup of coffee or something before

you go back to Sam’s?” Joey asked hopefully. “I would have said a
beer but it felt a little inappropriate after that story.”

Kieran chuckled and slowed his pace to a stop as he seemingly

weighed up his options. “Yeah okay, if you like. It beats going back
to an empty flat.”

Joey smiled at him warmly and began leading the way to the

nearest cafe. He had only lived in Gardwich for several months but it
was such a small town that he had quickly learned his way around, it
also helped that his sense of smell was unbeatable, and nothing else
smelled quite like coffee.

“I used to come here in my lunch break when I was at school,”

Kieran told him as they entered the coffee shop after a short walk.
“Sam used to attract bullies like you wouldn’t believe, so after one too
many fights on his behalf I started bringing him here, away from the
school grounds.”

Joey frowned as they joined the queue to put in their coffee order.

“So you went from being bullied to defender of the bullied.”

Kieran smirked and shook his head. “Hardly. I got my arse kicked

more often than not, at least until I joined the football team, gained
some muscle and made some good friends who always had my back. I
don’t know what it was about Sam, but I had never really stood up for
myself before meeting him, then once I got to know him I would have
taken on King Kong to protect him. He seems to bring out the
protective streak in everyone.”

“Except for the bullies,” Joey pointed out. They reached the front

of the short queue and put in their orders, both asking for a strong
black coffee at the same time. They both laughed at the fact that they
ordered the same thing. Joey insisted on paying for them both, and
after some small protesting on Kieran’s part, his mate gave in.

Jane Wallace-Knight

Though Kieran didn’t know it, Joey was very aware that this might be
the closest thing to a date they ever got.

“Usually Sam tells me I might as well have had coffee at home

rather than pay for it if I wasn’t going to get something with foam on
the top,” Kieran told him as they took their drinks over to an empty
table by the window. “I don’t know why I’ve told you all this stuff
about me today, I mean about my family. I don’t usually talk about it
to anyone.”

Joey met Kieran’s eyes and he could see a question in them, an

adorable look of confusion. Joey wanted to open his mouth, to tell
him that fate had chosen them to be perfect for each other and that
was the reason why Kieran felt so comfortable with him, but how
could he do that without being totally selfish. Instead, he hoped that it
might make Kieran feel better to hear about Joey’s own painful past.

“I was born into a pack in the sixties that was pretty damn

religious. I’m talking mandatory church attendance and spankings if
you used the lord’s name in vain,” Joey began. “And not the fun kind
of spanking.”

Kieran straightened up in his chair, a look of utter shock on his

handsome face. “Sixties? That would make you at least forty-
something.”

Joey smirked. Clearly he had forgotten to mention to Kieran,

amidst all of their question and answer sessions, that werewolves
stopped aging around somewhere in their mid-thirties. “I’m actually
forty-eight, but weres don’t grow old, we stay young and pretty
forever,” he joked.

“Bloody hell, that’s incredible,” Kieran insisted as he blew on his

hot coffee before taking a sip.

“Anyway, when my pack found out that I was gay they sent me

off to what they called a reform camp, like we were a bunch of young
offenders who needed to see the error of our ways, or something.”

Kieran looked down into his coffee with a small frown marring

his brow. “You’re gay? I didn’t realise.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Joey was so used to the people in his life knowing about his

sexual preference that he hadn’t realised he had yet to mention it to
Kieran. He felt himself go cold at the familiar fear of rejection he
hadn’t felt since he was a kid. Kieran’s own brother was gay, and
Kieran loved Sam more than anything, so he doubted it would be a
problem for his mate, but the irrational fear was still there all the
same.

“Yeah I am. Are you okay with that?”
Kieran’s head shot up immediately and their eyes locked, blue on

brown. “Of course I am. I mean, I just hadn’t realised is all. And
that’s horrible, that your own family sent you to a place like that.”

Joey nodded in agreement and stirred several little packets of

sugar into his coffee. He knew there were a lot of rumours about his
time at that camp floating around his current pack. He had once
confided in a few of them and somehow it spread around as things
tended to do in packs. It was the curse of being mated, really. It was
nearly impossible to keep something from your mate.

“They tried to recondition me. They would strap me to a chair,

show me images of naked men and shock me with electricity in hopes
that I would come to associate my lust for men with pain. After a
couple of weeks I fought my way out, knowing that I could never
again go home,” Joey confessed, his hand tightening on the hot coffee
cup. The burn would have probably been painful to a human but as a
werewolf Joey barely felt the heat. “People seem to reckon all that
electricity fried my brain and made be a bit crazy. What they don’t
know is that I was always the way I am.”

Kieran didn’t laugh as Joey had expected him to. It had been a

joke, though based on truth, but Kieran didn’t seem to see the funny
side. “There’s nothing wrong with the way you are, Joey,” Kieran told
him, fiercely.

Joey nodded and forced a small smile onto his face. His eyes were

still glued to the swirling black liquid in his cup, when he felt

Jane Wallace-Knight

Kieran’s hand reach over and cover his own. Their eyes met again and
a look of a shared pain passed between them.

“They didn’t win,” Kieran told him softly. “We’re both here,

living our lives how we want. They didn’t make us mean like them.
They didn’t win.”

Joey felt a genuine smile grace his lips at the kind and soft touch

of his mate. This right here, sitting in a coffee shop holding hands
with the other half of his soul, made him feel as though everything
would always be okay.

Seemingly realising what he was doing, Kieran abruptly removed

his hand and looked around the coffee shop, clearly embarrassed, to
see if anyone was looking at them. “Sorry, it’s just that I hate that
people can be capable of such hateful things. You want to know the
truly fucked up thing from my childhood?”

Joey nodded, his fist clenching in an attempt to stop his hand from

following Kieran’s back across the table and putting it back where it
belonged.

“I genuinely loved my dad,” Kieran confessed. “He should have

stopped my brother and he should have made my mum care about us
all, but I still loved him. He was a more lively drunk, I suppose,
whereas she was the kind who wouldn’t get up off the sofa if the
house were on fire. He went to work and he took me to watch football
at the weekends, always me, never Dom. When he got home from the
pub at nights I’d make him some toast or a sandwich and he would
always ruffle my hair and tell me I was a good boy. I lived for those
moments of affection,” Kieran acknowledged, his voice cutting out at
the end as his eyes filled up with tears that he refused to let fall.
“Going to live with Rita was quite a shock. I think she hugged me
about ten times that first day. I hadn’t even known what I was
missing.”

Joey watched as his mate quickly composed himself. It killed him

that he couldn’t go around the table and pull Kieran into his arms to
comfort him. How was he supposed to live his life like this? How was

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

he supposed to be allowed this close to him, only to always have to
restrain himself? Without Joey claiming him properly, by biting him
during sex, Kieran would grow old and die and Joey would soon
follow him, he knew, dead from a broken heart.

“My little brother was two when I saw him last. I think of him all

the time, about where he is now and how he’s doing. We were so
close, he’d follow me around like a little shadow. Joe was the first
thing he said,” Joey told him proudly, making Kieran smile. “He
looked at me like the sun shined out of my arse. It made me feel like a
king.”

“Yeah, it was the same with Sam,” Kieran told him, taking

another sip of his coffee. “It gives you strength having someone else
to take care of.”

The sudden sound of a wolf howling had Kieran jumping in his

seat. Joey just chuckled as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket,
the howl being his text alert of choice. He certainly had a sense of
humour, even though most people tended not to appreciate it. He
quickly read the text from Jackson, which asked him to come back to
the manor. He sighed, not wanting this coffee date to end so soon, but
he knew that if his alpha needed him, then as one of three betas of the
pack, it was Joey’s duty to go.

“I’m sorry, Kieran, Jackson needs me back at the manor,” he

explained, regrettably. He hated the thought of leaving Kieran when
he didn’t know when he would see the human again. With Sam now
back in Kieran’s life, there was no real reason for Joey to hang around
anymore.

Joey was pleased to note that for a moment it looked as though

Kieran’s face had fallen a little. “Oh, yeah of course. Nothing’s wrong
I hope.”

“I don’t know,” Joey admitted as he placed his phone back in his

pocket. “He wouldn’t call me in for just anything though, so
something must be up.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Straight away Kieran tensed and rose to his feet along with Joey.

“Sam? Do you think he’s okay? Should I come with you?”

Joey was a little ashamed to admit that he wanted Kieran to come

with him, even though he was sure that Sam was just fine, and that
instead of reassuring his mate, he let him think it was a possibility.

“You can come if you like. You can see the manor and the pack

lands. I’m usually called in when my nose is required. I’m a pretty
good tracker you see, so it could be anything from strange wolves in
the area to a missing pack member.”

“I think I’d feel better if I came with you,” Kieran told him as they

made their way outside into the clear, but cold, day. “I know that
Sam’s a big, bad vampire now but I still can’t help feeling the need to
look out for him. He’s living with a werewolf and a really old
vampire, and I know you say they’re good guys, but I still find it hard
to think of my little Sammy being safe with them.”

Joey nodded and refrained from telling him, once again, that there

was nowhere on earth Sam was safer than with his two mates.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Five

Kieran had heard all about the pack estate from Joey, and of

course he had driven past it nearly every day on his way home from
work, but seeing it up close was different. The large manor house
stood apart from the rest of the town as it had been built a hundred
years ago as a holiday home for a lord and his family. Everyone in
Gardwich knew the history. Sadly, over the years the place was sold
and turned into a block of flats that ended up being extremely run-
down. What was once a beautiful part of Gardwich’s history had
become an eyesore, that is until Jackson and Alek had moved in. As
teenagers, Joey and Sam had often snuck into the abandoned grounds
to drink cheap booze and hang out with Kieran’s friends from the
football team. The large building had been a lifeless shell amongst a
vast overgrown wilderness. Now the manor was restored to her
former glory and the grounds once again well maintained. Still,
Kieran had some fond memories of the place and it just felt strange to
him to know that now Sam was living there as lord of the manor.

They had come in through the side of the estate, rather than

through the front gates. There was a small gravel road that led to other
houses, as well as to the woods at the back. Joey had pointed out his
own house as they walked by, as well as some of the other pack
member’s homes. Joey lived in what used to be a block of stables but
had been converted into a charmingly rustic, yet roomy, wood cabin.
As they walked through the grassy area towards the private garden of
the manor, Joey told him about all the work he had put into the place
and told him that he would show it to him later when Jackson was
finished with him. The excitement with which Joey talked about his

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home had Kieran grinning along with him. The Australian sounded as
though he couldn’t wait to show off his new home.

“Joe,” a loud, American voice boomed across the way. They both

turned to see a man Kieran had never met before as he bound towards
them. He was perhaps the same height as Jackson, a good six-four,
with similar dark, shaggy hair and soft hazel eyes. The man smiled
through a thick, black beard that was lightly streaked with silver, and
ran over to them, throwing his arms out and embracing Joey like they
were old friends. Kieran stepped back with a frown on his face and
felt the sudden, and unusual, urge to growl. He had clearly been
spending too much time in the company of wolves lately.

“Adam, how the heck are ya?” Joey greeted him happily,

squeezing the bigger man for all he was worth. “I didn’t know you
were getting in today.”

Adam nodded as he pulled back, his smile slipping slightly. “Ma

asked me to come to talk to Luka.”

Joey nodded in understanding before turning to explain to Kieran.

“I told you about Luka, the kid Ray was abusing since he was
fourteen years old. The poor little sod, he hardly ever leaves the
aviary that Jackson and me built for him, the only place he feels safe
is with his bloody birds. Adam here is a trained psychologist, so his
mum, Annie, asked him to come and help the kid out.”

Adam growled low, his fists clenching at his side. “He’s my mate.

I knew it the moment I saw him. The problem is that he knew it, too.
We stood there starring at each other for a minute before he got
spooked and ran.”

“Fuck me,” Joey breathed. “Finding your mate is always a

blessing, but talk about bad timing. After that bastard convinced Luka
they were mates for four years, meeting you must have given him a
fright.”

Kieran frowned and turned towards Adam. He had heard the term

mate before. Of course he had, he had been bombarding Joey with
questions about werewolves for two weeks straight now. In fact,

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Kieran doubted there was much he didn’t know about werewolves at
this point. He knew that werewolves mated for life and that Sam was
Jackson’s, but it was still a difficult concept for him to get his head
around. The thought of belonging to someone else forever was an
incredible thought, it sounded as though there was no bigger
commitment. He couldn’t imagine being with someone and knowing,
without any doubts, that they were the one for him.

“What do you mean he ran? Ran where?” Kieran asked, worrying

about the young man even though they had never met. Both he and
Sam had suffered abuse as children, though never sexual, and he
found himself wanting to take care of this stranger, just as he had
Sam.

Adam let his head hang low, clearly feeling helpless and

frustrated. “He’s in the woods somewhere. I can smell him of course,
but if I go after him he’s only going to get spooked more. It’s killing
me that I can’t go after him but I know that right now he needs a
friend, not a mate.”

“Where’s Sam?” Joey asked. “He and the kid are good friends.

Wouldn’t he be your best bet?”

“Sam can’t go,” Jackson suddenly announced as he emerged from

the manor and walked towards them. “He still doesn’t trust himself to
be alone with anybody physically weaker than himself, and Alek and
I can’t go with him without frightening Luka even more.” He turned
to Joey then and gave him a nod. “You’ve got the best nose, you go.”

Never one to question his alpha’s orders, Joey nodded once and

put his hand on Kieran’s arm. “Go and wait inside, I’ll come get you
when I’m done.”

“Sod that, I’ve seen your attempt at making Rita feel better about

what Ray did to her,” Kieran cried. “No offense, but you kind of suck
at it. I’m Sam’s big brother and I’m human, Luka probably won’t feel
threatened by me, so I’m coming with you.”

Jackson stared hard at Kieran for a long moment before finally

giving his nod of approval. “Very well. Howl if you need anything.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

“Howl?” Kieran asked, right as Joey began undressing in front of

them all. He felt his eyes fix on Joey’s golden skin as he once again
slunk down on all fours and let himself change. Just like before, two
weeks ago in Rita’s back garden, he watched the smooth
transformation from man to wolf. “Right, howl.”

Joey put his nose to the ground and began sniffing out Luka’s

path. When he seemingly discovered the route the kid took, Joey
bolted off in that direction, leaving Kieran racing after him. Luckily
for Kieran, he was used to running up and down a football pitch so,
although the wolf was much faster than him, he didn’t trail behind too
much.

By the time Joey stopped running, in order to sniff out the area for

another trail, they were already fairly deep into the woods and a good
ten minutes had passed. The terrain was mostly flat but the grass was
pretty overgrown, which slowed them down some. Kieran bent
forwards, placing his hands on his thighs for support as he caught his
breath.

“Christ, you can move,” he commented, earning him a familiar

huff from his now furry friend. Kieran laughed and Joey butted his
hand gently with his head before returning to his task. It was nice
there in the woods, Kieran could understand why Luka would want to
hide away from the world in there. The only sounds were of birds in
the trees and Kieran closed his eyes for a moment to let the peaceful
surroundings wash over him. Unfortunately his peace was interrupted
by the shrill sound of his phone trilling in his back pocket. He sighed
and answered it, ignoring the annoyed look he got from Joey. Who
knew wolves could frown?

“Hi, Amy,” he greeted his ex-girlfriend. Only now did he

remember that he had said he would go round to pick up a few more
of his things that afternoon. They had also agreed that they would talk
about things again, though Kieran wasn’t sure what the point was.
They had tried talking several times already but had yet to make any
progress.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Where are you? I thought you were coming over to talk.”
Kieran cringed and ran his hand over his face. He couldn’t believe

he had forgotten they had made plans. What with seeing Sam for the
first time in his new state, dealing with Rita’s reaction to him, and
now looking for Luka, Amy had all but gone from his mind.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. Something has sort of come up. I’m helping out

a friend.”

“What friend? Is it this mysterious Joey again? I’m starting to

wonder if Joey is actually a girl,” she said accusingly.

Kieran rolled his eyes and watched, somewhat distractedly, as a

few feet away from him, Joey transformed back into a man, a very
naked man.

“Believe me,” he told her. “Joey’s all man.”
His comment earned him a smug smirk from Joey and Kieran

physically shook himself, turning away from the sight. It was too late
though, and the image of Joey’s cock, thick and long between
muscular golden thighs, was now imprinted in his mind.

“Besides, even if I was spending time with a girl, you couldn’t

really say anything about it seeing how you broke up with me,”
Kieran pointed out.

Amy huffed down the phone and he could tell it had been the

wrong thing to say to her. He didn’t want to fight with her any more,
and even if they never got back together, he didn’t want to end things
on bad terms.

“Look, Amy. I’m sorry, okay, but I’ve got to go,” he said softly.
“Fine, if that’s how you want it then I guess there’s nothing more

to talk about.”

Kieran felt a wave of sadness go through him and he took a

steadying breath before he responded. “I guess not.”

Kieran hung up and slipped his phone back into his back pocket.

He took a moment to shake off their conversation before finally
turning back to Joey, who was watching him intently.

“Sorry about that.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Joey simply shrugged a shoulder and pointed behind him. “Luka

went this way. If you need to go and see her I can find him myself.”

Kieran quickly shook his head and moved to stand right in front of

Joey, making sure to keep his eyes dead ahead so that they wouldn’t
stray downwards. “No it’s fine. This is more important anyway. Come
on.”

He set off in the direction that Joey had pointed out, hearing the

familiar sound of Joey transforming behind him, before the sandy
coloured wolf came bounding past him, forcing Kieran to once again
run in order keep up. He couldn’t admit it out loud, but he didn’t want
to go, not if it meant leaving Joey. There was something about the
Aussie that he couldn’t put his finger on, something comforting and
safe but at the same time exciting. Kieran felt like he, himself, was
exciting for a change, running through the woods with a werewolf.
His life with Amy had been safe. It had consisted of getting up at
seven am, taking a shower, eating a banana and drinking a mug of
coffee, before driving half an hour to his office building in the city. It
was the same thing, every day, usually ending in whatever he or Amy
could be bothered to cook for dinner followed by an argument of
some kind. When he got home and had eaten and cleared everything
away, he liked to unwind before bed. He wasn’t much into watching
television. Instead he preferred to play video games for an hour or so,
much to Amy’s frustration. Amy’s way of unwinding was to tell him
every little detail about her day, no matter how inconsequential. When
would women learn? Kieran didn’t want to hear about Amy’s work
colleague’s new horrendous haircut or that someone he had never met
was sleeping with someone else he had never met, he just wanted to
shoot some zombies. Living at Sam’s for the last few weeks, nothing
much had changed in his routine, except for the arguing and
complaining of course. He felt a bit lonely, living by himself, and at
times he wondered if he missed Amy or if he just missed having
somewhere there.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Being early January as it was, the temperature was rather cool and

Kieran was certainly feeling the chill as evening crept in. As if it
weren’t bad enough already, the heavens decided to open and by the
time they reached Luka, huddled and shivering against a tree, both
Kieran and Joey were soaked.

