The Alpha And His Mate (Silver Hills #1)

Chapter 35

Curled up on my bed, I leaned into Jax's warmth.

My mom had left us alone in the house today (unwittingly- she didn't know Jax was here) whilst she offered emotional support to the Masons. For me, it was a day of rest and dread.

Victor had fled back to his old hiding place yesterday evening. We made up excuses about being overpowered. They only reason anyone bought our feeble excuses was the fact Richard was dead.

We were to meet at the old Mason house at sunset. Considering this fact, I had decided against inviting Caspar to a dwelling swarming with vampires. I had messaged him to ask if he was okay and was content with his short answer of I'm fine. Focus on the Masons- they're the ones who need worrying about.

The perfect, selfless answer.

Jax breathed in as if he were trying to absorb my scent. "You know what yesterday made me glad of?"

I couldn't think of a sensible reply, nor a witty one, so I just asked, "what?"

I felt his lips trace the base of my throat, sending electricity curving down my spine. I felt the all-too-familiar race of my heart that always kicked off when in Jax's arms. His answer shocked me.

"You."

I turned so that my body was pressed against his, my nose brushing his cheek as I inhaled sharply in offence. "You should always be grateful for your wife."

He growled playfully and tilted my face up to his. I saw his pupils dilate, becoming the dark side of the moon. "I love that word." His voice was thick and slow. "Wife."

"Is it better than mate?" I challenged, leaning in just close enough that I could taste the very essence of him. He was flowers growing in spring. The first frost of winter. The first heatwave of summer. He was the crispness of the leaves in fall. I needed him more than anything else in this world, more than I would like to admit.

I felt his following growl reverberate through my body. It danced in the core of my being, seething every inch of my skin alight.

"Nothing is better than mate," he told me. "Nothing is better than you."

He leaned in to kiss me. I needed to feel the curve of his lips like a flower needed sunlight to bloom. Yet I didn't quite let the distance between us close.

"Why?" I asked breathlessly. "Why are you grateful for me."

"If I tell you will you come closer?"

"Why don't you find out?"

He grinned wickedly, letting the hand that wasn't cradling me reach up to tangle in my hair. The dark strands of it stood out like tendrils of darkness against the moon of his skin.

"Diana rejected Thornwood so easily yesterday, and with such vehemence and hatred." I felt the shudder that went through him. "They are destined to be together. She is the only person Victor will ever love... and yet she turned him away."

"I think she did the right thing," I told him. "Victor isn't exactly in the best place right now. Diana needs someone to support her."

Jax gazed into my eyes and I saw understanding in them. Something else as well... pity.

"I agree with you. It's just been bothering me; the two of them will never be complete without the other. Victor will likely go mad and Diana will never know the force of true love."

"That's why you're grateful? Because I didn't reject you." I thought back on the games we had played at the start of our mating. How we had danced around each other, thinking we protecting something. We were stronger together. I knew that now.

Eyes on my lips, he answered with a sigh. "I'm grateful because I know you. Because I can make you happy. I know how it feels to love now and no other feeling will compare. Persephone Smith..." his voice trailed off as he was overcome with emotion.

So slowly it made the room spin around me, the alpha closed the distance between us. I felt every breath he took like it was my own. I felt keenly how his tongue drew the shape of my parted lips. And when he finally joined our mouths together it was bliss like I had never known.

We stayed like that for an immeasurable amount of time. Sharing breaths. Sharing our lives. It physically hurt me when I pulled away. The lack of him felt like a dagger in my heart.

"Persephone Smith," he said again. His lips were swollen, midnight hair dishevelled. "You are my beginning and my end. A day spent with you could never be a day wasted. Every bone in my body swears allegiance to you. No part of me could hurt any part of you."

He leaned in again to kiss my jaw, dragging up to my ear. "In fewer words," he laughed in a hushed voice, "I love you."

I drew back so I could see his face. So I could look into his eyes as I spoke. "Love is too small a word," I told him. "I have so much love for you it can barely fit in my body. It bleeds out of me every time I'm near you."

He laughed again, louder now. "What a macabre image," he teased, curling my hair around his finger. "My lover has a strange way of phrasing things."

"Poetry is clearly something you gained with age," I hissed back, muttering "old man," under my breath.

In a second, his face was serious again. "No matter what goes down tonight, know that my love for you and your child is more powerful than death itself. If I have to, I will fist fight the grim reaper to defend my family."

"You'll have to do worse than that tonight," I reminded him. "You'll have to fight a Shadowlord."

He contemplated this for a moment. "It will be a strange way of meeting the in-laws."

I had almost forgotten that Ezaryth- a being of such unholy evil- could be related to me in anyway.

"Do you think he'll know?" I asked quietly. "About my father?"

A part of me never wanted to think of my father again, but what if he was still out there somewhere and I could find him? What sort of daughter would I be to never even try?

Jax knew he didn't have any answer that would satisfy me. "If anyone will know about your father it's him," he settled on saying. "Don't let him get to you though."

"I won't," I mumbled, resting my head on his chest. From outside my window, I saw the sun begin to set like an executioners axe coming down on our necks.

One last thing was bothering me. "Are we only mates because of my father and the deal he made?"

Did it even matter what the answer was?

I heard Jax swallow, felt his heart beat slightly faster. "That may be the case. But it doesn't change anything. We were still formed for each other and each other alone. Mates may just be an adaptation to survive but that doesn't make them any less special. Love is a miracle no matter where it comes from."

I could be happy with that. I was the alpha's mate and I cared little for the reason. My whole world narrowed down to Jax and the life growing inside me.

We watched in silence as the sky darkened.