“It’s okay,” she said, stopping him.
“No, it’s not. You’re limping,” Caiden said, looking down at Valerie’s feet.
“You’re what?” I demanded, bending down to examine her feet.
“It’s nothing. I’m just not used to walking on concrete barefooted. It isn’t bad, but I’ve stepped on a rock or two. It’s dark and I can’t…”
I cut her off by scooping her into my arms. “Caiden, go find her shoes. We’ll wait in my office for you.”
“Yes, Sir,” he said, turned, and ran in the direction of one of the clothing stores. Everyone in town was downtown. Surely, he would be able to get inside one and get Valerie some shoes.
“You should have said something,” I said, not hiding my snarl.
“I didn’t think about it until I got a pebble in my heel.”
I shook my head at my ignorance and headed for my office building. The holding cells were in the basement, but we would wait in the front office for Caiden and the others I planned to summon before talking to the kids. I was afraid that in the state I was in, I might harm them if I confronted them alone.
38.
~~Valerie~~
Once at his office building, I opted not to go downstairs with Jackson and his people to interrogate the shifters who’d burned my store. Yes, the kids could have killed Azure and me, but I started to feel as if dealing with them was pack business and something they should handle on their own. I also feared that the kids would clam up if they saw me…saw Jackson’s protective stance over me.
Jackson had tried to argue with me, to insist that I was part of the pack; therefore, I had every right to be there when they talked to the kids. I almost gave in to him, but the instant we entered the building, a few of the kids started yelling up at us, and the sound of them frightened me. They called out threats, profanities, and more. I just couldn’t bring myself to go down there and listen to them blame me for the deaths of those they loved.
Jackson tried to use his alpha voice to silence them. The voice hadn’t worked, though. Most of them no longer saw him as their alpha, so they didn’t fear any repercussions of disobeying him. I promised him that I was fine waiting where I was in the outer office even though my entire purpose of coming with him was to hear their story.
“I can hear them from here,” I told him when he pointed that fact out to me. “I don’t have to be down there with them.”
Stephanie stayed with me, on Jackson’s orders. She was to make sure I didn’t leave the sofa he’d sat me on to examine my feet. He might have even requested that I nap, but after a head injury, that wasn’t a good idea.
She and I talked while Jackson and a large group of beings went downstairs to interrogate the kids. She didn’t ask me if I saw the mark on Jackson’s hand, which I had while the healers had worked on my head.
She had seen it the second she had entered the office and beamed. My mark was in full view as well, but his mark was the one no one mentioned. Every being that had entered the room and shook hands with Jackson had seen his mark. He hadn’t acknowledged it, though.
No one commented on how he was suddenly speaking to me. I wanted to talk about that. I also wanted to know why when Mrs. Rose entered twenty minutes after we arrived, an elderly woman I didn’t know and who held Ms. Talia magically restrained followed her.
Jackson, who had come back to the outer office when he’d heard them come in, looked both furious and sad when they brought Ms. Talia into the office. He and his Aunt had a few quick words, but the two women only gave me a passing glance before escorting Ms. Talia down to the cells. All anyone told me on that matter was that Ms. Talia’s crime could wait another day.
By that point, there were so many people in the building that all Jackson was able to do was smile at me, as he followed them back downstairs.
Stephanie and I’s conversations were sporadic due to the things she wouldn’t or couldn’t talk to me about and due to the all of the yelling coming from below us.
I got the gist of the kids’ story, though. When I’d used what one of the boys called “my alpha voice” on them that day at the bookstore, they knew I had mated an alpha. They didn’t then, and still didn’t at the time of their detainment, know that Jackson was the alpha I’d mated. I’m sure some of them had figured things out, though.
They said a group of beings, mostly weres, who were staying in the woods outside of Greenleaf had overheard them talking about me and discussing the possible mating. They convinced the kids that I was one of the humans who’d started the plague, something that they had also heard others say. The group didn’t have a difficult time convincing the kids that the only way to prevent more people from dying was to kill me.
At hearing that, I told Stephanie that I thought I should go back home so that I didn’t put any more people in danger. She got up and shut the door leading down to the holding cells, then shook her head at me.
“Do you think Jackson will let you go now that he has finally owned up to the mating?” she asked in a low voice.
“If that’s what’s good for all of you, yes.”
“You’re wrong. You leaving isn’t what’s good for our people. If rumors like that are what are circulating amongst our people, then you have to stay. You have to help prove those rumors wrong. Besides, the way he’s been looking at you since I’ve arrived, I’m surprised he’s down there without you.”
My face flushed, and I looked down at my palm.
An hour or so later, the group returned to the outer office, talked amongst themselves for a bit, then dispersed. Most went home to get some rest, others went out looking for the group the kids had mentioned, and Mrs. Rose, Stephanie, and Jackson remained with me.
“What’s going to happen to the kids?” I asked from the doorway to the holding cells. I couldn’t bring myself to go down there. I didn’t want to look at the faces of the people who had nearly killed Azure.
