“Unfortunately, that’s the current plan.” I rested my hand on his back, half afraid he would shake it off. He didn’t. “I love you, Kyle. I won’t leave you if I have anything to say about it. And I won’t let guilt or grief push you away when I win this fight.”
“I love you too, and I believe you want to mean what you’re saying.” He turned his head to look at me. “I believe that will be the outcome if you can help it. I don’t know if I believe you can help it.”
“Same.” This was not the conversation I’d wanted to have, but I wouldn’t shut him down. Not now. I didn’t want to hear what he was saying, but he needed to say it. The least I could do was listen.
“How long?” he asked.
“How…Until the fight?” He nodded, and I reached down to take his hand. “About another twenty minutes. Maybe a bit less. I want to be the first one out there.”
“Then for the next ten minutes, would you just hold me and let me feel like we’re getting married in a few days, nothing’s going to change that, and everything’s fine?”
“I can hold you.” I lay down across the bed and held out my arms. “I can’t promise anything about how you feel. I don’t have that much power. At least not over you.”
“Close enough.” He lay down and curled against me with his head on my chest.
We lay in silence. Not the comfortable silence I enjoyed with him, but a silence laden with finality. I would come back to this room, or at least so I hoped, but I wouldn’t be exactly the same person I was right now, because I would have killed. That was, of course, assuming I actually did come back to this room.
I had to. Like Kyle said, we were getting married in a few days. Something we’d talked about off and on nearly as long as we’d been together. I was the one who had proposed, on Christmas Day in front of friends and our guards, and I was damned if I was going to let a fucking challenge fight stop the wedding.
I pulled Kyle closer and savored the feeling of the body I’dgotten so accustomed to over the past two years. The mind and soul that were joined to mine in ways no one really understood. We called it “fated mates,” but what even was fate? What cosmic power decided that two people should be permanently joined on a soul level? We were pretty sure, based on the fact that some mates were completely incompatible as people, that the mate bond existed between the wolf souls that dwelled in us, but that wouldn’t explain Tareth, who had no wolf soul, being Justin’s mate. There was no way to really know.
At the moment, it didn’t really matter, either. Kyle was my mate. Our souls were joined. We belonged together, and in three days we would stand in front of friends and a Justice of the Peace and make sure we legally belonged together too.
If I survived that long.
Shutting off my brain wasn’t even close to possible, but I did shut down the mate bond so Kyle wouldn’t overhear what was going through my head. He wanted to rest with me, and I didn’t want to disrupt that if I could help it.
He was the one who broke our embrace, sitting up to look at his watch. “It’s time.”
“Thanks.” I sat up too and kissed him. “I know you want to know what happens, but please don’t watch. Xavier’s going to stay nearby to make sure you’re all right. He said if…If I’m not able to, he’ll make sure you get back to Winthrop.”
“Okay.”
His voice was completely flat, and yet it held all of the emotion. I didn’t know how to respond, so I just kissed him again and left the room.
Downstairs, once again Seth fended off people who tried to talk to me, including the Boston wolves. Word had spread that I faced a challenge, and my friends, naturally, didn’t want to see me die. I didn’t know if they intended to talk me out of the fight or encourage me, and I was glad Seth didn’t let them speak to me. I couldn’t afford the distraction right now.
I did manage to be the first outside, but by mere seconds. Zane, Paul, and Bob were right behind me. Seth got betweenthem and me. “The Anax needs to ready himself for the fight.”
“Seth, it’s okay,” I said. “They can talk to me. I appreciate you not letting me get mobbed inside, but this is just three friends.”
“Yes, Anax.” He didn’t sound pleased, but he did move aside.
I spoke first because I didn’t want the three men to call me Anax. “Old friends. You’re out here to witness the fight. I hope you aren’t going to tell me not to go through with it.”
“Of course not, old friend,” Zane said. “We know you better than that. We don’t know what spurred Edward to issue this challenge when he had previously stated he had no intention of doing so. He is not suited for the rank, nor is he strong enough to defeat you, and he knows it. This may be a diversion.”
“Pretty effective one, if so.” I looked past them toward the house. Others were starting to head our way. “Speak quickly if you have something to say.”
“We believe Davis may have persuaded Edward to challenge you to lead up to another attempt on your life,” Bob said. “I overheard whispers between two of the remaining Pacific alphas. One was… Wally, was it? Who confronted you downstairs?”
“Wally, yes.” If he knew something about Davis’s plan, maybe it made sense that he’d stuck around even though he clearly agreed with Davis’s way of thinking. Davis might have ordered him to stay. “He was talking to another Alpha from the former Pacific Region?”
“Colin Somers of Six Rivers Pack,” Paul said. “Another of the ones who has, for the moment, joined my region.”
“I see.” I folded my arms. “I’m sorry, old friends, I see you have something important to tell me, but unless you want everyone witnessing the fight to know about it, we need to stop talking now.”
Ah, but we don’t,Bob said through our bond.Listen. Wally and Colin were talking about Davis’s plan to remove you so a new Anax has to be chosen. Davis told them to watch the challenge fight and make sure Edward gets you out of the way. Sounded like no one cares if Edward dies too, as long as you aren’t ableto be Anax anymore.
