Life is Not a Game

Life is Not a Game — Offer B

THE ROAD TO FATE BOOK 1: THE ROAD TO

FATE

I thought being chosen by my mate would feel like the beginning of everything beautiful.

Instead, I'm on my hands and knees scrubbing cabin floors in the middle of nowhere while Ty disappears for "beta training" that somehow requires me to stay invisible. The grocery deliveries left on the porch like I'm something feral. The chore lists that grow longer every week. The way his jaw tightens when I ask about my nightmares, about the blood I smell in my sleep, about the little boy's body I keep seeing behind my eyes.

It all makes sense now.

Ty isn't protecting me from a dangerous pack.

He's hiding me from wolves who might recognize my scent. Because twelve years ago, my entire family was slaughtered—my parents, my six- year-old brother Bubby, everyone—and the only witness was a three-year-

old girl who vanished that same night.

Me.

Here's what makes my hands shake: Ty has always known. His parents have always known. They raised me with soft voices and warm blankets and the kind of love that makes you stop asking questions. They were waiting—waiting until I was bonded to their son before I ever learned the truth.

And now I'm starting to remember things. Fragments that feel like glass in my throat. The copper-sweet smell of blood. Bubby's small body, so still.

And arms lifting me—arms that felt safe, Goddess, they felt so safe—until something about them didn't.

I used to curl into Ty's chest after the nightmares, and he'd whisper *you're okay, you're safe* while his fingers traced my mark spot like a promise. I thought he was comforting me.

Now I think he was making sure I stayed his before I remembered what his family might have done to mine.

Tonight he wants to mark me. He says his wolf can't stand it anymore— the need, the pull, the ache of being so close without being sealed.

But I think he knows that once I'm marked, I can never leave him. Even if the hands that "rescued" me that night belong to someone I've been

calling family.

He's been begging me to trust him with my body for months.

The real question is whether I can trust him with the truth about what happened to the people whose blood still visits me in my sleep.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Chapter 1: Boys Will Be Boys

Chapter 2: Socially Awkward