Page 16 of Mated to the Pride

“Everyone’s fine,” he promised. “I’m sorry we had to leave you by yourself down there. Just a precaution, you understand, but… we couldn’t have risked you getting hurt up here.”

“Did they reach the cabin?”

“No,” he said, holding out a hand as I came within reach. “Not even close.”

Still unsteady, I relented and took it. Even just the contact with his skin comforted me; I could feel his calming influence flowing through me like firelight warmth after walking in the snow. Now my heart was pounding for an entirely different reason than fear.

That said, fear still remained. “But they know where we are…?”

“Yes. But they won’t come back. I don’t want you going outside any time soon, but… they will not come back.”

Instinctively, I wanted to ask how he knew that. They were the enemy, after all. Surely, they’d stop at nothing to wipe out the threat that the North boys posed — and me, by association, if they ever found out I existed? Maybe they’d been spying on us for a while, and already knew. Even as logic assailed me with all those worries, my mouth failed to follow suit. There was so much confidence and certainty in Blake’s eyes that some deeper part of me just chose to believe him.

I realized that we were still holding hands, even as I stood at the top of the stairs. Around me, the others were coming down from the force of the attack. Stone was cleaning up a nasty-looking scrape on one of Hale’s arms, not without their usual playful banter.

Blake squeezed my hand, drawing my eyes back to him. I felt my cheeks flush.

“It’s okay, Jessica. I promise. If I believed it wasn’t safe for you to be here, I’d take you straight home. Trust me.”

“I do.”

And though I’d only known him for a while, and though my instincts screamed that it was crazy to stay here, on a deeper level it was true. Ididtrust Blake. I trusted him enough that his hand in mine, solid and sensible and careful, was enough to soothe away the blindness and terror of that stretch of lonely time in the dark.

Blake

When I woke up in the middle of the night, it wasn’t too unusual. There was a lot on my mind, and I didn’t need much rest to get by. Whatwasunusual was the sensation I had of discomfort. That there was something else I had to do before I went back to sleep.

I frowned and swung my feet out of bed. The air still carried a light scent of iron-rich blood. Ordinary human noses were not so sensitive, but it still felt wrong to keep Jessica in such a violent environment — safe though it was. I made my way out of the room, closing the door quietly behind me so as not to disturb Stone. I wasn’t even sure what I was heading out to do before I caught sight of her.

Jessica was standing at the end of the corridor, leaning on the sill to look out of the window into the darkness. From the light glow of the candle beside her, I could make out the shape of the torn bodies of our attackers in the yard — left deliberately, to discourage any further attempts.

“Is that them, out there?” she asked, voice soft and quiet.

I was surprised that she’d noticed me. Even more so that she didn’t sound openly horrified at the thought of it. Instead, she sounded numb. Distant.

“It is,” I confirmed. Only then did she look over her shoulder to take me in, the thin straps of her night dress not offering much protection against the nighttime cold. I could see the skin on the back of her neck raising and resisted the urge to touch her — to warm her up with my shifter’s higher body temperature. Instead, I kept my distance. Let her keep her space as she turned back to face the dark.

“It looks like a bobcat got to them or something,” she noted. “Maybe something even bigger. You sure it’s okay to leave them out there?”

“There’s nothing that can get inside,” I assured her. She picked up the candle, lingering a few more seconds before she looked my way. “I promise. You’re safe here.”

“It’s you boys I’m worried about,” she said. “I didn’t know there was such dangerous wildlife out here.”

The knowledge that I’d have to tell her the truth about our nature swelled up in me, but this wasn’t the time. Stone and I hadn’t even had a chance to talk to Hale and Preston about it all yet.

“We’ll be fine,” I said. “What about you? You okay? Can’t sleep?”

“That’s a lot of questions.”

She smiled at me, and I felt my built-in stiffness begin to ease away. I didn’t spend much time with Jess alone, and doing so now only made me more certain that she was our one mate. I could practically feel my lion calling out to her from inside me, lifted up by the sight of her smile.

“I’m fine,” she answered, after she saw me smile back. “I mean… I’m not. It was scary being down there. Imagining what might be happening to all of you. It shook me, but I’ll be okay.”

“Probably best not to look outside in the light,” I suggested. “It’s a mess out there.”

“Think I’d have been standing at this window so long if I was squeamish?”

Jessica had a point, but it only raised another question. “How longhaveyou been here?”

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