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“I wish I could tell you differently, but it was a trick—a cruel, evil trick designed to fool your wolves into heat. This is what the Order does. This is how it builds its ranks. I wish I could tell you that what you feel for each other is real, but it isn’t. You were never meant to be together. You were put in each other’s path as part of an experiment created by terrible individuals.”
Dove won’t look at me, but I can’t stop taking in every inch of her as Ayden’s words settle over me. Nothing he’s saying feels right. She is mine, even without the bond, the imprinting, whatever the fuck you call it. I know she’s mine. I’m getting sick of everyone trying to pull us apart when I know the truth.
“How do you know all this?” I demand. I don’t believe what he’s saying.
“Callum has resources. I don’t ask for details and he doesn’t share them.”
“So it could be bullshit.”
“It could be,” he admits, “but I trust Callum. Why would he lie about these things?”
“No offense, but I don’t know Callum so I’m not inclined to believe him.”
Ayden shifts his shoulders. “That’s up to you, but it won’t change the truth. You have been imprinted. That’s why you feel so connected.”
I squeeze Dove’s hand, and she gives me her beautiful gray eyes. There is so much emotion dancing in them. “Nothing has changed for me.”
“Or for me,” she assures me, allowing my heart to pump blood through my body again.
I lift our joined hands to my mouth, needing to touch her, and press my lips against the back of her knuckles. She softens instantly, and despite everything we have just been told, I still feel her desire, her need for me, and that calms me a little.
If she still wants me, there is hope, and I will never stop fighting for us.
Chapter 12
Dove
Jackson is tense as we leave the garage. He takes me back to the cabin before he leaves for more than an hour to talk to the others. I wonder how he’s explaining what we learned from Ayden. It’s a lot to digest, but the more I muse on it, the more I believe his words to be true.
When he finally returns, he looks drained as he heads straight to me. I stand just in time for him to wrap his arms around me, squashing me to his chest.
“Are the others okay?” I ask.
“No. Halle’s devastated about her mom. The others are pissed.”
“What do you make of what Ayden said?” I’m not sure it’s a good idea to press him on this, considering neither of us have really had time to digest it, but I need to know where his mind is and whether Jackson still thinks we have a future.
“I don’t know. Does it make sense to me that the Order is breeding our kind together? Yes. I don’t know what war they're expecting to fight, but it’s clear they are building an army.”
His thumb circles over my nape, the motion soothing. I lean into him, taking all the comfort he has to offer.
“What about the other stuff?”
He stops, and I wince inwardly.
“I don’t know.”
“If what he says is true and we were imprinted on each other, it would explain why we’re so… connected.”
“I don’t care what the reason is.”
I press my face against his chest. I can hear the erratic lub-dub of his heart, mirroring my own frantic beat, and I ask the question that has been running through my mind since Ayden's big reveal.
“If we were imprinted, do you think they forced a heat cycle on me?”
The only way to get with a pup is during heat. If I had a heat cycle and Jackson, as my imprinted… mate… was forced to rut with me, I could have gotten pregnant. There is so much I don’t remember, but I want to think I would have some memory of having a kid.
He pulls back just enough so he can look at me, but I don’t see concern or dismay in his eyes. “Ayden has a lot to gain from feeding us lies, Dove. All this shit about imprinting, about breeding our kind together might be lies. I want to trust him, but until we have concrete proof, let’s not jump to conclusions.”
