Liora suggested something similar.
I shake my head in frustration. She said she couldn’t be my mate.
“But was that to make you leave her?” Madi just keeps poking at my wound. The cage is rattling now. Vibrating from the intensity of holding everything down on lock.
I want to storm out of the office. Leave this fucking conversation. But the insult to Brick and his mate would be too great. I’d never make it out the door.
I can’t speak or sign.
“Maybe she knew she had to stay back to buy you time to get your mom and sister out,” Madi suggests.
I feel like I’m bleeding from every pore.
Brick walks over to me, a look of sympathy in his gaze. I must not be masking my instability as well as I’d hoped. He drops a hand on my shoulder. “Would you do anything to save your mate if she were under threat?”
It’s like my gut has been punched so hard my stomach is stuck under my ribs. I manage a nod.
“Even hurt her to make her leave and get to safety?”
My vision flickers. Suddenly, I hear the chatter of a thousand voices in my head. Whispers twining in and over each other–too many for me to understand any of them.
Goosebumps stand up on my arms and crawl across the back of my neck.
Is this…who Aster called the Grandmothers? Are they speaking to me now?
Excruciating pain lances through my head. This must be how Aster feels. Maybe now that we’re mated, there’s a thread to connect the magic between us.
Like the alpha bond.
The one she’s supposed to complete with Aiden.
“My mate,” I croak, dropping to my knees. I clutch my head, trying to make the blinding pain stop.
I suddenly see Aster, my beautiful starlight. She’s in a filthy prison cell. Aiden is screaming something at her, but she seems unperturbed.
Then, just like the dreams I used to have with her, she looks right at me. Like she sees me, seeing her.
I love you, she signs.
Suddenly the clamoring stops. The pain lifts. My eyes fly open as it all becomes clear.
My mate needs me, and I’ve been acting like a fucking man-child with my head stuck up my ass.
I look up at Brick and do the one thing I’ve resisted my entire life.
“Alpha,” I say. “I need your help.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Noah
“The only way I would declare war on my enemy would be to aid a member of my own pack.”
My heart thuds against my breastbone.
I can’t decide if he’s telling me no and throwing it in my face that I played this all wrong, or if he’s demanding my fealty.
I hope it’s the latter.
