I remember, with startling clarity, how I stood right here, exactly a year ago, rooted to the marble floor, seeing for the first time the type of alpha my father truly is. He fired anagoniahex at me to test my new honor guard’s reflexes, but he never could have known how fast Marcus would leap into action. He had intended for that hex to land.
When I finally lay eyes on Marcus for the first time in months, it’s like sunshine in my soul. We don’t dare speak as he loads my things into the trunk of one of my father’s town cars, conscious of Willow’s scrutiny, but rightness settles in my chest, right beside my heart, warming me from the inside out.
Willow comes out to the driveway to bid me farewell, and it’s as though our moment by the shore, dipping fries in milkshakes, never happened. As though she didn’t catch Rad trying to choke the life from me, only for my father to suggest I invited his brutality. She doesn’t look at Marcus at all, only studies me for a moment. There’s no way she doesn’t see the bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, the bruises on my neck. There’s no way she hasn’t heard my screams in the nights since Rad choked me. She gives a superior sniff. “Behave yourself.”
Not take care of yourself, but behave yourself. Once again, I’m being told to obey and be a good little omega. I nod my understanding with a curt jerk of my head.
Marcus opens the back door to the town car for me, then closes it once I’ve slipped inside. I don’t miss the way his gray-green eyes slip down the column of my throat, the way they tighten when he sees the bruises there.
My honor guard doesn’t speak until we’ve put a few miles between us and the manor, and when he finally does, his deep, rumbly voice is enough to make tears spring to my eyes.
“You’re safe now, sweet-tart. I promise.” He reaches a hand back between the seats and I slip my hand into his. He meets my eyes in the rearview mirror and gives my hand a warm, solid squeeze.
I force a small smile and nod. I am safe. For now.
* * *
When we pullinto the familiar gas station we’ve stopped at both times we’ve driven north, I clamber over the center console into the front seat and wrap my arms around Marcus. He pulls a lever and shoves the seat back as far as it will go before bundling me onto his lap, into the perfect safety of his arms.
“We’ll fix this, Juniper. I promise.” His voice is tight, practically shaking with fury. “He’ll never lay a hand on you again. I swear it. You won’t mate that son of a bitch.”
“Simon told you?”
“We have a group chat,” he rumbles, and it’s the first thing to make me truly smile in a long time. “Simon passed along everything you were able to tell him. I’m glad you didn’t take any risks trying to text more often. You were smart. And strong. Break now, if you need to. I’ve got you.”
His permission is all it takes for the dam inside me to break. He holds me as I soak his Henley with my tears, strokes my back as I weep. I try to speak, to tell him about my awful summer, but I can’t get the words out around my sobs. But the words don’t matter. I could tell Marcus every horrible thing Rad said to me, and it wouldn’t make me feel better. It wouldn’t change the way he cradles me so sweetly in his arms. Wouldn’t change the way I love?—
Saints… do Ilovemy honor guard? The one alpha immune to my scent? The one man who will never be able to return my affections?
The thought startles me from my sorry, and I let out a final shuddering sob, then ease back to look up into Marcus’ gray-green eyes. Even through the watery blur of my tears, he’s impossibly handsome, and impossibly dear to me in ways he shouldn’t be. Loving Marcus Haley will only ever lead to heartbreak, but after the summer I’ve had, the warm flush of love in my heart is like a sunrise after an agonizingly dark and treacherous night.
“I deserve all the snacks,” I inform him with a sniffle, trying to lighten the mood.
He reaches for his bag in the footwell and then upends it on the passenger seat.
Half a dozen colorful bags of KitKats, covered in a mix of English and Japanese, tumble from his messenger bag, a bag of strawberry-flavored candies landing on top. “I know Simon will have a whole stash waiting for you, but I thought these might cheer you up now.”
“Oh, saints, you found the Ramune flavor? Simon is going to be over themoonabout these. He hasn’t been able to find them in stock online anywhere.”
Marcus shrugs, trying to act nonchalant, though I see the twinkle of a smile in his eyes. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in months. “The strawberry ones were the hardest to find. I went to every Asian grocery store I could find and I’m pretty sure I got the last bag in the Pacific Northwest.”
I hug him tightly. “Thank you, Marcus. Let me buy you a boring black coffee for your troubles?” I tease.
He smirks and shoves the candies back in the bag before shifting me off his lap and into the passenger seat. He exits the car and rushes around to open my door for me. I can’t help but smile as we make our way back into the now-familiar gas station. He surveys it quickly and then nods, satisfied, before I lead him around the aisles of snacks, filling his arms as I go.
We check out, and he fuels up before we finally start back toward Fairhaven.
I feel lighter than I have in months.
My spark of hope is back, warming my heart alongside my stirrings of love for Marcus Haley.
* * *
Marcus’phone rings when we’re a few hours out from the gas station, and he answers it with a rumbled, “He fuckingchokedher.” He’s quiet for a moment, and I watch his eyes narrow in the rearview mirror. “You deserved the warning,” he says into the receiver. “But she needs you now.”
He passes the phone to me and when I catch the cacophony of alpha and beta voices on the other end of the call, I break again.
They chant my name like a prayer, their pet names for me like an oath.
