The Hunted Wolf – Chapter 61

I walked up to Jori, looking around the empty room. He was the only presence I was, and he made no indication that he was aware of my presence. I sat in front of him, crossing my legs underneath me. He was staring right at me now, but his eyes looked far away. He wasn’t fully here.

“Jori?” I waved my hand in front of his face.

His eyes flicker, and for the first time he registers that I’m there. “Adira? Is that really you?”

I nodded my head. “It’s me.”

“Oh.”

My chest tightened. He almost seemed like a shell of the person I thought I knew. His entire personality seemed subdued.

“Jori, you can’t give up. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but your wolfpack needs you.”

He let his head fall forward, hiding his eyes from me. “I failed everyone.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I wasn’t strong enough.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. I understood it was hard not to blame yourself in situations like these, but I didn’t know what to say to him to make him realize none of this was his fault.

“So be strong enough now.”

Jori looked up at me. “How?”

“Don’t stop fighting. Don’t sit here complacently. You’re free from your shackles, so take your control back. Fix what was broken. Fight.” I wanted to tell him that it would be selfish to give up, but I didn’t want to make his guilt worse. It was clearly keeping him locked away in his own mind already.

Jori’s eyes glistened. “I’m sorry, Adira. I’m sorry I took you away from Mark and tried to harm your baby. I never wanted to do any of that.”

I placed my hand on Jori’s arm. “That wasn’t you. Just because it was your body, doesn’t mean you made those decisions.”

Jori looked off to the side. “I think Xavier found me because of my hatred for Mark and everything that happened between the two of us. Somehow he found me, and he fed off my negative emotions. If I had been able to let go of my grudge, Xavier wouldn’t have been able to get to me. That’s why he picked me and not Mark.”

“Maybe that’s all true, but there’s no point in dwelling on the past. We can’t go back in time and change what was broken. All we can do is move forward, hoping to do better.”

“I heard Mark talking to me earlier.”

I tilted my head. “You did?”

“He told me not to give up. He said other people needed me. I don’t get why he doesn’t hate me. My family and I took everything away from him and his family. He has every right to wish me dead, but instead he tells me not to give up. How does he do it?”

“Mark is a patient and caring person,” I said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. “He cares for everyone, and it takes a lot for him to truly hate someone.”

Jori looked up to the ceiling, stretching his neck back. “He hated me at one point. I know that much. He was my best friend, and when he came to me, needing my help, I turned my back on him.”

“Maybe if you two sat down and had a real heart to heart, you could clear the air. You can start the real healing between you two.”

Jori let out a long sigh, looking back at me.

When I stared into his eyes, I saw remnants of the man who I first met. He was still mostly Jori at that point. He was confident and knew what he wanted. He also had pain lingering below the surface. Now that pain was crawling on his skin, not even trying to hide.

“Okay. I won’t give up.”

I smiled and nodded. “Good. I’ll see you when you’re awake then.” I stood up and started walking away from him.

“Adira?”

I stopped and looked over my shoulder. “Hmm?”

“I’m glad you are Mark’s mate. And congrats on that baby.”

“Thanks. I’m glad I’m Mark’s mate too.” It was then that I realized I didn’t feel that soft tug towards Jori anymore. There was no lingering pain from his rejection. There were no remnants of the mate bond I felt with him. A wave of relief washed through me. This just confirmed that Jori was never my mate.

“I’ll see you on the other side.” I waved to Jori as I left his subconscious.

–

I walked down the stairs of the pack house once I had finished with Jori. I had half expected Jori to wake up once I left his subconscious mind, but his body was just lying there, still as ever. It made me worried that I didn’t actually make a difference, and Jori would never wake up. I could stand just sitting there and waiting, so I linked Mark to find out where he was and decided to visit him.

I cracked open the door to the conference room and peeked in. Mark, Reyland, Percy, Scythe, and Mason were all sitting around the table discussing some tactic or other.

“We can’t possibly prepare for an attack we know nothing about. How are we going to keep this town safe from the Council of Magic?” Mason asked.

“It seems like we have the help of the warriors from Pack Sallow now. They want to keep training and improve their skills. Some of them even asked about training with Pack Aphelion,” Percy mentioned.

Scythe spoke up next. “That’s great, but Mason is right. We know nothing about fighting sorcerers, and some of the magic these people hold seems impossible for a werewolf to fight. How can we prepare against something like that?”

“Zayla is trying to reverse engineer a serum that will help us be resistant to magic. If we can level the playing field, then we have a chance,” Mark said.

