Page 58 of Fire Bound

I climb to my feet so I don’t have to look up at her from the muddy earth. “Every single time I’ve woken up from shifting, I’ve been covered in blood. Sometimes I’m still laying in the pools of my victim’s blood. It’s like my wolf gets so tired from his reign of terror that he can’t help but fall asleep right there in the middle of his carnage.” Even when I’m far away and the only things out there for me to hunt are other animals, I still awake coated in their blood. “When I didn’t know how to maintain control over him and I accidentally shifted with other people around, I’ve killed more people than I’ll truly ever know. And I don’twantto know.” For the sake of my already unstable sanity, some things are better left unknown. Knowing the official total isn’t going to do me any good now. I can’t undo what I’ve done. “Very few people have lived after meeting this side of me. Tonight is the first time I’ve ever lost control and there isn’t a trail of bodies behind me. So yes, Remington, I lied through my fucking teeth and told you were a meaningless fuck and kept you at a safe distance because the idea of waking up covered in your blood was fucking unimaginable. I also said I’d do it again if it meant I kept you safe, but now…” I trail off as I allow myself to consider what I thought to be impossible.

“But now…” she prompts, with an ushering hand motion.

When I take a step toward her, she eyes me skeptically. “Now I’m not sure I ever had to do it.” Even as I say those words, I feel like I’m dreaming, but my dreams are never this happy and that’s how I know for a fact it’s real life. “I was protecting you from something that wasn’t going to hurt you. I should have known that if anyone was going to tame my wolf, it was going to be you.”

Instead of her face softening at my words, her features harden, and her lips pull back as she sneers at me. “I could have told you that a year ago, Jax, had you just fucking talked to me. We could have avoided all of this if you’d just confided in me about your wolf’s temperament. I would have told you that every time someone warned me to be careful with you, that you were dangerous, I didn’t believe them because in the very fiber of my soul I knew you’d never hurt me. My wolf has trusted you since the first time she laid eyes on you and now I know it wasn’t you she trusted; it was your wolf. But instead of trustingmelike I trustedyou, we went a whole year doing nothing but hurting each other for no reason!” Her eyes slash across me, no doubt leaving more invisible scars. “And now you’re standing here staring at me like we’re suddenly supposed to raise our white flags andwhat? Be together because you’ve miraculously gotten over your issues? That’s not how it works, Jax.”

“Why not?” I find myself asking. “For most of my life, I’ve had people telling me what I can or can’t do. They’ve taken everything and they’ve deprived me of both the things I want and need. Even when I was free of them, I still ended up implementing rules and placing myself in chains because I thought it was the right thing—no, the safe thing, to do. And now I’m learning I was wrong.” When she turns her head, I step forward and return my hands to her face, forcing her to look at me. “So, I say fuck the rules and fuck doing what’s safe. They’ve robbed me of enough, and I refuse to let them take anything else from me. Iwantyou and Ineedyou, Remington.”

“Jax,” she starts but I cut her off.

“I’m the reason there’s a wall up between us. I started all of this, and I know it’s my fault.” I take responsibility for my actions and until the end of time I will be apologizing to her for the horrific year we’ve had and what it’s taken from her. “Our future is uncertain and there are still a lot of wounds that need to heal but drop your walls for just a second. Allow the walls you built to protect yourself from me to come down, and imagine what it’d be like to have everything you’ve ever wanted. Imagine what it’d be like to wake up in the morning and not feel like you’re missing something. That’s how it is for me, Remi. Every day I wake up without you, I feel like a piece of me is missing.” She looks up at me with uncertainty. “Close your eyes and let yourself imagine it all, love.”

After a moment of hesitation, her eyes finally flutter closed. It takes a minute for the tense look on her face to smooth out and for her stiff bones to relax. I don’t know what she’s seeing, but I hope it’s as perfect as what I’m seeing.

I will never be able to forgive myself for all this wasted time I’ve inflicted on us. For two years I pushed her away to keep her safe. I broke her heart to keep her safe and it was for nothing. The hold she has on me is strong enough to tame my beast. If she can keep him from creating a bloodbath, then she truly is capable of anything.

As she stands there with her eyes closed, picturing what I hope to be perfection, the air around us starts to buzz, almost like there’s an electrical energy humming between us. The hairs on the back of my neck rise and my wolf’s ears perk as he stands at attention, like he’s anticipating something important. My fingertips tingle and something in my chest tightens painfully before, like a rubber band snapping, a surge of power explodes all around us.

