Three Fated Hearts by LNC

~Kimberly~ The commotion | heard made me come out and see what was going on. | noticed both my sons going to the packhouse, and | wanted to run to greet them. I’m so happy to see Lincoln in one piece. | stopped to take in the scene, and | want to recoil. | have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something is gnawing at me, and | don’t like it.

There are so many pack members out here, attracted to the loudness like me. Paul is out here along with my sons, and that terrifies me. | have a feeling that something is going to be said that isn’t going to go well for anyone. “No one needs to hear anything else, Stuart. You have ruined her life long enough.” I'd never seen Nikki stand up to Stuart, and it's an interesting sight.

“No, Nikki. Little miss Luna has asked me a question. Who am | to ignore her?” Stuart turns to Tia, who hasn’t so much as flinched this entire time. “You took away my happy ending.” No, please, no. Please don’t tell me that he’s going to say this out loud.

“| was going to be happy, | was going to be loved, but your mere existence ruined all of that.” Oh, Goddess, no! | want to yell out at the heavens to get him to stop, but my mouth isn’t working. My voice has disappeared, and | can’t move from my spot. | can feel my stomach bubbling, making me want to throw up. This can’t be how things end for me. “You took away my chance to be with my fated mate, Kim.”

~Tia~ | hear a gasp, but I'm too floored to see who it is. What did | just hear? | can feel the confusion through the bond with Lincoln and anger from Landon. This is a bit more than | expected.

“That's right. Kimberly gave birth to twins and we all know how that can be. Add to that Alpha twins and her dutiful husband was running around helping other packs. Nikki, you went to visit your family, leaving the girls with me.” Dad turns his head to Kimberly. “Do you remember that night? Do you remember coming to my house and crying on my shoulder? You were so overwhelmed with everything. The twins were toddlers by then and they were too much. Paul wasn’t there to help you and you felt alone. The Luna duties were stifling you and you begged me to make it all better.” Dad turns back to me. “She planned to leave the boys and run away. She wanted some time to herself and wasnt sure if she would return. She begged me to go with her and | wanted to. | loved the girls, but | was missing the love of my fated mate. We planned to leave as soon as Paul got back from visiting some pack. We were to leave about a week after Nikki got back.” “You were going to leave me? You were going to leave just like that?” Dad scoffs but doesn’t reply to mom.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around everything. I’m still curious to see what | have to do with this. | don’t have to wait long to find out, though. “Nikki comes back and tells me about meeting her fated mate. She says they rejected each other, and damn! If she had accepted him, everything would have been so much easier.” Dad shakes his head as if he is reliving the exact moment this all happened. “Nikki tells me that she’s pregnant, and | just knew you werent mine. How could you be mine when she had met her fated mate while gone? Your mother cried and pleaded with me to accept you, but | wanted proof.” | catch a sob from my mom, and | wish | could comfort her. “It was the damn DNA results that ended everythign for me. The minute Nikki got the results back adn found that you were mine, Kimberly woudIn’t go. She said that she couldn’t take me away from Nikki when she was with child. | was devastated, but she wouldn’t change her mind.” My head is swimming with his words. Everything is swirling around, and I’m having trouble understanding it. My head is starting to hurt, and my vision blurs slightly. | drop to a knee, and | begin to laugh. It's small at first, like a giggle, before morphing into a full belly laugh. My mates are by my side, checking to see if I'm okay. | let them help me stand, wipe my eyes and face him.

“You are so f**king pathetic! You are standing there and telling me that you have hated me all of my life because you missed out on being with your fated mate? The mate who didn’t want you because you were nothing but a warrior....the mate who chose the Alpha and had children with him.......”

| look up to the sky and take a deep breath. “Pathetic doesn’t even cover it, actually. I'm not sure they have created a word for what you are. You could have had your fated mate this entire time, but you chose not to. You were too weak to reject her, yet you act like everyone else is supposed to pay for that. If you were any kind of man, you would have rejected her and made a life with mom the right way, or you would have gotten your mate to accept you.” | can see the smoke coming from his ears, the anger burning within him. I'm glad he’s mad, and I’m glad | made him that way. To think | used to cry myself to sleep at night wondering what | did to make him hate me so much when the truth was it had nothing to do with me. He is just a sorry-a*s excuse for a man and wolf. | step forward a few times so that we are face to face. “You are so sorry and pathetic. You literally disgust me.” | spit at him, and it lands on his chest. | don’t see the hand but feel it connect with my face. My head snaps to the right, and | can taste blood in my mouth.

My mates have already moved, but | quickly turn and grab them to me. They are fighting their shift, but this isn’t their fight. I've had enough of cowering to him and allowing him to treat me however he likes. It’s time for me to take my power back.

Let me go, Tia! I'm going to rip his head off! Landon and | can handle this. Let go! NO! You will not touch him.....he’s mine! | look into my mates’ eyes, making sure they hear me. They are battling their wolves and want to ignore my request, but | know they can’t. They each give me a slight nod, and | let them go. | turn back to him, and he has a smug look on his face. “That's the last time you put your hands on me.” “And what are you going to do, little girl? You can’t beat me.” “Watch me. | challenge you Stuart Colby. | want you right here and right now.”