Chapter 12

**Elliott POV**

My mom touched Jade’s face and as I watched their hushed conversation, I felt my dad clap me on the shoulder. “Well, it’s easy to tell but I thought I’d say it anyway— we love your mate!” We both chuckled and my heart swelled seeing my parents embrace Jade so quickly. Although technically, they’d had the whole beginning of her life to warm up to her.

As I was smiling and taking it all in, I realized my mom and I had been making eye contact through almost the entire long, tight hug she was giving to Jade. Everyone around us seemed frozen in time and all I wanted to do was have some alone time with Jade to process the last few days and start getting to know each other better. I felt this sudden urge to scoop her up, take her to my room, and lock ourselves away from anything but each other. I was realizing how close I came to never even knowing my true mate because we’d thought she’d been dead all these years, and the protective instincts that had been laying dormant in m