Chapter 37

“Well, that’s interesting,” Kira whispers. She occupies herself by playing with Jayden’s hair. The waves have turned to curls from the time spent confined in his bed, and she strokes through each of them, rolling the strands around her fingers. 

Her heart thuds as she wonders what the old Kira would have done at that moment; run a mile, probably. 

She thinks about the new Kira that she likes so much; this Kira is confident and brave and flirtatious. 

“You know, I’ve been thinking about the city recently.”

“You have?”

“After what happened to you, I thought that everything here was so crazy that maybe I’d be better off back in my boring city life after all. No crazy wolves ripping chunks out of my boyfriend, for one thing.”

Jayden’s brow creases.

“But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I had so many more reasons to stay than to leave.”

Jayden exhales shakily.

“Reasons to stay?”

“The reason to stay.”

“Tell me.”

“You say it first,” she whispers.

Jayden pulls her over his lap to straddle him, fingers firm on her waist.

“You’re the only person in this town who’s allowed to give orders to the Alpha, you know that, right?”

“I like that.”

“I like that too. I like how you’re not afraid to tell me what to do. I love how you boss me around sometimes. I love how you know your own mind, but you also open yourself up to learn from everyone around you. You’re not at all like I imagined city-people to be. I love those quiet moments of reflection, when I see you looking into space and I know you’re putting your mind in order. I love it when you’re loud and laughing and teasing me.”

“Tell me more about what you love about me.”

“I love the way you take care of me, because I’ve spent a long, long time trying to take care of everyone else, and you know what, I’m tired as hell. I love the way you look in the morning and the way you look under the moonlight. I love your wolf, the most beautiful wolf I’ve ever seen. I love the way you knew how to find me in the woods when I was in danger. I love that you shifted right in front of me even when I was wounded, when I could have hurt you, because you know what the bond between us means.”

“I do know,” she whispers.

“I love everything about you. I love you. I love you,” Jayden repeats.

Kira kisses his forehead and brushes her kiss up to the parting in his hairline. “I love you too.”

“A good enough reason to stay?” 

“The only reason I’d ever need.”

Jayden flips her over onto her back and hovers over her, balanced on one muscular arm, as he strokes her face. 

He unbuttons the first two buttons on her shirt and presses his hand over her heart, closing his eyes just to feel it beat. No one had ever done something so intimate to her. 

Kira shuts her eyes too and lets Jayden kiss her jaw and her neck, all the way down to her sternum.

Then she finds Jayden’s hand and laces their fingers together.

“Let’s wait until the full moon.”

Jayden nods and lowers his face until their foreheads are almost touching. Their breath mingles together. It becomes theirs, not Kira’s and Jayden’s, like they’re sharing oxygen now. 

Like one shared heart beats for both of them. Kira cannot know if it’s possible for a human being to feel like this, or whether the connection deep inside can be known only by two wolf souls who have known each other for many lifetimes.

Were they friends before? She imagines the two wolves together in the woods long before outside humans came, safe-guarding this town from warlords and attackers. 

How long have they spent dreaming of being this close? Waiting for two humans who’ll fall in love so that they can become one?

“I love you like I’ve known you forever,” Kira says.

Jayden rolls back off her, holding his bruised ribs with a wince from the exertion, and exhales.

“I love you like our eyes just met for the first time in a crowded room, and like I’ve had you at my side for a lifetime.”

“You always have to one-up me, you know that?” Kira laughs.

“It’s an Alpha thing,” he shrugs.

“You want to mate the boss, you get the competitive edge. That’s the deal.”

“I would’ve loved you if you were a nobody, too,” Kira says.

Jayden grins at her, turning his face on the pillow, eyes glinting. 

“Yeah, yeah. But tell me you don’t find it a teensy bit sexy that I’m the Alpha?”

“Ask me again on the night of the full moon.”

Jayden shows off his scars to anyone who will listen. 

For the wolves that weren’t present for the fight, he performs several action replays with Noel, and Frank and Chris especially have the good grace to whoop at all the right moments. 

With the rapid approach of the full moon, Jayden's healing has accelerated. Each evening he sits out bathed in the moonlight and Kira watches his wounds knit together until they could be months old.

Being a werewolf, he thinks, has its perks.

The gashes on his leg look as if he fought against a brutal wild animal. 

His side and shoulder are nothing but white scars and his neck has healed so well that only Kira gets close enough to see the thin crescent of scarring. 

He keeps his hair floppy, though, to cover his ear where the worst of the damage was done. He doesn’t show that off to the others.

“May I sit here?”

Kira looks up and nods politely when she sees Ava. The kids haven’t spent as much time around the pack recently, and she thinks it might be that they’re ashamed over their allegiance to Liam, even though Jayden has pressed over and over that he isn’t angry or hurt by it. 

Ava is bundled up in a huge puffy coat and with her hood up she hardly recognized her, except she can sense the presence of her pack wherever they are.

They watch Jayden messing around with Frank, beer in hand.

“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

Kira raises her eyebrows. “Sorry? Sorry for what?”