Chapter 27

Jaxson

I ransack the entire cabin, all but ripping off the floorboards, and I can’t even find a hint of her scent. My anger is bubbling, my wolf barking in my head. I need to shift and kill every single person in here until they tell me where my mate is. Luke grabs my shoulder, turning me around, and pointing at a little scrap of fabric on the floor behind the couch.

I kneel over it, pulling it into my fingertips, and I realize soon it’s not fabric, even if it resembles a few strands of string. It’s hair. It’s long and white, cut evenly as if sliced from her head, and I bring it to my nose to double-check, filling my senses with the floral perfume of my mate’s natural aroma.

My body trembles.

I push the couch clear across the room, throwing the table through a window and continue destroying everything in my sight. I push outside, fuming so much that steam may actually be exuding my skin. I stand in front of the old warriors of my pack, kneeling before my faithful ones, and seeing the sight of traitors like them makes my blood run burning hot.

“WHERE IS SHE?!” I bark, my voice making everyone flinch. I don’t hesitate, kicking one of the traitors back into the snow, seeing him collapse at my pure, unreserved strength. I grab for his shirt, yanking him up to my height, and I snarl in his face. He shudders. “Tell me now,” I growl. “Where is she?”

He nods his head, stuttering to reply.

I ought to kill him right here.

“Was she here?” I ask, my fists trembling in his shirt, wanting to rip it, and him, apart fiber by fiber. “I found her hair inside. Was she at this cabin?!”

He shakes his head quickly. “No, she wasn’t here—”

“Shut up!” another traitor snaps.

I recognize him, one of my younger lieutenants, and it sends me over the edge of fury knowing he has done this with my brother. I shift, standing over my old warrior, snapping my teeth in his face. He closes his eyes and whimpers; a pathetic, weak wolf.

“He told us to hold her down,” he says, quick. “He had us hold her down so he could make her drink the wolfs-bane potion again, that way she couldn’t use the mind link and—” he hesitates, watching my drool drip down his neck. I am far too tempted to end his life with one snap. “She fought us. She tried to hit Xander, and he grabbed her head to keep her still. He cut some hair off to send with the note, but it must have fallen out— I didn’t hurt her, Jaxson, I didn’t—”

I push off of him, my breathing bated, panting hard.

My wolf is reaching his braking point.

I howl to the slim moon, prying she hears it, hoping that wherever she is, she knows I am going to get her back. I won’t let him kill her.

“Hey,” Luke snaps, in the doorway of the cabin.

He waves me over and I shift back, my legs weak, but I don’t let it show. I follow him inside, holding my breath, worried he will show me another horrible trace of my mate in this cabin. Instead, he leads me into the kitchen, every dish and item of food thrown on the ground, most of it shattered from our impromptu raid.

“Found this,” he says.

We stand over the table, a map sprawled out to show the wilderness around us. It’s poorly drawn, but I point to cabin we must be at, seeing it atop a mountain like the one where we stand. Nearby there is a smaller cabin, a spec of a drawing, and then further away is a large circle, drawn in a darker ink than the rest of the map is.

It’s hidden between two valleys, at least two hours run from here.

It will take me half the time with the amount of energy I have in my body right now.

“It’s a shot,” Luke says, somehow calm.

His demeanor is starting to piss me off. “Why are you so relaxed? She is in danger and you’re so calm. She could be bleeding out right now, suffering.”

Luke draws a long, deep breath, staring at the map. “She’s strong,” he says, nodding slow, like he is trying to convince himself more than me. “She might not be able to fight, but I know she can wait it out. That’s all we need right now. Just need her to hold out until we get there.”

“I need her now,” I say through a locked jaw. “She needs me.”

He swipes up the map and nods. “Then let’s go get her.”

We walk outside, the traitors all huddled in a group on their knees. I know my reputation, and I know my calls for violence can sometimes freak out the rest of the pack, even Aurora terrified of my temper at times, but I decide not to let those factors affect my decision now.

“Kill them all,” I say before shifting and running with Luke through the woods, the map secure in his mouth.

I ignore the howling screams, the fighting noises behind me, and focus ahead. I will find Aurora and make everyone suffer who had a hand in hurting her. I can picture her fear, knowing she is begging for it to end. I will end this.

