Shifted Fate by Alicia S.Rivers

The others in the room watched as my father processed the idea his dad was still alive. "My mom?"

My grandmother pursed her lips but shook her head. "He didn't want or need her anymore." She looked down at the floor. "She wasn't his first victim, nor his last." He nodded once.

"Why did he stick around so long if he didn't want to be here?" Ronnie questioned.

My grandmother sighed. "He was content to be the alpha of this pack as he searched." She turned back to my father. "And he was fine keeping your mother alive because he knew he would lose standing if he got rid of her. He was the outsider." She looked around the room. "As it stood, he wasn't very liked." My grandmother paced. "Your mother was so much like Amy. Strong, bright, loving. She was funny, and the darling girl of the pack."

"What happened?" My dad asked.

She leveled him with a look that said he knew. "He did. He had turned your mother from a bright vibrant, loving woman, into the cold stiff creature that you knew."

"How?" Ronnie asked.

My grandmother opened her mouth, but it was my words the stopped everyone. "When you love someone that doesn't respect your words, your feelings, or your life,. You allow yourself to become smaller, so they give you a tiny shred of love. Men like Garith, men like Brandon, they toss you little bits of affection and warmth, so you put up with everything they do to tear you down." I looked up at Ronnie. "They do it in such a way that you don't even realize you are changing yourself. Not until it's too late. Not until you are quiet and obedient. Not until the beatings become your everyday and the love they once gave you freely become something you now have to beg for." My father made a choking noise. But I just smiled as I bared my soul to a room full of men that I barely knew.

into a hug. "You

"I know that this time around." I pulled fully out of his arms and cleared my throat. "Anyway." I turned back to my

and I knew without seeing his eyes, he was watching me. His hands were clenched, as if he was mad, but I didn't know why. I watched him for another second before my dad cleared his throat. "I guess she gave all the answers she could give us." His voice was still strong and clear, but I knew

do we do

"I think we put the Garith

but Thoth stood up. "Gavin is right. Knowing he is alive doesn't change our next step. We came here because Amy told us about the rogue encampment in the

there anymore?" I

trackers from all the packs head to the caves. And we

rogue movements. Cass is

other alphas. "Do we

looked at

that the rogues are

might be a little doubtful because of the relationship between me, my dad, and Garith. What I can tell you is