Chapter 0198

I wait, trying to be patient, letting him decide what to tell.

“I was…sent to learn things,” he murmurs, hanging his head a little. “New fighting techniques, new

technologies. And then, when I’ve decided that I learned enough, I’m supposed to…desert. To go

back and teach the Community what I learned.”

I tense in his arms, my hands again taking fistfuls of his shirt, suddenly terrified by the idea that he’s

going to leave and go back to that…that place.

But Jackson just laughs and shakes his head. “Don’t worry,” he murmurs, leaning forward and

pressing a kiss to first one of my cheeks, and then the other. “I already decided that I’m not going

back.”

“Oh,” I say, surprised, even as the tension lessens in my shocked muscles. “Why not?”

“Because,” he murmurs, “I learned…enough, in the few months that I lived in Capital, to understand

that what they’re doing is…well, I mean, it’s a cult, right? They control people, give them no choice

in their lives. They…take their children away.”

He sighs, shaking his head, and I press myself closer against him, wanting to fix it all – heal it all,

instantly.

“I mean, I don’t know…anything about having a family,” he murmurs, raising his eyes to mine. “But I

do know that if I had found you, somehow, when I lived there? They…they wouldn’t have let me

keep you – wouldn’t even have let me see you. And there’s something wrong about that, Ari –

wrong about all of it. It’s not right – I can’t go back. I can never go back.”

My eyes fill with tears as I study his face, as I see that his own heart is broken with the realization.

And I’m overwhelmed, suddenly, with the strength it must have taken to come to that decision –

To decide to leave, forever, the world in which you were raised? Everyone you’ve ever loved, no

matter how badly they’ve treated you?

God, my mate, he’s…he’s so much stronger than me. So much stronger than I’ll ever be.

“You can have a home here now, Jacks,” I say, speaking fast and earnest, pressing a desperate

hand to his cheek. “We’ll be really nice to you – everyone will! And you can have my mom – she’ll

take care of you, she loves being a mom –“

Jackson just laughs, his eyes crinkling as he turns his head to the side and presses a kiss to my

palm. “You’re my home now, mate,” he murmurs, the words simple and true.

And I can’t help it. I sit up, and wind my arms around his neck, and hold my mate tight to me as he

wraps his arms around my back, pressing me to his chest like he’ll never let me go.

“Damn right I’m your home,” I growl, possessive, ready to rip into anyone who’d try to say

otherwise. He laughs, I think pleased by the ferocity of his little mate. I pull away then, looking into

his eyes, willing him to see it and believe it. “You stay with me now, yeah?”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” he replies, the corners of his mouth turning up as he raises a hand,

stroking it down the length of my hair, letting his fingers get tangled in the rose-gold lengths of it.

And I can’t help it, then. Even though we’re supposed to be talking, even though there’s so much

more I want to know, I kiss Jackson, wanting him to feel the promise in my words as well as hear it.

Because he’s mine now, and I’m not letting him go, not for anything.

And as my mate kisses me back, I feel it happen – feel our perfect silver bond snap into place

between us.

I can feel it, in my soul, shining just as pretty and bright as my other bond, that points…oddly in the

other direction.

Towards Luca, wherever he is, out there in the night.

While I’m wrapped up here, in Jackson’s arms.