Part 79

(POV - Marcus)

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Marcus chuckled, his neck feeling warm under Jaden's sincerity. "Make yourself useful and go get supplies for the run."

Mercucio got to his feet, reaching over Inara to grab Jaden by the scruff of his neck and haul him to his feet, effectively cutting off whatever wisecrack remark Jaden had sitting on his tongue.

"Hey- wait, Mercucio- ow!"

"Shut up, Jay," Mercucio sighed, ignoring his protests and dragging him to the door. "We'll handle the supplies, Marc."

Marcus nodded in thanks, watching as the pair of them disappeared out the door, Jaden sulking and trying to push Mercucio off while Mercucio dragged the Beta along with a soft smile.

"Then I think we can meet with Jonah," Inara suggested, getting to her feet and rearranging her long braid. Marcus watched her with an eyebrow cocked in amusement.

"What?" she said, dropping the end of her hair like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Haven't you already met with Jonah today?" he asked. He could smell the pack doctor's scent on her, however subtle. Inara must have taken Aria to the medical rooms to introduce the pair, but Marcus knew that there was something budding between his top sentry and the pack doctor. He wasn't blind.

"I did," she answered, suddenly cagey about her encounter. Her eyes shifted halfway between human and wolf, and he sensed there was so much she wasn't saying, but he didn't want to push her. He just wanted her to find happiness after all the awful shit that had happened to her in her own past.

"Okay," he said, holding his hands up in surrender, dropping the topic. If she didn't want to talk about it, then who was he to push? He got to his feet and nodded at the door. "Let's find out how bad the damage is."

She got up and walked ahead of him, leading him back out of the packhouse and around to the medical rooms. Marcus could already pick out unfamiliar scents and he made a mental note to let Mercucio know that they had to do something to cover it up.

Jonah met them at the door, possibly having smelled Marcus's presence along with Inara's.

"Alpha," he greeted, his wide, innocent eyes blinking owlishly.

"Hey, kid," Marcus said, nodding in thanks when Jaden stepped aside to welcome them in. The sterile smell burned his nose, reminding him of the night Helena died, but he was surprised when his chest didn't crack open the way it usually would have. "I hear you have some visitors."

"Yes, sir," he said, eyes flicking towards one of the back rooms where Marcus's heightened sense of hearing could pick up vicious snarling and loud thumps.

"She doesn't sound too good," he noted, walking towards the room in question. "What is the status of her injuries?"

Jonah frowned, wincing slightly as he walked into his office and came back holding a heavy folder.

"It's a lot worse than anything I have ever seen," Jonah explained, flipping the folder open and handing it to Marcus, who took it almost reluctantly. "Physically, she should be fully recovered within the week thanks to our biology but, sir, I don't know if she'll ever recover mentally."

Marcus leafed through the reports on her physical injuries; broken bones, cracked ribs, bruised from head to toe, Moon above, she'd even sustained traumatic haemorrhaging from blunt force trauma to the head. He cringed flipping through the photos that Jonah had taken prior to treatment, feeling bile rise up his throat.

They almost looked fake. He had a hard time believing that the photos in his hands were real, and that these injuries had really been inflicted on another living being.

Jonah sighed wearily, gazing at the concealed room.

"It's not really her physical wellbeing I'm concerned about, to be honest," he said, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes.

"What do you mean?" Inara asked, her face pinching at the weariness hanging on Jonah's shoulders.

"The mental stress of losing a mate is unfathomable," Jonah explained hesitantly. "But her current mental state might be even worse than that of a wolf who has lost their mate. It's one thing to lose a mate, but it's something else to be abused so cruelly by the one soul who was made to protect you—ah, uhm—"

His jaw clicked shut, eyes wide and staring at Marcus, no doubt cowering in wait for Marcus's infamous rage. He knew he'd spoken out of turn and so casually about losing a mate, knowing only a small piece of what Marcus had endured for five years, but...

