Chapter 106 Quiet Island Bond

Chapter 106 Quiet Island Bond
Serena:

For the first time in my life, I woke up without fear already sitting in my chest. The feeling was so unfamiliar that for a few seconds I just lay there staring at the ceiling, confused by the quiet inside my own body.

No footsteps outside my bedroom door. No anxiety over whether I had slept too late. No panic about saying the wrong thing at breakfast or standing the wrong way or smiling too little or too much. Just soft light spilling through the curtains and the distant sound of waves somewhere beyond the windows.

It didn’t feel real. The room smelled faintly of cedarwood and rain. Someone had opened the windows earlier. Fresh air drifted inside, carrying the scent of wet earth and flowers from somewhere nearby. I pulled the blanket tighter around myself.

Safe.

Even thinking the word made something inside my chest ache. I still wasn’t used to kindness without any conditions attached to it.

Aurora had left not long ago after practically forcing me to eat warm bread and soup while threatening to tell Levi I was being difficult if I refused. I still couldn’t decide whether she was terrifying or wonderful.

Maybe both.

The strange thing was how normal she made everything feel. Not the island. Nothing about this island felt normal. The pulses beneath the ground, the wards, the way people spoke about wolves and bonds and bloodlines as if they were discussing the weather.

No, it was Aurora herself. She sat beside me like we had known each other for years instead of days, like friendship was something simple and natural instead of dangerous.

My entire life I had been surrounded by people and still felt completely alone. Now, somehow, a woman I barely knew had looked at me and said:
You are one of us now.

I pressed my fingers against my eyes suddenly. God. I was getting emotional over basic human decency.

The door opened softly before I could spiral further into my thoughts. My aunt stepped inside carefully. The second I saw her properly again, something inside me cracked.

“Aunt Glenn.”

Her face softened immediately. She crossed the room faster than I had seen her move in years and wrapped her arms around me before I could stop myself from crying again.

“You stubborn child,” she whispered shakily into my hair. “Do you have any idea what you put me through?”

I laughed weakly through tears. “Probably.”

She pulled back only enough to cup my face in both hands.

“You look exhausted.”

“I feel exhausted.”

“That means you’re alive.”

I looked at her quietly after that, really looked at her. The exhaustion beneath her eyes. The strain around her mouth. She had risked everything bringing me here. For me. Nobody had ever done that before.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Her expression immediately hardened. “Don’t you dare apologize for trying to survive.”

My throat tightened painfully. She sat beside me carefully after that and adjusted the blanket around my legs, the same way Mom used to when I was little, before she started getting worse and my father stopped letting me near her.

For a while, neither of us spoke. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, though. It just felt heavy.

Finally, she asked quietly, “What are you planning to tell them?”

I let out a slow breath.

“I don’t even know where to start.”

That was the truth.

Where exactly was I supposed to begin? With the Council? My father? The curses? The experiments? My mother? The bloodlines? The twins? The fact that half the world they thought they understood was built on carefully maintained lies?

I rubbed a hand over my face.

“Where’s everything we brought?” I asked suddenly.

My aunt’s eyes flickered slightly.

“Safe.”

I nodded once, relieved enough that my shoulders loosened slightly. Good. Because if even one of those things had fallen into the wrong hands... No. I couldn’t think about that yet.

“You’re frightened,” my aunt observed quietly.

“I should be.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “But not of them.”

I looked toward the windows.

“I don’t know these people.”

“You know enough.”

Did I?

I thought about Aurora sitting beside me earlier, talking about friendship like it was the simplest thing in the world. I thought about Levi’s face in the storm when he saw me unconscious in Jax’s arms. And then, unfortunately, my thoughts landed on Jax himself.

Warm hands. Rough voice. Pine wood.

The way he looked genuinely panicked every time I winced in pain. The memory alone made heat crawl into my face. My aunt noticed instantly because, of course, she did.

“Oh no,” she murmured with suspicious amusement.

“Don’t start.”

“That poor man looks one bad moment away from a complete breakdown.”

I buried my face in my hands. “Please stop talking.”

“He is rather handsome, though.”

“Aunt Glenn.”

She laughed softly for the first time since we arrived on the island. Then her expression became serious again.

“You need to tell them soon.”

I lowered my hands slowly.

“I know.”

“The Council will move faster than before once they realize where you went.”

My stomach tightened instantly.

“And if they connect Blackstone to the records you took...”

“I know,” I repeated sharply this time.

The room fell quiet again. Then suddenly another pulse rolled beneath the island. Stronger than before. The windows trembled slightly. Pain shot through my body hard enough that I gasped. My aunt immediately stood.

“Serena?”

“I’m fine.”

I wasn't. The room tilted violently for a second. I tried to stand anyway. Bad idea. The moment my feet touched the floor, pain ripped through my side, and dizziness hit so hard my vision blurred.

“Serena!”

My aunt caught my arm before I collapsed completely.

“I need to talk to them,” I breathed out frantically. “Now. Before something happens.”

“You can barely stand.”

“I don’t care.”

My breathing was turning uneven now. Because suddenly all I could think was that there was no time. The Council never waited once they lost control of an important pawn. And I had destroyed one of their most carefully built plans before disappearing with information they would kill entire cities to recover.

My aunt moved toward the door immediately.

“I’m getting Aurora.”

“Aunt Glenn...”

“You are in no condition to explain anything like this.”

She left before I could argue further. A minute later, Aurora hurried inside. The second she saw me half-standing beside the bed, pale and shaking, her expression tightened.

“Serena.”

“I need to tell you everything.”

“You need to breathe first.”

“There’s no time... They will be coming soon, once they know I am here.”

Pain hit again. Sharp enough that I nearly folded. Aurora reached me immediately and caught both my hands in hers.

“Look at me,” she said softly.

I tried. Her eyes closed slowly. Warmth spread through me almost instantly. Not magic, the way I imagined magic should feel. No dramatic force. No lightning. Just warmth. Gentle and steady. The crushing pressure inside my chest loosened enough that I could finally breathe properly again. Tears burned unexpectedly behind my eyes.

“Oh,” I whispered shakily.

Aurora opened her eyes again, looking slightly pale herself now.

“There,” she murmured softly. “All better now.”

The emotional weight didn’t disappear completely. But it lifted enough that I no longer felt like I was drowning beneath it. Before I could say anything else, the bedroom door slammed open hard enough to hit the wall.

Jax rushed inside, looking absolutely frantic.

“What happened?”

All three of us stared at him. His eyes went straight to me immediately, searching for injuries like he expected to find me dying.

“I felt your heartbeat apike and your emotions, you were panicking,” he said quickly, trying to explain in a single breath.

Honestly, if mate bond was like that, it was kind of scary and endearing at the same time.

“I’m fine,” I said weakly.

“You are obviously not fine.”

Then, before anyone could react, he crossed the room and pulled me against him so tightly it almost knocked the air out of me. His arms wrapped around me carefully but desperately at the same time. Like he genuinely thought that if he let go, something terrible would happen.

For one stunned second, nobody spoke. Not even my aunt. Jax buried his face briefly against my hair, breathing hard as he had run across the entire island.

And God help me, I closed my eyes and melted into his embrace instantly.

Warmth.

Rain.

Earth after storms.

Home.