Seeing the large wolf coming towards him, Luka flinched and

tried to get up and run. Watching Joey transform into a man didn’t
seem to help Luka’s nerves at all so Kieran quickly ran over to him.

“Hi, my name’s Kieran, I’m Sam’s brother. I don’t know if he

mentioned me at all but he asked me to come and find you. He’s
worried about you, the whole pack is,” Kieran told him as he came to
crouch in front of the younger man.

Luka studied him and seemed to relax a bit once Joey had backed

away. “Sam’s my friend.”

Kieran nodded and tried to survey the kid. He was just eighteen,

Joey had said, with blond curls similar, but lighter, to Sam’s and dull,
green eyes that might once have been bright. “We know why you ran,
and it’s okay. You don’t have to see Adam again yet, we just want to
get you somewhere warm.”

Luka was shivering constantly and he was starting to look rather

gaunt. This boy needed taking care of desperately, and Kieran found
himself hoping that Adam was up to the job.

“Adam? Is that his name?” Luka asked, his teeth chattering.

Despite the obvious fear Luka felt at having another mate, or in this
case, a real mate, he also sounded curious.

“Yep,” Joey answered suddenly, drawing Luka’s attention again

and making the boy huddle in closer on himself. “And he’s a really
good bloke, too. They don’t come any better than Adam.”

Luka slowly nodded and wrapped his arms around himself in an

effort to warm himself up. His thin, white T-shirt was soaked through
and practically transparent.

Jane Wallace-Knight

“How about we take you to see Sam?” Kieran offered, hoping that

mentioning his brother would do the trick as Sam had been the one to
convince Luka to leave Ray in the first place.

Luka looked at Kieran hard, as though trying to see into him, as

though trying to see whatever it was he had seen in Sam, before
slowly nodding and pulling himself up to stand. He was a bit wobbly
on his feet, and they nearly gave out under him, so Joey quickly
swooped in to pick him up, the young man hanging limp in his arms
as though he didn’t have the strength to hold up his own head.

Joey and Kieran shared a look of sadness and together began their

walk back to the manor. “As a wolf I don’t even feel the cold. This
poor little bastard must be near starved to be feeling it this much.”

Kieran shook his head miserably and wrapped his own arms

around his body, not wanting to complain or make a fuss about how
cold he himself was feeling. “Wasn’t someone looking after him
while Sam was M.I.A?”

“You can lead a wolf to food, Kieran, but you can’t make him

eat,” Joey said sadly, hoisting Luka up a little higher as they made
their way home through the cold, wet night. “Don’t you worry
though, Adam’s here now, he’ll be just what the kid needs, you’ll
see.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Six

They broke through the tree line and saw Adam waiting for them,

unmoving as a sentry, uncaring of the water that ran in rivulets down
his face. Upon seeing them the big man strode forward quickly,
holding his arms out for Luka. He took the near-unconscious man
from Joey effortlessly, cradling him to his chest like the precious
cargo that he was.

“I don’t think he’s been eating,” Kieran told the man, only to

receive a pained grunt and a nod in reply. Joey and Kieran stood side
by side as they watched Adam carry his mate back to the manor like a
leading man in a period drama, his white shirt soaked through and
clinging to his prominent muscles. Kieran couldn’t help but move
closer to his friend as he could feel the warmth radiating off of Joey’s
naked body.

“Bloody hell, Kieran, you’re frozen. Why the hell didn’t you say

anything?” Joey demanded, turning to face him so that he could rub
his arms.

“I just wanted to find Luka,” Kieran admitted, having to stop

himself from leaning totally into Joey’s body.

“Always taking care of other people, aren’t you?” Joey asked

fondly, his hand coming up to push Kieran’s damp, dark hair back
from where it was plastered to his forehead. “I think it’s time
someone looked after you. Come on.”

Kieran followed Joey to his cabin, already feeling warmer just by

seeing the place. It radiated warmth, much the same way as Joey
himself did. It looked like it belonged on a Christmas card, all that
was missing was the snow, which the weather forecast had actually

Jane Wallace-Knight

promised for later on in the week. Once inside the cabin, Kieran tried
to look around but Joey was already herding him into the bedroom.
From what he could see though, it was a medium-sized open-plan
space that smelled like wood and leather. There were several large
windows which had the effect of opening the place up and the view of
the surrounding woods was gorgeous, from what Kieran could see in
the night. The kitchen cabinets were also wood with carved panels,
which Joey informed him he had made himself. The kitchen managed
to look modern but rustic at the same time and it was blocked off
from the sitting area by a breakfast bar. The walls were wood paneled
and the sitting area had a tall, stone built chimney that someone had
made up for them. There were two brown leather sofas facing each
other, and a matching cream one that faced the fire and wall mounted
television. It looked so cozy and inviting. Kieran could imagine
snuggling up on one of those sofas watching a movie or playing video
games. It was a real home, somewhere you looked forward to
spending time.

The bedroom was a decent size and it had the same wood paneling

as the living area and sported a nice, big, comfortable-looking bed
that Kieran desperately wanted to crawl in to. Over the bed was
thrown a patchwork blanket that looked handmade. It was made up of
natural earth tones and had various patterns of leaves and acorns
stitched in to it. It looked like something Rita would have knitted and
Kieran found that he loved it straight away.

“Come on, get naked,” Joey ordered with a playful smirk.
Kieran rolled his eyes but began removing his wet clothes as he

was told. “So that’s what all of this kindness is about? You just
wanted me naked in your bedroom,” he joked. He was very aware that
Joey had yet to put on any clothes himself.

Their eyes met and Kieran could clearly see that he had gone too

far as Joey looked back at him sadly. He didn’t know if Joey was
offended by the joke, because he didn’t want Kieran to think he was a
letch, or because it hit a little too close to home. He continued to strip

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

down until he was standing there, naked and shivering. How Joey had
still managed to look so big in the crotch department, standing naked
out in the cold, Kieran didn’t know. He didn’t want to look down at
himself in fear there would be nothing there, that was how cold he
felt.

Once Kieran was naked, Joey quickly grabbed the blanket from

the bed and wrapped it around Kieran’s shoulders. He rifled through a
stack of clean laundry that was sitting on an armchair in the corner of
the room and found a towel. Kieran held his hand out for the towel
but Joey just smiled at him and started drying Kieran’s hair himself. It
felt nice to have someone take care of him for a change and Kieran
felt himself start to relax as he pulled the blanket even tighter around
his chilled body. He let his eyes drift close under Joey’s gentle
ministrations and he didn’t even try to stop himself from yawning.

Joey chuckled and finished drying Kieran’s hair, leaving it

slightly damp and fluffy. “Come on, get on the bed.”

Kieran didn’t have the energy to even attempt to argue with his

friend so he just did as he was told and snuggled up on the bed, the
soft blanket still around him. He felt the mattress dip beside him and
he cracked open an eye to see Joey lying down next to him.

“We wolves give off some serious body heat. Let me get you

warm,” he said as he wrapped his arms around Kieran. Kieran had
never lain like this with another man before, especially not with them
both naked. To his surprise, though, it didn’t feel weird, it just felt
nice, like he could just let go and relax because he knew that Joey
would take care of everything.

Kieran rolled onto his back to get comfortable and Joey pressed in

against his side. He felt a bit vulnerable as he was naked save for a
single blanket, and not a very big one at that.

“No peeking at my dick though,” Kieran joked playfully. “I’m so

cold I think it might have gone into hiding permanently.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Joey chuckled softly, his breath warm on Kieran’s face, and

brazenly pushed the blanket apart at the top of Kieran’s legs. Kieran
felt himself tense in shock at Joey’s actions.

“I don’t know, I bet I could probably convince him to come out

and play,” the Australian said in a seductive tone, with a cocky smirk
on his handsome face.

Kieran stared at his friend in disbelief. He couldn’t believe Joey

had just done that, or said that, but most of all he couldn’t believe that
Joey’s suggestion had shot through him like a flame, straight down to
his dick.

He watched Joey’s face, glued to Kieran’s crotch as it was, as his

smile grew. “Well hello there,” he said to Kieran’s suddenly swelling
dick. “That was easier than I thought.”

Kieran knew he should say something at this point. He should

push Joey away and tell him he had gone too far. He should go home
to his boring little life, he should beg Amy to take him back, but he
didn’t do any of that. He watched, as though hypnotised, as Joey
lowered his head and placed a kiss over one of Kieran’s hardened
nipples.

The young man hissed at the sensation of a hot mouth closing in

over the cold, pebbled flesh, and his hands tightened into fists at his
side. His blue eyes locked with Joey’s and he felt his dick throb at the
look of pure want he saw in them. He knew he should stop this, but he
didn’t want to. Nothing had ever made him feel quite like this before.
With Joey’s dark eyes burning into his, the Aussie slowly kissed a
path down Kieran’s body, leaving warm, wet trails along the way. His
tongue dipped into Kieran’s belly button and Kieran heard himself
make a sound he had never made before, it was dangerously close to a
whimper.

“Joey,” he whispered, not quite sure if it was a plea for him to

stop or to give him more.

Joey just smirked up at him in his typical way and it made the

knots in Kieran’s stomach lessen a bit.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Let me take care of you,” Joey whispered back, before lowering

his head over Kieran’s crotch and taking the tip of his cock into his
mouth. Joey’s mouth was so hot, much hotter than any human’s could
be, and it felt wonderful as the werewolf suckled him gently.

Kieran watched in amazement at the way Joey’s sensual lips

stretched around his girth while his hand closed around the base,
squeezing him gently. Joey’s other hand played with the fine line of
dark hair trailing down Kieran’s stomach, tugging on it gently. The
ends of Joey’s damp, shaggy hair tickled Kieran’s thighs and Kieran
squirmed under the combined sensations.

Kieran had enjoyed a number of blowjobs in his life, but none

quite like this. He watched as Joey’s eyes fluttered close in pleasure
and he felt the vibration as the werewolf moaned around his dick.
Joey was enjoying this nearly as much as Kieran was, and knowing
that made it all the better for Kieran. He reached down and pushed
back some of Joey’s hair, loving how silky the strands felt through his
fingers. He groaned and bucked up a little, his hand tightening in
those strands as Joey took him deeper.

“Oh god, so fucking good, Joey,” he breathed, biting his lip. Joey

opened his eyes again and looked up at him, his pupils so blown with
lust that his eyes looked black. He released Kieran’s cock and kissed a
desperate path back up his chest.

“I’m sorry,” Joey whispered as he crawled up him until their

erections were rubbing against each other. “I’m so sorry.”

Kieran wasn’t sure what Joey was apologising for and he was too

far gone to ask. Instead of tensing when he felt Joey’s lips touch his,
he just moaned into the kiss and grabbed two handfuls of Joey’s
backside to pull him even closer.

Joey kissed him slow and deep, his tongue sliding against

Kieran’s in a way that was more intimate than anything else Kieran
had ever known. As they ground against each other, Joey rolling his
hips and all but fucking Kieran’s cock with his own, Kieran felt
himself begin to unravel. He held onto Joey tighter and let himself go,

Jane Wallace-Knight

giving over to the intense pleasure. He broke their kiss in need of air
and threw his head back as his balls tightened and he shot his load
between their bodies, making his dick nice and slick for Joey. He kept
hold of Joey to anchor him as his orgasm blew him away.

He was in a state of bliss, of complete relaxation and calm. He felt

an interested twitch in his spent cock as Joey growled into his ear
before finding his own release and biting down hard on Kieran’s
neck. Kieran shouted out at the sudden pain and froze as Joey pulled
back to look down at him in horror seemingly appalled by what he
had just done.

Their eyes locked for a moment before Joey leapt of the bed and

disappeared into the bathroom. Kieran laid there, completely stunned,
and covered in come. He slowly sat up on the bed and as he waited
for Joey’s return he found himself laughing at the ridiculousness of
the night they had just shared. He had just shagged a werewolf, a
werewolf who bites. He couldn’t believe what had come over him. He
had never even considered sleeping with a man. Kieran knew he
could convince himself that he had just gotten off from the
stimulation, and that it wouldn’t have mattered who it was giving him
a blow job, but deep down he knew that it was only as good as it was
because it was with Joey. Kieran wasn’t one for lying to himself, so
he knew he just had to accept it as fact. He was sexually attracted to
another man.

When Joey finally came back out of the bathroom, he had already

cleaned himself up and was carrying a wet washcloth for Kieran.

“I’m sorry, I am so sorry,” Joey told him mournfully, as he

handed the washcloth over. “Wait, why are you laughing?”

Kieran shook his head and reached up to touch the bite mark on

the side of his neck. It was right at the juncture between his neck and
shoulder and amazingly only hurt a little bit. His fingers came away
with a small trace of blood on them but remarkably the wound
seemed to have already closed, leaving new scar tissue behind. “You
bit me.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“I know,” Joey said quietly as he sat down on the end of the bed.

“I wasn’t going to, I swear I wasn’t. I was never going to tell you that
you’re my mate. I was going to be your friend, whatever you needed,
but nothing more. I pushed you into this, Kieran, I couldn’t stop
myself. I’m so sorry.”

During Joey’s speech, Kieran had started cleaning the come off

his body but as Joey’s words started to sink in he stopped and stared
over at his werewolf friend. “Did you just say that I’m your mate?”

Joey seemingly couldn’t bring himself to look at Kieran. He was

clearly ashamed of what he had done. Slowly, Joey rose from the bed,
completely comfortable in his state of nakedness, and ran his hands
through his hair in frustration. “Yes I did. That’s why I bit you. I
didn’t mean to though, I swear to you that I didn’t.”

Kieran couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was too much to

really take in. He knew that, as a werewolf, Joey would one day meet
his fated mate, and if Kieran were honest with himself he would have
hated it. Things were actually starting to make sense to Kieran, the
way he had warmed to Joey straight away. He had never felt so
comfortable with someone in his entire life, not even his foster
brother, Sam. When Kieran was with Joey he felt as though there was
nowhere in the world he would rather be. It was a startling revelation
and a part of him was pissed off that it was completely out of his
control. These feelings he had were there because of destiny, nothing
else.

“Jesus Christ,” he breathed. “And biting me, what does that mean

exactly?”

Joey slowly turned to face him, his golden skin and toned body

drawing Kieran’s eyes despite his best efforts to resist. Joey had a
look on his face that wasn’t unlike a naughty puppy dog who knew he
was in trouble with his master. “It means that I’ve claimed you as
mine. It means that our lives are now tied and that you will live
forever. Unless, of course, one of us is killed.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Kieran gaped at him. His entire world was going to change. He

had a mental image, suddenly, of watching his grandchildren grow
old, but then he supposed that if he were mated to a man, he would
never get to have any. “Will I become a wolf, too?”

Joey slowly nodded his head. “On the next full moon, but you’ll

start to notice changes in yourself before then.”

“No, hang on. Sam’s been claimed by Jackson and he isn’t a

werewolf,” Kieran pointed out, feeling panic start to swell up inside
of him.

“Sam was already part angel. The truth is that we didn’t really

know if the wolf would take in him and then he went and got himself
turned into a vampire anyway before the full moon, so the point was
moot,” Joey explained.

“So in the heat of the moment, because neither of us can keep it in

our pants, you’ve changed me into something else. I’m never going to
age, or have kids or grandkids. I’m going to become a werewolf,” he
lamented. Of course there was a part of Kieran that thought it might
be kind of cool to become a wolf, but a bigger part of him was finding
it hard to get his head around the fact that his entire world was about
to change.

He looked up and met Joey’s sad, brown eyes. Despite what had

happened he still felt himself wanting to comfort the other man, but
he couldn’t bring himself to. “What would have happened to you if
you hadn’t claimed me?”

Joey shrugged awkwardly and took a step closer to Kieran. “I

would have watched you grow old. Then when you died I would die,
too, most likely. Some wolves, after losing their mate, survive it, but I
already know that I wouldn’t.”

“You would have just spent your life watching me from the

sidelines? Waiting to die with me?” Kieran asked incredulously. It
was all too intense for him, talking about spending eternity together
and the fact that Joey was willing to give all that up just to be close to
him. “I can’t process all of this now. I need to go, I’m sorry.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Joey just nodded and went over to the clean laundry pile on the

chair. He handed Kieran a T-shirt and some gray cotton sweat pants to
wear, as Kieran’s own were in a wet heap on the floor still. It was
such a small gesture, but it made Kieran feel warm inside.

“Thanks,” he whispered before hastily pulling them on. As though

on impulse, and because no matter what had happened he couldn’t
bear to leave Joey in such an unhappy state, Kieran leaned in quickly
and ghosted a kiss on the side of the Aussie’s face before leaving.

“I’ll see you,” he promised, almost as an afterthought, before

leaving Joey staring after him miserably.

Jane Wallace-Knight

Chapter Seven

That was not how a claiming was supposed to go, Joey thought to

himself forlornly as he sat around the large wooden table inside the
manor’s kitchen an hour later. Wolves were pack animals by nature.
They weren’t the type to claim they needed space or to go off alone to
lick their wounds. Even feeling as he was now, Joey’s first instinct
had been to find comfort with his pack.

There were a few wolves milling about the large space, as usual,

and the constant noise seemed to help Joey. Annie, Adam’s mother
and Jackson’s self-appointed guardian, was cooking up a storm in
honour of her son finding his mate that night. She had told Joey that
Adam had taken Luka up to Luka’s bedroom and hadn’t yet come
down. Joey wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. He supposed
that finding a mate was often complicated, whether both of the people
concerned were wolves or not.

Billy was at the other end of the large table, attempting to get his

two youngest boys to behave. His mate, Isabelle, had gone for a run in
the woods, Billy had told him. Joey suspected it was a chance for her
to get away from screaming kids for an hour or so. He couldn’t blame
her, he loved their kids, but after a few hours with them he, too, often
wanted to run.

The kitchen was the heart of the manor, as it was in most homes.

