Page 43

Jackson

It’s like I’ve fallen into a daze, as Emily tells me she is choosing Aidan. The world stops spinning on its axis. My feet, like lead, keep me rooted as I stare at the spot where she had stood in front of me and told me I couldn’t keep her safe, that I can’t keep anyone safe.

But when he talks about making her suffer, I know it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t want me. Whatever trance I’ve been in snaps. Whether she wants me or not—whether she ever loves me again or not—he can’t have her. He doesn’t get to hurt her again.

I shift back into my wolf form; the change tearing through me like wildfire.

With a feral roar, I lunge—only to be cut off by Aidan’s warriors.

Pain lances across my body as teeth pierce my flank, tail and back.

Blood drips from my wounds as adrenaline surges through my veins.

Snarls echo in the air, a symphony of feral rage.

I pivot and snap my jaws at the wolf closest to my face, sinking my teeth into his throat.

The bitter taste of blood floods my mouth as I rip out his spine.

Claws slash through the air, tearing flesh and rending bone.

I kick back with my hind legs, making contact as Ryan joins the fight, pulling a reddish wolf off of me before he snaps his neck and throws him back.

We have taken out four of the six warriors when I see Emily drop to the ground in my periphery.

I plunge my claws into the throat of the nearest wolf, slicing his jugular in a clean sweep.

And before he hits the ground, I’m leaping out of the fight and towards Emily—shifting midair—I drop to the ground beside her.

My muscles scream from the exertion, and my wounds sting, but that doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters except her.

I fall to my knees beside her. I pull her into my arms and wipe blood off of her face, frantically searching for injuries.

Her eyes flicker open and closed several times before finally focusing on me.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any of it,” she says, her voice the barest whisper.

“I needed to get close to him… I’m so sorry. ”

“I was supposed to protect you.” Tears sting my eyes as I stare at her beautiful face. My heart is breaking that she didn’t let me kill him for her. My sweet Emily shouldn’t have had to do this.

“You did,” she says, and then she’s gone again, unconscious in my arms.

I press a kiss to her forehead and pull her against me like I can shield her from the world. Like I can rewind time and do it all differently. I look back at what was the battle to see Ryan surveying the damage. “They’re all dead. This is a fucking mess,” he says, rubbing his hands down his face.

Sofia shoves off Luca and storms toward us, blood on her face and fury in her eyes. “Maybe they wouldn’t be if you had fucking done anything!” she shouts. Luca sinks to the ground behind her, scowling at the wounds on his arms.

“I’m bringing her to the pack hospital,” I say without acknowledging Ryan. I can’t even look at him right now. I don’t know how I can ever trust him as my Alpha again after this.

“Jackson, we need to deal with this. I don’t even know how they made it onto pack lands. We need to investigate.”

“You investigate,” I snap. “I’m taking my mate to the hospital.”

“Your mate?”

“Yeah. My mate.” I meet his eyes then, just long enough for him to see the truth. Her scent—stronger, richer now—wraps around me like a tether. The slight tingles when our skin connects are electric now. My wolf howls for her, louder than ever.

I turn and walk towards the hospital carrying my beautiful mate. The bond snapped into place as she fell to the floor. And from now on, she is my first priority.

As she always should have been.

“Her vitals are stable. They hadn’t completed the bond, and she was the one to reject him. These are all strong indicators that she is going to be okay,” Doc says softly. I huff out a breath .

It’s been two days since I brought Emily in here. Two days of fluorescent lights and sterile smells. Two days of watching Emily’s chest rise and fall, hoping the next breath isn’t her last. Two days since I saw her kill Aidan, but it feels like a lifetime.

“So why hasn’t she woken up yet?”

“These things take time, Jackson. There are no documented cases of an omega surviving a rejection to an Alpha, but I’ve also never heard of an omega doing the rejecting. We just have to wait at this point.”

I nod, eyes never leaving her. Her tiny form is lost in the bed. Her blonde hair fans out from her hair like an angelic halo. If I hadn’t watched her drive her claws into Aidan’s throat with my own eyes, I’d never believe someone so delicate could do something so brutal.

Doc lays a hand on my shoulder, giving me a firm squeeze. “She knows you’re here. Keep talking to her. Your proximity to her is helpful. As hard as it is, we need to believe the Goddess intended for this to happen.”

I’ve been sitting here since I brought her in.

There’s no treatment for a broken mate bond or a rejection.

So, Emily is being given fluids, and she’s being fed through a tube in her nose, but otherwise it’s a waiting game.

I slip off my shoes and climb into bed with her once Doc leaves.

Pulling her listless body into me. I drop a kiss on her forehead and whisper into her ear.

“I need you to wake up, little wolf. I need you to know how much I love you. I love how you light up outside in nature, how alive I feel when I chase you in the forest. Or how your laugh is my favorite sound in the whole world. I need to hear it again. I need to see more of your sassy side and how smart you are. How you can read people so well. You are so perfect, so mine . I need you to know that even if you weren’t my mate, I would still choose you . I can’t lose you.”

