Aurora“Eggs?” Jaxson asks, moving fluidly in the kitchen, his hands working to cook pancakes. I taught him how make the perfect flipped pancake a few days back and ever since I have been waking up to warm, syrupy breakfast. “Sweetheart,” he hums, craning around the kitchen partition to meet my eyes here in the living room. “Do you want any eggs?”I shake myself out of the haze I’ve been placed in, my hands working on stroking our little kitten that seems heavier and more lanky than I recall he is being when I left. “No, thanks, Jaxson. Are you going for another run this morning?”He gives a sure nod before returning to his cooking capades. He has been building a routine here since we’ve settled two weeks ago into this new life. He goes on his morning run; let’s his wolf take a sprint down and back up the length of the beach. Then he works for the new Alpha, does a few little chores around the tiny pack in exchange for some gold coins that we take to the market a few packs over, buyin
JaxsonThe market is a trivial affair, stands of food and fruit, a variety of groceries, and also a few small shops where they sell furniture and clothing. We have started a nice new groove with our new lives and the days we go to the market are probably Aurora’s favorite. She is always doted on by the vendors selling accessories, calling her beautiful and pretty before trying to place a shell necklace on her neck or drape her in a colorful scarf.At the palace, she was embarrassed and despised the attention, but here she grins and thanks the vendors, wanting me to pay them for their kindness, and not the cheap necklaces. Being a prince, I had money to spare. Being the Alpha’s workhorse and errand man, we have certainly taken on a new lifestyle.Aurora leaves my side for the first few shops, built with wooden frames and tin roofs, setting their merchandise on the tables around the stands or on racks nearby for her to shuffle through. She takes to a wax vendor, the many smells of the v
AuroraToday has been a whirlwind, but I can’t keep my hands off of Jaxson since we got home and he showered off all the blood. He didn’t have to step in, and he could have talked the warriors out of hurting the commoners, but he showed which side he is truly fighting for. he stuck up for commoners like me, scared unmated females who I always thought would face the same fate as I; killed by royal warriors looking for a kick of pleasure.He is still damp from the shower. I don’t care. I am hiked up in his arms, letting him hold me to his chest, while our lips tingle against one another in a long, breathless kiss. I don’t want to stop, I don’t want him to let go of me, and thankfully he doesn’t want that either. He sits down on the couch, letting me straddle his lap, still pressing his tongue into the lower bay of my lips.His hands lightly press into the small of my back, taunting me under the cloth of my shirt, feeling his warmth and needing it all, needing it to never stop. I press m
AuroraI see Jaxson.In a strange way, he seems taller, more full of muscle, and settled into a new age. He isn’t young, but he could be in passing. He has light hair, longer than I’ve ever seen it, cascading down his neck in thick, tight curls. He stand with his hands in his pockets, wearing a suit adorned with a single red rose hooked onto his pocket.He is smiling, overjoyed really, and the wrinkles from his grin mask the ones sewn into his features from being a cold, powerful Alpha’s son. He is practically bouncing in anxiousness, grinning ear to ear, as I feel my body stride toward my mate.I know he is my mate. I can feel it in this scene more than I ever thought I could feel it. My wolf knows it, too. I feel the pull that brings me closer to him. It’s only now, in this moment, that I see hundreds of wolves adorned in gala attire, standing around us both as I meet my mate in a field, the only place capable of holding this many people at once.“My mate,” he says, grabbing for me,
AuroraI gasp, shooting awake, sand covering my back and water trickling down my face. I cough slightly, wiping my face, seeing Jaxson blink awake at a slower, more gentle pace. He looks to me instantly and cages me into his arms, holding me to his chest while his arms press heavily into my back. I want to shatter; I want to break. He mumbles something into my neck, his breath warm and exasperated.For a moment, I wonder if he had a bad vision, unlike mine. I want to share it with him, to tell him I got a sign from the moon goddess that was so perfect, so happy, that it made my entire world fill with joy.Instead he picks us both up abruptly, leaving the bonfire while holding me to his chest, cradling me in his arms as he struts back to our little beach hut. I don’t ask him anything. Instead, I brush my palm against his cheek, watching his saddened eyes flicker with a little light. He is beautiful even when he is upset.He skips straight through the hut, lightly laying my back into ou
Aurora“No, you don’t,” Jaxson growls, grabbing me by the hips and tossing me back a few paces, cornering me in the bedroom. My hands are shaking and I try to push past him, I have to, but he persists, standing like a board that’s nailed over the doorway. “You will stay here.”The screaming grows louder and I swear I can recognize who is being tormented now. I see their faces, the faces I’ve lived with in passing for weeks now and I’ll be damned if I let this happen again. Jaxson stood up the first time, at the market. I refuse to cower now when it’s our pack, our new home. Not again.I edge myself under his reach, practically crawling past him, before I bolt to the living room where I am immediately pounced on from behind. Jaxson pins me sideways to the floor, throwing himself over me with all his strength and weight. It’s impossible to fight this royal, this beast of a body built with muscles I couldn’t pronounce if I wanted to, but I can’t allow this to continue.If Jaxson stands u
Chapter Seventy-One – Our Mess to CleanAuroraJaxson must have spotted the carnage on the beach from afar because I watch his black wolf sprint down the shoreline until he spots my gaze and zips over to my side. His eyes are practically red in color, something furious rippling through him as he tips his head and drags me up the beach a little, circling me as I lay safe in the shallowest of ebbing waves.I shiver, cold from the water but chills brushing down my naked body from the hot blood covering my side and hips. The cut is on my back, a claw mark or teeth mark bleeding profusely from puncture wounds behind my hip, covering my lower half with severe, iron blood.He doesn’t shift back though, standing over me with every leg protecting me, cornering me under his shield of a body, staring at the few wolves still lingering in the aftermath of the fight not far from here. The Apogee pack has defiantly won, mostly due to the sheer number of wolves that rushed the royals unexpectedly.Xa
LukeI’ve read her handwritten note every night since I received it. Paul and Row tried to hide it from me for a while, something so secretive about their intentions to keep me from having this letter that Aurora wrote for me, knowing our last interaction together would be us running from the Apogee pack, from Xander, and me making sure she would get away.I should be satisfied knowing we are both alive, but I’m not. She has been such a huge part of my life and now she is gone. I can’t see her again, can’t talk to her again, and oddly, I mourn our friendship. When it gets late at night, every night, I find the note I hid on top of the cabinets in the kitchen and read it over, seeing stains of tears blur the ink in some places.You will always be my first love, reads the very last line. I so desperately wished she write down where she was, or even gave me a hint, but not her, or anyone here, wants to tell me.I should forget about her, about our history, and it’s been a hectic few week