“We can’t give up just because we don’t know the enemy.” Reyland’s voice rang out, firm and confident.

“I wasn’t saying we give up,” Mason said. “I just don’t know how to prepare for something like this. We know nothing about our enemy. What kind of powers they have, how many there are. We need more information.”

I stepped into the room, making my presence known. “I agree. I think it’s time we talked to Cain to see what we can figure out.”

Mark locked eyes with me. He smiled for a brief moment when he saw me, but concern quickly replaced it. “Are you sure you are up for that?”

The room was heavy as everyone looked around at me. All of these people were fighting hard to get me back. I knew that now. Of course, none of them would like the idea of me approaching my kidnapper, but I couldn’t let fear hold me back. Everyone worked so hard for me, so I needed to contribute my part.

“I am. We shouldn’t wait any longer.”

–

I stood outside the prison cell, my heart pounding in my chest. If Mark wasn’t holding my hand at that moment, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to stand steady. I knew it would be safe to talk to Cain. Ginger was there to help control him, he had been drugged, and there were plenty of people around to help me. The idea of facing this man was terrifying. He had tried to take me away from my mate.

Mark squeezed my hand. “It’s not too late to change your mind. Reyland and I can do this on our own.”

I squeezed his hand back and took a step forward. “No. I need to be here. I know he’ll be more open to talking to me. In his twisted mind, he was doing all of this to protect me.”

Mark nodded and opened the door for me. Cain was already sitting inside on the opposite side of the table. He was chained to the chair, and his eyes were sunken in. He was sitting still with his hands in his lap, only looking straight ahead.

“Good afternoon, Cain.” I sat down across from him, and Mark took a seat next to me.

Cain’s demeanor completely changed the moment he saw me. “Adira. You’re okay. Is the…” his voice drifted off.

“The baby is okay, not that it’s any of your business.” I kept my back straight and my head held high. No matter how difficult this was going to be, I didn’t want to show my emotions.

“I’m so glad. I can’t believe that wolf tried to harm you and the baby. I thought he just wanted to harm Mark.” Cain’s jaw tightened at the thought.

Mark’s hand shot to my thigh, and I knew he was having a hard time biting his l*p. I placed my hand over his and squeezed. I knew where he was coming from, but we had to be careful. We couldn’t afford to be reactive and cause Cain to shut down. We needed his information after all.

“Cain, I know you’re not stupid. You know that was the Son of B***d and Magic. It wasn’t Jori. It was Xavier.”

Cain looked at the table. “I know. I was naive. I sensed there was something wrong with that boy, but I thought it was just his hatred boiling inside of him. I thought I could manipulate him and control him. I still didn’t think he would want to hurt you.”

“He was power hungry, and when he found I would rather be with another man, have another man’s baby, he lost it.”

Cain smiled. “I still can’t believe I’m going to be a grandfather.”

I squeezed Mark’s hand and bit my tongue. I wanted to tell him that he was not this baby’s grandfather. He was nothing to me. I wanted to slap his face until he understood I would never accept him as part of my family, but I knew I couldn’t do that.

Instead, I said, “Not if the Council of Magic comes after me.”

Cain tensed up at those words. “We can’t stay here. They’ll find you, and they’ll take you away or kill you. We have to leave, and you have to join the magic society, forgetting all of these wolves.”

“And what about the father of my baby? Do you honestly expect me to just leave him behind? I’m not you. I’m not going to abandon my child.” My words were filled with spite.

“I left to protect you. You should leave to protect your child too.”

“And what happens when they find my baby is part werewolf too? Do you think they are just going to accept that? This baby will be more werewolf than sorcerer. Do you really think they are going to overlook that fact? They don’t exactly seem like a forgiving group.”

Cain didn’t respond right away. He looked back and forth between Mark and myself.

Mark leaned forward. “Do you really want to ask Adira to do what you did? You gave her up to protect her, but it’s obvious you wish you would have had a chance to be a family with her. Now you suggest Adira leave her mate and child behind. If you could go back in time, wouldn’t you rather stay with your family and fight for them instead of hiding them away?”

Cain locked eyes with Mark. Something seemed to change in him in that moment. “I did what I thought was best at the time. I just wanted to protect everyone.”

“Would you choose the same thing now?” Mark asked. “Because I would rather fight and possibly die than lose my family.”

Cain looked back at me, and I saw pain in his eyes. “You’re not going to run, are you?”

“No.” My answer was firm. I refused to give Mark up just because someone else thought they could control me and my actions. “Which is why we need your help figuring out how to stop the Council of Magic.”