Chapter Nine
1074 Words
Jordan’s POV
She came to the window, but she never lingered like she usually did. I only saw her face for a fraction of a second before she pulled the blinds close, anger written all over her features.
Even minutes after I could no longer see her, I remained by my window, staring at the closed blinds. Elara was upset, and it bounced off her in waves, travelling across the space to where I stood.
Sighing, I closed my eyes and leaned on the desk by the window. Didn’t the moon goddess think it was such a cruel fate to make my mate human?
My door cracked open behind me, but my mother didn’t come in. At least, not yet. I heard her slow sigh before she pushed in, closing the door behind her.
“Jordan…”
“Not now, Mom.”
She sighed again before walking around, coming to stand by my side. “Son,” she started, reaching for me. Her hand fell limply to her side when I pulled away from the window abruptly, moving further into my room.
“Jordan, that was bound to happen at some point,” she continued, regardless. “I warned you to stay away from her. What if she had come one minute later and found you both fighting in your wolf forms?”
“That wouldn’t have happened,” I murmured, pulling out a document from my closet. “Adrian and I … we need to stop talking about Elara and send a message instead to the Lycan chairman. He told us the land has been unclaimed for a while, so what the hell is a Blackwater Pack doing in here?”
“Jordan…”
“Or don’t you think that is more important, Mom?”
“You are furious, and I get it, but I’m not the one you should be angry at.” She raised her voice a notch, and I resisted the urge to use my Alpha powers on her. I needed her gone. I needed to think. I needed to see Elara.
And these feelings could not co-exist inside of me without me needing a crash out.
“Mom, the Blackwater Pack…. Adrien…”
“You are not just upset because their Alpha paid you a visit.” She paused, angling her head as her eyes searched my face. She had always been able to read me so easily since I was a kid, and even though I hated to admit it, nothing had changed.
“It has something to do with Elara, doesn’t it?”
I sighed, tossing the documents onto the bed and turning to face her. The words were hard to put out, as my lips parted and closed shut in a second. Shaking my head, I moved back to the window, grabbed the only chair there and plopped down on it.
My mother sat on the edge of the bed, her hand placed delicately on her thighs, waiting.
We could be here for hours. I didn’t have hours.
“He knows she is my mate, Mom,” I whispered, staring into her eyes. “And I have a strong feeling that he is not going to let it go.”
Her lips moved, but nothing came out. Still, I could read her unsaid words from her eyes. This wasn’t a great situation.
“She’s not safe,” my mother murmured, shaking her head. “If Adrian sees you two get close, he is going to use her against you.”
“It’s too late, Mom. He already knows.”
“He thinks,” she cuts in. “All he has seen is you defend her and push her into your home at the start of a fight. If you just stay away from her…. You should be fine.”
I shook my head insistently as I got on my feet again. It was hard remaining in one spot, not when all of me wanted to throw my fist into something, preferably Adrien’s face.
“I can’t stay away from her,” I muttered exasperatedly. “It’s … she is right across the window from me. Right there!”
“Then we move.” She said it like it was that simple, like if roles were reversed and my father had happened to be human, she would have easily packed her bags and moved.
A scoff escaped my lips. “Right.”
“Jordan…”
“You know what? You can leave. Take Corvin, Isaac and the rest of the pack with you. I am not going to abandon Elara to chance.”
“Don’t you get it?” she whispered, rising from the bed and crossing the space until she was right in front of her. Her hand touched my cheek as she urged me softly to look at her. “You know it as well as I do, Jordan, that Elara has a better chance of being safe if you just let her go.”
And that was the problem. I knew deep down that the Blackwater Pack were already snooping around, looking for a weakness. A way to frustrate and drive us out of their territory.
Elara was a weakness.
“Okay,” I breathed.
“Okay?” she angled her head, regarding me intently.
“I’ll… I’ll keep her safe, Mom. I’ll stay away.”
I waited till she was out of my room before I looked out the window again. Her blinds were still closed. But that wasn’t what got me peering.
It was the large wolf at the corner of their building, with a brown coat and matching eyes, watching their entrance. My feet moved without a thought, but before I reached the door, I stopped myself, pressing my heels to the ground.
Adrian was not going to hurt her as long as I stayed away. It was that simple.
Saying the words like a mantra, I returned inside and grabbed the documents, retrieving the one sent over by the Lycan chairman for the official declaration of territories.
Throwing it on the desk, I pushed it away from the window, back to its original position, closed my blinds and got working on filling the form.
Loud growls sounded behind me, but not once did I move, even though it killed me not to do so.
I was making the right decision, keeping Elara safe, but why didn’t it feel that way?
- Writer
