Page 58 of Stealing Sloane

“Where is Sloane by the way?” After she had cried in his arms, Aunt Meredith had come to take her away.

“Back in Shenandoah,” Quinn said. “Your mom’s there, too.”

He looked around them. “Should I wait?—”

“No, no, go to her,” Killian insisted. “We’ll take care of everything here. Don’t worry.”

“What’s going to happen now?” Jacob hated to leave in the middle of everything, especially since this was all his fault. “With the council and everything?”

Jackson blew out a breath. “The sooner we let them know, the better. And in this case, honesty really is the best policy. We’ll do our best to minimize the blowback.”

“But”—he snapped his fingers—“the diaries!”

Killian’s dark eyebrows drew together. “What diaries?”

“They—there.” Glancing around, he found the black backpack on the ground and retrieved it. “Here.” He explained to them what the bag contained.

“This could change everything.” Killian took the bag from him. “All right, Jacob, we’ll take it from here. You go to your mate. Daric will take you.”

Jacob found his uncle, and the warlock transported him back to Shenandoah, just outside the farmhouse. He rushed inside and found Stella, Lily, and his mother sitting on the couch in the living room, conversing quietly.

“Where is she?”

His mother looked up at him. “Upstairs, she wanted to clean up and?—”

He didn’t even let her finish as he raced up to her bedroom. When he entered, she was leaving the bathroom, wrapped up in a thick bathrobe, her hair wet from a shower.

“Sloane,” he rasped, his emotions stuck in his throat. Her eyes were red and puffy, indicating she had been crying. With her face scrubbed clean, the much-too-big bathrobe enveloping her, and her bare feet, she looked vulnerable and frail. He approached her with a careful gait, as if any sudden movement would cause her to disappear. “H-how are you feeling?”

She let out a sigh and trudged over to the bed to sit down. “I d-don’t k-know.” The way her voice shook made his chest ache. “I thought … I wanted to do it but …” Tears fell down her cheek.

He was next to her in an instant, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “I’m glad you stopped in time. Forte deserved to die for everything he did, but you would have faced the consequences for taking an Alpha’s life.”

“Wh-what about everyone?” She rubbed the tears away with the back of her hand. “Y-your family, they could get?—”

“Shh, don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything. Besides, thanks to you, we have those diaries now.”

She cleared her throat. “I read some of what he wrote. There was this one woman, Erin … he had her killed just because she spoke out against him. I wouldn’t be surprised if any other mysterious deaths or disappearances from the clan links back to him.”

God, how he wished he did burn Forte to ashes. “We’ll put all the evidence together, and once the council sees it, they’ll put him away for life.”Or worse.“Then your parents will finally get the justice they deserved.”

She looked up at him. “Do you think so?”

“I know it.” He longed to kiss her again, but there was still so much unsaid between them. “Sloane?—”

“Jacob—” she said at the same time.

“You go?—”

“Say what?—”

Her blue eyes blinked up at him as silence hung between them. He wanted to look at those eyes forever, to hold her and never let her go. But at the same time, fear gripped his chest. What if she didn’t feel the same way? For a moment, when he held her after she shifted back, he thought she might confess her feelings. But now that the emotions weren’t running high anymore, she could change her mind.

Don’t be a dumbass. Tell her how you feel.

His father’s words rang in his head. So, he decided to take the plunge.

“Sloane, there’s something I need to tell you.” His heart beat madly in his chest, and for a second, he wanted to run away. But he kept his feet planted firmly on the ground. He knew what he needed to say first. “This might change things between us or it might not. But it’s something you should know. I think … you’re my True Mate.”

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