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Change their mind. Like Jake had changed his mind. Because he had, hadn't he? The hurt ground into her very bones. Zorah laid her dried mud-stained palm over her breastbone and sought his presence. The connection bounced and glimmered, overfull with an energy she hadn't felt in weeks and didn't understand. And... she could've sworn itreachedfor her. Golden tendrils snaked between them, knitting together the ragged pieces of their strained connection. Each pulsation like an accessory heartbeat, one that pumped warmth and affection into her body rather than blood.
The feeling, so ripe and tender andnear, caught her breath short. Her fingers fisted the layers of shirts she wore, trying to still the shaking she couldn't control. Shaking originating from deep inside her chest, from the growing strength of the renewed light too immense to contain.
Zorah. Zorah.
It wasn't whispering now. It was bellowing, calling for her, clamoring for her, frantic and loud. What was going on? Why was this happening?
"Zorah! Zorah!" Not a whisper, a shout. A shout laced with worry and impatience. Not like someone wondering where she was, but someone who expected to find her and didn't. "Where is she?" the voice demanded.
Male. Angry. Demanding. Achingly familiar.
The bond surged incandescent, and Zorah scrabbled for the side of the canoe and peered over the edge at the scene on the shoreline. A half dozen horses, some with riders still mounted, formed a half circle at the back of two familiar figures, although she only had eyes for one.
"Jake?" Zorah struggled to her knees, the canoe rocking and fighting her every move. She clutched at the sidewall and screamed back. "Jake!"
His wild gold and silver curls whipped in the wind, and from across the water, Zorah saw the relief in his eyes. His gaze unwavering, he shouldered checked Nelson and strode past her father to approach the water, stripping off his jacket and tossing it to the ground before bending to his boot laces.
He was going to swim out to her? Her heart overflowed, and a wide grin spread across her face.
Like hell she would let him do that.
"No!" she yelled. "I'll come to you!"
Jake's head shot up, already shaking a "no" but she didn't care. Her muddy boots already off, Zorah ripped layers of shirts off her head and dropped her skirt to her feet, ignoring the gasp of horror from the River Bend residents at her exposed legs. Cold air snapped at her skin, and she knew the first splash of water would steal her breath, but she didn't care. The heat in the bond — coursing hot and urgent — would keep her warm, and on the other side of the river, waited her mate. Who'd come for her. Finally.
From the corner of her eye, Zorah spotted her mother charging down the hill from her house, skirts flying and face an angry scowl, yelling something Zorah couldn't make out. With a final smirk, Zorah took the plunge.
CHAPTER 40
Jake
A shocked uproar exploded from the crowd at his back, accented by Zorah's near-hysterical mother screaming, "Zimmer! She can't swim! Dosomething!"
In the long seconds between when Zorah dove in and when her little bump of a head emerged, Jake mused that the woman picked a funny time to suddenly care about her daughter's life. Or maybe she didn't care at all but was keeping up appearances.
"Yeah, she can," he murmured, still tugging off his boots as Zorah hit her stride with long, fluid strokes.
Each smooth slice brought her closer to him, and his entire body went on high alert at the prospect of holding the reckless little fool in his arms again. As it was, she'd be soaking wet and freezing as they rode out of here. She'd need dry clothes and boots and something warm to drink. How long would it take to get a fire going? Had he packed enough extra blankets? He pushed the worries to the back of his mind, things to be dealt with later. Much later, once he looked deep into her eyes and heard it from her lips that she would have him.
Their connection sang in his chest, as bright and clear as a morning bell, pulling him toward her like a compass pointing north. Pant legs hiked up, he waded into the shallow edge of the slow-moving, ice-cold river to wait. More raised voices and outcries joined the gaggle behind him, but he never turned, his entire life focused on the figure drawing ever nearer.
Twenty yards, then ten — his heart did somersaults — then five, and she got to her feet, splashing through the knee-high water. Jake ceased holding himself back. Two steps forward and he scooped her up at the same time as she jumped onto him with a force that nearly knocked him off balance. With one arm braced around her back, the other caught under her bottom, and Zorah's legs squeezing his waist, Jake sighed a prayer of gratitude.
"You're here." Her cold nose tickled his neck as she panted hot gusts of air into his ear. Freezing water sluiced off her clothes and soaked into his, but all he felt was the heat blazing between her body and his own, the bond glowing supernova hot. "You finally came."
All the words he'd wanted to say, the ones he'd spent the last week rehearsing, flew out of his head at that forlorn "finally." It was all he could do to grunt out, "Sorry it took so long."
A shuddering sob rocked down her body, and he squeezed her tighter. "I'm still mad at you," she said, her arms locked so firmly around him that her muscles shook with the strain.
"I know," he said through a half-closed throat. "I fucked up and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he said again. He'd say it a million times, and it would still never be enough. Never enough to make up for what he'd done, what he'd failed to do, all the ways he'd let her down. "I'm so fucking sorry. You..."
Zorah unstuck their bodies and leaned back to look him square in the face. Brows and eyes, and freckles and lips, all her feelings laid bare in her perfect face and glowing in the incandescent bond. His chest ached with the bigness of it all. His feelings so huge, so vivid, so close to the surface, he felt both old and new in the world, and all the best parts of both.
Jake's lip quirked up, the half-smile well-greased and easy now, thanks to her. "You fight so hard. You fight to shape your life the way you want it to be, and... and it shook something loose inme. It's more than the mate thing, more than the bond, it'syou. Like, if you could fight, being young and an Omega and all the things against you, what excuse did I have? You'remagic, Zorah. You healed my broken soul and brought me back to life."
Jake dropped his voice so only she could hear. "And then I doubted you. I doubted your choice in me. But that wasyourchoice to make, I see that now. I was wrong to second-guess and think that I knew better, but I swear to you, it will never happen again.Ever. You deserve to make every decision and every mistake and do whatever or be whoever you want to be, and Iswear, I will do everything in my power to support each and every one of those choices. I promise, I will never get in your way again."
Tears welling on her eyelids, she parted her plump lips. "Jake..."
