Page 61 of Awakening His Mate

“Since before I was born. I came here with the others to ask you guys to join us, but I’m seriously reassessing that now.”

Jackson and I hadn’t stopped to talk about the two tau we put down. My stomach twists, knowing I may have hurt innocents. “I’m sorry about your friends. If we’d known?—”

“They knew the risks coming on this mission,” he interrupts. “Your coven is one of the strongest we’ve seen. We need you. The only way for all of us to survive this is to work together. I know what you’ve been told about the males in our line. We’re crazed psychotic men with no control over our power, but do I seem that way to you?”

I shake my head. “You don’t. You seem wise and capable.”

“I had to grow up fast. I’ve lost so many friends. I’ve seen people I cared about captured, never to be seen again. I’ve fought to keep myself and those I care about free. The Order wants us fighting each other. It stops us from looking too closely at what they’re doing.” He blows out a breath. “Your friends don’t trust me. I get it. I wouldn’t either. But we’re desperate for boots on the ground. We’re losing here. Our numbers are dwindling every day. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in some Order facility while they use me and mess with my brain.”

I hug my waist, trying not to think too hard about the people I left behind. Clover… The girl who named me. She’d been a friend when I woke up in the white room with no recollection of anything before it.

I remember she did a spell to change my hair.

Now you’re no longer a number. You’re Dove, the girl with the blue hair.

Her voice echoes through my mind. How did I forget that? My fingers press against the branded number on my nape. I owe it to Clover, to the others I left behind, to help them.

I owe it to future generations of tau. I owe it to any pup I may have had while I was captured. If there is even a small chance I have a child still in the clutches of those assholes, I need to find them.

I raise my eyes to Ayden’s. Trust isn’t something that comes easily to me, but everything he said rings true. I desperately want to believe we’re on the same side in this fight.

“So what do we do?” I ask finally.

“We find the Orders’ headquarters, and we burn it to the fucking ground. We save everyone they took, and we fight.”

I have to do this, but I’m not sure Jackson is going to feel the same. I don’t want to do this without him, though.

I’ll figure that out.

“I’ll help,” I say quietly, “but if this is a trap or an Order plot, I will unleash every ounce of my power on you and those who stand against me.”

He smirks. “I would expect nothing else. Untie me.”

I step toward Ayden and round the back of the chair. My fingers pause on the ropes, knowing that if I do this, I’ll be crossing a line that I can’t come back from.

We tried hiding, and it didn't work. I don’t want to wait around with a target on my back for the Order to come for us.

Resolved, I grab the first knot, tugging it free.

“I have to talk to Jackson. I’ll let you go, and then we’ll follow once I’ve explained it all to him.”

“You will come, right?”

I nod. “Yeah. I promise.” I want Jackson with me, but I’ll go either way. There is too much at stake.

As the last knot slips free, I help Ayden stand. He wobbles, his legs uncertain after such a long time sitting, and I reach out to steady him.

“Okay?”

“Everything aches,” he complains.

“Come on. We don’t have much time.”

“What the hell are you doing?” The voice has me twisting around toward the door, my heart slamming against my ribs.

I cling to Ayden’s arm, not sure whether I’m supporting him or the other way around, as Cade looks at me with anger in his eyes.

Well… shit.

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