“Council soldiers will be here in a day or so to take them to Valeterra City where they will stand trial,” Mrs. Rose said. At my shocked expression, she said, “They won’t kill them. Too many of our people have died for us to go killing each other. They’ll go to a work camp for the next five years or so.”
I nodded.
“What about Talia?” Jackson asked.
“The Coven leaders will come for her as well. You’ll probably be asked to testify if they aren’t willing to take Myrtle’s word for everything,” Mrs. Rose said.
“What did Talia do?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you everything later,” Jackson said, coming to me and wrapping me in his arms. He turned me away from the stairs and shut the door.
“You should say your goodbyes to Azure now. I want to leave immediately,” Mrs. Rose said, heading for the front door.
“What goodbyes? Is something wrong?” I asked and all but jerked myself from Jackson’s arms. Caiden had brought me shoes, so I had no problems running back to the healing center if they were trying to take her away from me.
“She’s fine,” Jackson said, steadying me.
“Then why…” I asked.
“I’m taking her back to Valeterra City with me. We have the best healers, and she’s the proof we need to convict those children. Our Council will be upset that the fire had harmed you, but they’ll be angrier that one of our children nearly died,” Mrs. Rose said.
“You’ll bring her back, won’t you?”
“Yes. Azure won’t be gone any more than about a month.”
I wasn’t happy about that, but as long as they weren’t taking her away from me for good, I would accept it. A month would give me time to find another place for us to live, another occupation so that I could support her, and allow Jackson and me time to figure out our relationship, once he explained why he’d been ignoring our mating.
“I want to see her now,” I said to Jackson.
He nodded, took my hand, and went straight to the door.
When we were back at the healing center
, Azure was awake but barely. One of the healers was trying to convince her that changing would help her feel better right that moment and while on the road. When she saw me, she burst into tears, and I rushed to hold her.
“You’re okay,” I whispered into her hair.
“I thought something had happened to you,” she said through her sobs. “They kept telling me I’m going to Valeterra City with Grandma Rose, but nothing about you.”
“I’m okay, but you do have to go with your grandmother. You’ll be home soon, though, I promise.”
“I can come back to live with you, can’t I?” she asked.
“Absolutely. I don’t know where we’ll be living, but yes.”
“We need her to shift,” one of the healers told me. “If she shifts, her bones will finish resetting, she’ll heal faster, and the drive won’t be so hard on her.”
I nodded.
Before I could say anything to Azure, though, she said, “I was going to shift. I just wanted to know that you were okay first. Promise you’ll be here when I get back?”
“I promise. I love you.” I kissed her on the forehead before helping her discretely disrobe so that she could shift properly.
I petted her and carried her out to Mrs. Rose’s waiting vehicle. Mrs. Rose promised me that Azure would be all right and that she would return her to me as soon as she could.
Jackson held me as they drove away. I refused to cry.
39.
~~~Valerie~~~
Once Mrs. Rose and Azure were gone, Jackson and I walked with Stephanie back to Jackson’s office where she got into her car and drove away. By that point in the night, I was tired and not paying attention to where Jackson was leading me when he directed me away from his office.
The second the shell of my bookstore came into view, I started to cry. Jackson scooped me into his arms, and I buried my head in his shoulder. I didn’t notice that the building he entered was across the street from the bookstore until he sat me on my feet just inside of an apartment door. From that spot right inside the door, I could see across the studio apartment to the double doors that led out to a balcony in which I was familiar with.
“Why are we in Nick’s apartment,” I asked, turning to watch him bolt the lock and switch on a few lights.
He froze mid-flip of the main room’s light. He didn’t say a word only looked at me with surprise and chagrin.
“Say something,” I ordered, though I understood what he wasn’t saying. With all that had happened that night, I hadn’t paid that much attention to the sound of his voice, and I wanted to hear it again to know for sure.
“Valerie, I…”
“You’re Nick aren’t you? So all of this time you’ve just been pretending that you couldn’t speak to me while we were in public. Why? What kind of game are you playing here? You’re my mate. I’ve seen the mark. I don’t know why it wasn’t there before today, but it’s clearly there,” I said, pointing to his hand and the mark. “Why would you treat me that way? You’re supposed to love me, not humiliate me.”
Tears I didn’t even know I had in me started streaming down my face at the shame.
“Valerie, no, stop crying. I can explain,” he said, scooping me into his arms again and carrying me toward the bedroom and the bathroom attached to it. I didn’t fight him. I was too tired to fight. I was too tired to argue. I was too tired to do anything. I wanted him despite the deception. I knew that once I’d had my cry, I’d forgive him. We could start over from that night and let the last month or so be a blurry memory.
“Please explain,” I said when he sat me on the toilet.
“I’m going to.” He stepped away from me and over to a large, freestanding, oval bathtub. He turned on the faucet, and the tub began to fill with hot water.
“I was under a spell. Around the same time you arrived, Talia put a spell on me to keep me from being able to speak to you. That’s why Rose and Myrtle took her to the holding cells tonight. Before the fire, Rose and Myrtle were at my house trying to see if they could break the spell or find out who had cast it to force them to break it.”
