Shadow Kissed (Magic Side: Wolf Bound 4) - Page 72

34

Savannah

Jaxson stalked out of the overgrown ring of stones. His posture told me I needed to get to him before he murdered someone, so I broke off my conversation with the Ontario loremaster and hustled through the pines toward the patch of blue sky.

He stood at the edge of the rocky shoreline, overlooking the lake. Rage still coiled around him, so I stepped up and gently placed my hand against his back. I could almost feel his heartbeat and pulsing blood.

I said nothing, just let our connection do its work. Silently, we watched the waves roll in and break on the stones, then tumble out again.

Once his breathing calmed, I traced my fingers lightly along his spine. “Are you okay?”

He grunted. “My wolf was eager to have a conversation with Camila. Are you okay? I know it was a shit show, but you impressed a lot of pack leaders today.”

“Well, I was certain we were going to get eaten when I stepped into the ring, so mild cooperation is a win.”

“Thanks to you. You stood your ground and stared them down. You showed them how the Dark God is manipulating us. You convinced some of them, when I couldn’t, to work with your family. A month ago, I would have thought that impossible, yet here we are.”

Thankful for the praise, but too embarrassed to accept it, I gave him a wink. “Well, it helps to have an evil eldritch power bearing down on us all.”

“You’d make a good alpha.”

Regret tugged at me, and I looked back out across the water. “Yeah, if only I had a wolf.”

“You will. Once this is over.”

“If she forgives me.” If I can forgive myself.

“She will,” he grunted. “If Big Mac can set aside his grudges and work with your family, then your wolf will forgive you.”

I shook my head and took his hand. “She’s not the same as your wolf, Jaxson. Yours is a part of you. I’m a twin-soul—two separate souls in one body. She’s another person, and I just kicked her out of her body because I couldn't control her.”

He took my hand and turned toward me. “You did what was necessary to stop the Dark God. The hard choice.”

I studied his face. He was smiling for me, but beneath it all, there was so much anger and pain. I reached up and brushed a lock of his hair aside. “Are you really alright? I mean, your own father turned on you today. That can’t be easy.”

His expression hardened, and he looked out over my shoulder. “I’m sorry you two met this way. Deep down, he’s a good man, if hard and stubborn. He was just doing what any alpha would—putting his pack first. Trying to protect them.”

“It’s not his pack, it’s your pack.”

Jaxson shook his head absently. “Once an alpha, always an alpha. That’s why he moved away.”

Frustration and outrage pulsed through me, but I kept it locked down. “He turned on his own son.”

Jaxson gave me the stark look of a weathered soldier. “Being alpha means putting the pack first. Always. Before everything, even family. Because thousands of people depend on you for work, for opportunity, for protection. He was trying to do what he thought was right.”

I couldn’t help but think of my own parents, who sacrificed everything to protect me. Family ties, community, maybe even their lives in the end. Jaxson had none of that.

I suddenly felt very rich and heartbroken, and I squeezed his arm. “That’s toxic. You know that, right?”

He shook his head. “It’s what being alpha means. It’s how my father lived. How my sister lived. It’s why I resisted our mate bond at first. I knew that if it came down to my mate or the pack, I would never be able to choose anything over you. That I would no longer be able to do what was right or necessary.”

Jaxson had said some of these things before, but I’d never understood how deep the roots of his scars were. How could he watch his own father turn on him and still forgive him? Did he really believe that the man was just doing his duty?

Despite his words, I could sense how much the betrayal had hurt him. The low throb of a remembered pain. Old scars, a constant knife cut, layered over itself again and again.

He’d said many times that his sister was meant to be alpha, that she’d been born for it. I’d thought that he meant he didn’t measure up, but I wasn’t sure. He’d had the job dropped on him. From what Sam said, his father had broken down and just faded away, and Jaxson had been left holding Magic Side together. Whatever he’d been before that had disappeared.

I brushed my fingers along the edge of his cheek. “Tell me about the time before you were alpha.”

He gave me a wistful smile, and I suddenly knew that I hadn’t even scratched the surface of the man beside me. He shook his head at last. “It was another life. It doesn’t matter now. I’d have given it up a hundred times over to spend this one with you.”

Warmth flushed through me at the soft intensity of his words, his attention. I blushed and looked away, suddenly conscious of what a walking disaster I was. “I’m afraid you get to spend your last few days on earth with the widely hated herald of the end times. How lucky.”

Tags: Veronica Douglas Magic Side: Wolf Bound Fantasy
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