Page 47

Jaxon’s chest rises and falls as he glares at Felix. “Okay,” he grumbles. “Tell me what your coven is planning if you don’t plan on hurting my friend again.” His hands slowly move to my waist as he presses his front against my back. He holds me tightly against his body, and I don’t even try to fight him. Even though I’m still mad at him for hurting my friend, he’s still upset because he thought I was hurt again. I know how awful it is to think your friend is hurt.
I close my eyes and lean my head back on his chest. I wish there wasn’t a whole supernatural coven trying to kill me. If I close my eyes and think about how my mate smells like the woods and how warm his fingers are through my shirt, I can almost forget about it all. Not quite.
Felix grunts as he moves around. I wake up when he struggles, but Jaxon’s arms are like metal bars that keep me from moving forward.
“I don’t know what they’re up to. They think I’m a traitor, so they won’t tell me anything.” Felix holds his hand to his side and takes a few raspy breaths. “F**k, this hurts. How do you deal with it?” My cheeks slowly deflate as I blow out a slow breath between my lips.
“I’ve never been hurt as badly as you, but you have to deal with it.”
Felix laughs and then winces. “Tell me the next time you get a paper cut, and I’ll take care of it.”
I jump up and down and do a little dance to celebrate. “Paper cuts are the worst! They’re so tiny but so painful! And I read a lot, so I know.”
Felix puts his hands behind his head and smiles at how excited I am. “You definitely read too much. It’s not normal.”
“It totally is! Your thing is magic, and my thing is reading. Oh!” I say, and then I start to play with my fingers. “Does your offer include helping my little sister? She always falls and scrapes her knees or hurts herself on the playground.”
“There’s a little Dalton? I have to meet her! I’ll bet she’s cute,” he says with a smirk and quickly looks down my body before looking me in the eye again. “Just like you.”
I roll my eyes at his empty flirting, but Jaxon pulls me away from the warlock and tightens his grip on my waist to protect me.
“Are you asking to be killed? I can do that for you,” he growls more than talks. I turn my body around in his arms so that I’m facing him and put my hands on his shoulders. Just a touch sent tingles all over my body, and I hope that’s enough to calm him down.
“He’s just kidding. He knows I’m with you.” I sigh and put my hands around the back of Jaxon’s neck when he keeps getting angry and sending metaphorical daggers at Felix. I pull him close and kiss him softly on the lips. What I thought would be a short and sweet kiss turned out to be the opposite. Jaxon’s hands grab my body like I’m going to run away with Felix instead. He kisses me like he’ll never get another chance to take my lips. I would say he was jealous if I didn’t know any better…
I love how possessive he is, and I secretly enjoy how strong and intense he is when he kisses me. When I get embarrassed that people are watching, I back away. Instead, Jaxon hugs me to his side and nuzzles my neck.
“Mine,” he mumbles, and his warm breath hits my neck. “Not his. Mine.”
I put my hands on his cheeks and look into his eyes, which are fighting between black and silver. I nod and say, “I’m yours.”
He nods stiffly and then takes my hand. “Let’s go. The warlock clearly doesn’t have any useful information.”
I keep my position by planting my feet firmly on the ground and leaning back on my heels. As Jaxon keeps moving, my shoes start to squeak on the linoleum floors of the hospital because I won’t move. Jaxon doesn’t even notice that I’m having trouble until I try to pull my arms away from him.
“No!” I say firmly as I pull my hands away from his. He definitely let me go, because there’s no way I could have gotten away from him if he hadn’t let me. He’s way too strong. “Felix’s coven almost killed him! You can leave if you want, but I’m going to stay with him while he heals.”
Jaxon laughs without any humor. “That’s cute if you think I’m letting you stay here with him. No, you’re coming back to the pack house with me, where you can be with guards all the time. Not here, where there aren’t any guards and it’s hard to get extra protection.” He takes my hand again and walks me to the door. I put my feet back on the floor and pull away from him again. He doesn’t let me go this time.
“Stop! Jaxon, stop!” I yell as he keeps pulling me toward the door. I turn around and see Felix trying to get out of bed at the hospital, but he’s too weak to do much. He looks really mad, and I can see a hint of blue in his normally mocha-brown eyes.
I know how to get him to let me go, so I start whining without thinking about it too much. “Ow, you’re hurting me!”
He wasn’t really hurting me. He was being very careful when he helped my wrist, but as soon as he heard what I said, he let go of my hand. His eyes get bigger as they focus on my wrist, which I’m holding up to my chest. Thanks, Mom, for sending me to theater camp for a summer when I was seven!