As he spoke, he began pouring different things into the water. I smelled lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, and others I couldn’t identify. I could tell that he didn’t know what he should put in the water, and since I didn’t either, I let him pour. The smell that came from the water was soothing, so it didn’t matter.
“Why would she do that?” I asked.
“Ever since my wife died, Talia’s made it clear that she has feelings for me. She’s never pushy or overly flirty. She’s just made sure I knew she was willing to be there for me and love me, which I told her I appreciated, but since we weren’t mates, I could never have feelings for her. I guess when she found out you were coming, she feared that I would fall for you, and she was right to fear that.”
“But you didn’t fall for me,” I said, drowsily.
“I did. I fell for you the instant Stephanie showed me your picture. I didn’t want to fall for you. I wanted to wallow in my grief for my wife for as long as the rest of my people have to wallow in theirs for their loved ones, but I knew that I couldn’t take the chance you would mate with someone else, so I invited you here.”
“But…”
I couldn’t say anything else. His words brought back memories of when I first saw his photo. The emotions I’d felt for him even then were strong. I took comfort in knowing he’d felt the same upon seeing me.
“I didn’t realize at first that something was off,” he said before I could say more. “It wasn’t until we touched, and I knew I had marked you that I knew something wasn’t right between us. I wanted to say something then but couldn’t. You had just arrived in Greenleaf. I worried that if I mated you so soon, I would traumatize you. After I had marked you, I wanted to explain everything to you. When I realized I couldn’t, I had a witch mask my mark. The deception was just supposed to last long enough for you to get acquainted with this world. I didn’t want to bring you here, mate you, and then explain something was wrong with the mating all in your first week here.”
“You should have come to me,” I said, watching as he stepped back to me while removing his shirt.
“Yes, I should have come to you,” he said, resigning himself to the fact that hiding the mark hadn’t been a good idea. He knelt down in front of me to remove my shoes and socks.
“I panicked. I was scared that you would run home if you felt pressured into something you didn’t want. Then there was the whole ‘I couldn’t speak to you’ aspect. This type of mating is new to me, and I handled it poorly.”
“But you were able to talk to me,” I said, as he tossed the items aside and lifted me from the toilet seat.
“The part where as Nick I was able to talk to you, I don’t completely understand. Not being a wizard, I didn’t pay enough attention to spells in school. Myrtle says that our mating found a way around the curse because I was pretending to be someone else, though I wasn’t intentionally pretending. When you didn’t recognize me, I discovered I could talk to you, so I introduced myself as Nick, an abbreviated version of my last name.”
“Oh…” I said, letting him pull my shirt over my head. The steam and smells coming from the tub had me so relaxed that I didn’t immediately realize that he was disrobing us both.
“I had them remove the spell hiding my mark tonight and had planned on coming to you with the truth tomorrow after we broke the ‘not being able to talk to you’ spell. I never meant for you to feel unwanted…unloved. Raise your leg.”
Startled, I focused my gaze on him, only to realize that he was kneeling before my nearly naked body asking me to lift my leg so that he could remove my sweat pants. I immediately began to panic. I was standing in front of him completely nude. All of my rolls, stretch marks, not so perky breasts, unshaved legs were on display for him. I stepped out of the pants while at the same time trying to cover myself.
“Don’t do that,” he said, standing and pushing my arms to
the side. “Never be ashamed to show me your body.”
I stammered to say something, but before I could, he touched me. He reached up with one hand and pulled my hair from the clip that held it up. With the other, he cupped my cheek, leaned in, and kissed me lightly on the lips.
The kiss was soft, sweet, and explosive. I leaned into Jackson, hoping that he would deepen it, but he didn’t. He pulled away from me, took my hand and led me over to the tub. He turned off the water and lifted me in his arms. He stepped into the tub and lowered us both into the water. Immediately, the soothing heat and oils washed over me, as we sank nearly to our chins.
“This feels wonderful,” I said, sighing with pleasure. I tried to shift out of Jackson’s grip, fearing that he was uncomfortable with me in his lap, but he held me tight.
“Good. A nice long soak in this should help your body relax and heal,” Jackson said, opening his legs so that he could cradle me better and so that more of my body sank under the water.
I laid my head against his chest and closed my eyes, wanting nothing more than to fall asleep to the feel of him running his hands over my body. He let me lie that way for a long time before shifting me so that I could lie back in the water to wet my hair. I worried about my wounds, but he assured me that they were fine and that the water and shampoo he was going to use wouldn’t bother them.
Never in my adult life had I ever had someone wash my hair for me. Even if I had, I don’t think it would have been as erotic as the way Jackson did it. The way he massaged my scalp, brushed his fingers through my hair, and rinsed every inch clean, had my body aching for him to touch more of me.
The hair washing was nothing, though, compared to the way he washed my body. I was all right with the way he washed my face, neck, and arms to get the remaining dirt and ash off me. The way he washed my breasts was not innocent. He used both hands on them instead of just the one holding the cloth. I arched into him. I all but purred because his touch was soft and sensual.
Marked (Valeterra Series Book 1) Page 16