Remington gasps and her eyes snap open in shock.

When those blue eyes collide with mine, my world comes to a screeching halt and everything around me ceases to exist. I can no longer feel the soft drizzle of rain across my warm skin and the cold breeze that has been whipping through the trees stills. I’m not even sure if my heart continues to beat or if my lungs are capable of bringing in air as I take in the sight in front of me.

Never in a million years did I think I would experience this. I thought it was just another thing that I was going to be deprived of, but now as I take in the shiny gold aura that gleams brightly around the most beautiful woman I’ve ever encountered, I’m hit with a wave of peace and contentment that I’ve never experienced before. My life up to this point has been a turbulent storm, but Remington is the eye of my hurricane. The lightning in her eyes and thunder in her soul has found a way to calm mine. Her chaos counteracts mine—always has. I didn’t know why, but now that I’m staring at the golden mating aura shining around her, I know why.

She’s my mate.

“Is that...” Remington stammers out as she searches the air around me. To know that she sees what I’m seeing fills me with even more relief. “Does that mean what I think it means?” there’s a slight edge of panic in her tone, but I make it my goal to ease it.

“It means you’re fuckingmine, love,” I confirm, holding her face tighter between my hands. “It means that no matter what happens, every single piece of you belongs to me.” One of my hands drops down to rest over her bare chest. Her thundering heartbeat slams against my palm. “This heart that I broke? It’s mine and I’m going to spend the rest of our lives mending it. I’m going to stitch it up and protect it with my life.” I trace down her collarbone, down her arm, until our fingers intertwine with each other’s.“These hands are mine to hold and I will hold them during our darkest days.” Those days are coming quicker than we think. Finally, I remove the hand that holds her face to brush my thumb over her plump lips. “And these lips?” I bend my face to brush the softest of kisses across them, but still, her breath hitches like the sensation is too much. “They’re mine to kiss and to savor. Even when you use them to talk back and argue with me, I’m going to savor each one of those words, because they’re mine too,” I tell her, just a breath away from her mouth. “And as much as you are mine, I’m yours. Every dark and twisted piece of my soul, it belongs to you. Always has. I’m sorry it took us this long to figure it out, but I’m yours.”

Emotions flash through her eyes like an earthquake. The impenetrable and cold foundation she’d built cracking in front of me. “Fucking finally,” she barely has time to whisper before my hand wraps behind her head and I slam our mouths together.

Kissing Remington has always been the highlight of my life, but kissing her now and knowing this is what I was always destined to do, it’s different. It’s like each swipe of my tongue and each ragged breath between kisses is solidifying the connection between us.

For the first time since we met, we are more than stolen moments and lies. We’re no longer pretending.

This is real. This is us.

We are people with flaws and we’ve both made mistakes, but regardless, somewhere—someone—decided that we were meant for each other—that we are stronger and better together.

“Mine,” I growl across her lips as we back up into the nearby tree. The combination of her sweet mouth dancing with mine and the knowledge that she truly is mine, already has my cock growing hard. Without a stitch of clothing on either of our bodies, the red, swollen tip presses against her soft stomach.

“Yours,” Remi agrees easily and without complaint, a phenomenon that doesn’t happen often, so I savor it.

My hands hold her hips in a punishing grip like I’m afraid if I let her go, all of this will disappear. Her arms wrap around my neck, holding me close as our tongues tangle for dominance.

My wolf sits quiet in my head, observing. There’s an air of smugness coming off of him because he knew this would happen all along. The obsession he had for Remington wasn’t because he wanted her dead, it was because he just wanted his mate.

We’re both covered in mud, but neither one of us seems to mind. Nothing is stopping us. Sterling himself could walk up on us now, but I still wouldn’t stop. I’d let him simply watch as I claim my mate.

Trailing hot, openmouthed kisses down her neck, I reach the juncture of her neck and scrape my teeth across the place I’ll leave my mark. My gums burn and my fangs threaten to descend just at the thought, but I keep them at bay for just a little while longer.

Remi’s hands grip the strands of my hair as I continue to nuzzle her neck. I feel her shiver against me, and her body relaxes as I suck on the sensitive spot. “You’re going to look so beautiful wearing my mark.”

“Jax,” she says my name like a plea.

I nip at her earlobe before asking, “Tell me what you need, love.”

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