Chapter 8 The First Alliance (Jax POV)
The sun's just starting to crest over the mountains when I smell her. My wolf perks up immediately, hackles rising not in threat but in... recognition. No. Not possible. I'm doing my usual dawn patrol around campus perimeter when I see her stumble out of the East Wing's side entrance. Zara Okonkwo, the journalism student who's been snooping around asking questions about the Nightbloods for weeks. She's wearing the same clothes from yesterday, her hair's a mess, and she's walking like someone who's just been hit by a truck. Or someone who's triggered a magical ward. "Shit," I mutter, changing course to intercept her. She doesn't notice me until I'm right beside her. When she finally looks up, her eyes are unfocused, dilated. Shock, probably mixed with magical exhaustion. "Jax?" Her voice is hoarse. "What are you doing here?" "Could ask you the same thing. East Wing's off-limits to regular students." "I'm not..." She sways, and I catch her elbow before she can fall. The moment my skin touches hers, everything changes. The mate bond slams into place. It's not subtle. Not gradual. One second I'm a guy helping a classmate, the next my entire world narrows to this one person. Her heartbeat synchronizes with mine. Her scent fills my lungs and makes my wolf howl with possessive joy. Every instinct I have screams mine, protect, claim, keep safe. I jerk my hand back like she's burned me. "You okay?" she asks, oblivious to the nuclear bomb that just detonated in my chest. "Fine." My voice comes out rough. "You're not. Let me walk you back to your dorm." "I can walk myself." "Yeah, you're doing great." I gesture at how she's currently using a tree for balance. "Come on. I don't bite. Usually." She laughs, slightly manic. "That's not as reassuring as you think it is." We walk in silence across the quad. Dawn's turning the sky pink and gold, and the campus is still mostly deserted. Every step, I'm hyperaware of her—the way she's favoring her left leg, the tremor in her hands, the fact that her magical signature is pulsing erratically like a strobe light. My wolf wants to touch her again. Wants to wrap around her, keep her warm, make sure nothing ever hurts her. The intensity of it is terrifying. "Can I ask you something?" Zara says as we reach the girls' dormitory. "Shoot." "When you found me in the forest the other night. You said you could smell hunter on someone." She meets my eyes, and I see genuine curiosity mixed with fear. "Can you smell magic too?" Smart girl. Perceptive. "Yeah. I can." I lean against the building, trying to look casual while my entire nervous system is on fire. "You triggered the East Wing ward, didn't you?" "How did you..." "Because vampires don't usually let humans walk away from their sanctum." I tilt my head, studying her. "So either they're planning to kill you later, or something happened that changed the equation." She's quiet for a long moment, clearly debating how much to tell me. "They tried to compel me to forget," she says finally. "It didn't work. Turns out I have witch blood. Dormant. Or it was dormant until I triggered their ward and cracked the binding someone put on my magic when I was a kid." The information slots into place, explaining the erratic magical signature. "Who bound you?" "No idea. My parents never mentioned anything about magic or witches or..." She gestures helplessly. "Any of this." "They were probably trying to protect you. Witch hunters still exist. Binding a child's magic keeps them off the radar." "Great. So I've gone from boring human to supernatural target in one night." She slides down to sit against the wall, pulling her knees to her chest. "This is insane." I should leave. Should walk away before the mate bond gets stronger, before my wolf decides to do something stupid like claim her in front of witnesses. But instead, I sit down beside her. "Welcome to Silvercrest's real curriculum," I say. "Population: creatures that aren't supposed to exist." "You're taking this really well. Me being a witch, I mean." "I'm a werewolf who attends school with vampires. The bar for weird is pretty high." I pause. "But yeah, I'm taking it well because you seem like you're not going to lose it and expose everyone." "The vampires made me promise not to. Very threateningly." "Sounds about right." We sit there as the sun climbs higher, and I try not to think about how right this feels. How my wolf has gone from agitated to contentedly protective just from being near her. This is bad. This is so monumentally bad. "I should go," I say, standing abruptly. "Get some sleep. Try not to accidentally set anything on fire." "Is that a real risk?" "With awakening magic? Absolutely." I'm halfway across the quad when I hear footsteps behind me. Tyler, my beta, my best friend since we were fourteen—falls into step beside me. "You smell like her," he says without preamble. "I helped her back to her dorm. She was stumbling around..." "I don't mean physically. I mean you're saturated with her scent. Like you've been rolling around in it." He grabs my arm, forcing me to stop. "Jax. Tell me you didn't." "Didn't what?" "Don't play dumb. Your eyes are doing that thing." He leans in, inhaling. "Holy shit. She's your mate." I yank my arm free. "Keep your voice down." "How long?" "Since about twenty minutes ago." "And you let her walk away?" Tyler looks at me like I've grown a second head. "The bond must be killing you." It is. Every step I take away from her feels wrong, like walking against a riptide. My wolf's pacing, snarling, demanding I go back and never leave her side again. "She's human," I say, even though we both know that's not entirely true anymore. "And she just found out magic is real. The last thing she needs is a werewolf telling her they're cosmically bonded." "That's... actually mature of you." Tyler studies my face. "But the pack's not going