Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
Falcon
One sleepless night in the city, a two-hour workout in the hotel’s basement-level gym as soon as the sun came up, followed by a twenty-minute shower, and I still don’t know what I’m going to say when I meet Robin at the academy at noon.
The nervous energy I tried to burn off in the gym is lingering, and I can only hope it’ll fade on the walk to the academy.
I take my time getting dressed, opting for my usual jeans and T-shirt combo. I know I’ll be more comfortable in my casual clothes, but they won’t make this meeting feel any less formal.
Playing by someone else’s rules is always stifling.
My instincts want me to go against the grain.
I’d love nothing more than to reject Lana’s rules, to bring my pack to the academy and release our mate from her guardianship without having to ask any questions.
But I know that’s caveman behavior, and that Robin deserves better.
I could never steal her away from a place that makes her feel safe.
So, I’ll respect her guardian’s rules until Robin decides to leave the academy on her own, however long it takes.
The walk to the academy takes me down busy city streets, leaving me waiting at crosswalks for the traffic to ease up, and finally past a quieter residential area before I get to the sidewalk across the street from those formidable golden gates.
The impact of what I’m about to do hits me, and nothing about this moment feels real.
I’m literally going to the most elite Omega Academy in the country to tell a woman she was always destined to be my mate. If someone had told me this would ever be something I would do, I would have laughed and told them to dream on.
And yet, here I am.
Life can be crazy like that.
I move over to the guard post by the gates, where I stop and make my promised call to Lana, to tell her I’m out here, waiting to be escorted inside.
“Hello?” she answers, as if I didn’t call her mobile number and she’s not sure who I am.
“Hey, it’s Falcon. I’m outside.”
“You’re early,” she states. “Give me a minute to check on Robin.”
I turn away from the guard when I realize he’s staring at me.
He’s probably wondering why I didn’t talk to him.
Or he’s waiting for me to make some kind of crazy move so he can take me out as a trespasser, more likely.
Lana takes her time. I can hear her talking away from the speaker. A lower male voice is talking, too, so I’m guessing she’s having one of her guards check on Robin.
I check the time on my phone’s screen while I wait.
It’s almost eleven. I’m an hour early.
She’ll probably tell me I need to come back.
I guess I’ll have to talk to the guard if she does, because I’m not going anywhere.
A minute later, she’s clearing her throat on the line and I’m on tenterhooks waiting for her to talk.
“Okay, she’s in the gardens so that’s where she’ll meet you. I’ll contact the gate guard, and you’ll be let inside.”
“Thanks,” I mutter as she hangs up.
I slip the phone into my back pocket as I turn back to the guard on the gates.
He’s got a walkie talkie in his hand now, and he nods as he glances at me, now with marginally less suspicion in his eyes.
The gates start to open, and I take in a deep breath as I wait.
I promised my mates I wouldn’t mess this up, and I don’t intend to.
She agreed to meet me, and she’s good with me showing up early.
Now, all I need to do is convince her what she’s feeling is real …
Despite the fact I didn’t even feel our true mate bond when we met.
I didn’t feel it when we spoke on Friday night, either.
What does it say about our bond if I’ve met her twice now and I didn’t feel it?
That doesn’t matter.
You know you were distracted.
Don’t be an asshole.
You’ll only mess this up.
Sighing, I make myself move forward when the guard inside the gates waves me over.
I follow him down the dirt road toward the academy, hearing the gates clanging to a close behind us as he leads me into the left, where the side entrance to the building is. On Friday night this was a car park full of Alphas, with dozens of armed security personnel covering the area.
Now it’s Sunday morning, and we’re walking across an empty, bumpy dirt track toward an iron gate that appears to lead into a plot full of flowers.
It’s a pretty drastic change of scenery as I follow the guard onto the clean path on the other side of the gate. The plants and flowers in the garden are arranged in neat clusters around paths, and the forest beyond has been fenced off.
In all the years I’ve lived in an apartment, I can’t say I’ve ever dreamed of having a big garden but looking at the way this one has been designed, for people to walk around and sit on benches, it’s making me wonder if I’ve been depriving my mates of something special.
Getting a house together was always the end goal, but that only seemed to get further and further away while I was trying to figure out a career I could be content with.
I look around until I spot Robin, kneeling next to a rose bush a few feet away.
“I’ll be on the other side of this gate,” the guard tells me, his tone as flat as his expression.
He leaves me inside the garden, my gaze on the red-haired Beta.
She doesn’t see me. Her attention is focused on the rose bush.
She looks happy. There’s a smile on her lips, and I think she’s humming faintly under her breath.
I take a few steps toward her, and she stops humming and turns.
“Hi,” I start.
Her smile fades as she looks up at me. “Oh, hey!”
She gets to her feet and brushes a little dirt off her knee.
“Um, Lana told me you wanted to see me again, but I don’t really know why?” she asks, as she folds her arms in front of her.
She looks up at me, clearly waiting for an answer.
I don’t know what to say as I gaze back at her.
The silence stretches out awkwardly between us.
Everything I’ve been holding inside breaks apart the second she tries to give me a smile.
For every shitty day that passed while she was in this place, alone, I want to scream at my stupidity for allowing her to stay here without me. And for everything that happened to her before I took her out of that fucking house, I want to kill the men responsible.
This woman standing in front of me, the one who’s clearly afraid to know what I’m here for, is beyond a shadow of a doubt my true mate, and I never want to lose sight of her ever again.
I move closer, operating entirely on instinct.
Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t back away.
Leaning in close, I reach for her left hand with mine.
She allows my fingers to close around hers, and some of the worry slips out of her expression as I place the back of her hand against my chest, right where she put it the night I rescued her, while we were in the back of the car, driving away from Ivan Hamilton’s house.
I hold it there, not wanting to let go now that I’m touching her.
“You weren’t safe for a long time,” I start, finally able to find the words. “And I know you feel safe here at the academy, but I also know the first place you really felt safe was in my arms, the night you ran right into me in that hallway where you used to live.”
She presses her lips together, her bright eyes starting to water as she stares back at me.
For a split second, I doubt my instinct to touch her in order to start this conversation.
I start to move my hand, and her fingers curl possessively to keep it with hers.
“I did feel safe with you,” she whispers, before she straightens slightly and adds much more clearly, “I still do.”
“There’s a reason for that,” I reveal, as I raise my free hand to stroke the side of her face.
She leans into the touch, closing her eyes.
The tears that drip from her lashes roll down her lightly freckled cheeks as she lets out a soft sigh. I wipe away those tears gently, and when she opens her eyes her gaze fixes on mine.
“This can’t be real,” she murmurs.
“It can’t?” I ask, desperate to know what she’s thinking.
“It’s too much like a movie.”
“A movie?”
Her cheeks flush as she nods. “A rom-com. You know the kind. Alpha meets Omega. Sparks fly … Only, I’m not an Omega, so it feels like I must be lost in a daydream.”
“This is completely real,” I assure her. “If it feels like a daydream, that’s because we’re fated mates. The connection you felt when we met, the one that made you feel safe, it’s a true mate bond.”
She blinks at me. “A true mate bond? Okay. Now I know I’m dreaming.”