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"I love you, Zorah. I've never wanted or needed anything in my life the way I need you." Clutching her shirt, he tipped his forehead to rest on hers, getting a lungful of her sunny, beautiful scent. "Whatever you want, we'll do. You want to see the ocean? We'll go. You want a house with windows? You'll get one. Whatever you want,whateveryou want, there won't be a single day of my life when I won't wake up thinking about what I need to do that day, that morning, the very instant I open my eyes, to make your life what you want, what you deserve." The words, now unstoppered, poured out of him. "Do you believe me? Will you let me try, sweetheart? I know I don't deserve it, but please,please, at least let me try. Please."
Jake had long ago forfeited the bulk of his pride, but in this, he had less than none. He would beg, he would plead, he would prostrate himself at her feet in front of the entire Pack and be glad to do it. But Jake knew his girl. Zorah would never demand such a thing, it wasn't in her nature, but he wanted her to know, to reallyknow, that she could have it if she wanted. She could have that, and so much more.
Zorah's cheeks rounded, and she gargled out a soggy laugh. She cupped his cheeks with her palms, holding him fast so he couldn't look away. As if he ever could. "I just want you. I want us to be together, and I want to go home. That's all I want. Just take me home, okay?"
Relief flooded through him, and Jake leaned in, ready to take her lips when the commotion behind them reached a fever pitch. A screeching voice shattered their reunion reverie.
"Put her down this instant!" Zorah's mother barreled across the beach with her angry-looking father in tow. "You let that girl go, you miserable dog!"
Colt and Simon stepped to intercept them while Matteo, Alek, Dev, and Duncan slid off their horses, readying themselves for a confrontation. Jake carried Zorah back onto land, and she slid down his body to regain her footing. Matteo handed Jake a thick blanket that he wrapped around the soaking wet and shivering Omega, rubbing briskly at her arms until she gave him a sweet, lopsided smile.
Satisfied he'd prevented impending hypothermia, Jake tucked Zorah behind himself, not minding at all when she plastered her front to his back. He hadn't been paying much attention, but the shouting and accusations had grown. Jake's Pack brothers had gotten involved in some posturing and threats with a contingent of Alphas storming into the crowd. The noise swarmed his head, but he only had eyes for her parents.
"This is unacceptable!" Zorah's father's face turned white, then pink, then red. "I told Hunter that stealing an Omega —"
"Not stealing her." Jake raised his voice above the clamor. "Seems pretty clear she's happy to go."
"But... she..." The man sputtered, too outraged to even form an argument.
"She's achild," Zorah's mother hissed.
Jake's ire cranked up a notch, and he stared the woman down. "You treat her like a child; that doesn't make her one."
Scoffing at his answer, the woman craned her neck to find Zorah with flames in her eyes. "What were you doing in that boat, hmm? Running away?" Zorah tensed beside him, and Jake found her fingers with his own, linking them in a supportive clasp. He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, ready to pounce, ready to react, yet he kept silent. He would defend her from anything, but this was Zorah's moment. "Sneaking away in the middle of the night? Is that the decision of a grown woman?"
Slipping around his back, Zorah faced off with her mother, her voice as flinty as cool fire. "I told you I didn't want Nelson, I'veneverwanted him, but you don't listen. What was I supposed to do?"
Her mother gave a nasty cackle. "Is that what this is about? You've attached yourself to a no one, a low-ranking Alpha of a nothing Pack who has less than nothing... simply because he's not Nelson?"
As if on cue, a massive, pissed-off-looking Alpha, who was surely the Alpha of Alphas of this Pack, shouldered his way through the crowd. The large man, with a hard face and a serious bearing, possessed a wary intelligence in his dark eyes that was entirely absent in Nelson's entitled, tantruming face.
"That's my Omega." Nelson pointed a nasty finger at Zorah, and her flinch made Jake want to rip the man's finger clean off, along with a few other digits.
He didn't want this to degenerate into violence, but if it came to it, he wouldn't refrain from defending his Omega or his Pack.
"Let's keep things civil." Palms up, Colt addressed the older Alpha. "Harold, there's no need for this to get ugly."
"I amnotyours," Zorah practically spit at Nelson. "I would ratherdiethan be mated to you." She straightened to her full height, shoulders back, and jaw tight as she turned back to her seething parents. "The decision has been made. By me."
Nelson continued to protest, gesticulating ill-formed demands to his father and Zorah's parents and the crowd in general, who all, to Jake's wry amusement, ignored him.
Whirling to face Jake, Zorah flew into action, unbuttoning and yanking at his shirt. She didn't even look at him, her expression stony and focused. He would fight for her — Nelson, her father, Harold, whoever — and if it came to it, the Pack would do the same, but he understood that she needed to take this stand on her own.
With a triumphant final shove of his bunched-up shirts, she stood aside, baring the brazen mark of the mating bite for all to see. A stifled gasp rose from the crowd, and Zorah's father let out a rude curse.
Glaring at her mother, Zorah raised her voice above the clamor. "All I ever wanted was achance.A chance to be my own person and make my own mistakes. But you robbed me of that. You knew that you had to make me feel small and uncertain so you could shove me into Nelson's bed simply because you want to be in Harold's."
Sheer outrage pinched the woman's face inward. Her mouth grew so small and tight it nearly disappeared in the white tautness of her skin. Her eyes shot daggers at her daughter as the entire village quieted, likely considering this tidbit of information, many of them shifting suspicious glances between her and the Alpha of Alphas. Zorah's father rotated an incredulous face toward his mate, but she didn't even look at him; Harold, for his part, stared straight ahead, his body stiff and unmoving except for the restraining grip locked on Nelson's shoulder.
Undaunted, Zorah continued, her tone softening by a small degree. "Maybe you did it on purpose, or maybe you convinced yourself you were protecting me, I don't know, but it was wrong." She laid her palm flat against the mating bite, and the bond throbbed in recognition and greeting. "Jaketrusted me. He listened to me. He believed in me. And helovesme, without any expectations or conditions, and with everything he has, and that isnotnothing."
Pride, simple and undiluted pride, swelled his chest. This beautiful woman, smart, sweet, reckless, and bold, he loved everything about her, and never more than in this moment.
Thin lips peeled back from her mother's gums. "You will live to regret this decision, girl."
Zorah didn't flinch. "Maybe I will. But it's my decision to regret. Not yours, not yours, and not yours." She punched an index finger through the air like a needle into a balloon, pointing at her parents, Nelson, and even Harold in quick succession.
A collective breath-holding fell over the crowd at this obvious disrespect to the Alpha.
