Does she see the man that loves her, who is desperate for her? Or does she see the monster?
8
Mara
My mate is insane. That much is a given at this point. I walk past the territory line with Aaron’s footsteps picking up behind me, and I don’t turn around. I don’t know what else either of us can say past this.
My tail drags behind me, limp and heavy. My lion has folded herself in so small I can barely feel her inside me. I’m trying to read her when my head snaps up.
Angie’s wrestling against Jacob’s grip on the other side of the territory line, her fists pounding his back. Of course she’s here.
Jacob lets her go the moment Aaron steps up beside me. I keep my eyes on Angie, refusing to look at him though the mate bond pulls at me. Angie looks at me like she might skin me where I stand. Then she turns and marches straight past me without a word, and she reaches up and smacks Aaron across the back of the head with a crack that makes me flinch.
“Ah—Ma, damn!”
“What was that?” She smacks him again, harder, the sound echoing in the clearing. “Huh? You pissed me offroyally.” She’s jabbing her finger at his chest now, backing him up with eachjab, fury radiating from her in waves I can almost smell. “Have you lost your damn mind, boy? What were you thinking?”
Aaron winces and glances at me. I don’t lift my head. I can feel him trying to reach me with his eyes, and I keep mine fixed on the dirt, afraid of what I’ll do if I look at him. Afraid I’ll forgive him too easily. Or worse, that I won’t forgive him at all.
“I needed her back,” he says quietly, his voice breaking on the last word.
The raw pain in those three words slices through me, and my lion whimpers.
Angie lets out a sound that’s half groan, half growl, and turns her face up to the sky like she’s asking Mother Fate for patience. Jacob steps forward.
“I have a bigger question,” he says. “How did you do that?”
I lift my head. Jacob’s scent has something new underneath it, wariness, sharp and unfamiliar.
Aaron frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“The way you crushed Ahmal’s hand. The way the bones gave.” Jacob pauses, his voice dropping lower. “I’ve only ever seen one supernatural do that. Aya Bailey.”
Angie’s brow furrows, the anger giving way to something else. “Wait a minute. Wait.” She looks at Aaron. “You weren’t even there when that happened.”
Aaron falls quiet, and I watch him. He sighs. Every part of him is pulled thin. It’s in the sag at his shoulders, in the way his eyes aren’t quite tracking.
I look up. The light has gone soft at the edges, the trees going black against the sky, the first lamp on the pride’s path coming on behind us.
“Nightfall is here,” I say. My voice comes out flat. Aaron turns toward me, his eyes finding mine, full of so much regret it steals my breath. He opens his mouth. Then he drops.
My arms come up and catch him under the shoulders just as his knees fold, and his weight hits me full, and I stagger a step back and lock my legs and hold him.
“Mara,” he murmurs against my neck, his lips brushing my skin. His arms come up and wrap around me, slow and clumsy. “I’m sorry. I’m so happy I have you back.”
My lion presses up against my ribs, full-bodied and desperate, and my tail lifts off the grass and wraps once around the back of his calf. I hold him tighter, breathing him in, hating myself for how much I’ve missed his scent.
Jacob closes the space in two long steps. “Here,” he says softly, and his hands come under Aaron’s arms from behind. He lifts Aaron clear in a single movement and has him over his shoulder before I can protest, one big arm bracing the back of Aaron’s knees. Aaron’s head hangs. His hand is limp against Jacob’s back, and the sight of him this small in his stepfather’s grip pulls something loose in me, low and aching.
“Let’s get them both to the community lands,” Angie says. The edge is gone from her voice. She’s already lifting her palm, and blue-gold opens in the air in front of her. On the other side I can see the cabin in the clearing, porch lanterns lit, the door dark.
Angie glares at me, but there’s something softer beneath the anger now. “Well. What are you waiting for? You’re partially mated. Teleportation is?—“
I step through before she finishes. “I know,” I say on the other side.
Angie steps through last. Jacob is already halfway to the cabin with Aaron slung over his shoulder. The portal snaps shut behind her and the clearing goes quiet. She doesn’t move past me, though. She stops right beside me, close enough to feel her body heat, and we both watch Jacob walk across the yard, up the porch steps and through the open door.
“He used a lot of magic tonight,” Angie says without looking at me. “Some of it was very powerful. I don’t even know where he learned some of it, Mara. I don’t even know magic on that level.”
