Zodiac Aligned

39

"I'll try, but I am a Leo, after all." He pulled back and touched the moonstone necklace. "I should give this back to you."

"No. Keep it." I rested my hand over it, knowing it would protect him, and feeling unexpectedly pleased that a part of me would be with him still. "Roxandra is still out there. I injured her, but I didn't kill her, unfortunately. She might come for you again."

He nodded and then turned to Kaden. They clasped hands and locked eyes, some understanding passing between them. "Keep her safe."

"Always," Kaden said.

Jordan headed back inside to speak to his mother, and Kaden and I watched him go. I leaned against my mate, feeling his solid presence beside me, as the sun began to set.

"It seems like the two of you are getting along better," I said.

“We had some things to work out,” Kaden admitted.

"Oh yeah?"

He took a piece of my hair that was blowing in the breeze and pushed it behind my ear. “I admitted that I'd hated him because he was a Leo and the son of the man who killed my parents. Not to mention, all the horrible things he did to you. But mostly, because I knew you could never truly be mine while Jordan was your mate."

I nodded, trying not to interrupt him. Kaden had been burned before by mate bonds when Eileen—his childhood love—had been mated to the beta of the Sagittarius pack. He'd refused to be with me for a long time out of fear that I would be unable to resist the bond tying me to Jordan. Even after we learned Jordan was my brother, he'd still been afraid, worried that I wouldn't be able to fight the magic.

"But now the mate bond is broken, and everything is different," Kaden said. "And he and I... We have an understanding. We've made peace. I don't think we'll ever be friends, but we're not enemies anymore either."

“That’s better than I ever hoped for," I said, before pressing a kiss to his lips. "Now let's go home."

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Once we returned to Toronto, I packed my things and said goodbye to the Libras, after giving Ethan a quick run-down of everything that had happened. Larkin opted to come with us to Coronis, though I could see it pained her to leave Toronto, which she'd grown fond of during her time on Earth. Or maybe it was a certain person in Toronto she'd grown fond of.

The drive to the Ophiuchus village in Manitoba took a few days, but everyone in the pack was eager to return. The pack had left Coronis about six months earlier to go into hiding after the Leo attack, when Jordan had taken me prisoner. Then we'd had to move again after some of the Ophiuchus had betrayed us to the Sun Witches, putting the pack in danger once more. We were grateful to the Libras for offering us a safe haven during that time, but the city would never be our home, and we longed for the dense forest filled with the smells of deer and moose, and the sounds of birds chirping and leaves rustling in the breeze.

As we entered the pack lands, I opened my window and breathed in the frosty air. The feeling that I was really home sank into me with a surety that hadn’t existed before. I was a true member of the Ophiuchus pack, and no one could take that away from me. Not even Kaden.

"We're home," Kaden said, as he stopped the car outside his house. There was no mistaking the relief in his voice.

The large house loomed before us, surrounded by pure white snow that glittered under the waning moon, untouched by anything except the tracks of our car. I took in the familiar dark wood and cool stone, along with the trees that circled the house like an embrace. I’d learned how to fight in this forest. I'd cried for hours in my bedroom, thinking Wesley was dead. I’d gone through my first heat with Kaden in the living room. So many memories, and so many more that I wanted to make now that we were back.

"It's good to be back," Stella said, as she grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

Kaden opened it and the two of them stepped inside the house, while Larkin hesitated with her bag on the front porch. I hefted my own bag over my shoulder and joined her.

“Thank you again for letting me stay with you,” she said, sounding grateful.

"We're happy to have you," I said, giving her arm a squeeze. "You're family."

The inside of the house looked the same as when I'd left it, and I caught Larkin gazing up at the vaulted ceilings and huge windows that showed off the forest outside. Tomorrow we'd spend some time cleaning and restocking the kitchen, but right now we were all exhausted after hours on the road, and we just needed to crash. “I’ll show you where your room is,” Stella said to Larkin. “It might be a bit dusty, but if it makes you feel better, literally everything is dusty.”

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Larkin said, and trailed Stella up the stairs.

I picked up my bag to follow them, wondering what they'd done with my room after the Leo pack had taken me. They'd thought I was a traitor at first. Had they thrown out all my stuff? Not that I'd had much, of course. I still didn't, although the few things I called my own, like my camera and my Moon Witch cloak, I cherished.

When I got to the second-floor landing and headed for my room, Kaden wrapped his hand around my arm.

“No," he said.

Before I could ask what he meant, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, then headed for his room. The one I'd once been forbidden from entering.

As he slammed the door shut behind us, I let out a shriek, dropping my bag. "What are you doing?"