It was the place where all the wolves seemed to congregate. There
were a few more wolves about today, though, and Joey thought it was
probably down to the delicious smells that were currently coming
from it. Annie had left some food outside Luka’s bedroom door
earlier, not wanting to disturb the pair, but wanting Luka to eat

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

something. Annie was a natural mother and had already felt protective
over Luka since the whole business with Ray had come to light, but
now that she knew that he was her son-in-law, she seemed on a
mission to take care of him. It was a feeling Joey understood well.
When he had carried Luka earlier that night, he had felt the eighteen-
year-old’s bones sticking out of him. If anyone could care for him
properly, then it was Luka’s mate and his mate’s loving family.

A bowl of apple pie, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side,

was placed down on the table in front of Joey and he looked up to see
Annie looking back at him knowingly.

“You look like someone in need of pie and ice cream,” she told

him with a warm smile. Annie was nearly as old as Jackson but, like
him, she looked no older than in her mid-thirties. She filled the role of
mother figure for most of the pack, being made up of outcasts and
motherless misfits as it was.

“I’m a man in need of a smack round the head,” he told her. He

looked back over at his friend, Billy, to see if he was listening in on
their conversation, but his attention was on his two youngest children,
each of them sitting on a knee. Joey thought back to what Kieran had
said earlier, about not getting to have children, and he hated himself
for taking that away from him. If they had never met then Kieran
would have probably ended up getting back with Amy, or met
someone new, and together they would have had a perfectly normal
life. Now, thanks to the mating call, that siren song that brought mates
back to each other time and time again, Kieran would never feel
complete with anyone else now.

“You want to tell me what’s up with you, hun?” Annie asked as

she pulled up a chair beside him.

“He found his mate,” Sam suddenly said from behind them,

making Joey jump in his chair.

“What? How the hell do you know? Did Kieran call you?” he

asked, desperate for news of his mate, though it had only been an hour
or so since he had last seen him.

Jane Wallace-Knight

Being a vampire-angel hybrid now, Sam could move almost

silently. Given his small stature, he was far stealthier than Alek. They
were going to have to start putting a little bell around his neck.

“Kieran? I only picked up that you were missing your mate,” Sam

told him, his hands coming to rest on his narrow hips as he glared
Joey down. “You mated my brother?”

Joey cringed and slumped back down in his chair. “Your angel-fu,

as you call it, sucks. Stop reading us all.”

Sam, seemingly deciding to take pity on Joey, came to sit on the

other side of him and shared a look of concern with Annie. “Look,
Kieran will know you have no control over who you mate with. Look
at me, Jackson, and Alek. They were totally happy together for fifty
years before I came along, but look at how happy the three of us are
now.”

Joey nodded and heaped some pie onto his spoon before shoveling

it into his mouth. It was apple with just the right amount of cinnamon,
his favourite, and it went down a treat.

“Come on, Joey,” Sam told him patiently, with a smug sort of

humour in his eyes. “We all know that you can’t eat your feelings.”

“I can try,” Joey argued. “I bit him without warning him, without

thinking about it. It was like a drive-by claiming. Now he’s gone, and
I don’t know if he’ll ever forgive me.”

Sam frowned and studied Joey hard as though he was looking into

his soul, and knowing Sam, he probably was. “Joey, first of all, you
acted out of instinct, a primal drive that has been ingrained in wolves
for as long as they have existed. Secondly, Kieran’s a great guy,
maybe the greatest ever, and he will come to understand that fate has
chosen you for each other. Also, selfishly, I can’t help but be happy
that I’ll never have to watch my best friend grow old and die.”

Joey nodded and shoveled in some more pie. It was really good.

“Yeah, I guess. What’s she like?”

“Amy?” Sam asked, evidently surprised. He shrugged and seemed

to think it over. “She’s pretty cool actually. I like her a lot, but she can

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

be a little selfish at times. She’s quite needy and a bit of a drama
queen, but she’s nice enough. I don’t think Kieran should go back to
her though. I think he needs someone to take care of him for a change,
seeing how he’s always the one taking care of us.”

Hearing that didn’t really make Joey feel any better. What if

Kieran did decide to make up with her? What if, even after what had
happened between them earlier in Joey’s bedroom, Kieran decided
that they could only ever be friends? Could Joey really cope with that,
living his life on the outside looking in?

“I’m going to need more pie, Annie dear,” he informed his friend

with a huff. Annie smiled at him and gave his hand a reassuring
squeeze before getting up and going over to the counter to get him
some more.

“I thought I told you not to eat your feelings,” Sam ribbed him

playfully.

“I’m not,” Joey insisted. “But all this feeling things has made me

hungry.”

“Yeah, me, too, actually,” Sam confessed. He looked a little guilty

as he said it, as though he were ashamed to admit his thirst for blood.
“I’m going to go find Alek or Jackson.”

“You can’t feed from them forever, you know,” Joey told him.

“You’re going to have to get used to feeding from strangers.”

Sam rose from his chair gracefully and treated Joey to a glare. “I

tend to get a little overexcited when I feed,” he confessed quietly.
“And the four-foot-long wings that sprout out of me when that
happens aren’t exactly inconspicuous.”

Joey laughed and held his bowl up for the second helping of pie

that Annie had brought over for him. “Yeah okay, fair enough. Will
you tell me if you speak to Kieran? You don’t have to tell me what he
says, or anything. I just want to know that he’s okay.”

Sam smiled at him softly and nodded before going in search of his

mates. “Oh, and by the way, I’m sorry about hitting you over the head
with that tree branch.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Joey just shrugged at him. “No worries. My head’s pretty hard.”
Sam smiled at him gratefully and patted Joey’s shoulder before he

left. Dejectedly, Joey looked back over at Billy and found the man
looking back at him. “Time to cash in that rain check?”

Joey offered his friend a small smile and nodded gratefully. A trip

to the pub was just what he needed.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Eight

Sam’s flat had been in total darkness when Kieran arrived home

an hour ago. He should have gotten in the shower, made himself
something to eat, and gone straight to bed, seeing as how he had work
in the morning. However, once he sat down on Sam’s secondhand
sofa, he couldn’t find the strength, or the will, to get back up again.
He hadn’t turned on any lights, the only light coming from the amber
glow of the street lamp outside, and he sat staring at a television set
that he hadn’t even turned on.

The flat he had shared with Amy was a small, two-bedroom place

that they rented in the town centre. Kieran had never loved it but they
had both been so eager to move out of their parents’ homes, and in
with each other, that they had taken the first available, and affordable,
flat that they could. It was situated above a bakery and every morning
at five, Kieran had been woken up by the warning beeps of a delivery
truck as it reversed into the alleyway behind them. At first, Kieran
had wanted Sam to move in with them, to take the spare bedroom,
despite Amy’s protests, but Sam had insisted that it was time he stood
on his own two feet. It felt somewhat ironic that now Kieran was the
one staying at Sam’s.

Kieran stared at the TV in the sitting room, watching his faint

reflection in the black screen as it stared back at him. He was going to
become a werewolf. The thought continued to echo through his mind
on a loop. The only thing he had done since arriving back at Sam’s
flat, apart from sitting still in the dark, was look up the date of the
next full moon on his phone. Five days. One hundred and forty-four
hours until he was changed forever. Amazingly though, it wasn’t his

Jane Wallace-Knight

pending date with turning furry that was playing on his mind, it was
the fact that he had had sex with a man. The truly weird thing, for
Kieran, was how natural it had felt, how good and right. Kieran
wasn’t a closet case, he knew that for a fact. He had never had secret
thoughts about another man or sneakily watched some gay porn while
alone in his bedroom. Hell, he had been in a locker room filled with
naked men more times than he could count and it had never affected
him. He had never wanted to touch or kiss a man in his entire life, but
he’d be damned if he didn’t want Joey.

Joey, who listened to him talk, who took care of him, who looked

at him like the world began and ended right there in his eyes. He had
always felt a tug toward the other man, since their very first meeting.
He had thought the man crazy and yet still felt completely safe and
comfortable with him. Joey, the name whispered through his mind
like a lover’s caress and Kieran felt his body heat up at the memory of
their love making. That’s what it was, too, love making. There was no
denying it, not even to himself. He brought his hand up to touch the
small wound on his neck, which had amazingly already healed and
scarred. He felt a shiver of desire go through him at the thought that
he now belonged to Joey. He felt himself getting hard and he closed
his eyes as he replayed every detail that he could remember.

He took a shuddering breath as he pictured Joey’s mouth, so hot

and wet, as it moved slowly down Kieran’s body before taking in his
cock. Kieran slid his own hand down his body and gave his dick a
gentle squeeze. He was still wearing Joey’s clothes, including a pair
of sweatpants that were so loose and comfortable that he could
imagine Joey wearing them to bed. He liked the feel of the soft cotton
as he rubbed it over his stiffening cock and he imagined that Joey had
once done the same while wearing them.

He lifted his hips a little and slowly slid the sweatpants down over

his hips so that his cock was exposed to the night air. He took the
shaft in one hand and teasingly stroked it while he cupped his balls
with the other, squeezing them gently, just how he liked. He

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

remembered the look in Joey’s eyes as the man bent over him and
took the tip of Kieran’s dick into his mouth. Kieran moaned as he
tried to recreate it using his hand, though he knew that nothing he
could do to himself could ever compare to the wonder that was Joey’s
mouth. He brought his fingers up the shaft slowly and kneaded the
mushroomed head softly. He opened his eyes and looked down at his
cock. Kieran had always liked a visual aid. Trailing his fingertip over
the head he dipped it into the slit and gathered some of the oozing
precum, before smearing it over the glistening head. He bucked up
into his hand and moaned at the sensation before remembering how
Joey had sucked on his nipple, something he hadn’t even known he
liked until tonight. He went back to stroking the shaft with one hand
while he brought the other up to cruelly pinch at a nipple, his head
falling back on the headrest as the slight pain shot right through to his
cock.

“Oh fuck,” he groaned as he began pumping his dick in earnest.

He could imagine Joey’s cocky grin watching him as he got himself
off to thoughts of the werewolf.

“Joey, Joey, Joey,” he whimpered as he came all over his hand

and the T-shirt he had borrowed from Joey. He licked his dry,
panting, lips and swallowed as he milked himself of every last drop,
the feeling of bliss quickly consumed by the feeling of guilt that
followed.

Just two weeks ago he had been lying in bed with Amy, thinking

about how much he loved her. Now everything had changed and there
was no going back. His soul, his entire being had been fused with
Joey’s now and he was powerless against it. It terrified him.

He quickly stripped out of his soiled clothes and went to take a

shower, hoping that the hot water might help wash away some of his
guilt. Before stepping under the warm spray, Kieran sent off a quick
text message to his brother. If anyone could understand what he was
going through, it would be Sam.

Jane Wallace-Knight

* * * *

“The only downside of being a werewolf,” Billy announced as he

brought their third round of beers over from the bar to the table that
he and Joey were occupying. “Is that no matter how much we drink,
we can never get drunk.”

Joey snorted and took his beer with a thankful nod. “I don’t know,

I’ve seen enough humans do stupid things and make themselves ill
from getting drunk. Maybe we’re better off.”

“Sure,” Billy agreed. “But in times like these, it would be nice to

forget for a while.”

Joey frowned as he studied his friend. Billy was always quick to

temper, though everyone knew his bark was a lot worse than his bite.
It wasn’t that Billy didn’t have one hell of a bite on him, it was just
that he rarely ever used it. Billy was a man who constantly looked
pained and whenever Joey would ask him what the problem was, it
was usually something to do with one of his kids.

“Hang on,” Joey said. “Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be

wanting to forget my troubles?”

Billy looked at him and shook his head. “Isabelle’s pregnant

again.”

Joey snorted into his beer and choked a little on the froth. “Good

god, man. You two must be the most fertile wolves in history.”

Given their long lifespans, it was unusual for werewolf women to

be able to conceive more than once every ten years or so. Isabelle and
Billy already had four boys and three of them had been born in the
span of a decade. He couldn’t help but think of Kieran and the fact
that having children wouldn’t be a possibility for him if he chose to be
with Joey.

“Fuck, I hope this one’s a girl,” Billy wished aloud. “Boys are

nightmares, I’m telling you. They fight each other and break things,
and they’re always covered in mud and snot.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Joey chuckled at his friend and rolled his eyes. “Right, you poor

thing. You and your mate love each other so much that you’re
constantly fucking like bunnies. Whereas I made my mate run away
like a rabbit with a dingo on its tail. I probably sent him running back
to his ex-girlfriend, and you want me to feel sorry for you.”

Billy frowned as he studied his friend carefully, guilt etched on

his handsome face. “He’s your mate, Joe. He’ll come to you
eventually, you just have to wait it out.”

Joey ran his hand over his face and sighed. “That’s easier said

than done.”

They had left Billy’s boys with their older brother, Jason, who had

bitched and moaned about it but who had agreed nonetheless. Rather
than go to a regular pub, they had decided to frequent the bar of the
hotel that Alek owned, and where Sam had long since worked as a
bartender. Joey knew that Alek had informed the rest of the staff that
Sam had caught a bad case of flu, and that was why he hadn’t been
into work for weeks. Though Sam was physically different now, he
wasn’t so much so that it would arouse suspicion. Besides, humans
usually only saw what they wanted to see. The fact that their work
friend was now a vampire would be so beyond the realm of possibility
for them that they would convince themselves he was only so pale
because of his recent illness and that his softer, more melodic voice
had always been like that.

Alek hadn’t been the owner of The Castle Hotel and Bar for more

than a month or so, and so hadn’t yet made many changes. The place
had a warmth and a charm to it though, so Joey supposed that Alek
didn’t really need to change much anyway. The old stone brickwork,
electric candelabras, roaring fireplace and faux vintage tapestries that
hung on the walls all added to the feel of an old, traditional, real
working castle. Though Joey suspected the rooms upstairs had large
Jacuzzi bathtubs and TVs in every room.

They had seen Alek when they first arrived as he was there to do

some paperwork, but he had disappeared into his office soon after

Jane Wallace-Knight

their first round of drinks. As a vampire, Alek often stood apart from
the pack. Joey didn’t know why, seeing as he was unofficially the
alpha’s mate, but there was something a little unnerving about Alek. It
was probably the fact that he was so old, and had lived through so
much. Though he had formed close friendships with some of the pack,
Annie and her mate Davis most notably, it wasn’t until Sam joined
them that Alek seemed to relax into his role of alpha mate. Joey knew
it must have been hard for the vampire. Fifty years of wondering
when he was going to be replaced by Jackson’s true mate only to find
that the three of them were able to fall in love as easily as breathing.

“So when is she due?” Joey asked his friend, wanting to change

the course of his melancholy thoughts.

“Six months,” Billy answered. “She suspected for a while but put

off finding out for sure.”

“Why would she do that?” Joey asked. Understanding the inner

workings of a woman’s mind was something that had long since
eluded him.

Billy shrugged and took a large gulp of his beer. “I think she’s

been struggling a bit, with the boys I mean. It’s probably my fault.”

“How is it your fault?” Joey asked. “You’re great with the boys.”
Billy snorted and shook his head. “I’m great at wrestling with

them, at playing catch with them, but I guess I haven’t really been
pulling my weight with the other stuff. We had a fight earlier about
her always having to be the bad cop because I’m always the good
cop.”

Joey didn’t really have anything to say that might help his friend.

He knew that they were both from old fashioned packs where the
women raised the cubs and the men went to work. In his own pack,
Joey’s mother had been a timid woman who seemed to live to serve
his father. Joey couldn’t imagine wanting a mate like that, he much
preferred one that would fight with him rather than one who would
bow down to him.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Kieran was a fighter, that was for sure. Joey smiled at the thought

before he was hit with the now familiar feeling of his heart clenching
painfully.

“Anyway, that’s why I said I’d get the boys settled tonight and put

them to bed while she had some time to herself,” Billy finished.

Joey frowned at his friend. “So instead of doing what you said you

would, you palmed them off on Jason and came to the pub with me?”

Billy opened his mouth to defend himself but quickly closed it

again without saying a word. He apparently realised that Joey was
right. “Shit. I am a sucky dad.”

Joey snorted and looked his friend in the eye. “No you’re not.

Jason has dated men and women and you’ve never once said a word
about it. My dad had me beaten and sent away at the first mention of
me being gay. You’re not a sucky dad. You’re just a sucky mate.”

“Oh wow, thanks, Joey. That makes me feel so much better,”

Billy replied sarcastically.

“Look, go home. Run her a bubble bath, light some candles and

pour some wine. Tell her you sent the boys to stay with Jason so that
you could spend the night taking care of her. Give her a massage and
tell her how beautiful she always looks when she’s pregnant with your
child,” Joey told him, trying not to let in the sadness that threatened
him. What he wouldn’t give to spend the night taking care of Kieran.

“Damn, Joey. Who knew you were such a romantic?” Billy

announced in astonishment. “You really think that will work?”

Joey nodded and drained the last of his beer. “Trust me. I’ve

watched enough romantic comedies to know that women eat that shit
up.”

Billy laughed and clinked his now empty glass against Joey’s.

“Thanks, buddy. You sure you’re okay on your own?”

Joey grinned at him. “I’m always okay. Let’s go home.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Chapter Nine

The park at night was an eerie scene, Kieran decided as he arrived

at the deserted playground where he and Sam had hung out as
teenagers. The park was fairly large, considering they lived in such a
small town, and the sectioned-off playground was on top of a cliff
overlooking the sea. It had all changed over the last few years and
now there was all new playground equipment. He remembered
writing his and Sam’s names on the side of the old slide and drawing
various pictures and doodles. He felt a bit bad about that now,
defacing public property, but as a teenager he hadn’t given it a second
thought. Kieran didn’t remember it ever being so cold up there back
when they were kids, but then he supposed that kids usually didn’t
feel the cold quite so much.

He was bundled up into his black, military-style jacket with a

thick, red, wool scarf that Rita had knitted for him years ago. It was
misshapen in the middle where she had accidentally added a few
extras stitches by splitting the wool, and it was starting to fray at the
ends, but he still wore it. His real mother had never cared enough to
so much as look at him let alone spend weeks making him something
to keep him warm. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets in an
effort to keep them warm and sat himself down on one of the swings,
using his feet to gently rock himself back and forth. He remembered
what Joey had told him, that he could barely feel the cold and that
werewolves were usually hot.

