Chapter 62

Jaxson

I used to let my brother win.

We grew up playing as an Alpha, like our shared father, but we played two very different games. He was a tyrant, never leaving mercy for the pretend members of his pack, daring them to slaughter and torture any one who even considered challenging him.

I just wanted to establish a community, a pack for all, like my mother envisioned. I suppose my father sat somewhere between our fantasy’s, living the life he had always dreamed as Alpha, as a king, but at the fault of commoner blood and torment. He never seemed to care once my mother passed away. He went cold, and in turn he bore a child who was just as hostile as he.

For a long time I pocketed the fact that Xander was an angry kid. I assumed I would be the Alpha, the king of the pack my father built, and my brother would be my beta, my most trusted sidekick. Seeing him now has changed the future on what I predict will become of me and my half-brother. I have Aurora to thank for that.

Before my mate, I was headed in the same direction as the other royals. I was ignorant to the wrongdoings, to the daily hell her kind had lived through, and I never thought I would become that way. I saw her as lesser, as beneath me, and for a second I wondered if I should have accepted the rejection based on the merit of how terrible I have been as a leader, as a mate.

Xander is struggling still, pressed under my front paws, and I can’t help but wonder how my brother has comet o this point. Luke is laid out nearby, breathing shallow, unable to move when I know he would swoop in and help if he could. He pauses, meeting my eyes, bleeding and exasperated in the grass nearby.

The moon is so still and calm above.

I step off of my brother, seeing him hesitate to react, to want to snap my head off, and instead he shifts as well, standing to face me as we try to catch our labored breathes, our drained bodies ready to collapse. He looks rough, pale and sporting a new, unhealed scar. I know it is of my mates doing. I can just see it radiate in the pool of his hatred that he took a mark from her resilience. And she is damn resilient.

“You surrender?” Xander cackles, his voice not of his own. He sounds so depleted, so lost in his own self obsessions that it’s pointless to find the reasonable side of him. I can see now he is far too gone to be reasoned with.

“No,” I breathe, watching Luke struggle to sit up. “I just want this fighting to stop, Xander. You’re my brother. We don’t have to agree on anything but we can reason with one another. Right?”

“No reasoning,” he says through gritted teeth. “I want what is mine and I don’t care who I have to kill to make that happen. You can relay that to our father, if you haven’t already. I don’t care anymore; I just want my titles!”

“You can have them,” I shrug. “I just want to get him out of here, and you don’t have to ever see my face again, Xander. Do what you like. Challenge the Alpha, the king, concur the world for all I care, I just need to do this for my mate.”

“My mate,” he grates, taunting me.

Keeping calm, I just need to do this task and be done with my brother. I can’t keep fighting him for the same ole things over and over again. I have to finish this. If I slip, and we fight more, it won’t be long before his pack settles back out here and then I’m outnumbered exponentially.

“Xander, I don’t want to kill you,” I say, half the truth.

After everything he has done to Aurora, I should very well kill him and not even blink in remorse. I can’t do that now, though. I was telling the truth when I said I don’t care what he does, I just want me and my mate to be left out of it.

“Take whatever title you want, Xander,” I breathe. “It doesn’t involve me anymore.”

His brow furrows, his snarling frown almost calm by now. “If you intend on standing in my way—”

“I’m not in your way,” I explain, Luke’s pulse rugged and fleeting. I have to be faster. “Damnit, Xander, just drop this vendetta. I need to leave. I am not in your way. Take on the royal pack, take the Alpha title, take the king title, take whatever you so please, Brother, I don’t care anymore. I rejected the pack!”

The world stills, like I told a lie, but it’s very much the truth. It just doesn’t seem real. I would have never done anything like that before. Before her.

“I’m not in the royal pack anymore, Xander, and I couldn’t care less about what happens to them now. I just want my mate and to please her. You can deny me all you want, and we can fight, or you could stop wasting your energy on making me miserable. I’m happy, Xander. I have what I want. As far as what you want, I’m not standing in your way anymore.”

He seems perplexed, and I don’t trust him still, but in an odd way I can tell he is done fighting me. it’s a waste of energy and time. I shift, sliding Luke onto my back, my peripheral vision working as I watch him stand in awe, in confusion, but stand there all the same as I trot off.

Luke tries to say something, but I continue running, uncaring about if we should stop, it doesn’t matter. Once I get him back to Row and Paul, I will wash my hands of this ordeal. I owe him nothing, he owes me nothing. I try not to think of the things I once felt he should apologize for, he should have died for, and I can’t hold onto it anymore.

He kissed my mate. He did so twice, but that is now between him and Mary, while the rocky history I have had with Aurora is between her and I. The world is balanced again and when I stop to a mild job up to our meeting point, I am gladly surprised to see Row and Paul both intact but breathless, leaned over like they can’t seem to catch their breath.

We are at the edge of the North Woods old grounds, right where we said we would meet. They’re alive, Luke is at least somewhat alive, and this is the part of the plan I had yet to mention to Aurora. I hand Luke over, Paul and Row take him back to Mary, and Ann meets them out there at the remote house in another pack.

We all part ways, and I get to live in bliss with my Mate.

“Fuck,” Luke grumbles, rolled over in the grass, blood splatter all over his face and neck.

“Hey, Luke,” Paul hums, pulling a vial from the hole in the tree where they lean. He must have stowed it away there before. It’s bright pink and smells like candy. He tips the glass upward so the liquid goes down Luke’s throat easily, although he fights it at first. “That should help.” Paul stands tall, his eyes drifting down the sight of me. “You hurt? I have extra?”

“I’m fine,” I exhale. “You two going to be able to handle taking him?”

“We will manage,” Row huffs, slinging one of Luke’s arms over his slouched, tired shoulders. “Tell Aurora we love her and that we will miss her.”

For the first time since getting the hell slapped out of him by Xander, Luke perks up.

“Where is she? Is she safe?”

“She’s fine, hidden with a small pack near the shore. I’m going back there, seeing Ann off, and you all will meet up with the new pack Mary has been with, in hiding. Aurora and I will stay with the pack on the shore and this will all be over with, once and for all.”

Luke watches me without blinking, his eyes so hot and bloodshot. “I want to see her.”

I shake my head, dismissing that as a possibility. “Never, Luke. I saved your ass, like you saved her. That’s the end of this. Xander can conquer the world, you can go run off with your mate, and everything that ever happened will be washed clean.”

“You really think that?” he says, not as an inquiry, as a taunt.

Row tries to hush his friend, beaten, bruised and worthlessly done for. He doesn’t stop, though.

“Moon Goddess, please,” he snarls, stumbling. “You will never be what she needs. You can reject the pack but your blood will always be a that of a heartless royal!”

“This heartless royal just saved your skin,” I grate, trying everything I can thing of to calm down, to prevent my wolf from coming forth. “I am sick of trying to prove myself to the likes of you. I have made my choices, and I have forgiven Aurora for her mistakes, so why don’t I deserve the same fucking slate? I am not perfect, but I fought for my mate and I am continuing to fight for my mate; otherwise I wouldn’t be out here taking this grief from you! What are you fighting for, Luke? It certainly isn’t Mary.”

His eyes go gray at my slander. I feel no guilt.