Page 60 of Awakening His Mate

He shrugs, a mercurial smile tugging at his lips. “I don’t know if it does, but it is curious.”

“Hester is on our side. I’m more concerned about what the Order is doing. Why do they need soldiers? What are they fighting?”

Ayden’s smile slips from his face. “I don’t know.”

Is he lying?

I study him for any weakness that might give away his position, but there is nothing.

“But your… group… has suspicions?”

“If Callum knows something, he hasn’t shared it with me, but I’m a kid, so…”

“Callum?”

“He leads us. I trust him completely. He’ll be pissed I came on this mission, though, so you guys should probably kill me because he’ll do it anyway.”

His tone is light, filled with fondness for the man. Bad people don’t usually garner respect like that, which eases me somewhat.

I lean back against the wall, trying to collect my thoughts. If I could just remember things… maybe I could help.

The one feeling I can’t shake is that we’re all staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.

“Something is coming, isn’t it?” I ask. “I can feel it in my bones.”

“Yeah. I think so.”

A shiver runs through me, trailing up my spine and making sweat bead on the nape of my neck. The worst thing is not knowing what we’re up against.

“Why did you come here? I mean… what did your people want you to do?”

“Talk, negotiate terms both sides could agree on. I really wasn’t lying when I said I came here to join forces, but then your… whatever he is… killed my friend, and I had no choice but to defend myself.”

“How did you know Jackson and I had been… imprinted?”

Ayden shifts in the chair, and I can’t help but think that his shoulders must be hurting with his arms pulled behind him the way they are.

“The way he is with you and the way you are with him. Imprinting leaves a mark behind that isn’t noticeable unless you know what you’re looking for. Yours is already weakening without the magic that created it, but it’s there. In time it’ll fade completely.”

Does that mean Jackson won’t want me anymore?

“All magic leaves behind a footprint,” he continues, oblivious to my turmoil. “Callum describes it as someone walking across the beach. The tide may come in and cover their footprints, but they’re still there, beneath the surface.”

“Why don’t we remember our past?”

“The Order has some twisted methods of control. If you remember your life before, it makes it harder for them to control you.”

I swallow down bile, my stomach cramping. “So I could have a pup out there.”

“I don’t know. I’m just a kid.” The sarcasm bleeds through his words.

I try to steady my frayed nerves. I’d know if I’d given birth, right? “Do they take the pups from the mothers?”

“Honestly, we don’t know. For years now, Callum and our team have been working to find out more, but the Order keeps it all under wraps.”

All I can think about is all those babies without their parents, all of them being trained to die in a war no one understands.

“How long have your group been fighting against the Order?”

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