Chapter 25 #2
My wolf is failing under me. I can feel it dying now, the wolfsbane winning at last. Every breath comes shorter than the last. My claws slide out and won’t retract, the animal clawing to stay in the world.
I’ve got seconds left, and I can feel every one of them running out.
I get a hand around the back of Jessa’s neck and pull her down to me.
Her tears fall onto my face. “Marcus!”
“I’m dying.” The words are torn from me. “A healer can’t fix this. You can.”
“What do I do?” She’s frantic. “Tell me and I’ll do it.”
“I have to mark you.”
“Mark me?”
“He means the mating mark.” Adrian drops beside us. He looks at my torn throat and the ruin of me, and his voice sinks. “But she isn’t your fated mate, Marcus.”
“She is,” I gasp, my wolf weakening now.
His eyes go wide. Then he grips Jessa’s shoulder. “Let him mark you. The bond will pull him back. It’s his one chance.”
“Okay.” She doesn’t hesitate. “Okay, do it.”
“You don’t know what it means,” I get out.
“Do you really have time for a conversation?” Her voice breaks. “Marcus, just mark me. Do whatever it is you have to do to live. We need you.”
I look up into her face. “But do you love me?”
She glowers at me through her tears. “You absolute jerk. You’re making me say it now?”
“I won’t do it otherwise.” I can barely lift the words.
She drops her forehead to my bloody chest and laughs, wet and helpless. “You manipulative shit.”
“Yes.” I manage a grin.
“Yes.” She presses her mouth to my jaw. “Yes, I love you. Now mark me.”
I turn my head, set my teeth to the curve of her shoulder, and mark her.
She gasps, her fingers locking in my hair.
The bond snaps taut between us, her heartbeat sliding in against mine until the two run as one, and strength floods back up my spine in a hot rush.
My back arches off the boards. The whole world goes white, then black.
I wake in my own bed with the ceiling above me and two small bodies tucked against my sides. Mia’s got a fist in my shirt. Bella’s drooling on my arm. Both of them are dead asleep.
For a breath, I let myself believe none of it happened. Then I hear the soft clatter of a pan downstairs, and it all comes back at once.
I ease out from under the girls and pull on the sweatpants left over the chair. My legs hold. I take the stairs slowly and find Jessa at the stove, stirring something, her hair loose down her back.
“Jessa.”
She turns and looks at me for one long second. Then a broken sound comes out of her, and her knees go.
I cross the kitchen and catch her before she drops. She’s shaking, all of her terror breaking loose at once.
“You’re awake.” Her hands fist against my bare chest. “You’re finally awake.”
“How long?” My voice is rough with disuse.
“Three days.” She pulls back to look at me, furious and wet-eyed. “You nearly died. You nearly died, Marcus.”
She buries her face against me, and I feel her tears on my skin. I hold the back of her head and let her.
“How did I get home?”
“Adrian and the others brought you.” The words tumble fast. “Everyone’s been coming, the healers twice a day. I’ve been helping Adrian with the handover. There’s so much paperwork, nobody knew who was supposed to sign—”
“Jessa.” I tip her chin up. “Stop. Are you all right?”
The bruises on her jaw have faded to yellow. She catches my hand against her cheek. “Apparently getting marked does wonders for healing.” A shaky smile. “Maybe you should’ve done it sooner.”
The joke goes nowhere. Her eyes are swimming.
“I’m sorry,” I say and press my mouth to her forehead.
“Don’t.” She grips my wrist hard. “Don’t you dare do that to me. You made it so I can’t live without you, and then you nearly left.” Her voice wobbles. “You don’t get to make me need you and then go.”
“I know.” I gather her in, and the bond hums with every beat of my heart, a second pulse I’ll never be without now. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”
She wipes her face and pulls out of my arms. “Sit. I’ll feed you.”
“Just sit with me instead.”
“No.” She’s already ladling broth. “I have to do something with my hands. I can’t be still. I’ve been still for three days watching you not wake up.” She sets the bowl in front of me. “Beef. The healer said meat. Eat.”
I take a sip I don’t need to settle her. “There. Satisfied?”
“No.” She sinks into the chair across from me, and the fight goes out of her. “I keep seeing your face when you went down. Do you have any idea what that did to me? Watching the person I lean on for everything go so still?”
I set the bowl aside and draw her around the table onto the sofa with me. “My body was full of poison. Going under was the only way it could keep me breathing.”
She scrubs at her eyes. “And you’re okay now? Really? You’re not going to get torn open like that again?”
“No.” I catch her tears with my thumb. “I’m better than okay.” I press her palm to my chest. “I’ve got my mate. I can feel her right here, and she’s mine.” Joy runs through me, wild and clean. “Mia and Bella?”
“Fine. Both of them are fine, but they wouldn’t leave your side.” She almost laughs. “They ate up there, slept in your bed, kept watch over you. They nearly lost you too.” Her voice thins. “The healer said it was close. The bond almost wasn’t enough because I’m human.”
I push a strand of hair off her cheek. “I don’t care that you’re human. I care that you’re mine.” I tuck her under my arm, and for the first time in ten years, the animal in me settles, curled around the pull of her.
She goes still, and I feel the question coming before she asks it. So I ask mine first.
“Do you love me?”
I brace for her to bristle. She doesn’t. Instead she takes my face in both hands. “Yes. I do. I wouldn’t have tied myself to you for the rest of my life if I didn’t.” The words settle into me somewhere deep, somewhere the poison never reached.
I kiss her cheek, her neck. “Then we’re getting married.”
“Before you go running down that road,” she says, “don’t you have larger things to handle first?”
I look at her.
“Your uncle’s betrayal wasn’t nothing, Marcus.” Her voice softens. “They found your brother and your father buried on the estate. They’ve been reburied properly. That’s a lot to take in.”
“I’ve been through hell and back.” I take her hands. “What I care about tonight is that my family’s home is safe, and everyone in it is breathing. The rest can be handled later.” I bring her knuckles to my mouth. “I’ll grieve them right. Just not tonight.”
She searches my face, then nods. She’s still holding my hands. I turn them over and press a kiss to the raw skin at each wrist, where the ropes bit in. Her breath catches.
“I probably reek.” I stand, drawing her up with me. “I’m going to shower. And then we’re getting married.”
“You’re really doing this right now.”
“I’ve marked you the shifter way.” I brush my mouth over hers. “I want it the human way too. A paper that says you’re mine, so you never once doubt it.”
“You want a courthouse.”
“I’ll give you the wedding you dream about later.” I hold her face. “Tonight I want it in writing.”
She pulls me in by the front of my sweatpants, tears bright in her eyes. “That paper goes both ways. It says you’re mine too.”
“I’ve always been yours.” I take her hand and lay it over my heart, where it’s still hammering out that new second rhythm. “Every beat of this has your name on it.”
She flushes, and I kiss her slowly, no hurry left in me. We’ve got the rest of our lives for it.