I think back to the girlfriends I have had in the past. They were fleeting, and I made sure to never be intimate with one just in case I would find my mate. I wanted to make sure she had all of me, every single part of my heart, and ever since I found Aurora, I have known I made the right choice. She doesn’t feel the pull yet but that’s okay. I was just starting to see a change in her eyes when they would watch me.

The night she ran off, it all fluttered away so fast.

I was jealous, a bit possessive, but I have wanted to give everything to my mate all my life and to see her still hold a fraction of her heart for Luke, it made me furious. We worked our squabble out shortly after knowing she had been taken and I think she would be proud to see us now, running side-by-side.

It’s shown itself why she cares for Luke. He knows her, wants her to be happy, but I see what he doesn’t. I see her face fall at the sight of him with his mate. I feel her ache when she replays the day over and over in her memory, unsure if she should fall to her knees in defeat or run up and beg for him to still have her as his mate.

She felt rejected, ignored, and unloved.

I showered her in gifts, in my attention, and made sure her every need was met. Meanwhile I still hadn’t known just how wounded she was from Luke. I can only see it now, the determination in his wolf’s eyes, that he would never want her hurt, especially by his doing. He may love her, but he can’t fight instinct. His mate has his heart now, and he stepped on Aurora’s on his way out of her future.

I want to heal her, to show her how much she deserves to be loved.

She is demure and shy at times, never wanting to spotlight on herself or feeling like she is being focused on. She wants to blend in, to be like everyone else and feel equal, and I know that my status as the first prince and future alpha will always haunt her.

I’d leave it all for her, if I had to.

I’d leave my father, my title, and live the simplest of lives if it meant bringing her a semblance of the love she craves. I will work on that after tonight. I will take her in my arms, make her know she is my partner, my equal, and never let her feel pain of kind again.

I find myself stopping in my tracks, Luke doing the same soon after, turning to see me halted at the smell of something so sweet in the air. I tip my nose up, closing my eyes, and can smell her scent so much it’s as if she is standing in front of me.

Luke gives me a look and then smells the air like I had, his eyes going light when he can pick up a whiff of it, too. We must me close by.

We take off in the direction of the scent.

Smoke files out into the air, a fire burning in the distance, the trail attached to a cabin a few miles away from where we stop, scoping the place out. I wait for some of my warriors to catch up, eying each window like I will catch a glimpse of my mate.

Luke and I shift back to our mortal forms, ignoring the snow and cold, harsh wind.

“I can smell her from up here,” I mumble.

He nods in agreement. “We found her at last.”

“If Xander is there, he won’t give her up without a fight.”

“We will attack him first, make sure he is out of the way to get to her,” he replies.

I nod, picturing the moment in my head and having to suppress a grin. “Kill Xander first. Find Aurora and get her away from the fight. There will be a fight, no doubt.”

Luke pauses, looking over to me, my eyes stuck on the front window. I need to see her, at least a flicker of her, to make sure she is still alive. Luke folds his hands over in front of him, his breathing ragged.

“When we get her,” he says, his voice low. “I say we start over.”

“What do you mean?”

“She needs us both. I want her to know we will both be there for her. She ran off because of us fighting. We can’t let that happen again. She will never be happy if she refuses to have us both.”

I look to the ground, my heart aching. “She’s not happy with me, anyways.”

“She is,” he assures me. “She needs you more than she needs me, Jaxson. She just doesn’t know how to accept your love. She’s never had anything like it before.”

I frown, shooting him a cautious look. “You love her.”

He hesitates, shaking his head after a pause. “I do,” he admits. “But nothing like how you love her. If it were different, and she was my mate, and you had come along to ruin things for me, I would have been just as furious. You should have killed me that day,” he says, his eyes faraway toward the cabin. “You bit me once, at her parent’s house, and I wouldn’t have been as lenient with my mate. You did that for her, didn’t you? You held back.”

I don’t answer, knowing he is aware of the truth.

I couldn’t live with myself if I killed him.

She would never accept me as her mate.

No matter what she does, or what happens between us, I will always take her emotions into account. I couldn’t kill Luke now because I actually trust him, I know he wants what is best for Aurora, and we have to focus on that commonality.

“Deal,” I say, holding out my hand.

He takes it and gives it a single shake. “Deal.”

We watch the cabin together, waiting to pounce when we have the numbers.