Jane |18+| ✔️

17. The time when I explained adding to her Turmoil

Silas

"Symbolize? Really? Yet, you tell me she meant nothing?" Her voice is barely audible, but her dejection is evident. "Having me cut your hair will not erase her, Silas." The aloofness in her tone has me at a loss once again. "You love her. You grieved her until the moment you met me – and even then, you fought our connection. Fail to mention the picture you keep of the two of you in your pocket." Jane drops the scissors and moves away from me. "Not five minutes ago, we consummated our bond, yet here I am, acting like a jealous, crazed teenage girlfriend."

Grasping the scissors, I yank my hair and snip the length in one smooth slice. She moves to stop me with outstretched arms and wide eyes, but it's too late. Most have been hacked off as my eyes stay locked with her wide stare. "You have it all wrong—but that is because I don't know how to do this," I openly admit. Tossing the handful of hair on the floor, I grab another clump as my eyes lock with hers.

"Please stop questioning my devotion, Jane. You matter—only you have mattered. I never fought our connection. I was shielding it. Just like I will not hide you, I will protect you. Not because you are weak but because you're important. Shit is happening, Jane. You came into my life when the last thing I needed was your presence." Her eyes fill with angry tears as I smile, pulling the last of my fisted hair from my scalp. "But you are here, as fate dictated, and together, we will navigate the shit storm swirling around us—together from here on out. But you have to believe my loyalty lies with you, only you."

"If that's the case, you best start talking," she throws my way. "I refuse to be blindsided any further." The stare-off is as intense as any of the others we've had to date. "Every time you dance around a question, it only has me questioning more, Alpha. I can't keep... it's all so new and overwhelming, Silas," she admits in a whisper of a tone while wrapping her magnificent body in her arms. "I never wanted this—any of this."

I know.

Standing, I toss the last of my hair on the shower floor before placing the scissors down on the nearby shower ledge. "From my research and teachings, humans and shifters are not fated mates for a good reason," she continues as I slowly move toward her. "How can I measure your strength, endurance and wits?" Her smirk returns, but it's full of doubt as she eyes me up and down, "Christ, you're the Alpha of the goddamn North!"

"You, Jane, are beyond strong. Your fortitude beams all around you, and as for intelligence," I smile with a proud grin, "you are the brightest being I have ever met." She snorts in disbelief. I smile even more from her silly reaction before her lips pout and her little button nose scrunches up.

"Yeah?" she contradicts while nodding my head. "If I were, I would have stopped you in time." My eyes narrow as she sighs, dropping her arms only to move to grab the scissors. "Kneel, Alpha." Sinking to my knees, she moves to fetch the wide-tooth comb I keep in the shower to thread through my locks. "You say there is disloyalty here in Sweetwater," I nod with a soulful hum as she fingers what's left of my hair. "Only here?"

Okay, Silas—this is it. Jane is persistent, and if this is what my mate wants, I have no other choice but to divulge. Otherwise, I will keep layering on doubt and continue to chip away at the trust we are slowly building. My little one has me in a corner, and my wolf doesn't like it. He wants to keep protecting her—I probably should have thought of that before flooding her with my seed and now scent.

"Mostly, yes. My other territories are quite content with how I operate and execute things; they have been for decades. As for Sweetwater, they have always been my Achilles heel, sort of speak." I hear the first snip of the blades of the scissors before the softest touch of hair feathering down my back.