Chapter 20 – JAX
JAX
Camille follows the path, moving at a steady pace, playing her part perfectly while my wolf paces frantically in my head, demanding we eliminate anyone who might be a threat to our mate.
Every instinct screams to follow closely, to abandon this hiding spot and walk beside her to keep her safe and protect her from harm. But that would ruin everything she’s worked for today and completely undermine what she came here to do.
So, I wait. And watch. And slowly lose my mind.
I’ve positioned myself on the hillside where I can see the fork in the path while also keeping me hidden in the deepening shadows. It’s close enough to act, yet far enough to let this play out.
My wolf disagrees.
Too far. Need to get closer.
The pressure builds behind my eyes, bones aching with the need to shift. I taste copper where my lengthening fangs have cut my gums, and I flex my hands in front of me, the familiar feeling of tightness before my claws expand taking hold.
He’s trying to take control, but I can’t let him. Not yet.
The first silhouette appears about thirty seconds after she passes the training grounds, her beautiful blonde hair shimmering in the silvery moonlight.
Moving carefully, the shadow tries to match her pace without being obvious, sticking close to the edge, ready to dive for cover if they get spotted. With few clouds in the sky, and the full moon tomorrow, the night is far from pitch black, making it easier for them to track her from a distance.
The wind shifts, and I catch their scent, familiar and perhaps not that surprising, but still, it shocks me that anyone could behave like this.
My wolf fumes, wanting to rush in and tear them to shreds for destroying the competition that my brother worked so hard to make a success, but I push him down.
Not yet.
Dean’s voice cuts into my mind.
DEAN: Jax. I know you’re there.
It takes me a second to speak anything other than a string of expletives at my brother. I’m still struggling to forgive him for going along with this reckless plan.
JAX: I can’t believe you’re using her as bait.
Rationally, I know it had to be her, but there’s nothing rational about fated mates, or how they react to their other half being placed in danger.
DEAN: She volunteered. A pause. You know why I couldn’t tell you.
JAX: If anything happens…
DEAN: We’re all here to help. Just let her do her job.
His tone is matter-of-fact, but I catch the slight stumble in his voice when a second figure emerges from the direction of the guest cabins, taking a parallel route through the trees.
I duck, silently lying down as they pass only fifty yards from me.
If I weren’t downwind, they’d have scented me immediately.
DEAN: Shit
That’s an understatement. Even Dean wasn’t expecting this development.
This is someone who’s far more dangerous.
My wolf goes berserk. The shift ripples under my skin, bones cracking. I fight it back, but my control is slipping as the plan falls apart in front of my eyes.
DEAN: Hold your position, Jax.
JAX: She’s my MATE.
DEAN: No shit.
There’s a heartbeat of silence over our mind-link as we watch the second pursuer slip between trees, keeping firmly to the shadows, moving further from my position and closer to Camille.
DEAN: It’s bad enough she’s stuck with you; don’t blow her sting just because you’re scared. She’d want to see this through.
Camille keeps walking, seemingly oblivious, but I know better. I’ve been stalking her, watching her every move, observing her body language like the obsessed fan that I am.
There’s slight tension in her shoulders. Her hands hang at her sides but her fingers curl, ready to come up and defend herself if needed.
She knows they’re there. She’s drawing them out, just like she planned, but as the trap closes in, my wolf rages, not caring about her career, Dean’s competition, or the injured wolves who deserve to face their attacker.
He just wants her safe.
DEAN: Don’t do it, Dean warns. You need to prove you have some level of control.
The path ahead forks at the hill’s crest. Left to Dean’s cabin where safety waits. Right, toward the lake, isolated and dark. They’re corralling her, using the second person to steer her where they want, effectively cutting off her route to the cabin.
Clever, but infuriating.
I shift position silently, muscles coiled tightly, clambering back onto my hands and knees and edging to a pile of boulders I can hide behind, then sprinting on to a dense thicket.
Years of hunting these woods serve me now as I ghost through the trees, maintaining my vantage point and ensuring I have a quick, easy route to her if needed, while remaining upwind.
She slows at the fork, pretending to assess her options.
“Hello?” she calls, injecting a trace of nervousness into her voice as she looks over her shoulder. “Dean?”
She’s buying time, letting them commit to their plan, drawing them out. My brave, brilliant mate plays the perfect victim while my wolf howls to tear apart anyone who dares even breathe on her.
A snap of a twig, purposefully loud, and she pretends to make her decision, veering right.
They’re closing in now. No longer hiding their approach. They think they have her trapped, backed toward the water, where no one goes after dark or wanders past to come to her rescue.
Where her screams won’t carry back to the compound.
Camille’s pace quickens, and she adds in a dramatic stumble over a root as she frantically scans the trees on either side of her for effect. She looks terrified, her hair whipping around her face as she searches the depths of the undergrowth.
It’s so convincing that my wolf is now frantic, desperate to rush in, to throw her over his shoulder and carry her far from here.
Fur sprouts on the back of my hands, and my back arches where he tries to force the shift, bones popping, and skin stretching as he surfaces, threatening to burst forth at any second.
DEAN: Stay put until they make their move. That’s not a request, Jax.
My entire body vibrates with the need to act, but Dean’s alpha command glues me to the spot, and I force myself to stay quiet despite my wolf howling in my head, fighting hard against the alpha order.
Camille needs evidence. She needs them to act first, to incriminate themselves.
If I move too soon, it will all have been for nothing.
So, we wait and watch, dying a little with each step she takes toward the dark water’s edge.
The nearest follower is only twenty feet behind her now. The second has circled wide, cutting off retreat. This isn’t their first hunt.
Every muscle spasms with the effort of holding still. My vision flickers between human and wolf. The shift is winning.
She stops at the lake’s edge, moonlight reflecting off the still water, and fear shining in her eyes that I’m certain is partly real.
There’s nowhere left to run.
As they emerge from the shadows, their movements are confident, cocky even. They think they’ve won.
Give me a reason. Just one threatening move. An aggressive gesture. Anything that lets me protect her without ruining her case.
DEAN: Move closer, but don’t charge, Jax. If you mess this up, she’ll never forgive you.
The wind shifts again, carrying scents and sounds as I slip from my hiding spot and inch closer, not wanting to give up the element of surprise just yet.
“What do you want?” Camille’s not running. She turns slowly to face them, putting her back to the water, chin raised and shoulders squared, ready for whatever comes next. Trusting me to be there if needed while she does what she came here to do.
The pride I feel wars with terror like nothing I’ve felt before as they close the distance toward her. Moonlight reveals faces I know, people who’ve eaten at our packhouse, trained with our friends. The sense of betrayal and disgust cuts deep.
I tense, expecting this to be the moment they cross the line from following to attacking, the moment I’m free to act.
But instead, they hesitate, speaking via mind-link, and I’m forced to remain frozen, watching the woman I love facing danger while I hide in the shadows.
DEAN: She’ll signal when she wants us to intervene.
He’s right. I know he’s right. But that doesn’t make this any easier.
In the darkness, I see the gemstone in the centre of Camille’s necklace begin to glow, and then the wind brings it, faint but unmistakable, the bitter scent of dark magic rising in the night air.
From the glowing stone held aloft in Alpha Williams’s hand.