Chapter 33

Jaxson

I balance my fork on my fingertip, noticing that as time passes, Aurora has yet to return to the table. I know her nerves probably got the better of her but after Ann returns from the washroom with a somber shake of her head, it’s apparent she has no intention of coming back to the table tonight.

Everything was going great, other than her feeling sick, but that doesn’t mean she should leave this event without letting me know how she felt. I wouldn’t have mind taking her up to bed and then returning to play nice with my constituents but to just up and leave without a second word to me, to my father, it makes me a little mad.

I aim to find her, walking through the busy room, someone stopping me with a light tug of my arm. Stella stands in a miniature, far-too-short dress of beige sequins and she offers me a grin, tucking her light brown hair behind her pale, bejeweled ear.

“Stella, have you seen Aurora? I can’t seem to find her.”

“I saw her leave the washroom a while ago,” she says, her smile drooping. “I think she looked upset. This isn’t really her ideal place, is it? She looked so uncomfortable.”

I shake my head, not wanting everyone to know the truth that I know. She hates being seen, being looked at, because it means she is being judged. She didn’t want that. I didn’t want that. I brought her here to keep her as mine before our mating ceremony and instead, she is wound up in thrashed into trouble or unnecessarily judged.

“I was wondering if I could have a dance with you, prince Jaxson?” she asks, her demure voice breaking my worried thoughts over Aurora.

I wave her away, stepping back as she tries to take my hands for a waltz. I stop her immediately. “No, Stella, I can’t. I have to find Aurora right now.”

“Well, how about after, then?”

I can’t hide the frustration on my face anymore. “I know you have wanted something to work out between us, and I entertained the idea for a minute in time, but I’ve found my mate, Stella. I can’t dance with other woman, it’s disrespectful to our union.”

“I heard she kissed another male,” she says, stopping me from turning and leaving the ballroom. I look down at here with a heavy glare. She only grins. “I heard she wasn’t even a virgin when you met her and since you’ve marked her, Xander had his way with her too. She isn’t a royal, prince Jaxson. She is a tart, and you can’t mate a person like that as an Alpha.”

It takes everything I have in me to not strangle her.

“Where did hear such atrocious, vicious lies?” I snarl.

She tries to appear meek, blinking her long, fake eyelashes at me now. “It’s all rumors, prince Jaxson, but you know that at least some of those have to be true. You need a Luna that belongs, that knows our lifestyle and fits it well. Let’s face it, that’s not her. She isn’t a royal. She is just some commoner.”

“I would rather have a commoner as a mate, then a stuck-up, spoiled, beta’s brat as an excuse for a Luna,” I growl.

The look of shock says it all and I leave satisfied, pushing out of the ballroom and into a hallway, checking the crowds of people for that long, white hair and beautiful, lavender-blue eyes. I spot Luke coming up behind me, his eyes searching the hall as well, and he motions down one hallway while I nod in the direction of the other.

We split up, looking into spare rooms, asking women to check the washrooms, but I can’t even catch a whiff of her scent anywhere in the palace right now. I try to reach through the link, but I hit a wall each time. She doesn’t let me in, doesn’t respond, and even with my power to break through the wall anyways, I can’t seem to.

I run my hand through my hair, my hands shaking, seeing a door cracked open that leads outside. I aim to pull the door closed, the night air cold and pushing through the hall, but something catches my eyes. A light pink dress in the distance makes my heart stop.

I throw the door open, hearing the glass shatter, and not giving a damn. Once I’m with her, I can see she is pale, her breathing so staggered I mistake it for missing. I pull her up, watching her hang limp in my forearms, her body weightless— lifeless.

She doesn’t even react to my touch.

I hold her to my chest, needing her to feel my warmth, but she doesn’t respond. It makes my heart hurt, my cheeks dripping with cold, plentiful tears. I press myself to her, trying to warm her up, but her entire body is unresponsive to my touch.

I hear steps approach, Luke and his mate rushing up behind me.

“What happened? Where is she hurt?” Luke asks.

I shake my head, already looking over every inch of her body and not finding a single wound that wasn’t there before. Mary kneels beside Aurora, her eyes wide at the sight of her so limp. She brushes her fingertips across her lips, shaking the feeling off seconds later, pulling her hand up to the moonlight for us to see her skin pink and irritated.

“Stings,” she says, her voice quiet and shy. “It’s poison.”

“Poison?” I growl. “Are you sure?”

“I may have dabbled in my own potions and poisons once.” She shakes her head, assessing her fingertips again, still burning red with heat. “This is a blood poison. It’s meant to kill slowly but it’s not incurable.”

“Tell me how to fix it,” I say, begging. “And hurry, she’s stopped breathing.”

