And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
14
JAXON
The pilot announced descent into the city and I didn't give a single fuck that my coach was probably burning an effigy of me somewhere in Calgary.
I'd left the team mid-road trip. Walked out of the hotel, caught a cab to the airport, and bought the first ticket home. My phone had been blowing up for hours. Texts from Coach, from the team manager, from half my teammates asking what the hell I was doing.
I'd silenced it all.
Reina needed me. That was the only thing that mattered.
I could feel her through the bond even from thirty thousand feet. Exhausted. Relieved. Certain. She'd made her choice and she wasn't wavering. My Omega had chosen us over everything.
The least I could do was choose her over a hockey game.
I could feel Luca too, somewhere over the Rockies on a different plane from Vancouver. His guilt was eating at him, sharp and acidic through the bond. Vale always carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Always blamed himself for everything.
I wanted to tell him to stop. That this wasn't his fault. But we were still hundreds of miles apart.
Soon though.
Soon we'd be at the lake house. All three of us. Together.
The plane touched down and I was out of my seat before the seatbelt sign turned off. Grabbed my carry-on from the overhead, ignored the flight attendant's reminder to remain seated, and was first off the plane.
My motorcycle was in long-term parking where I'd left it three days ago. I threw my bag in the saddlebag, pulled on my helmet, and kicked the engine to life.
The highway out of the city was mostly empty this time of night. I opened up the throttle, felt the bike roar beneath me. Every mile brought me closer to her. The bond hummed in my chest, pulling me home like a magnet.
She'd gone straight to the cabin after the meeting. I could feel it. Our safe place. Where we'd built the nest together, where we'd bonded, where everything had changed.
I took the turnoff toward the lake, wound through dark trees on the familiar road. Saw the cabin lights glowing through the trees and something in my chest loosened.
Home.
I pulled into the gravel drive, killed the engine. The sun had set over the lake, leaving everything in deep blue twilight. Smoke curled from the chimney. She'd started a fire.
I used my key, pushed open the door.
Found her curled in the nest on the couch, laptop open, face illuminated by the screen. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a messy knot. She wore one of my hoodies, drowning in it.
She looked up and her blue eyes were red from crying.
"Jax."
Just my name. One word. But it broke something in me.
I crossed the cabin in three strides, pulled her up off the couch and into my arms. She wrapped around me immediately, legs around my waist, face buried in my neck.
"You came back," she whispered against my skin. "You left your game."
"Fuck the game." I tightened my arms around her. "You're more important than any game."
I kissed her then. Hard and desperate and claiming. Needed to taste her, feel her, know she was real and safe and mine.
The bond sang between us, warm and right.