“Well that’s something to look forward to I guess, being a wolf,”

he muttered to himself.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“That’s the first sign of madness, talking to yourself,” Sam’s

familiar voice said from behind him, making him jump. Stealthy Sam,
now that was something he was going to have to get used to.

“Really? I thought it was believing in werewolves and vampires,”

Kieran retorted, smiling as he turned on his swing to see his foster
brother. Sam came to sit on the swing next to his and he, too, began
pushing himself gently back and forth with his feet, matching
Kieran’s tempo.

“I’m glad you texted me, I was worried about you,” Sam

confessed quietly.

“How much do you know?” Kieran asked carefully as he studied

Sam’s pale face in the moonlight.

“I know that Joey is your mate, that you had sex and that he

claimed you,” Sam informed him with an easy shrug.

“So, everything then,” Kieran lamented, leaning his head against

the cold chain that was holding up his swing. “What do I do?”

Sam snorted and leaned back to look up at the night sky. “You

stop caring about everyone else for a change and do what makes you
happy.”

“That’s easier said than done,” Kieran pointed out. “Besides, I

don’t know what will make me happy.”

“Look, Kiers, you’re twenty-four years old. Most people our age

don’t know what they want, but as someone who has known the pull
of the mate bond, let me tell you that you will never feel complete
without him,” Sam told him gently. “I know when you and Amy
broke up you thought you’d end up getting back together, like you
usually do, but I think that’s just out of habit, or a fear of being alone.
Besides, now that you’ll be a wolf, you’re looking at a very long, and
miserable, eternity stretching out ahead of you if you don’t do what
makes you happy.”

Kieran frowned as he listened to his little brother talk. It was

strange for him to have Sam be the voice of reason as it was usually
Kieran offering Sam advice, never the other way around.

Jane Wallace-Knight

“When the fuck did you get wise? Is that an angel thing?”
“Piss off,” Sam said good naturedly as he gave Kieran’s swing a

gentle shove to the side. Kieran laughed and stood up, coming to
stand right in front of Sam.

“Well come on then, I’m going to need to see them eventually,”

Kieran told him, crossing his arms over his chest.

“See what?” Sam asked, stopping his swing with his feet and

looking up at him.

“The wings. Get them out, let me see them,” Kieran demanded

lightly.

Sam huffed in annoyance and stood from his swing before taking

off his jacket. “Are you sure about this? They’re pretty freaky. I mean
it’s one thing to know what I am, but another to actually see it.”

“I’m sure,” Kieran told him softly. “You’re my little brother. You

could sprout horns and I’d still love you.”

Sam nodded once and turned away from his brother before pulling

his T-shirt up over his head. Kieran watched his brother’s slender,
pale back and felt himself freeze in amazement as, in the blink of an
eye, two long, white, fluffy wings came bursting out through the skin
on Sam’s shoulder blades. It was pretty disgusting really, and there
were a few patches of blood marring the otherwise pure white
feathers. The wounds healed instantly around the new bones, making
it seem as though the wings had always been there.

“Holy shit,” Kieran breathed. He moved closer to his brother, his

hand out as though approaching a dog that might bite. Slowly, and
very gently, he reached out and touched the soft feathers, which made
them flutter minutely. Kieran jumped back, pulling his hand away like
it had been shocked.

“Oh my god, Sammy, you’ve got wings.”
Sam laughed and turned to face him again. “So it would seem.

Freaky huh?”

“No,” Kieran insisted softly with a shake of his head. “They’re

beautiful. Can you fly?”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“I don’t know, I haven’t tried,” Sam confessed shyly. “You know

I’m afraid of flying.”

Kieran couldn’t help himself, he threw his head back and laughed.

“Please tell me you’re joking. The big, bad, vampire-angel hybrid is
still afraid to fly?”

Sam shoved him playfully and Kieran went flying backwards a

good few feet, landing on his backside. “Shit, Kieran, I’m so sorry.”

Kieran groaned and let Sam help him back up. He was glad they

were at a play park that had soft, black rubber on the ground to protect
the children when they fell off of things. “Still getting used to that
super-strength I take it?”

Sam bit his lip and shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, no harm done,” Kieran assured him, seeing that his

brother was clearly upset by what had happened. “Maybe we can try
flying another day.”

Sam looked uncomfortable at the idea but gave a nod of consent

anyway. “It’s pretty late, Kieran. I hope it helped, talking to me.”

“It did. It always does,” Kieran insisted before pulling his brother

in for a quick hug. “And you’re right, it is late. Let me walk you
home.”

Sam pulled away from him with a soft laugh. “You’re kidding

right?”

“Hey, big, bad vampire or not, you’re still my little brother,”

Kieran insisted.

Sam smiled up at him fondly and bumped him with his shoulder,

clearly being more careful this time. “You’re sure you’re not just
hoping to run into a certain Australian?”

Kieran flushed and looked down at his feet. “Shut up.”
On the walk back to the manor Kieran thought back over his

relationship with Amy. He had actually lost count of the number of
times they had broken up. The truth of it was there had always been
more bad times than good. So why was it so hard to close that door
forever?

Jane Wallace-Knight

“So,” Kieran said as they approached the large estate. “Jackson

and Alek are okay with you going out unsupervised now then?”

Sam stopped in front of the wrought iron gate and looked up at his

new home. “They weren’t the ones who thought I needed supervision
in the first place. I mean, not after the first week or so anyway,” Sam
confessed. “It was me, I was afraid of myself.”

Kieran felt a familiar tug at his heartstrings at hearing that his

brother had been worrying. “Sammy, you’re so much stronger than
you give yourself credit for.”

“I know I’ve got the blood lust under control, pretty much

anyway,” Sam told him as he opened the gate and started the walk up
the long driveway. “But you saw how physically strong I am. I
pushed you gently and you went flying.”

Despite being the one who ended up on his arse, Kieran felt awful

that he had made Sam feel bad. “I’m fine, no harm done,” he assured
him with a gentle smile. “Besides, it’s only been a few weeks, you’ll
get used to it.”

Kieran didn’t want to bring up the fact that after the full moon,

after he had transformed into a wolf for the first time, he, too, would
be stronger. He couldn’t even think about that right now. In the space
of two weeks he had split up with his girlfriend, and was now
practically married to a man he barely knew. His entire life had
changed so much already, he wasn’t ready to face becoming a
werewolf on top of that.

As they neared the manor, Kieran could see the outlines of two

men standing off to the side, where they had just gotten out of a car.
His heart felt like it did a somersault in his chest as he realised that
one of them was Joey.

The Australian seemed to have already noticed Kieran as he was

making his way towards them, scenting the air, with his friend
following close behind.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Hi,” was what Joey said to him, somewhat uncomfortably, as he

came to a stop in front of them. Their eyes met and held onto each
other while Sam, and a man he called Billy, greeted each other.

“Hi,” Kieran managed to say back as he shoved his hands into his

pockets. They stood there looking awkwardly at each other for a
moment before Sam had seemingly had enough.

“Okay,” Sam started brightly. “Billy and I are going inside and

you two are going to go to Joey’s house to talk.”

Kieran opened his mouth to protest but the sudden look of hope in

Joey’s eyes had him shutting up. He supposed that they really did
need to talk about things, even though he had no idea what to say.

“Do you want to come back to my place and talk?” Joey asked

hopefully. He had that look again, the look of a puppy worried he
might be about to get kicked. Kieran wanted to take that look away.
He hated seeing the usually relaxed man so uncomfortable.

“Sure, why not.”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Chapter Ten

The two of them walked back to Joey’s house in silence, both of

them stealing glances at each other every now and then. Joey’s
shaggy hair was falling down over his dark eyes and Kieran found
himself smiling at the way Joey kept pushing it back in annoyance.

“I thought you were going home,” Joey finally spoke as he let

them into his house. “I mean, back to Sam’s.”

“I did,” Kieran told him, breathing in the now-familiar scent of

Joey’s home. It still looked every bit as inviting and cozy as it had a
few hours ago. So much had seemingly happened in those few short
hours that it already felt like days had passed since they were last
there together. “I went home and showered but I needed to talk to
Sam.”

Joey nodded, tossing his keys onto the breakfast bar as he walked

into the kitchen area and turned on the coffee maker. “Yeah, I noticed
you weren’t wearing my clothes anymore.”

Kieran looked down at what he was wearing now and felt his face

heat up at the memory of why Joey’s clothes had ended up in the
laundry hamper. “Um, yeah. I thought I’d wash them for you.”

Joey’s face seemed to fall at what Kieran was saying and he found

himself frowning as he sat himself down on one of the stools at the
bar. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Joey insisted quickly, though Kieran didn’t believe

him. He just continued to look at Joey with his eyebrows raised until
the werewolf caved and told him. “I guess I just liked the idea that, if
you decide you don’t want to be with me, that I would at least have
something that smelled of you.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Kieran felt his throat tighten at Joey’s honest admission. He

couldn’t imagine how hard this must be for his friend. Although
Kieran had been with Amy for a long time, and he certainly had
feelings for Joey, he couldn’t say, in all honesty, that he had ever felt
about anyone the way Joey felt about him. It was frightening.

“Do you want some coffee? Or is it too late for you?” Joey asked

as he looked at the clock on his oven. Kieran looked, too, and saw that
it was gone midnight already, technically the morning after. He really
should say no and go home to get some sleep as he had to go to work
the next morning, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave and he knew
that if he did he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.

“Coffee sounds good,” Kieran told him as he leaned his elbows on

the breakfast bar and watched Joey move about the kitchen with ease.
He realised, as his stomach rumbled loudly, that he hadn’t eaten
anything since breakfast and even then all he had eaten was a slice of
toast with peanut butter.

Joey turned and smirked at him. “Hungry?”
Kieran smiled back at him. “Yeah, I guess so.”
With a nod, Joey went over to his refrigerator and had a look

inside. “How does a ham and mushroom omelette take your fancy?”

“Throw in some cheese and I’m sold,” Kieran told him with a

grin.

It felt nice having someone other than Rita cook for him. His own

culinary expertise ended with spaghetti and sauce from a jar. His
freezer was filled with ready meals that he could just pop into the
microwave and most of his vegetables came already prepared in a bag
to be steamed. He blamed Rita for his lack of skill in the kitchen. His
foster mum was a really good cook and she saw it as a way of taking
care of her boys. She had never tried to teach them to fend for
themselves because, Kieran suspected, deep down she wanted them to
still depend on her. Most Sundays Kieran and Sam would go to Rita’s
house for dinner, complete with homemade dessert. Sometimes Amy
had joined them but usually she had complained that she didn’t want

Jane Wallace-Knight

to spend hours waiting around before dinner, as Kieran and Sam liked
to get there early so they could all share news about their weeks.

“If Rita asked you over for dinner every Sunday, you’d go,

wouldn’t you,” Kieran found himself saying as he watched Joey
skillfully break eggs into a bowl with one hand. Kieran knew that
Joey had grown fond of Rita over the last few weeks, often staying
there once Kieran had left, in order to keep her company.

Joey turned to him with a questioning frown and started beating

the eggs. “I would. Especially if I knew that you’d be there.”

Kieran smiled at him as warmth spread inside his chest. Joey was

pretty wonderful, as people went. The feelings he was developing for
Joey were beyond confusing. He understood the mate thing, and
although he felt an undeniable pull toward Joey, he couldn’t say,
without a shadow of a doubt, that Joey was the one for him. There
was a part of him that rebelled against the idea that fate decided who
he should be with him, and not him. The full moon was drawing close
and he found himself afraid, not of transforming into a wolf, but of
having the remainder of his free will taken away.

“When I change for the first time, will I feel what you feel? About

the mate bond, I mean,” Kieran asked.

Joey placed the chopped up mushrooms and ham into a frying pan

and poured over the egg mixture. He was seemingly taking his time to
answer, clearly thinking over what to say. “Yes,” he finally replied.
“Does that bother you?”

Kieran thought about it and didn’t know the answer to it. “A bit, I

guess. I feel like I want to know, without any doubts, that I’ve chosen
you of my own free will.”

Joey left the omelette cooking and came to lean his elbows on the

counter right in front of where Kieran was sitting. He was wearing a
thin green T-shirt with a tree design on the front. It was tight enough
that when Joey’s arms were flexed, as they were now, his muscles
seemed close to bursting through the seams. Kieran found his eyes
glued to them. They were golden tanned with a fine dusting of blond

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

hairs. Either Kieran was actually a lot gayer than he had ever thought,
or being turned on by muscles was just a Joey thing. There was no
denying those arms were doing something for Kieran.

He pulled his eyes away from Joey’s arms and up to the blond’s

face. Joey smirked down at him affectionately, having caught Kieran
starring, and leaned in to place a gentle kiss on the tip of Kieran’s
nose. “I guess that sounds fair.”

“Really?” Kieran asked. “I don’t want to string you along or

anything, I just need to know, before I change, what it is that I really
want.”

Joey nodded before straightening up. The smell of the food

cooking was making Kieran’s stomach rumble again. “I do have one
request though.”

“Okay, what?” Kieran asked slowly, suspicious of what Joey was

going to ask.

“Well, you’re trying to decide whether or not to give us a go,

right?” Joey began. At Kieran’s nod he continued. “And you lived
with Amy for a while, so if you’re going to make an informed
decision I think it’s only fair that you stay here with me for the rest of
the week. That way you’ll know what you’re signing up for either
way, and you’ll be here for me to help you through your first change.”

Kieran thought over what Joey was saying. While it did sound as

though it made sense, Joey seemed just a little too cocky about it for
his liking. Kieran thought about how it might feel awkward to be with
Joey for that length of time, but then he supposed that in the long run,
whatever choice he made, he should have no regrets.

“Okay, deal,” Kieran told him with a small smile. “I just have one

stipulation.”

“Name it,” Joey told him with a shark-like grin.
“You cook for me every night,” Kieran insisted with a playful

smirk.

Joey chuckled and pretended to think it over. “And what exactly

do I get if I cook for you every night?”

Jane Wallace-Knight

Kieran thought it over and looked back at Joey, pretending to be

innocent. “Whatever you want.”

Joey groaned and quickly went back to fixing their late

dinner/early breakfast. “Kieran, you have no idea the filthy and
depraved things that you just agreed to.”

Kieran laughed and slid off the bar stool to join Joey as he plated

up their food. “If it’s more of what we did earlier, then I’m
completely on board.”

Joey swooped in quickly, his arms going around Kieran as he

went in for a swift, but forceful, kiss. “You damn well better be a fast
eater,” Joey told him as he let him go.

Kieran followed his mate as he took their plates over to the

breakfast bar and sat down, unable to stop himself smiling. He made
sure that Joey was looking at him as he scooped up a massive forkful
of omelette before shoving it into his mouth to show him just how
eager he was. Joey threw back his head and laughed before turning his
attention to his own food.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Eleven

Kieran had heard people comment that something smelled of sex

before. He had never really believed that they could smell it though,
much like when people claimed they could smell that snow was
coming. Kieran could honestly say that to him snow smelled of
nothing. Perhaps he just didn’t have a very sensitive nose. However,
when Joey led him into the bedroom, after having left their dishes in
the sink, Kieran breathed in the heady scent of their love making from
earlier that evening.

He stood in the doorway as Joey moved toward the bed,

straightening out the bedspread on which they had laid together.
Kieran breathed in deep and felt his dick twitch at the musky scent.
Joey turned to him, having heard Kieran breathe in, with a smile
playing on his face.

“Look at you,” he started, playfully. “Not a whole day into your

transformation and already your senses are heightened. I’m afraid that
being a wolf makes scent pigs of us all.”

“What’s a scent pig?” Kieran asked, bewildered by the term.
Joey just smirked at him again. “Never you mind. Let’s keep you

sweet and innocent as long as possible, huh?”

Kieran just looked at him hard until Joey sighed and sat down on

the edge of the bed. “Is that going to be a thing with us? You just stare
at me like that until I cave and give you whatever you want?”

“Yes,” Kieran answered simply.
“Fair enough.” Joey patted the space beside him and Kieran went

over to sit next to him.

Jane Wallace-Knight

“A scent pig is someone who gets off on the smells of sex,” Joey

explained to him as he turned his body so he could look at Kieran. He
reached out and cupped the side of Kieran’s face, smiling at him like
he was looking at his favourite artwork. “You’ve seen dogs sniff each
other’s butts, right? Well, we werewolves like to scent.”

Kieran made a disgusted face. “I don’t want you sniffing my

butt.”

Joey threw back his head and laughed before leaning in to kiss

Kieran softly on the lips. “You are too cute, you know that? There are
many things I want to do to your butt, Kieran, sniffing it isn’t one of
them.”

Kieran flushed at Joey’s words and looked down as he wrung his

hands on his lap. He knew he wanted Joey, wanted more of what they
had done earlier, but he didn’t know if he was prepared for anything
more. Especially not if it involved his butt.

“I’m not cute,” was what he eventually said. “I’m strong and

manly.”

Joey smiled and nodded. “Yes you are,” he said lecherously as he

looked Kieran up and down. “You’re also very cute, deal with it.”

Kieran tried to scowl at him but the amusement on Joey’s face just

made him smile. “Wanker.”

“Hey now, there’s no need for name calling. I’m also pretty damn

cute, if I do say so myself,” Joey told him with a wide grin.

“I’m sorry, I take it back,” Kieran told him seriously. “You’re an

arrogant wanker.”

If possible, Joey’s grin grew even bigger and he leaned in slowly,

seemingly giving Kieran enough time to move back if he should want
to, and pressed another soft kiss to Kieran’s mouth.

“You’re so romantic,” Joey whispered against his mouth. “The

lovely things you say to me.”

Kieran grinned and decided to shut Joey up the best way he knew

how. This time he made the first move and cupped the back of Joey’s
head before giving him a proper kiss. Joey’s gentling was all well and

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

good, but Kieran was a man and, although he was unsure about how
far he was willing to go, he certainly wasn’t going to be passive, with
Joey having to make all the moves. He kept it light at first, sucking
seductively on Joey’s bottom lip, which was full and luscious and
totally bitable. Joey’s groan was like a mating call to Kieran’s dick
and he reached down to give himself a gentle squeeze through his
jeans.

He deepened the kiss and moaned in the back of his throat at the

way Joey sucked on his tongue. “Fuck,” he groaned as he pulled away
enough to rest their foreheads together. “I still can’t believe any of
this is happening.”

Joey grinned again and pulled back to look into Kieran’s eyes. “I

know. I am pretty unbelievable.”

