Page 91 of Soul Bound

I think back to how Esme said I could probably bring back one person before I lost too much of my soul. She’s not an expert and she could be wrong, but I’m willing to take the risk. “Sure.”

Jax says something else, but I tune him out.

I focus my full attention on the man in front of me. I hold either side of his face and lean down and press a kiss to his bottom lip, not caring it’s covered in blood. “It’s okay, I’m going to fix it,” I promise him. “I’ll make it all better.”

I don’t know exactly how it worked with Poe, but I place my hands over Ranger’s silent heart and let the memories of us play again. I relive the moment in the tunnel when he pulled the man off of me. I see the night we first made love. I remember how light I had felt after I told him the truth of how I got my scars. I see the look of understanding when I confessed my past problem with narcotics.

And when I have relived all our good memories together, I imagine what our life could look like if I bring him back. I see us living in the woods in the cabin he’s building. I see us completing the mating ceremony. I see us chasing each other through the woods, him in his wolf form. I imagine him smiling at me every morning as we wake up together, that smile of his that splits my heart wide open.

I see us happy together.

My body suddenly swells with power and I feel a sudden rush of it exit my hands. I relax into it and push power out of my hands and into Ranger. I don’t know how long I’m supposed to do this, but I just keep going until I feel drained. My muscles weaken and eventually, I’m unable to keep myself upright. I land back on his chest, my ear right over his still quiet heart.

Feeling defeated it didn’t work, I cling to him and cry into his shirt. I lay there on top of him. I lose track of how long, with Jax silently watching me. I’m about to admit to him it’s time for us to go, that Ranger would want us to get Ella somewhere safe, but then I hear it.

Thump…Thump…Thump

I press my ear closer to his chest to make sure I’m really hearing something and I’m not losing my mind, but I hear it again.

Thump…Thump…Thump

I pull away from his chest and crawl up closer to his face, holding his face in my hands, I whisper, “Ranger?”

There isn’t a sum I wouldn’t pay or a thing I wouldn’t do to see those blue eyes of his again. When his heavy lids flutter open and his ocean gaze meets mine, I realize the payment was just a piece of my soul. A price I was more than willing to pay.

“Winslow…” He breathes.

I gasp in complete shock that he’s speaking to me. “Oh thank God. It worked, I did it.” I press my forehead to his and close my eyes, just wanting to breathe him.

I’ve never felt happier than I do in this moment. Those pieces of me that started to break as his heart slowed in his chest, start to mend and I start to feel whole again. I don’t fear death for myself, I’ve already died once, but now that I have someone in my life I truly love, I fear death for them. I thought I understood where Noah was coming from when he begged me to save Addison, but I didn’t until now.

His hands move, and I feel them run down my arms. “What did you do?” he croaks.

I pull away from him and peer down at him. “I brought you back.”

He frowns. “You didwhat?Winslow…”

I press a finger to his mouth, silencing him. “Don’t even fucking start with me, White Fang. You died and I had to do something. I’m not prepared to live in a world without you. You’re my mate and I love you. I’m not letting you go.”

He softly pulls my hand away from his mouth before intertwining our fingers. “You love me?”

I nod. “You are the first and only person I have ever loved. It took me a while to figure out what love is, but I know now. I love you, Ranger.”

“I love you so goddamn much.” He grips the back of my head and pulls my mouth to his. I kiss him back, pouring as much emotion into the kiss as I possibly can. We break apart, each of us smiling, “Now you can’t ever run away from me. You’re my mate, you’re fucking stuck with me.”

“I can still run,” I tell him. “I will just want you to catch me now.”

“I’ll always catch you.”

27

Winslow

One week later

We flew home the next morning, both agreeing the sooner we got out of New York the better. Whisper’s contact made us up a fake birth certificate on short notice so we could fly home with Ella. I was a nervous wreck the whole time we waited to take off, I kept expecting someone to storm in and accuse us of stealing a baby.

Because technically we did.

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