Jade’s pov:
Beta Marc was naturally intimidating with a no-nonsense attitude which was half-frightening and half-infuriating and possibly moreso because of the deep scowl, which only seemed to disappear whenever he interacted with Paulina and Anna.
I had naturally heard the rumors. He had lost his pregnant mate a few years back, and had vowed to remain celibate since then. Though, to be fair, I believed he had a soft spot for Paulina.
But now, he appeared as the most frightening foe ever.
We were in the Alpha King’s territory, and Alex had had to attack his guards, seeing as they were ready to do the queen’s bidding and throw us all in the dungeons to do heavens only knew what.
I knew the situation was not in our favor, and Alex was ready to take the fall for it, provided I got the chance to leave this damned place. I wanted to do anything to prevent that from happening, but I knew deep down that I was powerless to do anything really.
I hated the feeling with passion, and I could already tell that it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Beta Marc stood, feet shoulders wide, hands behind his back, in a stance that was nothing if not dangerous. He looked at us through narrowed eyes for a moment there, and Alex regarded him with an unwavering gaze.
“The woman whom you were after committed suicide when she was caught,” he declared in a flat tone of voice, to which Alex nodded calmly, a sereine look on his face as if he already knew and accepted what awaited us. “You are free to see for yourself. We indeed found a needle in her possession. And it was coated in wolfsbain.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief, but Alex was still tense. I knew that we weren’t quite off the hook yet.
“Seeing as the guards have yet to wake up, however, you will be held back for questioning,” he went on in the same infuriatingly calm tone of voice.
That was the polite way of saying Alex would be thrown in the dungeons, to be interrogated at a later time.
The story about the guards didn’t add up though. As Alex had not stricken to kill but merely to render them unconscious, surely they would have woken up by now.
“Any last wish?” Beta Marc asked in a tone of finality.
Both his words and his tone made me gasp audibly, in a horrified manner, as they felt foreign to me, even though Alex had done his best to prepare me for this moment.
“I wish for my mate to go back to our land,” Alex said in the calmest tone of voice possible.
“She’s still supposed to train,” Beta Marc objected at once.
“The witch could tag along if she so wishes, but my mate will be going back to our pack,” Alex told him in a firm voice I knew well.
It was his own no-nonsense voice, and I knew that now that it had come to this that no amount of crying or begging to stay with him would help.
Nevertheless, I cried. Softly at first, in a very cutesy and demeure way, but the moment 2 guards came from behind Beta Marc, the tears turned into sobs.
“I will forever love you, however long that may be,” Alex vowed in a soft tone of voice, before adding via mind-link, Forgive me.
I didn’t know what the apology was for, until he used his alpha voice on me for the first time to tell me, “Let go, love, and go home.”
My eyes widened as my wolf submitted to his demand, and I had to let go of his arm against my own will.
“Your mate will be sent back at this very moment,” Beta Marc assured Alex, even as the guards stood on each side of him.
I didn’t allow myself to fall and didn’t follow after them, even though every fiber of my being wished to.
Soon, Cole entered the room, and with a very stoic face, he said, “We will depart the moment you’re all packed, Luna Jade.”
“Call for mom, please,” I let out in a hoarse voice. And unable to keep pretending that a part of me didn’t just leave the door, possibly to never be my side ever again, I flopped down on the bed.
“I am not leaving you out of my sight. I was entrusted with your safe return to our pack land, Luna Jade. I can, however, mindlink her.”
I merely nodded at him.
And although he was gentlemanly enough not to make any allusion as to what had just happened, or even say any kind of soothing words which would only go down the drain, I could feel his stare on me, and also his anxiousness.
He wasn’t the only one anxious to leave and reach our pack though.
Soon, mom came. One look at me, and she asked, “What do you need me to pack for you?”
I touched the pendant of the necklace I was wearing. It was the same necklace I had been wearing when we marked one another after my heat, and it was basically the only valuable thing to me here.
“I don’t need to pack anything,” I let out after a beat. “This is all I need right now.”
“You’ll be okay, sweetheart,” she assured me in a soft voice before hugging me. “I will be with you.”
I sniffled, inahled deeply, and soon was asking, “Is Paulina coming along with us?”
“It’s for the best that she comes at a later date if this nonsensical training must continue,” mom told me in a soothing tone of voice.
“I am afraid she will harm her or her child,” I icied out, thinking of the one who had been at the root of this whole fiasco.
Mom let out a noncommittal sound in the back of her throat, as if she hadn’t thought of that, and then declared, “Give me 5. I will talk to her.”
I shook my head negatively, and said, “No. I will talk to her, mom. If this is meant to be our goodbyes, I want to do it in person.”
“Sure,” mom agreed without delay.
That night, with a heart heavy much heavier than when I first came I left the palace, together with mom, Cole, Paulina and Anna.