When he finally looked up at me again, there was interest in his eyes. “Tell me about the wolves. Tell me... why you trusted one enough to let him bite you.”
So I told him the story of how Jax and I met, when I had no idea wolves or magic were real, and the disaster that followed. The fact that I’d only been bitten when the only choices had been the bite or death.
“Everyone assumed I had lost my magic,” I said with a shrug. “But I’d just gotten it, so even though I hated having it taken from me, I thought I’d be able to live with it. Not that I was thinking a whole lot in the moment, concentrating on not dying. But then I woke up and the magic was still there, and everything changed.”
“And you used your newfound power to stop the creature who killed your parents, and then give power in the familyto someone the elders didn’t approve of... but not yourself.” Sitting back in his chair, staring at me like I was a puzzle rather than a pile of garbage, Kosuke considered me. “Perhaps... you are a namesake I should be proud of after all.”
And me? I had no idea what the hell to say to that. In over twenty years of life, the only people who’d expressed pride in me were my pack. Never family. Certainly never a family member who had started our acquaintance by insulting my pack.
So I just sat there, holding Jax’s hand, waiting for what happened next.
25
Jax
My dreams took on a warmer tint.
For a while, I’d been stuck in the fear that I was seventeen and trapped, and that not only was Jill and our pack stuck there with me, but Dakota too. Reeve and Dakota had never once crossed paths, but the memories in my dreams twisted until it was Dakota who Reeve was gripping by the shoulder, digging in possessively, asserting his dominance the way he had over Jillian.
Logically, I knew that Dakota could take care of himself. Most likely, he could put Reeve down with a thought. It’d be a lot less violent than what I’d done to my former alpha, but no less brutal.
But this was my dream, and because I was failing, Dakota did nothing. Reeve dragged him away, and when I tried to step forward, tried to stop him, hands rose up from the ground to grip me and drag me down.
It was horrible, and it might’ve lasted for minutes or years.
And then, it stopped. The world turned light and golden, and we were inourbedroom inourhouse, and Dakota was wrapped up in my arms. His leg was slung over mine, and he was talking about little things—stuff I couldn’t even hold onto.
The sound of his voice put me at ease. The warmth of his body against mine had me drifting, happy and hazy.
His hand was wrapped around mine, firm and sweet.
For some reason, he was telling me about how we met. He recounted the whole story—how lost he’d been, even before applying to work at Crescent. He’d graduated college, and he’d been living with a roommate—a man he thought was his friend—without realizing how Donnie had manipulated him.
In our pack, he found freedom and acceptance, even before I’d bitten him. As his whole world had tilted on its axis, we’d been there to catch him.
I’dbeen there.
I’d never let myself stop and really consider how much it meant to Dakota, who was used to getting too little support, to find our pack. I knew he’d been largely alone before, but hearing him talk about what it meant to him floored me.
And there I was, unable to reach him, unable to tell him that he was safe with us and always would be, no matter what.
My mate and my pack were in danger, and I couldn’t help them. I was trapped in my unconscious body, and all I wanted in that moment was to squeeze his hand back and promise him that I’d always be there.
26
Dakota
Jillian brought me dinner that night. She glanced around the room, like maybe she thought there was someone else with me.
Of course, because I’d been talking to Kosuke all afternoon. So much that my voice had gone hoarse.
“Everything okay?” she asked me, as she set a tray with food on a side table, then looked Jax over, checking his pulse and breathing.
Because of course, as worried as I was, he was still her brother. Her twin. They had always had each other, and I couldn’t imagine she’d be any happier without him than I would.
“While we were in Japan, there was a little accident,” I explained, sighing. “I guess I came home with a... metaphysical barnacle? The ghost of an ancestor attached to me. So I was just telling him about how I met the pack and became a part of it. And why... why the pack matters more to me than mages do. Not that I don’t like my blood family, just?—”
“We’re your family too, and we were the first ones to take care of you,” she finished for me, nodding. “It makes a difference. And you were a little like we were in Idaho, back when you came to us. We had each other when we were kids, butwe didn’t have parents and guardians who protected us how they should have, and neither did you. So we understood better than other people might have, how important it is to belong.”
