Chapter 20

Aurora

“Come on, little one, don’t stop for me.”

I blush, Luke leaning against the wall, his body pained but his smile the same warm grin as it’s always been. I move to hug him, stopping a few paces short, the pain of his smell so different to me now. I hadn’t noticed it on my birthday, or in the medical wing when I ran to check on him, but I smell it now.

He smells like his mate, Mary.

It hits me then. I have to let our love go. We wouldn’t be here if things weren’t the way they are meant to be. Me with Jaxson, Luke with Mary. It has to be for a reason, for some unknown cause that I wish I could change, but I’m not powerful enough to make that kind of change, no matter if I want to or not.

He closes the gap between us, pulling me in a tight embrace, holding me off the ground for a moment so he can fully take my arms and my body into his. I smile, then laugh, feeling weightless and careless in his hold. He inhales, snickering a noise of amusement, of pure enjoyment, and I can’t help but melt into his new, although painful, scent.

“You look well,” he says into my hair, his exhale forcing a shudder down my spine. “How do you feel after everything that happened?”

“Sore,” I admit, hating that answer because it causes him to pull away from our hug.

He moves back and I can’t help but notice the cuts and bruises on his face and neck, marks that would have never happened if he didn’t come to the gala. I would take it all back if I could. I would soberly live my life at home with my parents, none of this fighting ever happening if I hadn’t met Jaxson. Luke would be safe, happy with his mate, and that’s all I want.

I want him to be happy.

“Relax, Aurora,” he hums, we’re safe.

I shake my head, pondering over the last time me and him were in the ballroom, right before he followed me to the courtyard to tell me we can’t be friends anymore. None of us can.

“I know we have a lot to talk about, but I should apologize first.”

“You don’t have to,” I mumble, back to holding myself, every part of my birthday like some wild, upsetting nightmare. “If it is how you feel, Luke, then I can’t sit here and ignore that anymore. You don’t think we can be friends anymore, that it’s unsafe, and if that wasn’t an example then I don’t know what is. Xander proved the point. We—” my breath hitches, my eyes faltering to the floor. “If commoners and royals can’t be friends, at the least, then I understand that you don’t want to be here again. It’s okay, Luke.”

His hand brushes my chin, his body tense as I stare at him with tears welling in my eyes, wanting to break out. I can’t run away this time. I have to hear him say that we have to move on from whatever we were. Whatever I wished us to be before he found Mary and Jaxson found me.

“Stop it, little one,” he says, his impression of his fingertip forever tingling on my jawline. “I was wrong to say that, and I will never live it down. It may be true that Ann, Paul and Row feel that way, but I didn’t show up to tell you. I showed up hoping I could prove them wrong.”

Given his bruises and my scars, I’d say we both look like fools now.

“Now, I can say things went worse than I anticipated but—” he hesitates, and I feel it.

He is fighting to make this work, to come up with some excuse, but he can’t pretend that Xander never attacked me, that he and his guards tried to kill him for protecting me; that it all stems from the difference between blood lines.

Jaxson wants to change things for me. If he fails, then what? I’ll end up dead in this beautifully ornate ballroom, another commoner female used and tossed aside like a dead rat whose carcass blocks the path of the refined royals.

“I still love you,” I admit in the quietest of whispers, unsure what else to say now.

If we were still in the same pack, the same mind link, I would be careful and tell him through our thoughts, but that’s no longer an option.

He doesn’t even hint at being surprised with my words.

“I know,” he says, fidgeting slightly.

“I know you have a mate,” I hum, “and Jaxson claims what he does feel for me about being his mate, and it’s certainly a horrible time for me to bring this up but I never said it out loud and meant it like I do now. The thought of losing you as a friend alone, it scares me, Luke.”

Nodding with my words, I’d be remiss if I didn't hear him say, “I love you, too.”

I hold my stomach, unsure if those words actually left his lips.

“Why do—” I pause, unsure what to say, just knowing I have to say something now. Anything. My wolf is jumping for glee and yet dread builds in my stomach. “You have a mate, Luke. I saw her and you in the town square— you and her—”

“I know,” he says, shaking his head. He runs a hand through his curly, disheveled hair. “My wolf took over then and I wanted to talk to you, I wanted to see you the next morning but when I came over the warriors were there and— I froze. I didn’t know what to say so I said nothing at all. Nothing compared to what I should have said.”

“What should you have said?”

“First, I should have told you how I’ve felt, how you have been the best thing in my life growing up, and how when I felt that morning that you weren’t my mate, I wanted to break down. I was hoping at the very least, I’d never find my mate, and you would never find yours, and we could be something in the future and be happy. But I didn’t get a choice,” he sighs, looking aside with such heavy remorse, I feel bad for weeping in front of him now.

A tear forms on his cheek as well.

“Luke, I just—” my stomach aches.

There are no words I could string together that would make this work, that would make this scenario any better, and I want to run away from this conversation as fast as I can.

Before I get the chance, Luke rushes forward, hands warm on my hips, sliding to my sides, and he pulls me forward for what I anticipate as an embrace. I’m sorely mistaken. He leans forward, his lips pressing hard to my own, holding me in place with such sure hands that I couldn’t even think about pulling away if I wanted to.

And I don’t want to.

