Chapter 49 - The end

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*Corey*

I gripped the guitar carefully as I ran my fingers along the strings, tapping my foot impatiently. What could possibly be the reason they were taking so long? I had been in the hallway for a solid twenty minutes already. Wasn't it more important for him to see his mate?

"About fucking time," I muttered as the door opened.

"Don't be rude!" Izabella punched my arm.

I said nothing and instead just caught her fist to pull her out of the doorway before I did the same to Rita, Hayley and Alexis even though they were already following her out. It pissed all of them off, maybe that had been my intention. I was already annoyed and wanted them to be too because my annoyance was their fault.

"Took you girls long enough. Were you giving Jay a makeover or something?"

"You're so childish!" Hayley frowned at me.

"Your bangs are skew." Before she could answer, I shut the door earning shouts from all four of them.

"You really shouldn't annoy them like that," Jayden shook his head at me.

He was probably right. I was digging quite a deep grave for myself and those four were going to kill me and bury me in it sooner or later.

Jayden was surrounded by balloons, plushies and flowers.

"I brought your guitar!" I lifted it in the air as if to showcase it.

"Don't do that! You'll drop it! Where's the case?!" He attempted to get up to grab his guitar from me, but I pushed him back against the pillow gently and put the guitar on the bed beside him.

"There's a case?"

Jayden stared at me, dumbfounded, and I shook my head. "I took care of it very carefully. Besides, given your state, there's a much bigger chance you'll drop it," I said.

He was still quite bruised and had to have a few stitches, so he was bandaged up as well. Marcus and the doctor both said he was not healing because of the trauma; the only major wound was a deep rip into his chest and it seemed to be doing fine under their watch. Once Jayden's healing was back to normal, it would disappear fairly quickly.

Luckily, we had arrived at the house before that man got to do what he had wanted. I wished I had not left Jayden alone, to begin with. Then he would not even have been in the hospital.

At the moment, Jayden was too pumped with drugs to really process what happened. Surprisingly, he did not take pain very well at all.

"I'm fine," he told me as he reached for the box beside him.

"What the hell is that?" I asked.

"What? This? The others brought me a Happy –" I snatched the box from him.

"Dr Michelson said you're not allowed to eat this junk. It doesn't help with your recovery," I said.

"Neither do you, but here you are," he muttered.

"You're not happy I'm here?" I raised my brows, unable to hold back my smile even though I was trying to seem serious. It was especially hard when Jayden became flustered and unable to meet my gaze, instead looking at the box.

"Give my Happy Meal back!" he yelled.

I laughed as I opened the box and pulled out the toy. "Seriously?" I chuckled.

"I didn't order it. They just brought it," he mumbled before he snatched everything from my hands, "Haha!" he yelled out before attempting to get up, but I placed my hands on his shoulders to keep him in bed.

It was clearly necessary as he groaned at the movement he had just made, clutching the wound on his chest.

"Be careful, Jayden," I mumbled. "Fine. Keep it, just stay in bed," I said. He was like a child.

He smiled and I frowned, realising that was what he wanted me to say.

I sat down beside his legs on the bed instead of using the seat and watched him take a bite of cholesterol. He really needed to eat healthier... Did he? No, not really. Werewolves' bodies mended themselves very quickly. But then again, this was Jayden.

"I want pasta," he mumbled after popping a chip into his mouth.

"The kind I made when we played that board game?" I smiled. He nodded. "I'll bring you some tonight."

"You're suspiciously nice today."

I laughed at that, wiping a bit of sauce from the corner of his mouth as he took another bite. I paused for a second as my finger brushed over the cut on his lip.

"Jayden... Are you alright?" I wanted to ask more, but didn't want to say anything that would rattle him, which was why I was surprised at his answer.

"Of course, I'm alright, Corey. Mike's dead. He can't... come back." Jayden swallowed, his eyes falling for a second before he tried to give me a reassuring smile that still worried me because his eyes did not match. "I'm more alright than I've been in years. Still... messed up, but alright right now... I'll be fine," he assured. "Are you alright, though?" he asked, concerned.

"Why... would you ask? Why would I not be alright?" I gave a confused chuckle, and he shook his head.

"The others told me you lost it, and that you didn't remember who they were... Are you really okay?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"Lie." He tossed the almost-empty sauce packet at me, and I glared at him as it bounced off my shoulder and onto the floor.

"Nice," I muttered, looking at my shoulder to see if it had left a stain on my white shirt. I looked back at Jayden in time to see him roll his eyes at me.

"Since you won't admit it; I'm fine, Corey. You have no need to go crazy." He smiled.

I tried to frown at him but chuckled instead.

"Who said my going 'crazy' had anything to do with you?" I asked.

"No one has to say it, I know it. You couldn't stand the thought of losing me."

It was meant to be a joke, but I sobered for a moment. He was right. Realising I wasn't laughing, he quickly averted his eyes down to the box on his lap. "I-I mean, you couldn't stand the thought of looking less powerful than –" he was saying.