I trip back because there isn’t enough resistance, but I’m glad I catch myself before I fall on my b**t. I give Jaxon a dirty look, and he just looks guilty.
“Baby, I didn’t mean to. Did I hurt you? I—”
Now that I have his attention, I cut him off. “I’m fine. Now listen up, because this is what’s going to happen. I’m staying with Felix until he gets better. I don’t care if that means I stay here or he comes to the pack hospital to get better. He’s hurt because of me, so I’m not leaving him alone until I know he’s going to be okay. You can’t boss me around; I’m your mate, not your pack member.”
The more I talk, the more Jaxon grits his teeth. I can tell that he doesn’t like being challenged. I can also tell that there’s no way in hell he’s going to leave me alone. He needs to find a way to make things right, or else I will hate him.
He is thinking about his options with his eyebrows down, one a little higher than the other. While he’s thinking, I look at Felix and see that he’s passed out in the hospital bed. The only sounds in the room are his soft snores and the machines in the hospital that beep in time with them. The sounds that keep coming are calming and steady. I choose to focus on them instead of the chance that Jaxon will make me leave.
Jaxon could definitely beat me up. He is a man and a werewolf, which makes him much stronger than I am. He could easily pull me out of here and lock me in a room with guards outside if he wanted to. This is exactly what I was afraid of when I first started dating a wolf: we disagree about something, and then he uses his strength and power to make me do what he wants.
This isn’t the Jaxon I know, but it’s the first time we’ve fought. I don’t know how he’s going to feel about his little human friend telling him what to do.
I bite my lip until I taste metal on my tongue. I let go of my lip and ran my tongue over the cut skin. I wait and wait for him to say something, and after five minutes of silence, I turn to Jaxon and see him staring out the window with a blank look on his face. I can tell that his mind is linked with other people when he has that far-off look in his eyes.
When two guards come into the hospital room and walk right up to me, I squeak and move back into a corner of the room. Graham, who I don’t like, grabs my wrist and pulls me to the front door harder than he needs to. As I try to get away from them, the other guard steps in behind me and puts his hands on my mid-back.
“Be careful with her. If I come back and see a scratch on her, you’ll both be in trouble.”
“Yes, Alpha,” the two guards say in low voices. I don’t want to go with Thing 2 behind me, so they have to carry me to the door. I’m kicking, screaming, and crying for them to let me go and for Jaxon to change his mind. As soon as I leave, he’s going to kill Felix. I have to save his life. I take all of the anger and resentment I have for Jaxon right now and put it into the biggest threat.
“If you do this, I’ll never let you mark me!”
The two bodies holding me stiffen against me, clearly aware of how serious my words are. Skyler told me that marking your mate is a way to show you love them and claim them. It would be like a person never getting married or telling anyone they were together in the first place.
I can see Jaxon’s wavering shape through the tears of betrayal in my eyes. He relaxes his jaw as he looks at me.
“How do you know what marking is?”
I curse at him and tell him, “It doesn’t f*****g matter!” as I get away from the guards. Once I’m free (I use their shock to my advantage), I run in front of Felix and block Jaxon’s view of his weak, sleeping body. “Kill him, hurt him, and I’m done with you. Do you hear me?”
As soon as he thinks about me leaving him, Jaxon’s eyes turn black and he growls. When the growls stop, I hear a soft whining sound coming from his throat. His eyes are sad. He looks at me with confidence and control, then turns to the warriors who were carrying me out the door before.
“Take him to the pack hospital. I want eyes on him at all times. The moment he tries anything, you stop him. By any means necessary.” Jaxon’s tone makes it clear that he means business, but the fact that he doesn’t plan to kill Felix makes me feel better.
I can’t remember anything from the next hour. They try to get Felix out of the hospital, which is a big deal given how sick he was. I’m pretty sure threats were made to get the hospital staff to do what they were told.
I ended up in the passenger seat of a black truck with Jaxon driving. I’m so angry that I can’t remember how I got there. I can’t believe I had to threaten our relationship for him to respect what I wanted.
As soon as we get to the pack house, I open the truck door and slam it shut again. I rush into the house and don’t stop until I reach a door I know on the third floor. I can’t avoid the conversation that’s about to happen.
He’s going to blow up.
I’m going to blow up.
We can only hope that the damage isn’t permanent.
I stomp across the room to the other corner, and the door to Jaxon’s bedroom clicks shut. The room seems different, like it’s darker than the last time I was here. The dark furniture doesn’t make the room look better; it makes the dark thoughts in my head worse.