All Chapters of Strings of Fate: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

300 Chapters

51- Relief and rejection

“What are you going to do?” My voice is timid. Megan sighs, the sound is sad and... relieved?“I'm done lying to myself. I need to tell Tristan I can't get married today. It's going to be hard. I'd be lying if I said I don't care about him. Ten minutes ago I had every intention of marrying him. I guess I just needed... permission. Permission to change my mind. Or maybe just support to do what I want.” I nod.“What can I do to help?” Megan stands up and looks herself over.“Help me out of this dress? It definitely sends the wrong message. Then we need to get over to the wedding so I can apologise to Tristan. Could you maybe call Bellamy, let him know?” She stops when she realises what she's asking.“Never mind, I can do that I-” I interrupt her.“I can call him.” Anything to make this easier for her. I'm already working on the buttons on the back of her dress. I can hear a banging downstairs.“That must be Bellamy, he must have forgotten something.” She looks stricken. I head for the d

52- Fight and flight

I'm crying again. I don't know what else to do. I think I need to talk to Megan. Megan! Is she okay? I was so busy out here I forgot that she's literally calling off her own wedding. I wipe away my tears, open the door and slip inside. What's waiting for me is so much worse than I could have imagined. At the end of the aisle, Megan and Tristan are staring each other down. They are equal in dominance and neither of them is budging. Tristan's face is ugly and twisted with anger and hatred, his hands are shifted into claws he is gripping Megan's arm in a way that has to hurt. Darrien is standing next to Megan. He also seems to be frozen, stuck in the battle for dominance. Tristan must actually be as dominant as Megan and Darrien if they are all stopped like this. Apparently, these battles aren't just a two person thing. Well that's useful information I suppose.“You BITCH!” Tristan screams. Everyone else in the room seems frozen, not able to move under the waves of power coming from the

53- Selfish and shy

When we reach the grave from before, I stop and release his hand. It falls to his side. I stare at the grave and avoid his face.“You were right when you said I'm selfish.” I start.“I don't know how to trust. Until now, I've never even tried to, not really, I run away, hide and avoid everyone who tries to get close to me. But there is one thing I have always trusted and that is fate. These threads that I see. They never deceive me, they show truth, good and bad. They do nothing to spare my feelings because fate doesn't care about my feelings. There are times I wish I couldn't see them at all because what I see is so heartbreaking. But despite that, I really do trust them. Completely. I trust them so completely that I know I will be tied to you forever, even when we are both dead and gone.” I pause and turn to face Bellamy. His expression is giving nothing away and I have to once again fight my natural inclination to flee.“I'm selfish because I knew that even if I ran away from my fe

54- Return and relax

“Hello?” I'm surprised to hear Megan on the line instead of Darrien.“Ry! Are you okay? You've been gone a while. You aren't off crying again or something are you? Are you still with Bellamy?” She blurts out her questions one after the other, not giving me a chance to answer.“Woah, woah, Megan. Calm down. I'm fine. I'm with Bellamy right now. I should be asking if you're okay?” I turn the question back to her. She is quiet for a moment.“I'm okay. Today clearly did not go how I had planned. But I'm okay. Tomorrow I'll be a little more okay. I- I didn't want to kill him Ry, but I couldn't let him hurt Darrien.” Megan is crying now. Shoot, I didn't mean to make her cry. I can hear Darrien attempting to soothe her. He takes the phone from her.“She's okay, just in shock. I'm taking her home. Aaron and Shaun are seeing to Tristan.” he explains.“Should I come look after her?” I ask. I can hear him repeat my question for Megan.“She says if things are going okay with her brother then she

55- Bedrooms and boundaries

I wake to a light tugging in my hair. The room is still dark, so I have no idea how long I've been asleep.“Hello.” Bellamy says quietly, stroking my hair. I guess that explains the tugging. I stop and take in my situation. Once again, while sleeping we have moved around so that I am lying half on top of him, one leg pulled up and crossed over his. One of his arms is wrapped around my waist while the other is stroking my hair. I take a deep breath, trying to stay calm. I don't know why I'm so freaked out. This is very different to the other times we woke up next to each other. Those times Bellamy backed off as soon as he realised what was happening, but now...“Hi?” I answer him nervously. Bellamy doesn't say anything. He just keeps lazily stroking my hair and lets out a deep breath. He moves a little adjusting his legs, shifting me slightly.“Sorry, I'm probably crushing you, I'll move I-” I am about to roll off of him when he runs his hand down from my hair. He runs it lightly over