With a roll of his eyes, Kieran gave Joey a playful shove. “Shut up

and get naked,” Kieran demanded, seemingly much to Joey’s delight.

“Yes, sir.”

* * * *

Joey got up from the bed and moved to stand right in front of

Kieran. Kieran looked up at him, his eyes wide and dark. With a
cocky smile on his full lips, Joey grabbed the hem on his shirt and
pulled it up over his head, before tossing it to the corner of the room.
He watched Kieran’s face carefully as the young man’s eyes travelled
over his washboard abs, slowly following the trail of golden hair
down until it was stopped, abruptly, by the presence of Joey’s boxer
shorts. His eyes glued themselves to the outline of Joey’s cock, which
was already half hard just from their kiss and the promise of sex.

Slowly, Joey slid his hand down over his stomach and deftly

opened his fly before sliding his jeans down over his legs and kicking
them off. Reaching forward, Joey cupped Kieran’s face, loving how
smooth it was. He wasn’t a big fan of men with facial hair, and it was
clear that Kieran shaved daily, as did Joey himself.

Jane Wallace-Knight

“You said I could do whatever I wanted to you,” Joey reminded

his mate, noting the sudden huskiness of his own voice. “Did you
mean it? Do you trust me, Kieran?”

Kieran looked up from Joey’s body to meet his eyes. The younger

man swallowed and moistened his lower lip. “Yes. I trust you.”

Joey smiled at the look of conviction on Kieran’s face and he

loved how his voice was thick with arousal. “Then put your mouth on
me.”

Kieran’s eyebrows shot up, he clearly hadn’t been expecting that.

“You mean, you want me to blow you?”

Joey could hear the hint of nerves creeping into his mate’s voice

and he wanted it gone. He wanted their love making to be fun and
sensual. He certainly didn’t want his mate feeling uneasy.

“I want you to put your mouth on me,” Joey told him, stroking his

face lovingly. “But I want you to do it because you want to do it.”

Kieran held his eyes for a moment and Joey could see the look of

uncertainty give way to determination. Kieran nodded and turned his
head slowly to place a kiss on Joey’s palm. The kiss made Joey’s
breath hitch and his cock twitch. Never before had such a simple
gesture done so much for him.

Turning back to face him, Kieran reached out with both his hands

and slid them slowly over Joey’s stomach, before gliding them over to
his sides and down to stroke his thighs, never once touching his dick.
His hands eventually found themselves grabbing hold of the thin
material at the sides of his shorts, and he tugged gently, urging Joey to
move even closer to him.

Joey was close enough now that Kieran could lean forward

slightly and press a kiss to Joey’s abs. The muscles beneath the
golden skin tensed at the touch and Joey let his hands slide gently into
Kieran’s hair. The werewolf gasped as Kieran’s hand slid over his
growing bulge before giving it a gentle, but firm, squeeze.

“Oh yeah,” Joey groaned, his eyes glued to his mate’s actions. He

watched as Kieran looked up at him through heavy lids and thick

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

lashes, purposefully catching his eye, before leaning in, teasingly
slow, and licking over the cotton encased bulge. Joey’s dick was
pointing straight up now and it very nearly threatened to peek out
over the top of the waistband.

Kieran’s teeth took some of the material and tugged gently before

letting it snap back. With a smirk on his face, knowing full well what
he was doing to Joey, Kieran opened his mouth and used it to cover
Joey’s dick. The warm, wet heat and the material of the cotton was
perfect and as Kieran began sucking along the underside of Joey’s
hard cock, the wolf let his head fall back and his hand tighten in
Kieran’s hand.

Joey closed his eyes and just let himself feel all that his mate was

doing to him. Kieran grasped Joey’s cock through his underwear, the
material now damp with pre-cum and saliva. He stroked the hard
flesh, pulling the cotton up and down with him. He leaned in and
licked a path along Joey’s treasure trail and Joey couldn’t stop himself
from bucking up against Kieran’s hand.

“Fuck, Kieran. That’s so good,” Joey growled. It really was good

but Joey didn’t want to come this way. He wanted to touch Kieran,
too. He wanted to make love to him. “Take off your clothes.”

When Joey looked back down at his mate, Kieran’s eyes were

nearly black with lust and Joey could see an impressive erection
straining against the zipper of his jeans. Taking pity on him, Joey
slowly slid to his knees between Kieran’s spread thighs. He leaned in
and kissed his mate slowly, loving his taste and everything about it.
He ran his hands over Kieran’s thighs before undoing his fly and
releasing him. Joey looked down at the hot, hard flesh in his hand and
moaned. His mate was beautiful and Joey wanted to suck on his cock
like it was his favourite treat in the world.

He knew it would be different this time. There would be no

gentling needed here, not now. He made sure to hold Kieran’s blue
gaze as he swallowed him down to the base of his cock. Kieran yelled
out and tightened his fists on the bed sheet beneath him.

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“Oh, fuck me,” Kieran proclaimed. Joey was sure he hadn’t meant

it as a direction, but oh what an idea that was. Joey was able to
mumble the word “off” without removing his mouth. Kieran took a
moment to understand what Joey meant, but he soon cottoned on. He
grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up over his head before
letting it drop to the ground beside him.

“That’s so fucking hot, Joey,” he whispered in the almost silent

room. The only other sounds were of Joey sucking his cock, and what
deliciously, dirty sounds they were. Joey moaned around Kieran’s
dick like he was having the time of his life, and really, he was.

He pulled off of his mate’s dick with a filthy slurping sound and

straightened up. “Lie back.”

Kieran did as he was told and lifted his hips at Joey’s urging, so

that Joey could pull down his jeans and underwear. Once his mate
was completely naked, Joey stood back to admire him. He was spread
out, wanton and flushed, hard and leaking, just waiting for Joey to
take him. Joey growled in the back of his throat and he watched as the
sound made Kieran’s dick visibly twitch.

“Damn, you are one sexy man, babe,” Joey swore before going

over to his bedside table. He fished out a tube of lubricant and placed
it on the bed beside Kieran, who eyed it suspiciously.

“You want to fuck me?” Kieran asked quietly, seemingly unsure

but not completely against the idea.

“I’d like to,” Joey confessed. “But you could do me if you’d

rather.”

Kieran was quiet for a moment as he seemingly weighed up his

options. “No. I don’t know what to do, so you should do me first.”

Joey’s eyebrows rose at his mates words. “Really? You don’t have

to if you’re not into it.”

Kieran snorted and grabbed Joey before pulling him down on top

of him. They both hissed at the contact of naked skin on naked skin.
“I think it’s clear that I’m into it. When Sam told me he was gay I felt

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

like it was my job to learn about how gay sex worked so I could give
him the birds and the bees talk.”

Joey looked down at his mate in awe, who reached up to stroke

the mop of hair out of Joey’s eyes. “Really? You did that?”

Kieran shrugged a shoulder and slid his free hand down to cup

Joey’s backside. “I didn’t want him getting hurt. My point is that I
know the mechanics of it, and I know why it’s supposed to feel good.
So yes, I am into it,” he repeated.

Joey grinned and slowly lowered his head, bringing their mouths

together for another kiss. “I’m going to make love to you so good
you’ll never leave,” he promised, noting the bittersweet look his
words produced in Kieran’s eyes.

Joey slowly started moving against Kieran, as he had done the

first time they made love, which was hard to believe it was only a few
hours ago. Their skin slid against each other and Joey could feel
Kieran’s prick, already nice and hard. He thought about the best way
to prepare his mate, wondering if he should suck his dick to take the
edge off the burn. He didn’t want to make Kieran come yet though,
and having Joey’s hot mouth on him any longer would certainly do
that. Joey heard his mate’s breath hitch and he stilled his movements,
loving the whine his mate made at the sudden lack of friction.

With a wicked smile, Joey got off of him and came to kneel

between his legs, as an idea came to him. “Roll over on to your
stomach,” he commanded.

Kieran licked his lips, his eyes heavily lidded, as he quickly

complied.

“Good boy,” Joey told him playfully with a quick swat to his

deliciously firm backside. He bent his head over Kieran’s behind and
gently bit a cheek, making Kieran jump and laugh.

“Okay wolf-boy, I think you’ve bitten me enough for one day. Get

on with it,” Kieran demanded, impatiently lifting his arse up a little,
wanting more attention.

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Damn, Joey thought as he lovingly stroked his hand over the

mounds of flesh beneath him. His mate was so gorgeous. He felt his
hand shake a little, either from nerves, or because he was just too
eager, he wasn’t sure. “Get up on your knees a little,” he told him.

Kieran did as he was told, his bum up in the air while his head

rested on his folded arms. Joey smiled at the blind obedience and
brought his face down to place a tender kiss on the small of Kieran’s
back. Kieran wouldn’t know what hit him.

Joey pulled Kieran’s arse cheeks apart with one hand and groaned

at the sight it made. He quickly licked the pad of the thumb of his
other hand before slowly sliding it over the puckered hole. Kieran
gasped at the intimate touch and a faint tremor travelled through his
body. Joey stroked the entrance a few times until the temptation was
too much. He wanted to taste his mate in the most intimate of ways.
Joey was hard and leaking as he used both hands to spread Kieran’s
cheeks apart, before pushing his face into the crack.

Kieran yelped at the surprising kiss that was placed on his hole,

and shuddered at the following feeling of a wet tongue. “Oh my god.”

Joey licked slowly, sensually, up and down the cleft before gently

pushing the tip of his tongue inside. A flavour that was so intimate
and erotic exploded on his tongue and Joey moaned as he delved
deeper.

Kieran was practically shaking under him, and taking pity on him,

Joey grabbed his dick in a loose fist, gently squeezing it to take the
edge off.

“Fuck,” Kieran cried out. “Please, Joey. I need to come.”
Pulling his mouth away from Kieran’s hole, Joey grabbed for the

tube of lube and dribbled a generous amount onto his hard cock. He
stroked himself a few times, gathering some of the lube on his
fingertips, before going back to preparing Kieran. He took a deep
breath to steady himself and gently pushed against Kieran’s entrance
with his index finger.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Tell me if I hurt you, okay,” Joey insisted. He couldn’t bear the

thought of accidentally hurting his mate because he was too eager to
get inside him.

Kieran panted, his arms and legs shaking slightly as though he had

just run a marathon. “Just get on with it. Fuck me already.”

Joey chuckled under his breath and slid his finger slowly in and

out before adding a second one. “I’m not being a cock tease, babe.
Trust me, you don’t want me to rush this part.”

“Just remember, payback’s a bitch,” Kieran joked, much to Joey’s

delight. He could honestly say that he was very much looking forward
to that kind of payback

When Joey was satisfied that Kieran was ready for him, and

Kieran was a writhing mass of need, Joey once again placed a tender
kiss to the small of his mate’s back and urged him to roll back over.
He lowered his body over Kieran’s, blanketing his lover, and looked
down into his eyes.

“You ready?” Joey whispered into the quiet room. Kieran nodded

his consent and Joey raised himself up on one arm while with the
other hand he guided his cock to Kieran’s entrance. Slowly, so
slowly, Joey pushed in, inch by inch. The sounds of Kieran’s gasps
and groans were indicators of how well he was taking Joey’s thick
cock. Joey watched Kieran’s face for signs of pain but there were
none and soon he was seated deep inside the other man.

“Holy shit,” Kieran breathed. “That feels so weird. You’re inside

me.”

Joey grinned down at him softly and started to pull back a little

only to push straight back in. He watched Kieran’s look of wonder
give way to pleasure as Joey angled his movement just right.

“Oh my god,” Kieran cried out. “So that’s why men do this.”
Joey bit his lip and smiled. He wanted so much to let go and give

up all of his control, but he needed this to be perfect for Kieran. “Just
stay relaxed.”

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Kieran nodded and brought his hands up to Joey’s shoulders. “Just

keep doing what you’re doing,” he countered.

Joey began to pick up the pace and found a smooth rhythm as he

thrust his hips. He lowered his head and gently bit down on Kieran’s
nipple, which made the young man groan even louder.

“Does that feel good?” Joey asked at the same time that he sped

up his thrusts.

Kieran threw his head back and his fingers gripped tightly onto

Joey’s shoulders. “Fuck, it feels amazing.”

Joey grinned and moved so that he could place a kiss on Kieran’s

throat. “You’re so fucking sexy like this.”

“Please,” Kieran moaned. “Fuck me, don’t hold back. I need to

come.”

At Kieran’s request, Joey allowed himself to get lost in their love-

making. He closed his eyes and he let go as he fucked Kieran’s hole,
his hips slapping against the firmness of Kieran’s arse. It was so
perfect, being inside his mate, marking him from the inside. He could
feel Kieran’s cock poking his stomach as he thrust into him, and he
reached between them to take hold of it.

Kieran cried out at the touch and started moving to meet Joey’s

thrusts. “Oh fuck. Please, Joey, yes.”

Joey pumped Kieran’s cock in time with the pumping of his hips,

and he moaned loudly as Kieran came, his come splashing between
them. His passage tightened around Joey’s length, constricting and
squeezing him perfectly. Throwing back his head, Joey roared as his
orgasm took him over. He continued to thrust into his mate until they
were both utterly spent.

Long minutes passed, and neither man moved as they caught their

breath. When finally Joey pulled out of Kieran, and rolled to his side,
he looked over at the other man’s serene face and realised, that for the
first time in his long life, he was in love.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

Chapter Twelve

The next morning Joey was awake first. He usually woke up early,

had done ever since he was a cub. It was nice getting to catch the
sunrise, and as he had windows facing both east and west in his living
area, he got the best of both the sunrise and the sunset. It was only just
now getting light out, and as it was winter the sun was stubbornly
hiding behind a cloud and seemed like it wouldn’t be coming out all
day. He smiled as he walked, naked, to his kitchen to start making
coffee, as he thought of how sexy Kieran looked spread out in his bed.

The young man slept on his front with his legs tangled up in the

bed sheets. It seemed that Kieran moved around a lot when he slept
and Joey had woken up a couple of time in the night, not used to the
company. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that before he left Kieran,
sleeping peacefully in his bedroom, he lifted the sheet to get another
good look at the man’s arse.

“And what an arse it is,” Joey muttered to himself as he

remembered the night before and the wonderful things he had done to
it.

While he waited for his morning coffee he grabbed his phone

from the counter and called Billy. He knew that no one would answer
for at least seven rings as Billy and Isabelle were usually busy trying
to get their boys all ready for school at this time of day.

“Hello, this is Peter speaking, how may I help you please?”
Joey chuckled to himself as Billy’s second to youngest, Peter,

answered the phone. “Wow, Petey, what good manners you have.”

“Uncle Joey!” the little boy shouted down the phone, making Joey

cringe and pull it away from his ear a little. “Whatcha doing?”

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“I’m talking to you,” Joey pointed out to the five-year-old. “What

are you doing?”

“I’m supposed to be getting my socks on but I don’t like them,

they itch my feet and make them hot,” Peter protested. “Hold on.”

“Okay,” Joey answered, though the boy had already gone.

“Hello?”

“Hello?” Billy asked. “Joey?”
“Yeah, g’day, Bill. You all good?” Joey asked, looking up as his

coffee maker beeped, letting him know that it was ready.

“Yeah. Petey just threw the phone at me so he could run away

from his mom,” Billy told him, making Joey laugh.

“Yeah, you wicked people, trying to make him wear socks,” Joey

teased.

Billy snorted. “I’m telling you, man, this next one better be a girl.

Tonight we’ve got Kyle staying over, too.”

Joey didn’t envy him. Although he liked kids, Billy’s kids and

Annie’s boy, Kyle, especially, he didn’t think he could cope with that
many all the time. “Listen, I called for a reason, I need to ask you a
favour.”

“You want me to get someone to cover for you today,” Billy

replied, making Joey frown.

“How do you know that?”
“Sam asked me last night. He said that he’s making Jackson go to

work today, instead of babysitting him. He also asked if Jason
wouldn’t mind filling in a few more days so that you could take some
time off,” Billy told him.

Joey shook his head in amazement. “That little shit sure does like

to meddle, doesn’t he?”

Billy chuckled. “Yep. So, Kieran stayed the night then?”
Joey thought back to the night before, and the way Kieran had

snuggled against him after their love making, and smiled. “Yeah, he’s
staying for a while. Forever, if I get my way.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Well, good luck, buddy. I hope it all works out for you, and don’t

worry about work. Me, Jackson and Jason have got it covered,” Billy
insisted. “And hey, listen, bring Kieran over for dinner one night.”

“Okay. Thanks, man. See you soon,” Joey told him before

hanging up.

“Who was that?” Kieran suddenly asked from behind him. Joey

wasn’t someone used to being snuck up on so it surprised him that his
mate had been able to. Joey let his eyes travel up and down Kieran’s
body. The young man had put his underwear back on but was
otherwise naked, and shivering in the cool January air. Joey cursed
himself for not remembering to turn on the heat, forgetting that until
Kieran’s transformation, he would feel the cold as usual.

“Billy,” Joey answered quickly as he passed by his mate to go

back into the bedroom. He grabbed the blanket he had wrapped
Kieran in the night before and brought it back out to him. “Here put
this on. I’ll crank up the heat for you.”

Kieran smiled at him a little shyly as he took the blanket and

wrapped it around his shoulders.

“Thanks,” he muttered quietly as he pulled the blanket tightly

around himself. “I guess I should start getting ready for work.”

Joey watched his mate stifle a yawn and went over to the

forgotten coffee pot to make them both a cup. “You’ve barely had any
sleep, why don’t you call in sick and we can spend the day hanging
out here,” he suggested.

Kieran went to sit down on one of the leather sofas and looked

back over at Joey with a small smirk. “You are really comfortable
being naked, aren’t you?”

Joey looked down at himself and smirked. “When you look this

good, why the hell not be naked whenever you can?”

Kieran smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. If I looked

like you I’d probably always be naked, too.”

Wearing nothing but a frown, Joey brought over two mugs of

steaming hot, black coffee, just how they both liked it. He placed

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them on the coffee table in front of the sofa where Kieran was sat.
“Kieran, I can honestly say, hand on heart, that no one has ever
looked sexier to me than you are.”

Kieran budged up on the sofa, allowing Joey to sit beside him. He

looked down, with an embarrassed frown, and shook his head. “I’m
not sure I’ll ever get used to this. You and me, I mean.”

Joey nodded and leaned in to kiss Kieran’s cheek. “We’ve got a

very long lifetime to get used to it.”

