Chapter 50 #2
“After everything we’ve done,” my father continues, grinding his teeth with useless anger. “You should’ve been solidifying your position as alpha—but instead, you disappeared after him.”
“Hey!” Aiden’s snarl cuts through the air as he marches over, as if in answer to his summons. His burning red eyes are locked on my parents. “Get the fuck away from him.”
“He’s our son,” my father retorts, but there’s no hiding the unease in his gaze as Aiden pulls me gently from between them.
“And he’s my mate,” he growls back before he curls a hand over my arm. His tone softens only when he turns to me. “Come on, they’re ready.”
“Aiden!”
All four parents say his name at once—demanding, trying to seize some part of him—and maybe he’s just raw from everything, or finally done letting people take from him. But his canines drop as he turns on them with a snarl.
“Shut up and fuck off,” he growls, voice low and gravelly with fury. All of you. This doesn’t involve you,” he snarls, all teeth and rage. “If you cared about us—if you took even a second to look at him and managed to care about him more than yourselves, then it would. But you can’t.”
He laughs then, sounding as manic as he looks. “You can’t for one fucking second give a damn about your own kids. So fuck off.” He pants, waving a dismissive hand at them. “We don’t need you.”
Aiden turns without waiting for a reply and takes me with him. I glance back, seeing the identical horrified expressions on all their faces.
Aiden’s right. We don’t need them. If we ever had, we’d cut those tethers when we’d found each other.
Aiden and I are each other’s people now, and we don’t need them.
Beckett pulls the door closed when we cross the threshold, locking them out. He takes up station in front of it with a firm nod, his concerned eyes tracking me while Aiden guides me to a chair.
I wave him away, but he handles me like a fragile porcelain doll, only stepping back once he’s sure I’m comfortable.
Standing tall beside me, he surveys the room. All the healers and elders are here, and every one of them wears the same strained look of unease as they eye us, or rather, me.
Aiden begins to speak, and one by one, I watch all their faces shift. Unease is snuffed out by horror, shock by sadness, confusion by dread. Because their answer to him is the same one I’d already given.
Nothing could be done.
They don’t know how to help me. and there was nothing they could do if my connection to Alex was already beginning to fade.
“Aiden,” I say softly when he finishes, still leering at them for an answer they don’t have.
He glances at me, confused at first, until his eyes meet mine.
“No,” he dismisses before I can even speak. He looks back at the others, glaring now. “There’s something we can do. There’s always something to be done. So, what do we do?”
No one speaks.
I touch his hand, but he ignores me.
“What do we do?” he repeats, louder this time, and it only makes the sadness in the room mount.
“We can slow it,” one healer ventures hesitantly. “There are … remedies that can buy some time, perhaps.”
“Good,” Aiden praises with a firm nod. “We’ll do that, but how do we stop him from losing his wolf?”
The silence returns heavier than before, hanging between us like a taunting knife waiting to fall.
My heart pounds as I watch his desperate hope claw for breath. And I see it then. He knows there’s no solution, no magical answer, but he’s not willing to give up. Not just for me, but because he can’t.
Watching it steals my breath in the worst way.
I’d always hoped for a mate, for someone to love me so that I’d never have to be alone again. But somewhere along the line, Aiden and I had come to need each other as more than just mates.
Aiden was the light in my life, and I was clearly the light of his. Life was easier when we were together, and for how fucking shit life had been to us, neither of us could possibly imagine continuing without the other.
It wasn’t even an option—not for me, and definitely not for Aiden.
Which is why he refuses to give up. If he did, that meant going back to what he’d had before, which was …
I think of the people outside—the ones we called parents—the ones who’d sink their claws into him the first chance they got. My chest tightens painfully.
No. I wouldn’t let them. I wouldn’t leave him alone.
Pushing to my feet, I step into the space beside him and slide my hand over his as I address the room, “Start looking. Wherever you can, just start looking and keep this matter to yourselves.”
They take the dismissal for what it is, quickly bypassing Aiden as his head hangs low.
I hold him close, watching them all go. I accept their forlorn expressions with a tight smile until only two remain.
“Can you watch the door?” I ask, pretending not to see the tears in Beckett’s eyes. “We’ll be out in a minute.”
Emitt leads him out, blinking away the moisture in his own eyes as he shuts the doors, locking Aiden and me inside again.
“I’m not giving up,” Aiden declares, even as his voice trembles.
“I know,” I reply, smoothing a hand over his shoulder. “I … I have an idea.”
Looking up, Aiden meets my gaze with bright red eyes. They glow, not from anger or frustration, but pure fear.
The tightness in my chest returns, locking like a vice.
“When you were gone,” I start carefully, “I ran into a witch while I was looking for you.”
“A witch?!” he sputters, his fear snapping into a new shape. “You saw a witch?”
“Just the one,” I clarify. “She looked just as shocked to see me as I was to see her.”
Aiden bites out a curse. “First rogues, and now we have witches on our doorstep.”
“Witch.” I correct softly. “She was alone—and she felt powerful.”
Pausing, Aiden studies me until his expression clears with understanding. “You want us to find her.”
“Witches always find a way.” It’s the one certainty we have about the unforthcoming species.
“I know it’s crazy, but it’s something,” I add with a shrug. “A possibility when there’s none here.”
Aiden’s eyes soften, the distress sparking in them again before his jaw tightens with renewed determination. “Okay.”
My eyebrows climb. “Okay?”
“You’re right—it’s something. And I’m not losing you, Julian,” he says, gripping my hand before lifting it for a kiss. “Not you.”
I blink back the wetness in my eyes as I stare at my mate.
I’d given up—at least a piece of me had—before we got here. I suddenly hate that piece of me with a vengeance. How dare I? Even for a moment. How dare I when he needed me?
Straightening, I gather what strength I can, using him as my anchor, the centre point that he’d become in my life.
I’m not giving him up without a fight, even if that means living on this plain without Alex.
“She might’ve moved on by now, but,” I hold his gaze as my heart hammers in my chest, “maybe she didn’t.”
Aiden’s lips tug into a genuine smile as he nods. “Let’s go find a witch.”