56- Courage and courting

He heads into my room and I take a minute to think. I'm proud of myself, sure I wanted to avoid that conversation, but I survived it, I didn't run away. I follow Bellamy into my room where he is tucking his phone and his tie into his pocket.“What time is it anyway?” I ask, I'm so out of it. I feel like I slept a long time, but there was daylight coming through the windows, which means either we slept for only a couple hours OR we slept through the night and it's daytime again.“It's about one, we slept almost 24 hours. I'm not surprised I slept that much, you're like a knock out drug to me, but you must have been really tired to have slept so long.” He looks at me contemplating something. I just shrug.“I did say I haven't been sleeping well.” I sort through my drawers looking for something comfortable to wear. I haven't really been doing much laundry lately either. I really need to catch up on my housework. Eventually I settle on a pair of leggings that I'm pretty sure are clean and

57- Worries and worth

“I didn't use ALL the methods of courting, there are three main aspects to Shifter courting. First I show that I can provide for you with gifts of food and clothing. Second I show I can protect you, I got the rules about shoes changed at your workplace and literally fought the Vampires to protect you so that counts. That just leaves proving that I will do the same for our children.” He concludes. I choke on my water. Bellamy is out of his seat in a second. He moves onto the bench next to me, patting and stroking my back as I regain the ability to breathe. He looks like he is trying not to laugh.“Breathe Ryann, hypothetical children, relax.” Bellamy chuckles and I glare at him.“And just what kind of new and confusing behaviour can I expect from you regarding this?” I demand. He sobers up a little. “I'm not entirely sure, usually this would be proven by making an effort to be active in the family, taking care of younger siblings, or elderly family members of the female being courted.

58 - Distraction and denial

Without missing a beat Bellamy hops out the car and runs around to open my door for me. Before I can so much as blink he’s leaning down over me and pressing his lips against mine. Just for a moment but I'm not expecting it and I freeze in shock.“For luck.” He states calmly, a click at my side tells me he’s undone my seatbelt. I flush red as I scramble out of my seat and take the arm Bellamy is holding out for me. There’s a smirk on his face and I can tell he’s enjoying how flustered I am.I take a few deep breaths as we approach the front door and try and relax. Megan is the one who has the right to be freaking out, not me. Things are actually looking up for me, I really have no right to complain. Bellamy unlocks the door, I did plan to head straight up to Megan’s room but I can hear noise coming from the kitchen. Is she… humming? I glance at Bellamy who shrugs and gives a confused expression which tells me he doesn’t know what’s going on either. I peer around the doorway and see Meg

59 - Sleeping and shrieking

“So Bellamy was telling me about some of the things Shifter men do to court women. Food and clothes and stuff. You had to have known this whole time!” I complain. Megan smirks. “I figured if it was meant to be you would already know and if it wasn’t... Then why force him to go through the rejection? Besides, I only knew about him buying you a dress, Darrien has been filling me in about your meals together though. Did you really throw money at him?” She asks. I frown.“Darrien wasn’t even there for that part. He left when we went to dinner.” I point out. Megan shrugs.“Just assume all the guards gossip. Except maybe Aaron. He barely even talks. I think I’ve mentioned before that Shaun is a gossip. He told Darrien and Darrien told me.” I groan. So much for privacy. I think Aaron might be my new favourite purely for his apparently unique skill of keeping his mouth shut. “I get the feeling I’m going to end up being embarrassed by all you guys a lot in the future. Well since I’m already

60 - Couches and company

I turn to Bellamy about to ask how he’s doing when he sweeps me up into a hug, pulling me right off my feet.“Thankyou so much. I thought I could handle her but then she started crying. Usually I don’t have a problem with dealing with people who get angry but it’s not like SHE did anything wrong and I just… got stuck.” I can feel him breathing into my hair as he places me back on my feet, holding me close. I stay still a few moments until he releases me.“Sorry if I overstepped. I just didn’t like seeing her yell at you. Also I was worried she would wake Megan, she’s finally asleep.” Bellamy shakes his head.“You didn’t overstep. I know you aren’t ready to be… well, all in yet. But helping with this kind of thing, emotional Shifters. That is what the Alpha female does. You are going to be so good at this, I just know it.” I take a step back in shock.“I…um. Didn’t mean to…this doesn’t mean.” I stammer out. Bellamy takes my hand and runs his thumb over the back of my hand soothingly.“

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