Page 74 of Her Reborn Mate

I wanted to wrap my arms around him and never let go. If he were here, I’d plant a thousand kisses on his face and hold onto him forever. But since he wasn’t here and since he was dealing with Fred, it was better that I didn’t respond to him. If he didn’t know, he’d be spared the pain.

I took out my phone and looked at Will’s picture on my wallpaper, staring at his kind eyes and his handsome face, feeling lulled into a sense of comfort by his image staring back at me.

The timer on the bombs said one minute.

In less than sixty seconds, I would cease to exist, and the town would be safer for it.

This was how it had to be.

I love you, Will. Now and forever,I called out.

In that final moment, my bond with Will tugged at me with such brute force that I nearly toppled off the boat. It beckoned me to survive while there were still a few seconds to reconsider.

Chapter 32: Will

Amid Fred’s rant, I heard Alexis’s voice calling out to me, telling me that she loved me now and forever. I concluded that this was her way of telling me that she had successfully found all of the bombs and that they were not going to be a threat any longer.

“How is it possible that the bombs have not exploded?” Fred glared at me, his eyes fiery red with rage.

“Perhaps people have gotten wiser to your plans after all this time,” I said, feeling relieved that the bombs had not exploded. Now I could capture Fred and take him back to the commune to answer for his many crimes.

“What did you do?” Fred was curious, genuinely so. Even his tone had turned from angry to inquisitive. “I had always assumed you to be a dumb leader, incapable of contrivance, planning, and masterminding situations. This is not your doing. There’s someone else behind it.”

“I will admit that I have never been one to showcase my intelligence. I prefer wisdom over cleverness. Wisdom is deeper, slower, and long-lasting. Being clever gets a person in trouble. But yes, on that front, you are right. This was not my doing. The entire Grimm pack did it with Alexis’s help. This was her idea,” I said, giving credit where credit was due.

“I should have known,” Fred said. “I had a chance to get her killed along with her parents. It seems foolish that I let her live back then. Look what pitying a kid gets me.”

“That was probably the only good decision you ever made. You spared her life and gave me a mate in return. Other than that, Fred, your track record of mistakes, errors, and malicious mischief has not a single good deed in them. How can someone related to me be so evil?” Now that the bomb wasn’t a matter of urgency, I stepped up to Fred. He saw me coming towards him and reclined in his wheelchair.

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing does. I had placed a failsafe in case the bombs didn’t go off using the detonator. They’re all rigged to blow with a timer. You cannot stop the chaos that will happen tonight. That’s the thing about chaos. One way or the other, it always prevails,” Fred said.

I shook my head as I approached him. “You’re wrong about chaos. When the world was nothing but a sea of chaos, humans gave it order. With tools and community, and education, we learned that we were more than mere brutes capable of speech. We learned that we could ascend to divinity through order. Sadly, that’s a lesson you never learned, and it’s too late for you to start learning. What is it that they say? You cannot teach an old dog new tricks,” I said. “Now come, I’m taking you to the commune.”

Fred slapped away my hand and reversed his wheelchair till it was just by the cliff’s edge.

“I am not going down there without a fight. It’s kill or be killed. Either I’ll fulfill my lifelong dream of smiting you tonight, or I’ll go down fighting. If you think you can simply order me to come quietly, you’re a bigger fool than I took you for,” Fred said.

“I don’t want to fight you, Fred. It’s over. Look around. No bombs are blowing up in the night, and no one is coming to save you. It’s for the best that you come with me,” I said, holding out my hand. He refused to take it again.

“And what precious future awaits me if I do decide to come with you? It’s not like they are waiting for me with garlands in their hands. I will be tried, and then I’ll be hung by the neck until I die. There is no redemption for me, Will. Do not presume to fool me,” he said.

“Most of your crimes are against me. I won’t be forgiving you anytime soon, but I will see to it that you get a reduced sentence,” I said. As bad as things were, I needed to save my brother. There was no off-switch for such feelings. He was my brother. Our parents had raised us together. He was my last living relative. I could not just have him killed.

“Imprisonment, then,” Fred said. “I am well over my nineties. Do you think I’ll let them leave me to rot in prison for the last part of my life?”

“You will have to pay for your crimes somehow.” Fred was being obstinate as he had always been. Sometimes, I wondered if he enjoyed bickering with me and did it for the sole purpose of triggering me.

“As I said, I will not go without a fight. Be a man and fight with me. It’s the least you can do. If there’s some punishment that you wish to dole out, dole it out here and now. Fuck the tribunal. We end this now. Like men,” Fred said.

“Your right to call yourself a man got revoked the minute you started conspiring against the pack and me. You’re not a man. You’re a coward. People like to try to usurp things from others, thinking that the world belongs to them. It doesn’t. If you don’t come with me, I will drag you back to the Grimm Abode by force. Would you like that?”

“Fuck you!” Fred said and flung himself out of his chair, charging at me with as much speed as his old body could muster. I had no heart to fight him, so I just stepped aside as he came near me. Instead of stopping, Fred slipped and fell forward.

It happened so fast that I did not have any time to react. Fred’s foot caught on the cliff’s edge as he slipped, and he looked back at me with terror in his eyes as he realized that he had made a fatal error. His hand reached out in the air, but I was too far away.

Fred tumbled back and fell down the cliff.

“No!” I yelled helplessly as I raced over to the cliff and looked down.