Page 11 of Awakening His Mate

The way I need to care for her isn’t normal.

“We want to believe you, but the way you’re acting isn’t right.” Cade tries to reason with me. “Can’t you understand that your actions are reckless? Every time you go out without backup, one of us has to come after you, and that puts us all at risk.”

I never asked any of them to follow me, but they still do. I never thought I needed protection, but without it, I might have died today. I know Halle is right and that these men would die for me—and when push comes to shove, I’d do the same for them. All I want is for them to believe me and to have my back when it comes to Dove. “Jackson isn’t some wet-behind-the-ears pup,” Wyatt says, surprising me. I didn’t think he was on my side. “If he wants to get himself killed, that’s up to him.”

Oh. Right. Of course he’s not on my side. No one here is.

“I agree,” Apryle says, dragging her eyes away from the body on the ground. Her dark hair is braided over one shoulder, though most of it has come free from the tie. “I’m not throwing myself into danger to save someone who is on a one-man suicide mission.”

“Did I ask you to?” I snap at her.

“No, but they might.”

“You’re not helping.” Halle glances between Apryle and Wyatt. Apryle lifts a brow but says nothing else while Wyatt peers up at the sky, as if waiting for a bolt of lightning to strike him down.

As I let my eyes drift around everyone, I realize how much I don’t fit in here anymore.

Did I ever?

Where do I belong, then?

With Dove.

I can’t deny that it is weird to be so connected to someone I’ve only known for a short time, but I don’t unpack it either. I’m used to relying on instinct, and everything tells me she’s someone I’m meant to have in my life.

Dove turns her head, her milky eyes locking with mine. I feel the wave of power hit me like a wrecking ball before a burning scent fills the air.

An image flashes through my mind, so powerful and potent that it almost drives me to my knees. Bending over, I squeeze my eyes shut as everything rolls around me.

Dove is lying on a narrow bed in a room that is painted white from floor to ceiling. I’m lying with her, my arms wrapped around her as her body presses against my chest. I can feel her breath against my skin as my fingers toy with a strand of blonde hair, not the blue she has now. I hold her so tight, as letting go of her terrifies me, and when she looks up at me, love shines in her eyes.

“Jackson? Jackson, can you hear me?”

The image slides away, like rain slipping down a window pane. The white walls vanish, and my face is barely a foot from the ground.

My fingers scrape through the grass as I manage to pull in a painful breath. My head is throbbing, and I know that was Dove. She went into my mind and showed me that moment.

What the fuck was that?

Halle grabs my face, forcing me to look at her. “You okay? What did she do to you?”

I should give her the truth, tell her what I saw, but everyone here already thinks I’m fucking crazy, so I shake my head, gently pulling back from her grasp so I can stand. “Nothing. She didn’t do anything.”

I brush Cade away as he reaches out for me, but when my eyes lock on Dove’s, I can’t turn away. Was that a memory of hers? Was it one of mine—one I lost? Was it even real?

If that vision, image, whatever it was, was real, I intend to find out what it means and how Dove and I are connected.

Chapter 3

Dove

It feels as if I am stuck in a doorless room. The walls that surround me are tall and impenetrable, trapping me in a never-ending nightmare I can’t escape. I scream for someone to hear me, my wolf howls for it too, but no one does. The fear and the heart-pounding anxiety have become so common to me that I barely pay any attention to either anymore.

Dove—that’s what they call me, but that name is not mine.

I had another life, and this one I’m living now is like being dressed in someone else’s clothes.

In the quiet moments, images flash through my mind, hints of things I seem to have buried deeply. There are faces I don’t remember. Names and places that must have once been important to me but no longer are.

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