Fate's Design |18+ (Ménage) ✔

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Vexy vanishes on the spot, leaving me standing in shock as she's given me her true name. She's given me her trust, something only Acacia had managed in the past...

...even though fate has been altered, the same outcome with gaining Vexy as an ally has stayed the course. She will become very powerful very quickly, and I know, if we need her, she will come.

Vexialarie.

Why did she kiss me though?

"Merle?" Dot's voice startles me as I'm taken aback, nearly jumping on the spot as I hadn't been paying much attention to my surroundings after...that.

I turn toward her and state, "Vexy is going home to help protect her family."

Dot's features turn downward, though she nods, "She's a vital asset here...though, I understand where she is coming from." As we stand quietly, she then questions, "She kissed you?"

"You saw through her tails?" I ask nervously, unaware of exactly how she's going to—

"Yes and no," Dot's features kindle slightly, and she smiles, "it's good luck...a kiss of a kitsune; that means, you're favored by them. In Vexy's case, it would almost seem that she's given you her protection."

In a way, that makes sense then. She was no longer in debt to me and we'd completed our deal. Vexy had no reason to give me her true name—

Dot tilts her head to the side and giggles, "I'm not jealous if that's what you're worried about. I think it's incredible how far the two of you have come considering she cursed you for something so trivial, and now to end like this." She pauses and releases a sigh before stating, "We better head in, there's a lot that we need to discuss with the council. We can't be blind sighted any longer by Aeon and the demons he's sending across the veil."

Nodding, I agree, "Yeah," as I walk by her, she reaches out and touches my arm, halting me in my tracks.

"Sincerely...thank you, for this," she touches the pendant around her neck and smiles at me, "your concern for me and everyone else is something I've taken for granted...I'm sorry. There's nothing I can ever do to make up for the choices I've made, though know that I truly do love you, and this," she clutches the pendant now as if it's her lifeline...it is...she states, "this is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. I know you want everything to turn out where we're all the victors, that's not always the case though because—"

"—we aren't in a fairytale and there aren't always happy endings," my voice is barely above hers as I cut her off and nod. To think of how things spiraled with Rose and her mates in the original timeline, for Rose to die and leave those she'd bonded with without her presence, her soul, I wouldn't want that on anyone.

We're nearly at the open door now when Dot snaps her fingers and halts once more, "There's one more thing you should know."

"What?" I glance at the door, though my gaze falls back on her.

"I figure everyone always has family that isn't in the spotlight, however, I was unprepared to discover when we arrived here that Taft and Mercury weren't the final lines of the Thornton's," Dot shakes her head and releases a small sigh, "I guess I have myself being locked away in Elysium to thank for that. As the world continued to turn and move forward, I was stuck in confined space in time...I didn't know."

I furrow my brows and question, "There's more to their bloodline?" Even I'm unaware of others belonging to that line...I believed what our history had been written that Mercury was the last of the Thornton bloodline as well during our timeline.

"Aohdan wasn't the only one to go off the grid in the original timeline and this one with Rochelle and eventually, my Daddy Rian..." as her voice trails off, I see how much this is all wearing her down. Dot attempts to compose herself and releases a sigh, "Anyway, as Delaney lost both her beloved and son...my actions for the latter, it pushed her to seek out others to help her take revenge on the crown for Rose not killing me for my actions. This led her to Antarith accidentally, where she found Taft's younger brother, Nalren Thornton and he has a son, Aries."