“Okay,” Kieran finally said with a nod.
“Okay, what?”
“Okay, I’ll call in sick,” Kieran told him. “But as I honoured my

part of the agreement last night, by letting you do anything you
wanted to me,” Kieran began, his bashfulness now replaced by
seduction. “You have to make me something nice for breakfast.”

Joey bit his lip to try and stop himself from smiling but it didn’t

really work. “See, I’m pretty sure that as I made you dinner last night,
we’re squared away.”

“Yes, but I’ve had sex with you twice now, and you’ve only

cooked for me once,” Kieran pointed out with a playful shrug.

The truth was that Joey loved cooking for Kieran, and he would

do it three times a day if he could, without getting anything in return,
but he enjoyed this playful side to his mate, so he played along.

“Technically, we didn’t reach this agreement until after I blew

you, the first time,” Joey told him. “So I count that one as a freebie.”

Kieran raised his eyebrows at Joey and huffed. “Wow, I didn’t

know I was prostituting myself for food. How cheap of me.”

The two men stared at each other for a moment, both of them

trying not to smile. “Okay fine,” Kieran finally relented. “Then I
guess if you make me breakfast, I’ll owe you one.”

“Deal,” Joey said quickly, leaping up off the sofa to start on

breakfast. Kieran laughed, so carefree, at Joey’s actions. It was a
sound that touched Joey’s heart.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Bacon sandwich do you?” Joey asked as he took his naked arse

over to the kitchen area. “Or is this where the honeymoon ends and
you tell me you’re secretly a health nut.”

Kieran laughed and followed him over, sitting himself down at the

breakfast bar. He had managed to keep the blanket wrapped around
him while also carrying over both of the untouched mugs of coffee.
“Not a chance. Sam’s the vegetarian of the family. I’ll pretty much eat
anything. Except tofu,” he finished with a shudder. “Sam made me try
it once, it had no taste and the texture of scrambled egg.”

Joey laughed and went over to the refrigerator. He pulled out the

bacon and sniffed it, slightly worried that he hadn’t been shopping in
a while, but his superior nose told him that it was still good. “We
wolves don’t do tofu. We’re carnivores at heart.”

“Then it’s a good thing Sam was turned into a vampire before the

mating bite could potentially change him into a wolf. Drinking blood
from humans is one thing, but Sam would never eat an animal,”
Kieran told him with an affectionate smile for his brother.

It made Joey sad to think about his own brother. Not the older one

who had given him a beating and was probably pack alpha by now,
but the sweet younger one who was just a baby the last Joey had seen.
He worried that the little boy had grown up to be just like their older
brother and father. He remembered that Jackson and Alek had hired a
private investigator to look into Sam’s true parentage and had been
wondering lately if he should try and find out if his brother still lived
with their old pack. It would be good to at least send him a letter so
that he would know, once and for all, what had become of him.

He knew that hiring the PI was the coward’s way out though. If he

sent a letter to his old address, and his brother was still living in that
town, it would find its way to him regardless of whether he was living
in the same house or not.

“So what are we going to do all day?” Kieran asked, bringing Joey

out of his thoughts. Joey turned to his mate with a lavish grin and
wiggled his eyebrows.

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Kieran laughed and shook his head. “Perv. Didn’t you get enough

last night?”

“Never,” Joey told him seriously before placing the rashers of

bacon into a frying-pan and putting it on the stove. “White or brown
bread?”

“White,” Kieran answered. “I’ll butter the bread while you cook

the bacon.”

“Oh really?” Joey asked mischievously. “You might have to lose

the blanket for that.”

Kieran just gave him a look before going back to the bedroom.

Joey guessed he was getting dressed and he couldn’t help but feel a
little disappointed that his mate wasn’t going to join him and be naked
all day.

“Actually,” Joey said to himself, thinking about how bacon tended

to spit fat. “Maybe not a good idea.”

He nodded once to himself before going to join Kieran in the

bedroom in search of some clothes.

* * * *

The rest of their day had been spent mostly eating, fucking, and

playing, and as far as Kieran was concerned it might just have been
the best day of his life. They had gone back to bed after breakfast,
where Kieran had discovered the wonder of being on top and all that
came with it. They had spent several hours afterwards just talking and
touching, learning all about each other’s bodies. Kieran had told Joey
some of his stories of life with Rita and Sam and, in return, Joey had
told Kieran all about the travelling he had done after leaving his birth
pack.

As evening came, Joey cooked them a simple dinner, which

consisted of steak, baked potatoes, and salad. After dinner Kieran had
gone looking for a movie for them to watch but had, instead, found an
old Scrabble board and had insisted that they play it.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

“Hmmm,” Joey mused a half hour later, as they lounged on the

floor in front of the roaring fireplace, both dressed only in their boxer-
shorts. “I have two Cs, a K, and an O. What can I possibly spell with
that?”

Kieran smirked and shook his head at Joey’s childish behaviour.

“Well I can think of one word, but it would be cheating if I helped
you.”

Joey snorted as he looked over the words that were already on the

board. “Right, because me letting you have the word chocish isn’t
cheating at all.”

“I’m telling you,” Kieran insisted once again. “Chocish is a word.

It means to be very chocolaty.”

Joey just shot him a look. They had been arguing over the

allowance of the word from the very beginning. Joey had seemed
amused by how impassioned Kieran had been in fighting for his
clearly fabricated word, so in the end the werewolf had decided to let
him have it. “No offence, babe, but I still think you pulled that one out
of your arse.”

Kieran perfected a look of outrage at his opponent’s suggestion,

despite the fact that it was actually true. “I told you, look it up if you
don’t believe me.”

“And I told you that I don’t have a dictionary,” Joey countered as

he carefully considered his next move.

“Who doesn’t have a dictionary lying around?” Kieran asked with

a shake of his head. “Though, I suppose most people just use the
Internet nowadays.”

Joey’s eyes lit up and he quickly reached over to the coffee table

to grab his smart phone. Kieran cringed and thought, damn it, as he
watched Joey search for the word chocish, knowing full well that it
wouldn’t be there.

“Ha,” Joey proclaimed as he held the phone up to Kieran’s face.

“There’s no such word. You, my friend, are a filthy cheater.”

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Jane Wallace-Knight

Kieran bit his lower lip to stop himself from smiling and simply

shrugged. “Huh, how about that? I could have sworn I’d heard that
somewhere. On a cookery show, I think.”

“You pretend like you’re smart. Bringing out words I’ve never

heard of,” Joey accused playfully, “but I know the truth now.”

Kieran sat up and gave him a gentle shove across the Scrabble

board. “Hey, I am smart. I know words that you’ve never even heard
of,” he insisted.

“Oh yeah?” Joey taunted. “Prove it.”
“Okay. One of the longest words in the dictionary is

antidisestablishmentarianism. Boom. How do you like that?” Kieran
asked as he got in Joey’s face. “I don’t get out of bed for less than six
syllables, son.”

Joey threw back his head and laughed. He grabbed Kieran and

pulled him down on top of him for a kiss before teasingly swatted him
on the backside. “I am so getting that printed on a T-shirt for you.”

Kieran laughed and kissed Joey again before settling on the floor

beside him, his foot accidentally knocking the Scrabble board. “Just,
do something for me?”

“Anything,” Joey told him affectionately with a kiss to the side of

his head.

“Don’t look that one up. There’s a very small chance I just made

it up,” Kieran told him with a shrug.

Joey chuckled again and gave Kieran a gentle squeeze. “Okay, but

then I’m putting that on the back of the T-shirt,” Joey told him. “Just
as a disclaimer.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

101

Chapter Thirteen

Kieran had been staying with Joey for a few days, and they were

days filled with sex, food and video games, mostly. If Kieran was
honest with himself, it was the perfect existence.

He still didn’t know what he really wanted. He couldn’t deny that

he felt a definite pull towards Joey. He couldn’t quite get his head
around how easy it felt with the other man. A part of him felt cheated,
like his life choices had been made for him by someone else. It wasn’t
that he didn’t want to be with Joey, or that he wanted to be with
someone else. It was more the fact that he would be giving up a
normal life, with a wife and two children, like he had always
imagined. Though, given that he was due to become a werewolf in
just a few short days, he supposed that the normal ship had already set
sail.

He had begun to see changes within himself. It was subtle, but

Kieran had started noticing how every single thing in Joey’s house
had its own, unique scent. The two of them had made a game out of it.
Joey would point him toward something and ask him what it smelled
like. Kieran had never known that chrome had its own smell, or
DVDs for that matter, but Kieran could certainly pick out faint scents
from them both. Kieran was also feeling really good, healthy and full
of energy. He had considered going for a run in the woods to burn
some of his new found energy off, but Joey had shown him a much
better way of doing it. They had fucked on pretty much every surface
of the house so far, each taking it in turns to make love to the other. It
was so easy being there with Joey, so comfortable and right that it
scared him a little.

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The evening after their first sleep over, Kieran had nosed through

Joey’s DVDs and video game collection. With the fire roaring, they
had sat in front of the T.V, both naked under their favourite blanket,
playing video games for hours. They had gotten hooked on a two
player game about a little Italian plumber who travelled through pipes
and fought against princess-stealing-reptiles.

“I remember when the first one of these came out,” Joey told him

as they jointly battled an angry dinosaur. “Video games are so
different nowadays.”

Kieran snorted and bumped Joey with his shoulder. “Okay,

Grandpa.”

“Hey,” Joey complained, giving Kieran a playful shove in return,

and making his little plumber die. “You should show your elders
some respect, young man.”

“You just got me killed,” Kieran cried. “Right that’s it. It’s on

now.”

Joey laughed loudly when Kieran launched himself at him,

tackling him to the ground, and commenced a full blown wrestling
match. Though Joey was clearly much stronger than Kieran, who was
still essentially human, Kieran played dirty.

He lightly bit Joey’s peck and ground his hips down, his

awakening cock calling to Joey’s. After a few minutes of play
fighting, Joey decided to give in and let Kieran do whatever he
wanted to him.

“Okay, okay. I surrender,” Joey told him, his voice laced with

mirth.

Kieran looked down at him, his hands holding Joey’s arms above

his head. “So you submit to me, then?” he asked, purposefully
grinding his hips down again. After breakfast that morning, Joey had
taken him back to bed and showed him how it felt to be inside another
man. He couldn’t honestly say which he had liked best, fucking, or
being fucked. He was glad he could have both.

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“God, yes,” Joey groaned, going completely loose. “Do what you

will, baby.”

Kieran smirked, triumphant, and leaned down to bite Joey’s ear

lobe. He wasn’t sure where this sudden urge to bite was coming from,
but he wondered if perhaps it was the wolf awakening in him.

Shimmying down Joey’s body, Kieran peppered kisses along the

golden skin. He lowered his mouth over Joey’s cock and froze,
looking up into Joey’s darkened eyes and smirking before he took the
Aussie in. He was loving his new scenes, especially at times like this.
The taste of Joey’s cock in his mouth was dark and musky, and it
made Kieran’s own cock harden in response. He also loved how
Joey’s arousal smelled, and he moaned as he squeezed himself with
his own hand. Kieran could hear the sound of a computerized voice
saying “game over” on a loop, but he paid it no attention as he sucked
Joey’s cock.

“Damn, you’re getting good at that,” Joey moaned, threading his

fingers into Kieran’s hair and stroking him lovingly.

Kieran smiled around the flesh in his mouth and closed his eyes.

He bobbed and twisted his head up and down, mimicking the way
Joey had sucked him off before. It was amazing to him that it didn’t
feel strange to have another man’s dick in his mouth. He didn’t feel
grossed out or anything, he just felt extremely aroused. The sounds
that Joey made were like fuel for Kieran’s cock and he began stroking
himself off in earnest. Kieran even liked the way his lips stretched
over the impressive girth. He pulled his mouth off of Joey, sucking on
the tip and teasing it with his tongue.

“Oh damn,” Joey moaned. “I am too good a teacher.”
Kieran smiled and kissed his way up the underside of Joey’s cock

before swallowing him down again. This time he tried to take as much
as he could without choking. With one hand he pulled on his own
cock, while with the other he massaged Joey’s ball.

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“Kieran,” Joey groaned, pulling at Kieran’s hair in warning.

Kieran pulled his mouth off of Joey’s dick and stroked them both
while he watched Joey come.

“Fuck,” he swore as he watched his lover’s body tense and bow as

he shot rope after rope of semen all over his own stomach. Kieran
moaned and leaned back over to suck on the spent cock, his fingers
finding their way to Joey’s hole, already loose from earlier. “Oh god,
I want to fuck you.”

“Yes,” Joey breathed, spreading his legs in encouragement. “Fuck

yes, do it.”

Kieran pumped his cock a few more times and gathered Joey’s

come up from his stomach before spreading it over his dick. He
positioned himself over Joey and guided his dick to its target. They
both hissed as Kieran entered Joey, pushing in deep before sliding
back out again.

“Do it, babe,” Joey encourage him as his fingers threaded through

Kieran’s hair. “Let go, fuck me. Take what you need.”

Kieran cried out and began pumping his hips, fucking in and out

of Joey’s hole, slick from his own come. He bit his lip and tipped his
head back as he lost all control and rutted into his mate like an animal
in heat. He all but growled as he felt his balls tighten before he spilled
his seed in Joey, marking him from the inside.

“Oh fuck,” Joey moaned, his hand gently rubbing his spent and

sensitive dick. “God that was hot.”

If Kieran could have talked, he would have agreed.

* * * *

Kieran smiled at the memory of the last few days as he sat himself

down on the sofa, enjoying the warmth that was coming from the
fireplace, which Joey had built up for him that morning. Kieran had
called in sick at work for the entire week. Although he felt a little bad
about it, he wasn’t someone who often took a day off, and he never

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105

complained if he had to work late in order to meet a deadline, so that
eased his guilt some. Also, Joey had told him that the closer he got to
his transformation, the hotter his temperature, and his temper would
be, rising gradually until the wolf finally broke free on the night of the
full moon. He really didn’t want to snap at one of his work friends,
especially not the women, who all thought he was a nice boy. So far
he had only snapped at Joey twice, but when Kieran had apologised
after, Joey had only smiled at him and told him it was okay, that it
was natural even. It frightened him, really, how something that
usually wouldn’t even bother him had seen him yelling at Joey. In
fact, they had fought that morning, over something as ridiculous as
Joey moving Kieran’s phone from the kitchen breakfast bar so that he
could wipe it down. Well, Kieran had fought, Joey had just stood
there and took it until Kieran realised he was being unreasonable and
apologised. Although Joey assured Kieran that he understood, and
didn’t hold it against him, he had quickly announced that he was
going to do some wood work in the garage.

Joey had been working in there all day, not even coming inside for

lunch. He was making a small table and chair set for Billy and
Isabelle’s new baby, whose house they were supposed to be having
dinner at tonight. It was the first time they had been apart since
Kieran agreed to stay with him for the week and, although Joey was
only out in the garage, Kieran felt like something was wrong. For
some reason, Kieran felt nervous about the dinner that night, and he
found himself wishing that Sam, and Sam’s mates, would be there,
too.

Surprisingly, given how close their houses were to each other,

Kieran hadn’t seen Sam since the night at the park. They hadn’t even
talked on the phone, which was unusual for them. It hadn’t even been
a week since they were last together, but Kieran found himself
missing his brother, and best friend. Even though Kieran had been
with Amy for over a year, Sam had always been their third wheel. He
knew that it had pissed Amy off on occasion, but Kieran had often

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invited Sam out with them for dinner or to the movies. He had always
told Amy that he didn’t like Sam to spend too much time alone,
knowing that he was Sam’s only real friend, but the truth was that
Kieran just liked having him around. If he was honest with himself,
he was a little jealous that now there were two more important men in
Sam’s life.

He huffed at himself, annoyed by what a prat he sounded, and

picked his phone up off the coffee table, intending to call Sam. Before
he could call his brother, however, he saw that he had two new text
messages and he reluctantly opened them. He felt nervous at the
thought that they might be from Amy. He wasn’t ready yet to find out
what he would do if she said she wanted him back. They had broken
up so many times in the past that being away from her for a week was
nothing new.

Perhaps, he thought, that right there should say it all. It had been

less than a week with Joey and already he was having trouble being
away from him.

The first message was from Rita, telling him that it was due to

snow later that day so to be careful driving home from work.

Kieran couldn’t help but smile at his foster mum’s over protective

streak. He hadn’t talked to her, either, since Sunday, when they had
seen Sam for the first time since his transformation. He thought back
to how she had reacted to Sam’s freaky mind powers and worried
about how she would react to her other son becoming a werewolf. He
told himself not to worry too much though, as she had clearly grown
to adore Joey and his easy charm.

The second message, however, was from Amy. As he opened it,

Kieran felt a sense of cold dread settle in his stomach. The message
basically told him that she wanted to talk and that she felt they owed
it to themselves, and each other, to try again. One of them always
relented and sent that message to the other, suggesting that they try
again. This was life though, not a video game. Kieran didn’t think he
had any more tries left in him.

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107

He considered texting her back but he had no idea what to say.

Instead he called Sam, as was his original purpose for picking up the
phone.

“Hi,” Sam answered within seconds. “I’ve been dying to talk to

you.”

Kieran chuckled and rested back against the sofa, already feeling

better now that he was talking to Sam. “Then why haven’t you called
me, or come to see me? I can see your house from mine,” Kieran told
him before quickly catching himself. “I mean, from Joey’s.”

Sam laughed at Kieran’s blunder and Kieran felt his cheeks heat

up. “Because I figured you’d be too busy shagging.”

Kieran snorted. It was suddenly too weird to talk to his little

brother about his sex life, which was odd considering he had never
had a problem with it before. “Yeah whatever. The truth is you were
too busy getting gangbanged by your mates to bother calling me.”

Sam laughed again and it had the instantaneous effect of calming

Kieran’s nerves. “Shut up. I think when there’s only two of them it’s
called tag teaming.”

“Or spit roasting,” Kieran offered with a shrug.
“Oh my god. We need to change the subject,” Sam insisted

fervently. “And fast.”

“Okay,” Kieran agreed, trying to think of something else to talk

about. He knew that Sam had discovered that not only was his father
an angel, but that he had visited him under the guise of a policeman as
a child. Sam had also learned that he was named after his father,
Samael, the angel of death.

