Page 18 of Rejected By the Alpha King

Then, Parker blew his brains out, and now I had to protect her.

My witch was gone, missing for several weeks now, and I had to trust the coldest woman I’d ever met to find her.

“I don’t think you’ve taken a breath in the last ten minutes,” Saul said conversationally.

“That vein in your forehead is bulging.”

It had been a few hours since he’d treated Anna. Since he’d looked into the eyes of the woman responsible for his sister’s death.

He was holding up remarkably well.

“Why did you volunteer to come with us?”

“Irene is a friend. I am worried about her.”

I shot him a dark look, and he smiled sadly. “It was time, and this was the best opportunity. I am focused. I could not fall apart while I sought answers.”

“If she’s hurt…”

“I will do my best to save her.”

He didn’t even hesitate. We walked a few more minutes when Saul started humming.

“You know, the last plea from my twin’s mouth before she died was ‘you have to help her.’ I thought it was a survivor or one of the children.”

There were no other survivors at the camp. “Maybe she bonded with one of the children, or maybe Dirk killed someone else before we arrived.”

We’d gotten the children back to Black Diamond territory. They were so terrified, they could barely speak. It was Irene who looked after them until I found their families in the Snake River pack.

“Maybe,’ Saul murmured. “Why would the Darkwyn coven take Irene?”

I smiled, baring my fangs. “When we get there, I intend to ask.”

“We need to make camp soon. She trembles with every step.”

“Then she can shift and heal,” I snapped. “We still have at least another good hour of daylight. I’m not wasting my time because she wants to hide her wolf.”

“Why do you think she is refusing? She is clearly in pain.”

“There were reports of a red wolf partnering with Dirk. They were never ever identified.

It’s probably her.”

“If it is her?”

I’d have to kill her.

Except I hadn’t yet. I had her confession. The words had fallen from her lips that night and created a chasm between me and my wolf. He’d chosen her, and he had yet to forgive me for staying away from her.

At night, when it was quiet, and there were no other distractions, I could feel her in my mating bond. The desperate ache to be near me. The urgency to touch me.

It fucked with my head. Carnal images rise up, all the goddamn things I want to do to her body, and it has nothing to do with punishment. I wanted to fuck her so bad and lose myself in a single moment of belief that we could be okay.

“Jax?”

At the sound of Bridget’s voice, I turned to see Anna stumble. With a grunt of pain, she fell. Everyone stopped and watched as she stood. Without a word to anyone, she started limping forward.

Seeing her pain should have brought me joy, but instead, it just made my chest ache. We were close enough to the border. “Camp,” I said quietly. “Shift and hunt for your dinner and get plenty of sleep. Tomorrow, the real work begins.”

---