There was no rage in Marcus's chest.

"It's okay," Marcus said. "I can't imagine what hell she's been through. If you feel her mental state is that far gone, we have even more work ahead of us. And neither of you are to breathe a word of it to Aria until I say so."

"Yes, sir," Jonah agreed immediately, but Inara watched him carefully, waiting to see if his placidity was a facade, but it wasn't.

"Good, then I have business with my mate," Marcus said, glancing between the two wolves in front of him. "Keep me updated on her condition."

Jonah nodded hurriedly, waving his farewell as Marcus walked out.

He wondered how to handle the current situation, trying to figure out the best way to break the news to Aria without hurting her. It would be hard.

No.

It would be fucking impossible to do it without hurting her, and that was why he was so reluctant to have her anywhere Jonah or his rooms for the next few days.

Maybe he could distract her with news of their mating run. He hadn't been able to discuss plans with her because he'd been hellishly busy for the last few days, and he hadn't wanted to overwhelm her with more than she needed on her plate.

Marcus knew that Aria was strong, but he also knew that everyone had their own breaking point, and he didn't know what Aria's was just yet. And he wasn't willing to test his theories out this close off the back of his past revelations and on the precipice of their mating run and her subsequent step into her new responsibilities as Luna.

He figured she wouldn't be in the packhouse just then, and wandered off into the forest to track her down. Her scent lingered on some of the trees he passed, like she had wanted him to find her if he came looking. And he did.

He found her sitting cross-legged on the grass, her fingertips in the stream in front of her.

"Love," he called, knowing he wouldn't startle her but making sure he didn't anyway. He saw the way the corner of her mouth quirked up before she turned to face.

"Hey, baby," she said warmly, holding out a hand for him to join her. He did so happily, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her palm, trailing more noisy kisses up her arm to her shoulder. She giggled, and he playfully nipped her shoulder before capturing her lips.

He hummed into her mouth, his arms winding around her body to pull her closer. His wolf grumbled happily, curling up and drifting off to sleep.

"You were looking for me?" she asked when he pulled away. He kissed her cheek, pulling another giggle from her.

"Missed your face," he mumbled, his eyelids drooping sleepily. She reached up and cradled his face in her hands, her fingertips cool from the water. It chased away the headache that had been forming behind his eyes all day, and he was so grateful for how perfectly she seemed to know him.

"I missed yours, my love," she agreed, kissing the tip of his nose teasingly. He groaned, and she tutted. "You're tired."

He shrugged. His exhaustion hadn't really bugged him until just then, when he felt most at ease in her arms. It was the only time he was relaxed enough to let his guard down, so naturally, his wolf went right to sleep, trying to drag him down into slumber as well.

"I could use a nap," he admitted, eyes closed as he breathed in her scent.

"More than a nap, darling," she observed, but he shook his head, shifting out of her hold so that he could lay his head in her lap.

This. This was exactly what he needed.

Her fingers lost themselves in his hair, her nails scratching along his scalp. He was barely hanging onto consciousness, especially when she started humming softly.

"This is all I need," he mumbled, his voice gravelly and low.

"You're so cheesy, Alpha," she teased lightly, pinching his earlobe. He shrugged and only snuggled in closer, pressing his nose to stomach and breathing in deep.

"I might be," he yawned. "But you love it nonetheless."

"Lucky for you, I happen to find it adorable," she said as a matter of fact. "But only when you do it. Otherwise, it's just gross."

He fell asleep soon after, listening to her humming entwining with the gentle trickle of the stream nearby, her hands in his hair and her thighs under his head. It was the kind of peace Marcus had never known before, something he would claw to the death to keep, because he couldn't imagine finding it with anyone else.

He slept soundly, dreaming of Aria, her face glowing, lips pressed to his forehead as she whispered softly, "I wonder if you'll be happy when I tell you."

He hadn't asked what she meant to tell him, his mind full of images of Aria's smile, her hands laying over her stomach protectively.