to like this." "The pack doesn't get a vote." "Yeah, they do. You're alpha, Jax. Your choices affect all of us." He runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. "The vampires already don't trust us. We've got a fragile truce that could shatter any second. And now you're bonding with a human who just broke into their territory and triggered their wards?" "She's not just a human. She's a witch." "An untrained witch with no control over her power. That's worse." Tyler's voice drops. "I'm not trying to be an asshole here. I'm trying to keep you alive. If the vampires think she's a threat, and you're bonded to her, they'll see you as compromised." He's right. I know he's right. "I can handle it," I say. "Can you?" "Yes, I can." "You really can not." He claps me on the shoulder. "Look, I get it. Mate bonds aren't a choice. But you need to be smart about this. The pack comes first. Always." He walks away, leaving me standing alone in the quad as students start emerging for breakfast. Pack first. That's been the rule since my dad died and I became alpha at seventeen. Pack survival, pack loyalty, pack before everything else. But my wolf doesn't care about rules. My wolf knows one thing: Zara is ours, and we protect what's ours. I try to stay away. I really do. I go to class, attend pack meetings, do my homework like a normal student. But my wolf is going increasingly feral, and by nightfall, I can't take it anymore. I need to see her. Need to know she's okay. Her scent leads me to Moonstone Forest—the same place I found her before, the same place I found Mira. There's something about this forest that draws people who need space to think, to process, to hide from the world. I find Zara sitting on a fallen log, staring at her hands like they're foreign objects. "You're following me," she says without looking up. "You're predictable." "I needed to get away from campus. From people. From..." She gestures vaguely. "Everything." I sit down beside her, keeping a careful foot of distance between us. The mate bond hums with approval just from proximity. "How are you holding up?" I ask. "I accidentally made my hairbrush float this morning. Then I shattered Mira's water glass just by looking at it. She thinks I knocked it over, but I know what happened." Zara finally looks at me, and there's fear in her eyes. "I can't control it. Every time I feel something strongly, weird things happen." "That's normal for awakening magic." "Normal. Right. Because I have magic now. That's a thing that's real." She laughs, and it's edged with hysteria. "My entire life has been a lie. My parents bound my magic and never told me. The school I thought was exclusive and prestigious is actually a sanctuary for vampires and werewolves and witches. The cute journalism project I was working on could have gotten me killed." "But it didn't." "Only because I apparently have a magical shield I didn't know about!" Her voice rises, and the wind picks up—unnaturally sharp, whipping through the trees even though the rest of the forest is calm. "Zara." I keep my voice level, soothing. "You need to breathe." "I am breathing." "No, you're hyperventilating. And your magic's responding to your panic." I point at the leaves swirling around us in a tight vortex. "See?" She looks around, eyes widening as she realizes what's happening. "Oh god. How do I stop it?" "Calm down. Magic follows emotion. If you're calm, it calms." "That's your advice? Just calm down?" But she's trying, taking slow breaths, and gradually the wind settles. When the vortex dies, she slumps forward, exhausted. "This is impossible." "It's not. It's just new." I shift closer—not touching, but near enough that she can feel my presence. "You want to know what I think?" "What?" "I think you're pissed." She blinks. "What?" "You're not scared. Not really. You're angry. Angry that you were lied to, that choices were made for you, that you've been walking around blind to half the world your whole life." I meet her eyes. "Am I wrong?" For a long moment, she just stares at me. Then her expression cracks, and I see the fury underneath. "I'm furious," she admits. "My parents bound my magic without asking. The school's been keeping secrets. Everyone around me knew the truth except me. I've been treated like a child, like someone who can't handle reality, and I hate it." "Good. Use that." "Use anger? That sounds like terrible advice." "Not the anger itself. The clarity it gives you." I stand, offering her my hand. "Magic isn't just emotion. It's will. Intent. Right now, your magic's wild because you don't have direction. But if you can channel that fury into purpose, into control, you can shape it." She takes my hand, and the mate bond sings at the contact. If she notices my slight shudder, she doesn't comment. "How do you know all this?" she asks. "I'm a werewolf. We're taught control from the moment we first shift. Magic, shifting—it's all about mastering yourself." I release her hand reluctantly. "And I had a little brother who died because he couldn't control his wolf when it mattered." Her expression softens. "Jax, I'm sorry." "Don't be. Just learn from it." I take a step back, putting distance between us before I do something stupid. "Your magic is dangerous right now. Uncontrolled power attracts predators. Things that feed on raw magic, that hunt young witches." "The vampires said the same thing." "Because it's true. But here's the thing—I can help you." "Why would you do that?" Because you're my mate, and I'd set the whole world on fire to keep you safe. Because my wolf would rather die than watch you get hurt. Because every instinct I have says you're mine to protect. But I can't say any of that. "Because I know what it's like to suddenly have power you can't control," I say instead. "And because you seem like you're trying to do the right thing. That's rare enough to be worth protecting."