“So, you were going to ask Rita if she kept any of your old social

service records, right?” Kieran asked, trying to be delicate. He wasn’t
sure if Sam wanted to talk about it all, as he hadn’t really brought it
up with Kieran. Though, Kieran supposed they hadn’t seen much of
each other since the big revelation.

“Yeah,” Sam answered quietly. “I called her and asked her to look

for them but I think she’s dragging her heels. You saw how she

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looked at me when I used my powers to stop that bowl from
smashing.”

Kieran’s heart clenched for his brother and he wished, suddenly,

that Sam was there in the room with him so that he could hug him.
“She just needs time, Sammy. I was already a teenager when I came
to live with her, but you were a little boy. You’re her baby.”

“I know,” Sam agreed. “It just hurt to see her look at me that

way.”

“Are Jackson or Alek there? Go and tell them to hug you for me,”

Kieran told him. There was a quick swooshing sound down the phone
before the line went dead and Kieran thought, for a moment, that Sam
had hung up on him. The knock at the door made Kieran jump but he
got up to answer it quickly, knowing that it wouldn’t be Joey, as the
door wasn’t locked.

He opened the door and gaped as Sam quickly entered the house

and moved straight into Kieran’s arms.

“Bloody hell, Sam,” Kieran gasped as his arms went around his

little brother’s smaller frame. “You should enter the Olympics.”

Sam chuckled against Kieran’s shoulder and squeezed him,

careful not to use too much of his newly superior strength. “Nothing
beats a Kieran hug.”

Kieran smiled and let all the tension drain from his body as they

stood in the doorway clinging to each other. No matter what
happened, no matter what they were, they would always be brothers,
and they would always be there for each other. Kieran thought back to
his and Sam’s old social worker, a woman named Jackie, who had
placed Kieran with Rita after his French teacher noticed that he was
too often covered in bruises. He knew that Sam had been assigned
Jackie back when he was just a kid, and he wondered if she might
know anything.

“What about Jackie?” he asked as he pulled out of the hug and

held Sam at an arm’s length. “Might she have any records of the night
you were taken away from your first foster family?”

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109

Sam shrugged. “Possibly, but we haven’t seen her since I turned

sixteen and I don’t have her number. Rita has all the paperwork.”

Kieran sighed. “Listen, if Rita doesn’t get back to you about it by

the end of the week, then we’ll go over there together and look for
ourselves.”

“You don’t think she knows something, do you?” Sam asked.

“You don’t think that maybe there’s something she doesn’t want me
knowing?”

Kieran thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know. She

certainly didn’t know your dad was an angel, that’s for sure, given
how her face looked when she saw what you could do.”

Sam nodded and bit his lower lip, much as he had always done

when he was human. It made Kieran smile that his brother was still so
Sam-like. He was certain that once Rita got used to the changes in
Sam, she would also be able to see all about him that was exactly the
same.

“Don’t worry, Sammy,” Kieran assured him. “We’ll get to the

bottom of it.”

Sam nodded again but looked down at his feet. “That’s what

worries me. What if I don’t like what I find out?”

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Chapter Fourteen

Joey loved working with his hands. There was something so

soothing about emptying his head from all the thoughts that were
constantly swirling around in there and just focusing on the wood
under his touch. He ran his hand over the little, wooden chair that he
had spent the day making and smiled. Though he hadn’t even started
on the table and the other three chairs yet, he felt a sense of pride that
he had finished one piece already. He would wait until the little nipper
was born to stain, or paint it. He had found that it was always best to
let the woman of the house make decisions about colours and what
not.

His garage was well kitted out with tools and machinery used to

wood work. It was a far cry from his home near Perth where he had
developed his skill with wood work with only a knife and whatever
fallen tree branches he could find on the ground. As a kid, Joey had
spent hours making wooden figurines of animals and had lined them
all up on his windowsill. When he ran away from the reform camp,
Joey had left all of his meagre possessions behind with his pack. Even
as a young man, too old to play with them, he had missed his wooden
animals more than anything else he had left behind, save for his little
brother. Joey had some small hope that his brother had inherited those
animals and that they had brought him as much joy as they had Joey.

Though there was still much to do to complete the table and chairs

set, Joey was pleased that he had something to show to Billy and
Isabelle that night. Though the new baby wouldn’t actually be able to
use the child-sized chairs for a few years yet, Joey was sure that the
other kids would use it. He had been in the garage a long time,

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111

working right through lunch, and hadn’t realised that it had already
gotten dark outside, or that it had started to snow.

“Bloody snow,” he moaned. “Next time we move I’m

recommending Hawaii.”

Figuring it was probably time to get ready for dinner, Joey went

over to the sink and washed his hands before picking up the little
chair effortlessly in one hand and going back into the house.

“We’re going to be late,” was how Kieran greeted him upon his

arrival home. “Your friends probably already hate me, and now
because of you I’m going to make a bad first impression.”

Taken back a bit, Joey carefully put the little chair down by the

front door and shook his head. “Kieran, it’s fine. They don’t hate you,
why on earth would they hate you?”

“Because I’m the man that’s stringing you along,” Kieran pointed

out with a raised voice. “They’re going to think that I’m a heartless
bastard.”

“Stringing me along? What the hell are you talking about?” Joey

demanded. He knew that all werewolves, in the run up to their first
transformation, went through this, but he was really starting to lose
his own patience. He remembered being a cub, no more than ten-
years-old, when he had started changing. Though he was certainly hot
headed for a few weeks there, he hadn’t thought he was that bad.

Kieran huffed and stormed off into the bedroom, leaving Joey

looking after him in bewilderment.

“You need to shower and change,” Kieran insisted from the

bedroom doorway. “Now.”

Joey crossed his arms over his chest and glared his mate down.

“Right, listen here. Whatever’s bothering you, get over it. Don’t start
barking orders at me just because you’re in a mood.”

Despite his words Joey did as he was told and went into the

bedroom, removing his shirt as he went. “And answer my question.
What do you mean that you’re stringing me along?”

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Kieran ran his hand over his head and sighed. “I just mean that I

still don’t know for sure what I want. Amy wants us to talk about
things, to see if we can give it another go.”

Joey stared down at his mate as Kieran’s words pierced through to

his heart. “And what do you want? I don’t know why you would even
tell me this unless you’ve made the decision to go back to her.”

Kieran frowned and took a step back. “What? That’s not what I

said. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.”

Joey huffed out a humourless laugh and shook his head. “Right.

Well you be sure to let me know once you’ve decided whether or not
to condemn us both to a life of misery, won’t you.”

Kieran gaped at him and tried to move closer to Joey, but Joey

just stepped further back. “Don’t be like that. You know this isn’t
easy for me. I feel so conflicted, all the time. On the one hand, I know
I have feelings for you, but on the other, I was in love with her for a
year, we lived together. That doesn’t just go away, Joey.”

Joey growled in frustration and sat himself down on the end of his

bed. “You and me? That’s fate, Kieran. As much as you like to think
you can fight fate, you can’t.”

Kieran came to stand in front of him, his face turning into an

angry scowl. “Fate didn’t make me gay, Joey. You putting your
mouth on my dick made me gay.”

Joey stood from the bed angrily. “So what? You’re saying that it’s

all my fault?”

“No,” Kieran insisted before seemingly changing his mind. “Well,

yes actually. You bit me. You didn’t ask my permission, you just did
it. If you hadn’t done that then I wouldn’t be changing into a fucking
werewolf and I would have been able to stay away from you. You
took my choice away from me. It’s like you fucking roofied me.”

Joey felt as though he had been punched in the stomach and he

visibly flinched. If that was truly how Kieran felt then they didn’t
stand a chance. He felt sick at the comparison his mate had just made.
Did he really think that Joey had taken away his free will? He felt the

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113

sudden need for some air. He didn’t want to make an already fragile
situation even worse so he took several deep breaths before he looked
back up at his mate.

Kieran looked shocked, as though surprised by his own

accusation. It was too late though, the words had been said and they
couldn’t be un-said.

“I think it’s probably best if I go to Billy’s for dinner on my own,”

Joey told him quietly. He went around Kieran, careful not to touch
him, and retrieved a new T-shirt from his dresser. He couldn’t stick
around long enough for a shower, so he just re-dressed and left,
leaving the little chair behind and ignoring the sound of Kieran calling
his name.

* * * *

Although Billy and Isabelle’s house was only a five minute walk

from Joey’s, he needed a little time by himself before seeing his
friends. He felt genuine fear that he might lose Kieran. He knew the
mate bond was strong, and that once Kieran was a wolf he wouldn’t
be able to deny the pull, but they would both forever have that
nagging doubt in the back of their minds over whether Kieran would
have chosen him over Amy.

It shouldn’t be this hard. Billy had said that he and Isabelle were

living happily ever after a day after they first met. Even Jackson and
Sam, who wasn’t a wolf, found each other and knew they belonged
together, and they had the added complication of Alek, Jackson’s
unofficial mate of fifty years. Yet, despite all of that, the three of them
were living together happily and had encountered very few problems
in fitting together.

Joey had no idea what he would do if Kieran walked away from

what they had. He had seen wolves die slow, and he had seen wolves
die fast, both from losing their mate. This was different though.

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Kieran wouldn’t be dead, he would just be gone. Joey would probably
turn into a stalker of some sort.

Finally, after nearly an hour of wondering about in the woods,

Joey found his feet taking him toward the safe haven of Billy’s house.
He knocked on the door with his knuckles and, almost straight away,
the door flew open to reveal a cringing Jason.

“Oh man, you’re late. You are in the dog house,” Jason told him

as he ushered him inside the hallway. The house was not unlike
Joey’s own. It was once a servant’s quarters that Joey, Billy, Jackson,
and some of the others who worked on Jackson’s construction crew,
added a second floor to for all of the children that Billy and Isabelle
had.

“Where’s your mate?” Jason asked, looking out the door as

though Kieran might be hiding. “I thought the whole reason we were
doing this dinner was so we could meet him. I turned down a very hot
waitress to be here, man.”

Joey ran his hand over his hair and looked at his friend, willing

him to get it without Joey having to say anything. He felt exhausted
and he didn’t really want to be there with all the kids climbing all
over him while his friends gave him pitying looks. The alternative
was going home, though, and facing Kieran, and Joey just wasn’t
ready for that.

“Oh man,” Jason said, shutting the front door and leaning against

it. “You two fighting already?”

Joey nodded once. “You could say that.”
Jason nodded in understanding and offered Joey a sympathetic

smile. “Wait here. I’ll take care of it.”

Joey was about to ask what he meant by that, but Jason was

already going through to the kitchen. Joey could hear the sounds of
the house and where usually it had the effect of comforting him, now
he just felt out of place, like he didn’t belong. He could hear the boys
laughing and squealing as they played in the sitting room, and he
could hear Jason and Isabelle whispering to each other.

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115

When Jason remerged, closing the kitchen door behind him, he

smiled at Joey and nodded to the front door. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Go where? I thought I was staying for dinner,” Joey replied.
“To my place,” Jason informed him. “Trust me. I love my

brothers, but when you’re feeling like crap the last thing you want is
them screaming all around you. Though, actually, weirdly, sometimes
that’s exactly what you need,” he told Joey with a fond smile.

Joey followed Jason out of the house and back out into the snow.

Jason had a small apartment where a lot of the single wolves lived. It
wasn’t really on pack lands but it was pretty close by. As pack
animals, they tended to want to stick close together. Joey couldn’t
really understand how wolves like Adam could live so far away from
their pack for so long, but then Joey himself had been a lone wolf for
many years, though he had always felt like something was missing
until he met Jackson and his pack.

“Thanks for this, Jase,” Joey said as they walked side by side up

towards the manor. Joey filled Jason in on all that had transpired
between him and Kieran, hoping that his friend would have some
advice for him. Though Jason was younger, and often the joker, he
had always been a good friend to Joey. Jason had all the best parts of
both of his parents, as far as Joey was concerned.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I love him and there are

times when I think that he loves me, too,” Joey explained. “He’s just
so hung up on the thought that his free will has been taken away from
him, and that he only has feelings for me because I claimed him.”

Jason brushed a few flakes out of his hair as he faced his friend.

“That boy just needs to stop overthinking everything. It’s love, man, it
shouldn’t be that complicated.”

Joey nodded. “I know, but he can’t seem to get past it. I don’t

know what I’ll do if I lose him.”

Jason heaved a sigh and shook his head. “He’s your mate, Joey.

You can’t lose him. He will never feel complete without you in his
life.”

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“But that’s just it,” Joey insisted. “The full moon is in two day’s

time, and if he doesn’t choose me by then, then he’ll spend the rest of
our lives unsure about us. And the more I think about it, now I will,
too. I’ll always wonder if he would have gone back to her.”

Jason came to a stop and placed his hand on Joey’s shoulder.

“Listen, man, maybe a little time apart from each other will do you
good. If you come and stay with me for a couple of days then Kieran
might realise just how much he misses you.”

The thought of being apart from Kieran for so long made Joey feel

queasy, but maybe in the long run it would be the best thing for them.

“What if he goes back to his ex-girlfriend while I’m at your

place?” Joey asked, a feeling of panic swelling up inside of him.
“What if I lose him for good?”

Jason shook his head and looked at Joey with pity in his eyes.

“You ever hear that saying? If you love something, let it go and if it
comes back it’s yours?”

Joey thought his friend’s words over. Although they made sense,

Joey didn’t want to let Kieran go at all, he wanted to hold onto him as
tightly as possible.

A faint whooshing sound from behind them had them both turning

abruptly. Both wolves suddenly jumped at the unexpected appearance
of Sam. If possible, the kid looked even more angelic standing out in
the snow, with the icy flakes clinging to his honey-blond curls.

“Holy crap, Sam,” Jason complained, putting his hand to his heart

for good measure. “You need to stop super-speeding everywhere.
Alek knows better than to spook us like that.”

Sam rolled his eyes impatiently and put his hands on his hips.

“Sorry, but this is important. I need to speak to Joey.”

Joey’s eyebrows rose. He really hoped that Sam wasn’t about to

lay into him over his fight with Kieran. The last thing he needed was
the super-powered squirt getting involved. “So speak.”

The look of seriousness on Sam’s face told Joey that he was about

to hear something he wouldn’t like.

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“I have to tell you what I saw in a vision,” Sam began. “And what

I saw is that Kieran’s gone. Amy sent him a text, saying that she
wanted him back. He left your place and went round to see her. He’s
going to propose to her tonight.”

Joey staggered backwards as though an arrow had pierced his

heart. “No, you have to be wrong. He wouldn’t do that.”

Sam looked at him sympathetically and shrugged. “You need to

let him know how you feel, Joey. Make him see that he’s making the
wrong choice.”

“He knows how I feel,” Joey shouted, his fists bawling at his side

in anger. If Kieran was choosing Amy then it was all over. Even after
the full moon, when Kieran transformed and would feel the mate pull
as strongly as Joey did, they would both always know that they
weren’t together by choice.

“How can he know you love him if you’ve never actually told

him?” Sam shouted back.

Joey froze. Sam was right, he had never actually said the words to

Kieran. What if that was all Kieran needed? What if Kieran just
needed to know that it wasn’t just fate pulling them together, that it
was love?

“I gotta go,” he said quickly, before breaking out into a run in the

direction of his mate’s old flat. He skidded to a halt abruptly and
turned back to Sam. “Um, where does she live?”

* * * *

Joey bolted out of the manor gates and onto the street. The light

covering of snow would slow him down a bit but Joey didn’t care, he
was a man on a mission. He set off at a run up the road, towards the
address that Sam had given him. He ran as fast as he could, blowing
snow out of his face as he went. The snow was swirling around him,
dancing in the street light as though it were alive, and Joey was glad
that he barely felt the cold. He ran for a good ten minutes, which to

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him felt so much longer, before he finally turned onto Amy’s street.
He was so focused on his task that it wasn’t until he was right outside
the block of flats that he noticed that Kieran was already outside and
standing beside his car on the road, lit up by the street lamp beside it.
Joey skidded to a halt, making his mate jump as he stepped back onto
the pavement.

“Joey? What’s wrong? What are you doing here? Are you okay?”

he asked as he quickly reached over and closed the trunk of his car
before coming to stand right in front of Joey. Kieran’s black hair was
slightly damp from the snow and some snowflakes still clung to it.
His deep blue eyes twinkled as always and his lips and cheeks were
pink from the cold. Joey smiled at the sight. His mate looked seraphic,
he looked perfect.

“I love you,” Joey breathed quietly, as he stepped even closer and

took both of Kieran’s hands in his own. “I love you so much, please
don’t marry her.”

Kieran frowned at him and opened his mouth to speak but Joey

wasn’t finished yet, there was so much more he wanted to say to his
mate.

“I promise you that I will spend the rest of our lives together

doing whatever it takes to make you happy. I will be everything you
need, everything you want. I’ll take care of you and make you feel
loved every single day and nothing, nothing will ever change that,”
Joey promised Kieran, as he squeezed his chilled hands. “My whole
life I have waited for you, to find the one person who was made just
for me. If you leave me then you’ll be taking my heart and soul with
you, because I won’t need them without you. Fate might have brought
us together, but it didn’t make me love you, Kieran, that was all you.”

Kieran smiled at him softly, his eyes glinting with a sudden

moisture, and bit his lip as he looked down at the snow-covered path
they stood upon. “Why do you think I’m going to marry Amy?”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

119

Joey attempted to swallow down his nerves. “Because Sam told

me you were. He said he had a vision of you proposing to her
tonight.”

Kieran smirked and raised his eyes to meet Joey’s again before

slowly shaking his head. Joey thought back over his conversation with
Sam and realised now, that Sam had told him exactly what he needed
to hear.

“That little shit lied to me,” Joey accused as realisation quickly

dawned on him. He let out a laugh which turned to fog in the cold
evening air. “I can’t believe that.”

“If I know my brother, and I do, I think he wanted you to come

after me and say all those nice things you just said,” Kieran told him,
still smiling as though he found his brother’s trick amusing.

Joey had just emptied his heart out, right in front of the man he

loved, and rather than feel embarrassed he just felt light, as though a
weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

“And if you hadn’t noticed, when you got here I was putting all of

my stuff in the back of my car,” Kieran told him, nodding to where
the car was parked beside them. Joey looked at the car and saw that
the backseats were covered in black bin bags filled with things such
as books, video games and a hell of a lot of clothes. “She texted me
saying she wanted to talk, and that she wanted us to try again. I
realised, after you left that we really did need to talk, that I needed to
let her go for good.”