I don’t know if she can hear me, but on the off chance she can, I whisper a few dirty things, too. She has to be okay.

“Any update?” Ryan’s voice cuts through the stillness.

I don’t look at him. “No. Still waiting for her to wake up.” I haven’t spoken to Ryan since that day. He came by yesterday, but I asked Doc not to let him in and thankfully the pack hospital is the one place Ryan listens to others.

“They were mates. You know I can’t intervene to prevent a mate bond,” he says with a heavy sigh .

“All I know is that you didn’t stop it. You were happy to let Emily be swept off by a piece of shit who fucking tortured her.

Ryan, you’ve been my best friend for my whole life, my alpha for six years, and I’ve never questioned your decisions before, but I can’t understand this.

You said she was under your protection! And you were going to stand by and let him fucking take her. You fucking abandoned us.”

“She made the final call—”

“She never should’ve had to,” I snap. “Emily never should’ve had to be the one to kill him.”

“That’s not true,” a small voice mumbles. I nearly give myself whiplash, turning my head towards her.

“Emily, baby, you’re awake?”

Her eyes flutter open—emerald and glassy, rimmed with tears. She’s still far too pale and her white, blonde hair is stained pink from the remnants of blood that couldn’t be washed out while she was unconscious. But she’s awake , and she’s mine.

“I’m so sorry for the awful things I said. None of it was true. I knew it was the only way to get close enough to him. The rejection wouldn’t have worked unless I was touching him,” she says through the tears rolling down her face. “Please forgive me.”

I pour her a glass of water and she sips gently

“Forgive you?” My voice breaks. “Emily, you’re incredible. I just don’t understand why you put yourself in that position. He could have taken you. You could have been hurt. Why didn’t you let me protect you?”

“I couldn’t risk losing you. I realized he would never have seen it coming. He never would have imagined I could fight back because I never did before. But I’m not that girl anymore.”

I gape at her in shock. “But I saw you. You were a crying mess.”

“I was. But then I remembered everything I’ve learned in therapy and since coming here, and I calmed myself down enough to think.

Once I did that, I could see what needed to be done.

You taught me how to use everything at my disposal.

Every advantage. I would never have been safe while he was out there.

But now I never have to be afraid of him ever again. ”

I can’t believe how far she has come. I have never been prouder of someone than I am of her right now. She's incredible.

“I wish you didn’t have to go through that. ”

“I’m okay, Jackson. I’ve got my second chance.” She smiles, and warmth radiates from my chest.

“Yes. Yes, you have, my perfect mate.” I lean in and kiss her softly at first and then more passionately, because I can’t help it. The slight tingles that were there before transform into fireworks erupting on every part of my skin touching her.

Ryan clears his throat and I glare at him.

“We need to talk about what I tell the council about why Aidan Blackwell came here looking for his mate with six warriors and they all ended up dead.”

“What’s there to talk about?” I ask, ready to go to fucking war right now. “It was self-defense. You can’t possibly want Emily brought up in front of the council?”

“No, that’s not my intent,” Ryan replies, leaning forward, holding on to the bed footboard.

“But I think we need to use this to our advantage. Emily, if we say that Jack was your mate all along and that Aidan tried to interfere to kidnap you, we can say that we were within our rights to intervene, and that’s when things became hairy.

We learned after the fight that John Anderson had called him as soon as he saw you and told him you were here.

Aidan left immediately before he knew for certain you were his mate and hadn’t even told his Beta.

I think that could lead to the council investigating Blood Moon and hopefully some of the shady shit going on will come out. ”

Emily stays silent, watching us carefully.

I raise a brow. “Sounds like you’ve grown a backbone. Since when are you okay with twisting the truth?”

Ryan has always been a stickler for the rules, and I’ve never seen him manipulate anything or anyone, but now he’s willing to pull this with the council. Emily’s eyes dart between us, a questioning look on her face, but she stays silent.

“Yeah, Caleb’s idea,” he responds with a shrug, conveying his reluctance to elaborate. “He won his challenge, by the way. Anderson is dead too.”

Fuck, I had forgotten about him. I was so wrapped up in making sure Emily was okay that everything else faded to black. I will need to talk to Caleb and figure out what is happening with the search for the missing she-wolves. But not right now. Right now is all about Emily.

“Right, well, if you don’t mind Alpha, my mate still needs to be checked over by Doc and then I want to get her home. ”

Ryan nods before striding from the hospital room and a few moments later, Doc comes in and checks Emily over. He is happy to release her to my care, so once a nurse disconnects Emily from all the tubes and wires, we leave. I carry her back to my place. Our place.

She doesn’t even try to argue against me carrying her. She wraps her arms around my neck and presses her face into my skin with a soft sigh, like this is exactly where she’s meant to be.

Because it is.

Because she’s mine.

And I’m hers.