Page 57 of Save Me Enemy

“A life for a life…” the ghost gasps, and somehow, she’s able to lift the tiny thing away from Rachel and she walks towards me.

“It was meant to be…” Ruby says, a sob exploding from her throat. Evelyn sits behind her and places her newborn daughter in her arms, both watching this unfold with wonder.

My ghost kneels over me, and I want to scream no. I want to cry that I don’t want a baby to die for me, it’s not fair!

“This creature could have never made it,” my ghost says.

Rachel is at my side. “What could this mean, Raina? All Ruby’s scans showed only one child, I checked!”

Raina? The ancestor? Is that who my ghost is?

“The gods want Cricket to live…” is all Raina says as she places the small being on my chest.

A bright light envelopes me. Raina and Rachel are chanting, Evelyn and Ruby join in. The whole cave echoes with the chant. My body bucks, back arching off the ground, and I hear myself scream in agony. Everything crashes back, like the cave is closing in on me. I see flashes of my life; my mother pushing me away at birth, me biting DeeDee as a child, the first man to take me, then I see Jax. His surprise as he saw me, his instantaneous love, the way we just…fit. I watch myself running from Corey, I see myself die as they try to heal me, and then I see the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen…

Jax and I are old, in the safehouse on the mountain, and we’re surrounded by our grown children. Babies are crawling on the floor cooing to one another, and my daughter and my son look at each other proudly. Their mates are beside them as mine is beside me, and I know true blissful happiness for the first time in my life.

I blink once, twice. The tree above me comes into focus.

“Cricket? Oh my gods, Cricket!” My body is hefted off the floor and my sister’s bright red hair envelopes my vision. My hand is over the small, deceased pup, cradling it against my chest, and I start to cry in my sister’s hair as gasps of surprise and cheers of glee fill the room.

“Cricket, you did not take a life to live…” I hear Raina say, her voice echoing over the roar of the packs around me. “A life was created by the gods to gift you your own…”

My ghost dissipates into mist as her words fade, and the body of the wolf in my hands fades to dust and floats away through my fingers.

Rachel holds me at arm’s length, her huge smile and her tear-stained cheeks clashing with one another. “You’re alive!” she cries, pushing my hair back from my face.

But my line of sight is beyond her and stuck to Ruby. My body, feeling stronger than it ever has, rises on its own and I walk surely towards Ruby and collapse beside her. She reaches for me, sobbing hard, and presses her forehead to mine.

“I only ever expected my daughter. Don’t grieve for the wolf… Don’t grieve for my loss because it was not a loss. It was a gift of life. A gift of you in my life.” Ruby grabs my hand and puts it on her baby's head. “I’ll call her Olivia…for you…for my sister at heart.”

“How dare you be celebrating…” Jax’s voice fills the cave and everyone instantly hushes. “My mate is dead and you’re cheering? Ruby, I know you hate me, but this?”

I look up as Jax falls to his hands and knees, sobs wracking his body as Ryder and Cole look out at their packs in disgust.

I stand slowly, my heart aching to see my mate’s grief even as my soul soars. Ryder sees me first and his gasp makes everything stop.

“Jax!” Cole says, shaking his friend, trying to pull him to his feet.

“Leave me! You should have let me die, you should have—”

Cole grabs Jax’s chin and makes him look up. The words die on his tongue. Anguish turns to denial, denial turns to anger, and anger turns to pure joy as Jax is pulled to his feet. I run to him, leaping over the brook with ease, and collide with him so hard he staggers back.

“Jackson…Jax…my mate…” I’m sobbing, kissing him between words.

As his arms slowly circle around me, we both fall to the ground and sob in each other's arms. I hear Chase discovering he has a baby girl, but everything is muffled. Slowly, people are leaving the cave. Ruby is carried out by Chase with the baby in her loving arms. Hands touch us as people pass, murmured words of congratulations, until finally only Ryder and Rachel remain.

“You are our brother now, Jackson Wraith,” Ryder says.

Rachel tucks herself under his arm with a happy sigh. “Welcome to the family!” she sobs happily, and Ryder leads her out of the cave.

Finally, we’re alone, we’re together, and my body is whole. Jax pushes me away, hands gripping my shoulders, tears running down his face to match mine.

“How?” he chokes, stroking my face and wiping my tears away.

“The ancestors…the gods…” is all I can say before his lips are on mine. His kiss is hot, heavy, needy, and when he pulls me onto his lap and spreads my legs I’ve never been more ready.

“Are you in pain?” he asks, his voice laced with lust, concern overriding need.

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