“You’ve moved all your stuff out. You’re really not going back to

her?” Joey asked, feeling the excitement bubble up inside him. His
mate, his beautiful Kieran was going to be his, all his. He tried not to
let the excitement show on his face. He had, after all, just poured his
heart out and got nothing in return, so he didn’t want to look pathetic
in his eagerness. “Do you need a place to stay?” he offered,
attempting to play it cool. He did have some pride after all.

“No, I’ve already got a place to live,” Kieran told him coolly.

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Jane Wallace-Knight

Joey nodded, trying not to let the sadness he felt show on his face.

“Oh right, I forgot. You’re living at Sam’s old flat.”

“No, you twit, I’m going to live with my mate, where I belong,”

Kieran told him before sliding his arms around Joey’s waist and
pulling him in so that their bodies were flush together. Kieran nuzzled
Joey’s nose with his own for a moment before going in for a kiss.
Joey closed his eyes and squeezed his mate back as he surrendered to
the kiss.

“And for the record,” Kieran whispered against Joey’s mouth. “I

love you, too. I’m so sorry about what I said to you earlier. I knew as
soon as the words were out that I didn’t mean them. I realised that I
was being an idiot. It’s doesn’t matter if it’s fate or magic, or anything
else. I know that I love you and that I will only ever be happy if we’re
together.”

Joey felt his heart leap in his chest and he rested their foreheads

together once more. He had his mate in his arms again and all was
right with the world. “Let’s go home.”

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

121

Chapter Fifteen

The night of the full moon finally rolled around, and Kieran had

never felt so alive. He felt as though there was a constant electrical
current passing through his body, travelling over his skin. It wasn’t an
unpleasant feeling, in fact, it was quite nice, like the wolf inside him
was slowly coming to life. He felt horny and hungry and like he
wanted to run and never, ever stop. Luckily, the snow had stopped
falling the night before, and the manor grounds were blanketed with a
soft, deep powder. The clearing in the woods behind the manor,
which Jackson owned, looked like something out of a fairytale.

A circle of trees had been cut down, leaving stumps to be used as

stools, and in the middle of the circle was a big fire pit that roared and
spat in a fight against the strong, cold winds. Kieran was pleased to
note that Joey had been right, he barely felt the chill at all. Small
lanterns were also dotted around the area, and as Kieran and Joey
made their way to the circle, they saw that they were among the last to
arrive. Sunset, had been the time given to them, but Joey had warned
Kieran not to be too eager to shift, to enjoy the night for the
celebration that it was.

Kieran spotted Annie, and her mate Davis, manning the grill. It

seemed that no matter what the weather, they always had a barbeque
of some sort. Some of the children were already making smores with
their parents, getting good and sticky as a result, and the air was filled
with laughter and happy chatter.

Kieran stopped for a moment before entering the clearing and

Joey stopped with him.

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Jane Wallace-Knight

“Everything okay, love?” Joey asked, his hand coming up to rest

on Kieran’s shoulder.

Kieran watched all the people and felt a sudden sense of home go

through him. This was his pack. This was where he belonged, and
tonight it would be made official. He hadn’t felt this way since the
first time Rita had referred to him as her son, instead of as her foster-
son. He felt a connection to all of these people, even the ones he
hardly knew.

He turned to Joey and gave him a quick kiss. “Everything’s

perfect.”

Joey grinned at him and nodded. “Okay then. Let’s eat. Shifting

burns off a lot of calories, especially the first time you do it, so we
like to load up on carbs beforehand.”

As they entered the clearing, some of the wolves turned to look at

them, most of them smiling and nodding at them as they passed.
Kieran supposed they were curious about him, he was about to
become one of them after all.

Some movement to his left caught his eye and he turned to see

Sam walking over to them with a hot dog in each hand. Kieran
frowned at the sight, as Sam could no longer eat human food, and
even when he had been able to he certainly wouldn’t have eaten meat.

“Hey,” Sam greeted them, holding a hand out to each of them. “I

saved you some. These wolves can eat, man.”

Joey chuckled and took his hot dog before taking a big bite and

moaning around the mouthful. “Well aren’t you a good brother-in-
law.”

Sam beamed at him and offered the other to Kieran. Though he

did feel a bit hungry, Kieran felt too nervous to eat. Still, if Joey said
he should eat, then that was what he would do.

“I try to please,” Sam joked. It was odd to see his brother wearing

only a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Although, logically, Kieran knew
that Sam, like the wolves, couldn’t feel the cold, Kieran’s protective
instincts towards his brother told him to fetch him a coat.

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

123

“Yes,” Joey agreed. “Even though you meddle and tell me lies.”
Sam grinned at him and batted his eyelashes, making Kieran

laugh. “I just gave you the push you needed. Wasn’t the big, romantic
proclamation of love worth it?”

Joey rolled his eyes and shoved the rest of his food into his mouth.

He gave Kieran a quick kiss on the cheek and then gave one to Sam,
too, before walking over to where Jackson was.

Kieran took several bites of his own food and he watched as Joey

whispered something in their alpha’s ear before coming back to them.

“What was that about?” Kieran asked him as he returned.
“Just told him we were going to shift on our own somewhere,”

Joey informed him. “I figured you’d want some privacy for your first
time. Some wolves find it difficult at first and it takes a little while to
complete the transformation.”

The nerves that had been threatening to bubble up all day finally

broke to the surface and Kieran found himself wishing that he hadn’t
just eaten that hot dog, after all. He knew that there would be some
pain involved his first time but that wasn’t what worried him. It was
the thought that he might not be able to make it through it. Joey had
been too evasive when Kieran asked him if a wolf had ever gotten
stuck during a shift, and ended up as half and half. His lover had
shrugged it off and told him that it was rare and not permanent, and
that he wouldn’t let it happen to Kieran.

Joey frowned and caught Kieran’s eye, his questioning look

asking, “what’s wrong?”

Kieran just shook his head and forced on a smile. He trusted Joey,

and if Joey said he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to Kieran, than
he should believe him.

The raucous chatter and laughter was broken by a loud whistle

that had Kieran cringing. He still wasn’t used to his heightened
senses, and as he hadn’t even transformed yet, he knew they were
only going to get even more sensitive. As a pack, everyone turned

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Jane Wallace-Knight

towards Jackson, who was standing in the centre, by the fire, with
Alek at his side.

“I’m glad you’re all having a good time,” their alpha began as he

held his hand out to Sam. Sam smiled at him lovingly and went to join
his two mates. “By now you’ve all met your new alpha mate, Sam.
Though this is his first official pack gathering, so may I formally
introduce you all to my mate, Samuel Reed.”

Some of the werewolves, though still in human form, raised their

faces to the moon and howled, while the others simple clapped their
hands. The children, deciding it was much more fun to howl than
clap, copied the others and soon started barking and growling at each
other, too, much to everyone’s amusement. Kieran watched them and
laughed while applauding for his brother, who had the balls to
courtesy to them all.

Jackson leaned in and kissed his mate, and Alek followed suit. It

filled up Kieran’s heart to see his brother so well loved.

“And there’s another new member joining our pack tonight. I’d

like you all to join me in welcoming Kieran O’Callaghan, Joey’s
mate, and Sam’s brother.”

While everyone cheered for Kieran, as they had done for Sam,

Sam himself whooped loudly while fist pumping the air. Kieran shook
his head at his brother’s actions with an affectionate smile on his face.
Even though he was now a vampire-angel hybrid, he was still the
same as always, only now more confident, which was nice for Kieran
to see.

Joey had earlier explained to Kieran that the mothers of the

children in the pack took it in shifts to stay with the young throughout
the evening, while the others took it in turns to run as wolves. He still
thought it would be cute if the little ones could shift. Little Petey and
Kyle would make some pretty adorable and playful pups.

“Okay then,” Jackson shouted to his pack. “Let’s run.”
Jackson began removing his clothes and most of the other wolves

followed suit. Kieran looked to Joey, to see if they should copy the

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

125

others, but Joey just held out his hand for Kieran and led him away
from the clearing.

Though they were far enough away that the trees provided them

with some privacy, Kieran could still see the others, outlined by the
firelight, as they began their transitions. Kieran wasn’t sure he could
ever get used to seeing that.

“Okay, baby. Time to get naked,” Joey told him with a dirty grin,

making Kieran smile. “And just relax and keep breathing, okay?”

Kieran chuckled as he shucked his clothes. “Isn’t that pretty much

what you told me the first time you fucked me?”

Joey tutted at him and shook his head. “That wasn’t fucking, babe,

that was making love.”

Kieran smiled at his mate’s soppiness and gave him a quick kiss

on the lips. They both undressed themselves quickly and folded their
clothes neatly before hanging them over some tree branches. Though
Kieran had gotten better about enduring the cold, his bare feet on the
snow was a bit too much.

“Okay,” Joey began. “The key to a smooth shift is to just let it

happen. Your body will be changing and the human part of you will
instinctively try to fight it. You have to go against what feels natural
until you finally teach your body that turning into a wolf is natural.”

Kieran nodded and swallowed several times, as he tried to force

down his nerves and relax.

“Now close your eyes,” Joey commanded as he took hold of both

of Kieran’s hands. Kieran did as he was instructed and listened to
Joey’s voice.

“Good. Now focus on all the sounds around you. Hear the animals

moving and the trees rustling. Now imagine that you’re a wolf, seeing
the woods through sharpened eyes,” Joey instructed.

Kieran did as he was told and his hearing honed in on the sound

and smell of a mouse not too far from them. He felt something
awaken inside him, an instinct that he had never had before. He
wanted to chase it. He felt a painful shudder go through him as though

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Jane Wallace-Knight

his muscles and bones were trying to rip apart inside him. Kieran felt
panicked but held strong. He refused to open his eyes or fight it. He
wanted to make Joey proud.

He let out a loud scream, however, as the bones in his legs

cracked and reshaped. Falling to his knees he let his eyes open and
land on Joey.

“Don’t fight it, love,” Joey soothed, kneeling down to join him.

“Watch me, let my wolf call to yours.”

With that, Joey transformed into his wolf, the entire process

smooth and only taking a few seconds.

“Show off,” Kieran growled at the wolf before him, hearing a

foreign roughness to his voice. He felt Joey nuzzle and nip at him as
he panted on all fours. Something in the action called to the animal
inside of him and Kieran howled as pain encompassed him. It was a
pain like he had never known before. Kieran felt like he was going to
lose consciousness at first but he didn’t. Instead, a new sort of
consciousness took over his own. It was one that was eager to run and
play and hunt.

Kieran laid on the cool snow in darkness, a warm wet tongue

licking at his muzzle. Muzzle? he thought, his eyes shooting open and
latching onto Joey. Everything was brighter as a wolf. The snow
seemed to glow and the moon lit up the world around him in a blanket
of silver.

Kieran heard a whimper come from his mate and, unsteady at

first, he pushed himself back up onto his feet and licked at Joey’s
nose to indicate that he was all right. The two wolves stood in the
snow, one sandy blonde, the other midnight black, and sniffed and
licked each other, as though acquainting their new bodies.

Mine, Kieran thought with a primal grow. Mate.
Suddenly it all made sense to him. No matter how much he had

learned about the mate bond, and no matter how much he knew he
loved Joey, nothing could have prepared him for the utter sense of
completion that he felt in that moment. It was more than love, it was a

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

127

beautiful ache in the depth of his soul that reached for Joey’s with
desperate arms. The feeling was overwhelming and Kieran knew that
had he been in human form, his eyes would have filled with tears.

He pushed his head under Joey’s chin, luxuriating in Joey’s scent.

He wanted to drown inside Joey, to climb inside him and stay there
forever, because that was the only possible way he could ever feel
close enough.

Joey howled happily at his mate’s actions and Kieran felt a surge

of joy go through him as he lifted his head to the moon and joined
him. All the wolves in their pack, scattered around the woods as they
were, answered them with howls of their own and Kieran felt
connected to them all in his heart.

Though he knew he could have happily spent the night rubbing his

face against Joey’s, the large, black wolf that Kieran scented as
Jackson, came to greet them. He urged them to follow him in a run
and Kieran saw that Alek and Sam were close behind him.

Not fair, he thought. Sam and Alek could still easily outrun the

wolves. With a mischievous look on his face, Kieran lowered his front
half to the floor, playfully, before bolting past them all, knowing that
they would soon follow.

He heard them all close behind him before Sam super-speeded up

and ran alongside him. His brother laughed joyously and Kieran felt
his muzzle grin. He was running free with his mate, his pack, and his
family. Nothing had ever felt better.

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Jane Wallace-Knight

Epilogue

The attic was a cramped and dusty place and it played havoc on

Kieran’s newly heightened senses. The old, musty smell of things
untouched for many years tormented his now sensitive nose and he
cringed as Sam leafed through yet another box. Finally giving up on
waiting for Rita to find their old social services records, Sam and
Kieran had taken it upon themselves to search for them while Rita
was out playing bingo with her friends.

As teenagers they had retreated to the attic fairly often. Knowing

that Rita rarely ever went up there, as its entrance was a small hatch in
the ceiling and the idea of tackling a step-ladder was too daunting for
her, they had used it to hide things from her. Now as a werewolf and a
vampire, they hadn’t even needed a step ladder to get up there, they
had simply jumped and pulled themselves up. They had once gotten
their hands on a packet of cigarettes and hidden them in the attic for
months before they worked up the nerve to try smoking them. They
had both choked and Sam had actually been sick. Kieran had often
looked back on that day and felt thankful for their unpleasant
reactions, because they had neither of them ever tried smoking again.
Kieran was also fairly certain that somewhere amongst all the old
papers, he would find an old skin magazine that a friend at school had
once given him.

If that friend could see me now, Kieran thought to himself,

picturing the look on the guy’s face when he introduced him to his
very male partner.

So far, they had found some old family photos, including some of

Rita when she was young, and various trinkets and Christmas

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

129

decorations. There were also report cards from their school days as
well as a few football trophies that Kieran had won in his teens. It
made Kieran smile to remember winning them. In some ways, being a
part of a pack was like being part of a football team. He knew that he
always had people to have his back. It was a feeling he hadn’t realised
he missed until now.

“God, it stinks up here,” he complained as he opened up yet

another dusty cardboard box.

Sam looked up from the box he was looking through to smirk at

his brother. “I don’t need to breathe so I can hold my breath.”

Kieran mock glared at him. “Okay fine, your superpower is better

than mine.”

They both laughed and, with a heavy sigh, Kieran went back to

looking through his box. He found an old, brown envelope that was
stuffed with a variety of receipts, and began searching through it,
pulling out yet more photographs and various pieces of paper.

“Found them,” Sam suddenly cried excitedly. He pulled a blue

folder out of the box he had been looking through and placed it on the
floor between them. They both sat cross legged, as there wasn’t room
to comfortably stand, and shared out the papers inside.

“You look through that half,” Kieran told Sam. “I’ll look through

this half.”

Sam took his stack of papers and started reading. It was going to

take them a while to get through it all. If there was ever any group
who loved their paperwork, then it was the British government.

“That’s odd,” Sam said after a while of them searching in silence.
“What is?”
Sam handed Kieran the sheet of paper that he had been reading

and Kieran frowned as he read it. “That can’t be right. It says that Rita
wasn’t approved as a foster career due to her age and status as a single
woman.”

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Jane Wallace-Knight

Sam shrugged. “I guess they must have later changed their minds.

It says there that she applied five years before I lived with her and we
know that I was her first foster-child, so maybe she applied again.”

“But why would they change their minds?” Kieran asked.

“Nothing changed. She was still single and, if anything, she was older
then. It doesn’t make sense. Keep looking.”

After several more minutes Kieran came across a newspaper

clipping. It seemed strange that it would be in amongst their social
service records so Kieran pulled it out of the stack and looked at the
yellowed paper. There was a black and white photo of a smashed up
car with the head line, “Woman murders husband then commits
suicide,” above it.

He read the article quickly and discovered that a Mrs. A. Fenton

had driven home one night and killed her husband by going inside and
bludgeoning him to death with a tire iron from the boot of her car. She
then went back to her car and drove full speed into the side of the
house, killing her on impact. There was something about her name
that wrung a bell.

“Sam, what were the names of your first foster parents?” he asked,

sure that he already knew the answer. Though Sam hadn’t talked
much about his abuse, when you hear the name of the people who
hurt someone you love, you tend to remember it.

“Alison and Trevor Fenton,” Sam asked with a curious frown.

“Why?”

“Did you know that they died? She killed him and then killed

herself,” Kieran told him as he handed over the old clipping.

Sam read the article carefully before meeting Kieran’s gaze.

“Why would Rita keep that from me?”

Kieran shrugged and took the paper back from him. “I don’t

know. You were really young when it happened. Maybe she just
didn’t want to hurt you anymore than you had already been.”

He looked back down at the paper and saw the date that the

murder-suicide had taken place. He knew that Sam had been six-

Fate Is a Series of Choices We Make

131

years-old when he was taken away from them, after his foster father
had sent him to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder. It had all
happened in the same year.

“See if you can find the date you came to live here,” Kieran asked.

“It must be written down somewhere.”

“No need,” Sam told him. “Rita used to make us both a cake every

year on the anniversary of the day we came to live with her,
remember? Mine’s July twenty-fourth and yours is April the
eighteenth.”

“July twenty-fourth,” Kieran repeated as he read the exact same

date on the newspaper clipping. He pointed it out to Sam and his
brother froze.

“That was the day Trevor dislocated my arm. Alison took me to

the hospital and told me to say that I fell off my bike, but then the
policeman showed up and took me to Rita,” Sam told him.

“The policeman who you think was really your dad?” Kieran

asked. “Do you think he had anything to do with this?”

Sam suddenly went still as a look of realisation came over his

face. He snatched back the newspaper clipping and studied the photo
of the smashed car with a crowd of people looking on.

“Oh my god,” Sam cried as he pointed out a man in the crowd.

“That’s him. That’s the man who took me from the hospital. That’s
Samael, my dad.”

THE END

WWW.JANEWALLACE-KNIGHT.BLOGSPOT.CO.UK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jane Wallace-Knight lives in the East of England in a small town

on the coast, in a house by the sea. She loves nothing more than
spending time with her family and friends.

In her free time, Jane loves baking and cake decorating and often

makes cakes for the special occasions in her friends’ and family’s
lives. She loves music, movies and books, and is never happier than
when she is writing.

For all titles by Jane Wallace-Knight, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/jane-wallace-knight

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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