Pushing his snout against my nose, he looked over at Elijah and gave him the weakest smile he could muster.
Elijah stayed quiet for a few moments, brows furrowed together. “This is him?” he whispered, crouching next to me and holding out a hesitant hand.
After Jeremy pushed his snout against Elijah’s hand and licked it, Jeremy looked back at me. “Aurora,” he said through my mind link.
I stared at him with wide, teary eyes. His voice. Jeremy’s voice … it was the same. My lips trembled, and I collapsed to my knees, taking his paw in my hands and leaning my forehead against his. I hadn’t heard his voice in years … I’d thought I’d never hear it again.
Out of all the things that had changed, this part of him had stayed the same. And it was my favorite part. I closed my eyes to enjoy the moment with him, remembering all the times I had heard his voice before … when he used to sing me sweet little melodies about the Moon Goddess every night on the porch; when he helped me howl to the moon for the first time; when he told me one of Dad’s family war stories the night before the hound attack.
I’d thought I had lost those memories forever, but now, we could make some more. Whether he was stuck in wolf form or not, I didn’t care. I’d love him no matter the consequences or the struggles that came with him.
“How?” I asked through the mind link, brushing my fingers against the wound in his head that hadn’t closed yet, guilt washing over me. “How are you talking to me? Why didn’t you talk to me at the cave? I wouldn’t have hurt you.”
“The bite …” He gazed down on the bite mark in my wrist, and then he looked back through the foggy forest again. “I couldn’t talk to you without biting you.”
Ares slowly approached us with brows furrowed together. “Aurora …” He gazed down at Jeremy and grasped my shoulder. Though he didn’t pull me away, I could tell that he was ready to.
“Ares is your mate,” Jeremy said weakly, but his voice wasn’t filled with disappointment, like Mom’s and Dad’s had been. “I’m glad. He can protect you from what’s to come.”
My chest tightened, and I had the sudden urge to cry my eyes out. Jeremy approved of Ares. Someone in my family approved of my relationship with the savage, deadly, hurting alpha. And in that moment, the rumors and my parents’ approval didn’t matter to me anymore. Only Jeremy’s.
“You have to listen to me,” Jeremy said.
I stared at him in amazement. The feeling of him being with me was something I’d never thought I’d experience again. I brushed my hand over his ratty fur, wanting to help make him look better. I’d wash out all the dirt and the dried blood, making his coat nice and shiny, help heal his wounds.
“Aurora,” Jeremy said, more sternly this time, “they’re coming. You have to take the stone out of me. You—” He looked back through the woods, as if he’d heard something, with fear that hadn’t seemed to leave his face the entire time he’d been here. “You have to hurry, Aurora. Take the stone. Use it to heal yourself. You can’t let the hounds have it. You can’t let them take it from you either.”
I shook my head at him. “What are you talking about?”
Elijah tapped me on the back. “What is he saying?”
“They’re coming. There’s no stopping them,” Jeremy continued. “I tried.”
“Jeremy, who? What are you talking about?” I asked, scanning the forest for any signs of life other than the birds in the trees.
Elijah started to pace back and forth next to me, rubbing his palms together, probably feeling his mate’s anxiety.
“The hounds aren’t what you think they are. They’re more dangerous, and they’re coming for everyone … especially you.” Jeremy glanced over his shoulder and into the forest. “Aurora, we don’t have time. Take the stone out of me. They were following me.”
“No,” I said out loud. “It’ll kill you.”
Jeremy growled at me and bared his blunt teeth.
Ares stepped between us, but I pushed him away.
“Do it, Aurora,” Jeremy said, whimpering and submitting to Ares.
The Jeremy I had known never submitted to anyone. He was an alpha himself, not this broken wolf before me. Whatever he had been through this past decade must’ve been hell.
“Don’t let Tony have it or you. He’s betrayed our pack over and over, and … and he’s coming here. They all want you.”
“Let him try,” I said. “I’ll kill him.”
Jeremy growled at me again. “You’ll die. Everyone here will die. He’s coming with hounds.” He gazed back into the woods. “Aurora, you have to do it. You have to take the stone and survive. That is my only wish for you.”
From deep in the forest, I could hear the thunderous roar of paws hitting the ground. I swallowed hard, not wanting to believe it. Why were they coming for me, and why were they coming at all?
“Jeremy, no … there has to be another way.”
Pain was written all over his face. “I don’t want to live this life anymore,” he said, voice breaking. “Put me out of my misery and save your new pack. Lead the people who survived the hound attack and make sure they survive the ones to come.”
The ones to come.
He’d made it sound like a war that we couldn’t stop was approaching.
Tears welled up into my eyes, my heart aching more than it ever had in my entire life. Jeremy wanted to die. He didn’t want this life anymore. It had been taking a toll on him, and the only thing he wanted was for me to put him out of his torture.
More branches snapped in the woods, the rumbling becoming louder. I inhaled deeply and got a whiff of Tony’s putrid stench. He was here, just as Jeremy
