We Saved Two Werewolves And Now Our Possessive Mates Won’t Let Us Go Chapter 05
I met his glowing eyes and said quietly, “Jacob, does forcing me make you feel better?”
His breathing caught. The tail around my waist loosened a little, almost against his will.
“Keeping me here. Using a body that’s so much stronger than mine to pin me down so I can’t leave.”
“How is this any different from my father locking me in the attic, starving me, and forcing me to obey?”
“Jacob, is this how you’re proving your love?”
Jacob went completely still, like he’d been struck.
The heat in his eyes vanished.
Back when we were at our closest, I had told him about the worst parts of my past.
The nightmare I’d carry for the rest of my life.
My father was an alcoholic. Every night he came home drunk, beat me for no reason, and locked me in the attic until he sobered up.
The night I escaped, he nearly slit my throat with a shard of broken glass.
Fiona was the one who saved me. She got me out of that house.
“No, babe. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Jacob stepped back. The wolf ears that had risen from his head drooped instantly.
“I just… I was scared you’d leave.”
His hands hung uselessly at his sides. He looked completely lost.
Then there was a heavy bang at the door.
A second later, it burst open from the outside.
Fiona stood in the doorway, gripping a metal garden stake she’d ripped out of the yard, her face terrifyingly cold.
Hadrian was behind her, but he didn’t dare try to stop her.
“Jacob,” Fiona said, “get away from her.”
He didn’t move.
Fiona walked in and pulled me behind her.
“You wolves love to blame everything on your nature. But force is what it is.”
“Just because you can’t stand being left doesn’t mean you can force someone to stay.”
The light in Jacob’s eyes went out.
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Fiona took my hand.
“Let’s go.”
This time, neither of them tried to stop us.
—
Fiona took me away from Greyhaven to Lark Bay, a town by the sea.
It was a small place far from the North. The air always smelled of salt. There weren’t many tourists. It was the perfect place to disappear.
We rented a small cabin near the water.
It had white walls, blue window frames, and bluebells and rosemary growing in the yard.
Life slowed down all at once. We no longer had to live by pack rules or put up with the sideways looks of werewolves.
During the day, Fiona worked remotely for her research institute. I cooked, tidied the yard, and sometimes wandered into town to the bookstore or flower shop.
One evening, Fiona and I sat on the balcony watching the sea. The wind tugged at the hair by her ears.
Holding a mug of hot cocoa, I asked softly, “Fi, do you ever feel like I’m holding you back?”
She turned and looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“What melodrama are you running in your head now?”
My nose stung.
She turned back toward the sea, lit orange by the setting sun.
“Veronica, neither of us is holding the other back.”
“You were with me through the hardest part of my life. I’ll be with you through yours.”
I couldn’t help leaning my head against her shoulder.
“You’re too good to me.”
Fiona made a show of shoving my head away, but she didn’t really move me.
“Stop that.”
“And for the record, the Blackmoon Pack has been trying to find us. Hadrian hasn’t come himself, but his crew has been spotted around here twice in the last few days.”
I fell quiet.
It wasn’t just Hadrian. Jacob had been messaging me too.
At first, he called. I didn’t answer.
Then the texts started coming.
“My stitches are in.”
“I moved the rose you left at my place to the window.”
“V, I miss you.”
Sometimes he sent pictures too. Sometimes it was some ugly meal he’d made himself. Sometimes it was the matching mugs we’d bought together.
Every photo felt like a reminder that he hadn’t given up on us.
And I was finding it harder to let go of him than I’d expected.