Jaxson
I balance my fork on my fingertip, noticing that as time passes, Aurora has yet to return to the table. I know her nerves probably got the better of her but after Ann returns from the washroom with a somber shake of her head, it’s apparent she has no intention of coming back to the table tonight.
Everything was going great, other than her feeling sick, but that doesn’t mean she should leave this event without letting me know how she felt. I wouldn’t have mind taking her up to bed and then returning to play nice with my constituents but to just up and leave without a second word to me, to my father, it makes me a little mad.
I aim to find her, walking through the busy room, someone stopping me with a light tug of my arm. Stella stands in a miniature, far-too-short dress of beige sequins and she offers me a grin, tucking her light brown hair behind her pale, bejeweled ear.
“Stella, have you seen Aurora? I can&rsq
JaxsonMy father is waiting in his office, the gala still playing out downstairs. I’ve decided not to return to the party, holding my hands in my lap as I take a seat at his desk. Tears are sitting stale on my face, cold on my neck, and they don’t show signs of stopping. My father seems perplexed at the sight of me weeping. I’ve never done it before in his company.“Son, what is it?” he asks, leaning forward over his desk, his head cocked. “I have a lot of people that need my attention tonight, this isn’t a good time to be upset, Jaxson. We have to keep appearances and even Aurora needs to participate. Did you find—”“She’s dead,” I say meekly.Even if the words aren’t true, they break me like they are.His eyes widen and he sits up straighter. “Why—I don’t—What did you just say?”“I found her in the orchard,”
AuroraI feel warm fingertips on my cheek, brushing down my lower lip, and when I recognize Jaxson’s smell, I immediately jump up, alert. My body isn’t ready for that movement. I hit the floor, out of a bed that I don’t recognize, and my stomach churls painfully.Whatever is in my system, isn’t done with me yet.I stumble toward the sink across the room, my tongue so dry it’s rough in my mouth, and I pull myself to a stand so I can flip on the faucet and let the cold water run out into the sink. I splash it all over my face, tipping a handful down my throat, and try to make sense of my surroundings while the room spins endlessly in my eyes.There are footsteps behind me, and I can’t pinpoint why, but I expect Xander to burst into the room and taunt me with more pain, something that has been replying in the dark laps of dreams in my head. I turn expectantly, spinning around too fast and instead falling back
AuroraI talk through the link with Jaxson constantly, needing to hear his voice in hopes it will make up for the fact that I can’t feel his touch. Luke tries to get me to cheer up, to get me out of bed and join him outside, but I never feel ready for something like that.I pretend to be dead, and I act dead, my heart dead as well.I wait through the day to hear from Jaxson, hoping he has solved the problems by now, but as days turn into weeks, the pauses of silence elongate more and more. I go awhile without hearing from him. It worries me, but in the same breath, it is only affirming to my initial feelings that maybe we aren’t fated mates.Luke tried for an hour to get me to leave bed this morning and I finally obliged, seeing that Mary hasn’t been coming around the cabin anymore. Ever since the night Luke and I held one another in an innocent embrace, I’ve noticed she has no interest in staying here anymore. In one
JaxsonIt’s been forty-three days since I’ve seen my mate.Every single moment since then, I’ve been working to find out who tried to kill her, working to find Xander and rid him of my list of problems, but I know I have failed her in a way that has costed me determinately. In my endless efforts to fix these problems, I neglected her, and I know she feels rejected but that doesn’t excuse her actions.I can still feel the pain in my heart when I knew something was wrong, when I could feel that my fated was being kissed by another wolf. It broke me down in the middle of a meeting with my father. I couldn’t tell him why I was in pain, everyone still assuming she’s gone for good, but that moment almost ended the whole secret.I wanted to break out and find her, remind her how much I love her, and I realize too late that I should have been doing that all along. She felt neglected and alone, and I should have kn
AuroraThe last few days have been chaotic, to say the least. It’s grown tiresome to block Jaxson out of my mind, and Luke refuses to speak to me most days. He is conflicted, same as me, but he still comes by to drop of groceries and etcetera. I have yet to see Mary, something odd going on with their relationship.I get the feeling he has told her what happened because he seems so distant to me now, so lost in his own world, and it breaks my heart to think of the predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss Jaxson sometimes.Even waking up with him in bed beside me, something so simple, I wish I had more of before I destroyed it all. He was just starting to learn my little quarks, and I had just started to see his eyes on me even when he didn’t think I’d notice; I always noticed. I just threw it away after a month of feeling so disconnected from my mate.Luke perches on the
JaxsonIt comes over me suddenly, out of nowhere, and I double over onto the floor, climbing the stairs of the palace tower. My body is aching, like someone has clawed at my chest and ripped my heart right out of my torso. My vision blurs, heat spreading through my every limb, my every fiber, and I sink to my knees on the stairs to keep from falling down them.My mouth fills with heat, running down my cheeks, close to making me want to throw up. Closing my eyes, I try to steady my vision, but it’s not working. I gasp for every breath, crawling up the stairs, pathetically edging closer and closer until I reach the door and throw it open.Snowflake prances toward the door, hopeful to see her, but we are both pained with reality. I fall over in the room, laying on the floor, every single muscle in my body contracting at the same time. My wolf whimpers, whining, and I can feel myself cry as the pain becomes damn near unbearable. I have never felt
XanderIt wasn’t hard to realize my dear brother was a filthy liar. He spread word that his mutt of a mate had been killed, and I almost felt jealous over the fact that someone else beat me to it, but I soon figured out just how false that claim was.I’ve come to grow a following out here in the wilderness. Rogues look to me for assistance, and in return I gain them as my personal errand runners. That’s how I came to find out that a little royal mate was found somewhere in the middle of the woods, alone most of the time, and baring a striking resemblance to the mutt fated to Jaxson Knight.I had to see for myself. She has certainly caused more trouble out here than I could imagine. I even saw her playing around with some commoner, letting him feel her up in the kitchen, and then watched him leave her alone and vulnerable for the rest of the night.I could have taken her right then, but I didn’t have the resources I do