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“Humor me then,” I begged, pausing at the landing of the stairs. “If, hypothetically, you could go back with no one needing to die, would you?”
Cheri looked over her shoulder, scanning the bar below for anyone who might be listening. Her emerald-green eyes misted as she looked back at me. “Do I want people to die? No. If it was at all possible, in some fairy tale world, I would go back peacefully. We’re dying out here now. We need the pack.”
I patted her on the shoulder. “I know. Thank you for your honesty.”
I turned toward my room instead of the witch’s room. I wanted to pack some things before I returned to my mate. Once I was back, there was no way I would let myself be apart from her for more than a few hours at a time. For that to be the case, I needed to pack my bags and move into the packhouse.
“When are we going back, Xander?” Cheri asked as she grabbed my shoulder to stop me.
“Soon,” I said, with a glance back at her. “Don’t worry. We will be returning soon. Just be patient with me.”
“Xander,” she called again as I tried to walk on.
“What Cheri? I have things to do.” I was getting impatient. She was only hindering me from getting back to claim my mate openly. She still hadn’t caught my scent yet. She still didn’t know that I was her mate.
I looked to the window, watching the light of the sun rising higher in the sky. She would wake up soon and no doubt the high of the mate bond would have worn off. She was going to be pissed at being marked. The memory of how untouched she had been surfaced in my mind. I knew that she had been saving herself for her mate. For me.
Someone who has been doing that wouldn’t take kindly to just any male marking her as his own. She would be on a rampage to find me for answers – rage that the scent of her mate could only quiet.
“Did you fuck her?” Cheri asked. Her question caught me off guard as I turned back to look at her again.
A mixture of emotions danced over Cheri’s face. Emotions that I didn’t understand. She had always been my friend. Just friends. I had never so much as kissed the girl; yet she looked as though my answer might break her into a million pieces.
“I did what any man who found his mate would do,” I answered. Cheri flinched, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.
“I,” she swallowed a lump in her throat. “I got to go. Mom is gonna need me in the kitchen.”
I watched her rush away. My heart went out to her, but I couldn’t feel guilty. I hadn’t lied to her, although I knew she would think the same as Father did, as my so-called plan made its rounds in the bar. She would believe that I was faking the bond. She might even think there was still a chance for her and me.
I turned back to my room. “Maybe her mate is in the packhouse.”
It wasn’t a farfetched hope. After all, that is exactly where I found my mate – right under my nose. In the last place, I would have thought of looking. I looked back out my bedroom door to the rest of the bar. It was truly heartbreaking to witness the many individuals here who had been forcibly removed from their original pack by their parents when they were still children. Some had been born as rogues right within these very walls.
Maybe a lot of them would find their mates within the packhouse. I just needed to get them all back in.
Chapter Four
Liberty
My alarm went off with a loud buzz, drawing me out of the quick nap I had managed to get. I had nearly forgotten all about my night…about the man who had appeared in my room and the way he had thrown me up against the wall. It had all blurred into a near dream to me. A fantasy made up in my mind.
That was, until I felt the slight tinge of magic on my shoulder.
“Fuck!” I jumped out of my bed, forgetting all about how tired I felt. The lack of sleep was now a distant thought compared to the realization at hand.
I rushed into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror as close as I could. My hand ran over the silvery mark left there. It felt hot to the touch and sent shivers down my spine as my fingers gingerly grazed the space. He marked me. How could I have forgotten? How had I allowed him to do it?
I gripped the counter as I glared at myself in the mirror, wracking my brain for the memories of the night. As hard as I tried to remember, I couldn’t find the moment where I had marked him back. Had I done it? Or had I managed to hold myself back despite the frenzied actions of the night?
“No,” I said. “I wouldn’t have marked him. It would take more than that for me to betray my beliefs.”
I glared again at myself in the mirror. My gaze narrowed at the mark on my shoulder.
“Un-fucking-believable.”
I looked back at the clock in my bedroom next to my bed, growling as I realized I needed to meet my family downstairs for breakfast. The only issue now was hiding the mark and the inevitable scent change it would bring from my family.
Under the sink, I kept a collection of herbs and oils. Mom had taught me everything she knew, including a special potion she had used to hide her scent for years. By making a slight change, I could hide just the mark’s scent.
