Chapter 66

Jaxson

The 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 vendor’s booth making my stomach churn but she smiles through the cloud of sea salt stenches and wafts of teak wood.

I move onto the vendors across the path, picking out fruits and vegetables we can’t grow in the Alpha’s community garden. I try to spend the gold wisely, wanting to keep some extra for my mate to play with, and soon I have a large cloth bag filled with herbs, vegetables, and delectable fruits to enjoy.

I want to buy some meat, but I recall the Alpha mentioning a hunting trip with a few of his warriors, and given the price of the elk meat here, I decide I will partake in the hunt. That leaves just enough golf left over for Aurora to spend on something of her choosing. I have to weave down the path a little further, seeing her speak to a man in a stand that is adorned with silver-chained, turquois, opal jewelry.

I recall the opal I had given to her for her birthday, how she loved it.

I had promised to give her another since she lost it to Xander’s cruelty and he had it sent back, broken and stained in her crimson. My heart palpitates at the memory I push away, stepping beside my mate and seeing the vendor’s eyes grow wide at the large sight of me. I stick out everywhere, and they know I have royal blood, but I smile and greet the man with a firm handshake, trying to put that intimidating, unkind lineage behind me.

“Ah, you must be the mate,” he says, giving me a quick wink.

I spot Aurora adjusting her shirt collar, unable to hide behind her once long curtain of hair, my brother’s teeth marks lining her throat still in faint scars. It’s a sight to see as a stranger, and they must think I couldn’t mark her enough, but hopefully she let’s me remate with her and I can mark her, ridding the scars of my brother for good.

“Anything you like here, sweetheart?”

I watch her linger toward one in particular, a long silver chain with a turquoise sphere that outlines the opal jewel crested in the center. It has silver ivy adornments on the chain and around the turquoise frame of the jewel, the small size of it so simple while being layered in beauty.

Just like my mate.

“How much for that one?” I ask the man, his eyes bright at the mere idea of taking my last few gold chips. “You do like that one, right, sweetheart?”

She nods, biting her lower lip. “I don’t want you to buy anything expensive for me, Jaxson. Did you get enough groceries?”

“Of course. Now, do you like that one?”

She hesitates, staring at the necklace with admiration.

I aim to pull out my last few coins, instead sensing the mood shift around us. The few shoppers at the outdoor market panic, pushing back down the footpath in a flood of fright. The vendor senses it too, sweeping everything off the table and onto the ground behind the stand table, waving for us to join him behind the wood structure. I toss the groceries over, then help Aurora climb over the table, seeing more and more people rushing toward the woods.

The vendor pulls for Aurora to hit the ground and I jump into the stand as well, kneeling beside them both as they cower under the shelf stand, remaining unseen from the path. Aurora looks at me with worried, wet eyes, something so familiar in the air as I hold my hand on her shoulder to keep her shivering down to a minimum.

Smells like royal warriors.

There’s a scream, a harsh noise of a female, and I can’t help but notice the sounds of some kind of cloth ripping. The bellowing scream is cut short, killed, and Aurora hiccups a cry. The vendor has his head down, mumbling a pray to the moon goddess, Aurora holding her arms around her head to prevent hearing anything like that sound again.

I know I should let them pass, I shouldn’t make an ordeal of this, but hearing the second scream of an innocent female commoner makes my blood boil. I pull Aurora’s head forward, bruising a kiss into her temple, and pushing from the stand to settle this damn torment once and for all.

I spot the group of warriors just outside of the market, one female dead and bleeding from her back, half naked on the dirt path. I walk her body, picturing my mate in the same predicament, and it makes my anger grow.

I recognize the warriors, a group of three wolves that toy with another wolf now, throwing her back and forth between them as she cries and pleads for her life to be spared. They all stop when I make my presence known, watching them toss her aside and letting her scurry off into the distance. They all stand erect, two of them sporting concerned gazes, another with gray, mind-link eyes that sends me off the edge of ferocity.

He's probably signaling to my father that they have found me. I need to shut it down before he says too much. I shift, striking him first, before either of the three of them can stop me. That’s when I snap his neck, my teeth gripping his shoulder and throat while I throw him off to the side to bleed out.

He won’t be healing from that wound.

The other two shift, taking stances against me, and I let one of them rush forward to attack. He doesn’t make it too far, either. He aims to bite at my leg, to wound me from dodging his teeth, but I slam my head into his just right to where I hear his bones rattle in response to my sheer, terrifying size.

He moves to attack again, but his buddy partakes in the fight, both of them rushing from either side of my body. I launch forward to the new wolf, getting a solid bite into his neck but not nearly enough to kill him, shifting quick to throw him into the other wolf, still charging to attack.

They stumble off to the side, whimpering and bleeding a little. I watch them consider running off but they don’t get the chance; I can’t allow them to make it back to the palace and bringing my father anywhere near this pack, near our new pack, and ruining my life now with Aurora.

The thought of losing this setup with my fated mate fuels me more.

I launch into an attack, sinking my teeth into one of their shoulders, ripping flesh and pooling blood, then moving to the next, pressing my paws into his throat until his wolf goes gray in color. I stand over the three of them, blood soaking my chest and face while I shift back, catching my breath.

Pushing through the small crowd that forms of curious commoners, I make my way back to the stand to get my mate. She is still cowering, her eyes down before she looks up, seeing me reach out to grasp her hand. The jewelry vendor jumps up first, rushing down the path to join his pack in awe at the dead royal warriors.

Aurora is more sheepish, taking my hand slow while I pull her to my chest, uncaring of the blood while I embrace her like I’ve never done before.

“Take the necklace,” I hear, clinging to my mate. I look over her head to see the vendor staring at me in awe, holding the necklace Aurora had been blushing over when the warriors attacked. I take in in my palm, watching him rip a pair of denim jeans off a hanger of a nearby vendors stand. “And these, too. Don’t pay a thing. Just—thank you.”

I nod, first slipping on the jeans, then placing the necklace over Aurora’s throat.

Seeing her smile, her subtle admiration of me and not the necklace, it’s enough for me to take her in my arms and kiss her deeply.

“You are my mate,” she breathes. “I love you, Jaxson.”