"You scared me. So much." I cut him off, I had no idea where he was going with that sentence anyway.

He looked up and I leaned closer to him, the movement causing his eyes to widen slightly as he stared back at me.

"The next time I ask for a name and information about someone who hurt you, you need to give me answers, Jayden," I hissed.

He frowned, glancing away from me again. I sighed through my nose before kissing his cheek, just beside his lips gently.

"You're right. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you. It sounds so weird. The last time we were here I was being horrible to you and now..." I gave a dry chuckle. It confused me how quickly things had changed.

He smiled at me mischievously. "If you like me so much, you'll eat it." He held out the half of his burger that had yet to be eaten to me.

"What?" I asked with an automatic frown at the food.

"One burger isn't going to kill you." He laughed.

"It's going to clog my arteries," I said.

"A bite?" he asked in disbelief. "Fine. You don't like me, liar. I'm calling Finn."

I narrowed my eyes at him but instantly caught his wrist, tilting the food closer and taking a bite. I grimaced as I chewed and for some reason, Jayden found that hilarious.

"Please, no." I nudged the burger back towards him. He kept laughing as he ate. "It's so bad, you really need to eat healthier," I muttered.

He just gave me a wide smile and I chuckled leaning close to him again so I could give him a soft peck. I planned to leave it at that, but his lips felt so good and he just leaned into me so it led to a longer kiss than I had planned, before I remembered something that I was incredibly excited about.

"Oh wait, guess what?" I grinned pulling away from him.

He gave a little protestant groan that made me chuckle.

"Guess? With you? No."

I laughed.

"Come on, Babe."

He gave an adorable, shy little smile. "Uh... You wrote a poem?"

I snorted at his answer. Really? "No, but I got you a birthday present."

"My birthday isn't for another seven months – my birthday is next year!" He frowned adding, "I refuse to accept presents this early."

"It's a belated birthday present for this year," I smirked.

He scrunched his nose like that did not make any sense to him before glancing around, looking for the gift.

"So... what is it?" he asked, still sounding cautious.

I shook my head reaching into my pocket to pull out an envelope. He hesitated before taking it, dramatizing his suspicion of me.

"Stop it. What could I possibly have put in there?" I laughed.

"Exactly. Who knows what you would do," he teased before grinning as he tilted the envelope between his fingers. "Money? Show tickets? Bus tickets? Paper?" he asked.

"Maybe you should open it instead of asking it questions, Jay," I said.

"I was asking you, you know that." He frowned at me, and I smirked making him glare before he carefully tore the envelope open and pulled the contents out.

I watched, unable to stop smiling as he read over it, his face slowly dropping until he looked back at me straight-faced, his brows lowered.

"No. No. Go to hell, Corey," he said.

I laughed.

"Joe says it's fine since everyone else is also coming. Besides, how you can't say no, Jay? It's to commemorate the first time we hung out together. You loved the view, remember?"

He didn't answer, shooting fire at me through narrowed eyes.

"Look at the bright side, Son. At least this time there will be safety harnesses," Joe said from the door, only making Jayden's glare deeper as I laughed.

Jayden ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek as he looked back at the tickets in his hand before nodding.

"I get to shove you off this time," he said.

"I didn't shove you!" I responded.

"Yeah, you did!"

"No, you slipped –"

"I'm not going if I can't push you, Babe."

I paused, my heart skipping for a second. "What did you just say?"

"Huh?" Jayden seemed flustered as he turned back to his food.

"No, say it again, Jay. Please."

Jayden just smirked as he put the tickets aside to return to his food. I had not noticed earlier, but he had a little book that was presumably another gift from the girls and was beginning to doodle on the inside cover. I shifted on the bed, closer to him and settled into just watching my mate. He quickly became aware of my staring and became flustered again.

I chuckled, leaning to kiss him. His lips tilted into a smile against mine, the reaction made me grin as I lifted my hand to his neck to pull him closer, attempting to deepen the kiss. But he suddenly tugged back, his eyes going wide as he looked towards the door and then let out a surprised, somewhat mortified yell, dropping his face into my shoulder. I extended my arm around his back, confused as he withered into me in embarrassment.

"Oh, now you remember I'm here?"

I laughed, realising I had also genuinely forgotten Joe was at the door. The alpha chuckled, mentioning that he was going to get the doctor and would return in a minute. Jayden's face stayed buried in my neck and I laughed.

'Fine, you can push me,' I linked to him.

'I already knew that.'

I rolled my eyes. Right, I guessed he would eventually realise he could get me to do whatever he wanted.

"The doctor's coming," he said as we heard footsteps in the hallway.

"Still 30 seconds," I replied, lifting my other arm to hug him closer to me for as long as possible before his check-up.

Jayden laughed returning the hug as he nodded.

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THE END.

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Thank you so much for reading! :D

I really enjoyed revisiting the characters and this book. I hope you liked rereading as well. Is this version any better than the original?

Should I add the extra chapters too?🤔Let me know if you want to see anything specific added to the extra chapters!