I want to catch my breath, I want this to make sense, but the moment is thrown before I even get the opportunity to consider pulling away. Luke is yanked aside, the sudden shift making me fall back, blinking away hazy spots of confusion as I see a large, dominating, black wolf hunker its head down, facing Luke who is now in his own form, drastically smaller in build than Jaxson. I flinch at the sight, feeling Jaxson’s rage in the form of hot, burning heat in my throat like I swallowed pure anguish— utter fire.

“Please, Jaxson, I—”

No, he growls in my head. I flinch. You stay aside. After everything I’ve been doing for you! This is what I get return?

Guilt rushes over me at once.

I bow my head to the sound of the wolves snarling at one another.

But I know, especially in this state, that Luke has absolutely no power to face Jaxson, let alone defend himself. It would be a tragedy if I let them fight, especially over a kiss, something I should have considered bowing out of earlier, but I let this happen. I told Luke I love him. I’ve wounded the mate I am promised, to appease the mate I wish I was given.

I leap to a stand, pushing in between Jaxson before he attempts to pounce on Luke, my best friend so wounded, so hunkered with pain, that it’s impossible to miss how Jaxson is already so large, so abrasively strong, while my best friend is small and pathetic in his presence.

“No,” I grunt, trying to catch my breath after such an event. “Jaxson, don’t hurt him. Please. This is all a mistake, it’s all— it’s all my fault, please!”

Do not lie to me after disrespecting me in such a way, he barks into my head. I flinch. I saw it all. I heard what you said, what he said, and I will not let this happen, Aurora. You are mine!

I stand in his way still, too afraid to move and let him hurt Luke.

“I’m sorry,” I plead, sizing up the black prince’s wolf, knowing he could kill me in a single, harsh blow. “I’m sorry I said what I did, I’m sorry I let him kiss me, Jaxson. I’m just lost. I’m confused and I wasn’t thinking straight. I don’t— I don’t know what to do.”

He shifts, immediately pulling my arm and yanking me forward to his bare body. His lips crash into mine hard, my head spinning, his breath stealing mine while I feel him kiss me deeper than ever before. It makes my heart race, something caught in my throat at the idea of him stopping.

I would beg for more if I could catch my breath, but I can’t. He pulls away at once and holds my upper arm in his brute fingers, yanking me from the ballroom at once. I try to unscramble the words in my mind, to make sense of everything and mostly, to apologize more, but soon we are escalating up the tower and in front of my familiar doors.

They are thrown open with one hand from Jaxson, the other still clinging to my arm. He throws me into bed, pushing me so hard that I stumble, landing on my stomach against the made covers and superficially propped up pillows.

Jaxson turns, as though to leave and lock me in here for good.

I can’t let him leave in this mood.

I reach for him, feeling him pause just long enough for me to yank him back toward me, back to my bedside, where I make sure my lips hit his with enough passion to convince him to stay. He hesitates, his lips moving with mine, begging for more, until he has his hands on my side and hovers his bare body on top of me.

His lips find my cheek, then my neck. I yell out in pleasure, my body tingling with his every sensation, his every kiss, and I block out any thought concerning Luke. I may love him, but I don’t want to hurt Jaxson. I can’t hurt him. I can admit at last that I think he is my mate, at least by pure assumption, but he feels so perfectly in place above me now, his hands welcomed as they rip every stich of clothing I have covering me up.

I writhe up, needing more, pleading for more and he doesn’t even consider disappointing.

His lips gnaw at my throat, his hands cupping me all over, grabbing, begging for more and more until I finally felt his erection pressure my inner thigh. It makes me gasp, watching his lips curl upward, and I beg again, my words making no sense at this rate.

He understands, adjusting enough to center his body with mine, plunging everything he has into my soaking wet core. I aim to scream, to enjoy the feeling as much as possible, but his lips cover mine knowingly, suffocating me into a long, harrowing kiss.

I grab for his back, wanting him to lower himself into my deeper, wanting as much as he can give me, and he grins wide, kissing my neck and nibbling on my ear as he pushes further, harder, until the room is a daze around our bodies.

“More,” I plead.

It makes no sense. He couldn’t give me more if I got on my knees and begged for it. It doesn’t have to make sense, though. I claw for his body to be against mine, watching him lift up on his arms while his hips grind against my pelvis. I arch my back, my head tipped backwards, everything in me wanting to unravel at once.

His speed intensifies.

I gasp for relief.

Everything in me untangles, the pain, the confusion— it withers away, and I let this moment carry through me. Every inch of my body gives in, and I can’t contain myself anymore. Nor do I want to. He smiles, pleased with my reaction, my body jittery against his. I release myself to my mate, to the man I know is my other half, and the man I’ve hurt recently.

I let it all out.

He accepts it, following with his own release moments after, his hands grabbing at my hips so hard that I feel bruises form, letting him continue as his eyes shut, his wolf howls, and he breaks between me.

He falls onto my chest seconds later, turning us both so that I lay over his bare side, only now seeing the shards and scraps of clothes ripped asunder all over the bed. I hold back a laugh, but he only wipes the sweat from his brow, his eyes back to their perfect cyan hue.

“I made a mistake,” I admit, burying my face into his taut side.

“It will cost you, sweetheart,” he hums in a calm, leveled voice. “For now, lay with me.”

I do as he says, as my mate and my future Alpha asks of me.