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“Your mother and I, we…” He paused, his mouth twisting from side to side. “We met under the most unlikely of circumstances. Despite our differences, something drew us together.” Jaxon sighed. “I’ll tell you everything. Just give me a moment.”
I didn’t know if I was ready to hear the story, but there was no turning back now. Ridge must have sensed my unease because he gently took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine in a silent gesture of support.
“Years ago,” Jaxon said, his eyes going distant as he relived the memories, “I was trying to keep my pack hidden from hunters. They were relentless, and it was only a matter of time before they found us.”
I saw those times in the lines of his face, in the haunted expression that clouded his eyes. It struck me how much pain and loss my biological father had endured, and just how little I actually knew about him.
“One day, the hunters caught me on my own pack lands,” he said. “They tortured me, trying to get information about my pack and the whereabouts of any others. I refused to give them anything, even after weeks of unspeakable pain.”
Ridge’s grip on my hand tightened, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of my hand. His presence anchored me to the present.
“Eventually, they gave up on getting answers from me and transferred me to another compound where they experimentedon other supernaturals,” Jaxon said, his voice growing heavy with sorrow. “That’s where I saw Heather for the first time.”
“Mom,” Kyle breathed, his eyes wide with shock.
“By then, I’d lost all hope.” Jaxon’s gaze flicked between Kyle and me. “I was just waiting for the hunters to kill me. When Heather arrived at the compound, she was like a ray of light in the darkness.”
“Is that when you started talking to her?” Ridge asked, his voice gentle and understanding.
Jaxon nodded. “We struck up conversations whenever she was there. At first, it was just a way to pass the time, but soon we found ourselves sharing more and more. She told me about her loveless relationship, though she never revealed who she was married to.”
“William Summers,” Kyle said bitterly, the name making bile rise in my throat.
“Against all reason, we had a secret affair,” Jaxon confided. “Our happiness was short-lived. Heather knew we couldn’t go on like that forever. She urged me to escape and never look back.”
“Did she ever consider going with you?” The words tumbled out before I could stop them.
“I wanted her to come with me, more than anything. I begged and pleaded,” Jaxon confessed. “She refused, and that was when she admitted to me she had a young son at home who needed her, that she couldn’t leave him behind. I told her it didn’t matter, I would raise him as my own. But she said it was complicated and wouldn’t go for it.”
“Kyle.” I looked at my brother. Our mother’s sacrifice was a testament to the fierce love that had driven her to protect him at all costs.
“Did she know what they were doing to you, that they were torturing you?” My heart ached at the thought of my mother being involved in such cruelty.
Jaxon shook his head. “No, not at first. It didn’t take long for her to realize the hunters were being particularly vicious, though. Her eyes…there was such horror in them when she saw what they were doing to us. It was clear she had no idea what her people were capable of. It changed something in her, made her question everything she’d been taught about shifters.”
Mom’s empathy, so different from that of the other hunters, tugged at my heart. I imagined her sneaking extra food and water to Jaxon and the others, her compassionate nature shining through even in the darkest of places.
“Every night she was there, we would talk,” Jaxon recounted. “We would speak for hours about anything and everything, trying to forget the world outside those walls. Eventually, we couldn’t deny what was happening between us.” Jaxon’s eyes filled with pain. “We’d fallen in love, despite everything that should have kept us apart.”
My chest tightened at the heartache in Jaxon’s voice, at the impossibility of their situation. Lovers from two opposing worlds, bound together by a love that defied all odds.
Ridge squeezed my hand, reminding me he was there to support me. Despite my fears, I needed to hear this story. Needed to understand the love between my mother and Jaxon.
“Did she ever say anything about her life outside the compound?” I asked.
Jaxon shook his head. “She mentioned being in a loveless relationship, but she never went into detail. At the time, I didn’t know she was married, let alone to William Summers.”
My stomach twisted at the mention of the name of the man who’d raised me and been responsible for so much pain and suffering. How could my mother ever have loved him?
“Whenever Heather was away from the compound, it was like I was incomplete and a part of me was missing.” Jaxon’s eyes glazed over. “That’s when I knew I was falling in love withher. Falling in love with a woman I shouldn’t have even dared to dream of loving.”
“Jaxon.” I hesitated, unsure if I wanted to ask the question burning inside me. “Do you…do you still love her?”
“Once you love someone like that, it never goes away,” Jaxon said. “But love isn’t always enough. We were from two different worlds, bound together by a love that defied all odds. In the end, it wasn’t enough to save us.”
We stood in silence for a moment, then he cleared his throat. “Late one night,” Jaxon said, his voice low and heavy, “Heather came into my cell in tears. I had never seen her like that before. So vulnerable, so lost.”
I watched him intently, saw the pain behind his words as he recounted the memory.
