Chapter 22

Jaxson

The room is alive with singing voices and a homemade, candlelit cake. Jacki brings it to the table where Aurora sits with her friends, a group of three rag-tag buddies that I have no interest in being closer to than these mingling moments. I invited them to the palace the first time, and they sent her little crush to tell her they can’t be friends and interact anymore because of who her mate is.

Because of me.

I just wish that we didn’t have to make this trip here. After Xander’s exit, I don’t feel safe without the full protection of my warriors, but I know if it came down to a scrap, I could take him alone. I still retain backup to watch the edge of the property, taking shifts of five during the day, seven at night.

I don’t want to ruin this night for Aurora, or the weekend I’ve blocked to be here so she can be with her friends and her parents, because as it looks right now, I don’t think they will be making steady trips to the palace anytime soon for a visit.

“Make a wish,” Ann says, the only friend of Aurora’s that was willing to greet me without the begrudging bow of the head.

It’s bad enough they want to treat me like some royal brat but to drop their best friend over being fated to me, that is enough for me to never let Aurora see them again. I know that’s not my place to decide, though, so I smile as wide as I can while my mate leans forward and blows out a set of waxy candles, eliminating the flames. Her friends all hug her, my chest tight as Row and Paul grip her in an embrace.

I have to be more careful with her now than ever before.

Her little friend Luke was given exuberant mercy. The next attempt, no matter who, won’t be as lucky.

My nose tips us, a conversation outside flushing through my mind while I catch a scent of that mutt approaching my warriors on the porch. I give Aurora a tight hug, letting her bask in the moment of cake cutting and opening gifts. Outside I am met with Luke trying to push through the line of warriors on the stairs, wanting to come into the house.

I shut the front door behind me, hoping Aurora is too focused on the festivities to listen to the commotion out here. He stops tussling with my warriors, his little blond mate lingering behind him as they both pause at the sight of me. I cross my arms over my chest, looking down at him physically, and mentally, hoping he is smart enough to turn around now.

His mate bows in my presence. My mouth curls upward in amusement.

“Are you serious?” Luke grunts, a small, wrapped gift clutched in his hand. “Sending your little bodyguards after me like I’m some kind of threat. She is my friend, Jaxson. Let me give her a gift for her birthday after you let the first one gets out of hand.”

I scoff, not sure when this wolf got so brave.

“You know damn well you weren’t invited here tonight,” I say, keeping my head clear of saying anything out loud that I can’t retract. I’d hate for his mate to know and feel what I felt when I saw him reach for Aurora and kiss her deeply. “Go home. You’re not welcome.”

“Why don’t you let Aurora decide that?”

He’s taunting me and my wolf is too stubborn to let it happen for much longer.

“I won’t say it again,” I growl, feeling my veins break with heat, wanting me to shift. “Leave.”

He hands the gift to his mate and pushes her back, storming through my warriors as an act of combat, of attack, and I don’t let it play out for long. I shift, jumping down the length of the porch and the stairs, landing over the little mortal before his wolf presses forward and he turns into the weak mutt that he is. He doesn’t stand a chance in this form or the other.

He immediately works to bite at my throat as I stand over him, his teeth snapping close to my neck, and my warriors all shift at once, surrounding us, ready to kill him on the spot.

No, I bark at them through the link. This is my fight.

They stand down but don’t shift back, waiting on the sidelines as I press a heavy paw into his side, feeling his bones shiver under my weight. He whimpers, the noise pathetic in sound, watching his writhe under my grasp. I snap in his face, growling just inches from his eyes. I watch as he regrets his actions instantly.

“Jaxson,” that familiar voice calls. I tuck my teeth into my muzzle at the sound of my mate calling for me in distress. She is on the porch, shivering at the sight.

Luke doesn’t care, lunging upwards to bite at my throat. I stop him, pressing my paw over his cheek and throwing him back onto the ground, forcing his head aside as I lay my teeth into his shoulder. He hollers out a howl, Aurora gasping a scream seconds later, and I don’t pull my teeth out until he stops fighting my hold on him, shifting into a pale, lifeless blob of blood in the dirt.

I finally shift back, wiping the blood off my chest, seeing him twitch and gasp for each breath. I should feel bad, but he had started a fight he had no opportunity of winning. He couldn’t possibly think it was a wise decision to challenge me. He tried his luck, and he failed.

My warriors shift back, one of them reaching for his arm and throwing him back toward his property, his hand clinging to the holes I’ve punctured in his throat.

“Try one more time!” I yell at him, watching him stumble and collapse. “Come near my mate one more time and I will end you for good. Do you understand?!”

He hesitates, his mate trying to keep him upright, but he fails, falling to his knees again as blood shifts through his teeth and down his jaw. He doesn’t reply, or can’t, just giving me a sad look of defeat while he hardly makes it back to the house across the hillside.

“Jax—Jaxson,” Aurora says.

I turn to face my mate, her hands curled to her neck, her eyes full of horror and fear.

“Why would you— how could you—” she stammers.

I told you to punish me, not Luke

I shake my head, wiping the blood off my face and my lips, still fresh with rage.

“I am never this lenient,” I say, my voice so full of authority that it makes her flinch. “If he challenges me again, I won’t take your history with him into account anymore. I’m done letting him object to my rule of staying away from you.”

“He’s bleeding, Jaxson, you hurt him, I have to check on him—”

“No!” I bark, my chest so tight with air and anger that I feel it ticking away with frustration with her every word of going against my say. “You are my mate, not his!”

She jumps back slightly, her brows pinched. “Why are you being this way?”

The moment replays in my head, and I force it in through the link to play in her mind too. She holds her arms around her sides, looking downcast, her body taut and uncomfortable with my vision of watching them kiss in my own damn home.

“Any other future Alpha would have his Luna locked up for kissing another male,” I snarl, approaching her on the porch even though she backs up with my every lengthy step. “Any other future Alpha would have him killed on the spot for making a pass at the future Luna. I refuse to let you sit here and challenge me as he had. You have no right to judge my actions after I let him off easy considering the treason he committed.”

Holding her breath she bows her head, her neck offering up in submission to my harsh, barking words. It’s hard to bring myself back to a calm state, and I still can’t do it when the scene replays over and over in both of our minds.

“I killed a royal for trying to take advantage of my mate, I should do the same to him!”

I turn to my warriors, wanting them to clean up the shreds of clothes and the small gift left behind in the mud, thrown in the shock of the little mate watching as I ripped into his throat. He started the fight, I remind myself. No matter how harsh I may be with Aurora, it will never make up for the fact that he shifted first, wanting a challenge. I couldn’t let him off easily with that reaction. Not again.

That’s when the sounds of bones cracking catch my focus, only seeing a blur of white fur bolt from beside the house, running far into the woods behind the home until I register what has happened. Her scent lingers in the air where she once stood. The moon is blocked out full of light, illuminating bright through the towering trees and casting a small shadow beside my mate. I focus on it, shifting next and pouncing in the direction I had seen her run.

I can’t let this happen.

Shift and find her! I tell my warriors, some of them already doing so and running a few paces behind me, weaving through the thick forest.

I’m significantly faster than her, I know I am, and my endurance has to be better too considering she hasn’t fully healed from Xander or James’ attack. The only problem is she grew up in these woods. She knows the land better than I ever will and even if I can follow her smell, it will eventually wear off and tangle with those of the forest around us.

I have to catch my mate.