Luke holds her head up while I let her back rest in the grass, Mary reaching for a twig of some kind nearby, peeling the bark off of the tiny wood chip. She reaches for my hand, and I oblige, letting her take my finger in her hold. She stabs it with the wood stick and small, minuet drop of blood pokes up out of the hole.

“Here,” Mary hums, pulling my finger to Aurora’s lips, letting it brush over the lower bottom of her perfect mouth before making my finger drag a trail of blood on the inside of her lips, grazing her gums and teeth.

“What is this doing?” I ask, confused and holding my whimpering wolf.

“It’s the blood of a royal,” she says, as if I am supposed to know what that means. “With the blue moon out, you’re so much stronger, and that means you might be able to hone some healing qualities.”

She drops my hand and I wipe away the blood, Luke letting Aurora’s head fall sideways in the soft grass. I cover my mouth with my hand, trying to keep from screaming, from begging her life to return, but I watch as the marks on her face heal in a matter of seconds. The cuts, the bruises, they dissipate, and her features heal back to normal, under five minutes.

She inhales a stocky breath, the air filling her chest, then the life fills her body. She lays sideways, coughing, gagging to breathe, and I have to hold back from wanting to squeeze her so tight to keep her alive and against my chest.

She embraces me back, seizing every new breath with a struggle.

“I— I—” she says, trying to form words.

I shake my head, holding her in my lap. “Shh, no, Aurora. Don’t speak. Save your energy, please, sweetheart.”

She refuses to listen, always so hard-headed, and tries to talk anyways. “They want me dead,” is all she can manage, gasping horribly.

My fury rises with her words.

I grit my teeth, speaking through a locked jaw. “Who said that?”

“Everyone,” she breathes, her eyes closed shut, her body limp. “Every—”

She goes limp again but at least she is breathing. I hold her to my chest, needing her to stay warm, her body lazily hanging in my grasp. Luke holds a hand over his mouth, in shock, the same as me. I don’t know how she got a hold of poison, or why should drink it, but I know I have to fix this.

After Xander took her, she didn’t speak to me for weeks.

After this incident she might reject me.

I can’t allow that to happen, and I can’t let her sit here and suffer for her lineage.

Closing my eyes, I force my way into the link, holding her so close against my chest I can feel her little, warm breaths against my neck. I focus hard, looking deep, until I finally spot the moment someone approached her and offered her a metal flask.

I’m dumbfounded that she took it, but I can hear the doubts in her mind overwhelm her. She is focused too hard on the faults he laid out, along with some spiteful bitches in the washroom, and she wanted to relax, even if it meant taking a chance on some stranger’s offer.

She’s too naïve.

“Damn,” I breathe, shaking my head. I pull back, Luke waiting with wide, concerned eyes.

“What happened? What did she take? Did you see who did this?” He asks an array of questions, each of them more specific than the last.

I let her rest back in the grass, falling lazily on her side, unaware and unresponsive the mess that has been created tonight. “I don’t recognize the guard, but he was in uniform,” I admit. “There’s something else I need to address,” I say, hearing the voices in the washroom judge my mate outright. It’s not just insulting, it’s undermining. It could also be motive to kill her.

“She isn’t safe here,” Luke says, his eyes stuck on her tired face.

I nod, unfortunately agreeing. “But she isn’t safe without me,” I reply. “I have to be here.”

He seems to think otherwise, his eyes rolling as he peers aside.

“What was that for?”

“You were here all night and, well, it didn’t seem to help.” He says, motioning over her curled up, unconscious state.

My wolf wants to growl but I hold back, not wanting to bite into him a second time in front of his weary mate. “I haven’t exactly had time to screen every single member of my pack to ensure they don’t hate commoners,” I grumble. I don’t tell him that it’s practically impossible to do so. We have hundreds of royals in the pack. Almost all of them seem to hold at least a little disgust of my mate her kind.

“Well, you will have time to figure it out,” he says, moving quick and scooping Aurora up in his arms. It’s a bold move, one that makes us both stand quick. I size him up, ready to rip her away from him, but Mary steps between us. He’s lucky his mate is here. Too fucking lucky. “She’s going home, with us,” he says simply.

My brow furrows. “You are not taking my mate anywhere.”

He adjusts her to his chest, keeping her close, the sight making me furious. “Look at it this way. Whoever did this, thinks she is dead now. So, if you let me take away into hiding, you can get a real good look at who is behind this attempt.”

I swallow hard, his idea decently thought out, but I can’t leave her.

I can’t leave her with him, more importantly.

“I will fix this,” I gripe, “and she will stay here.”

“She will die,” he snaps. “I won’t let that happen. She goes into hiding with me and Mary. We will keep her unseen while you try to fix things out here but it’s obvious, Jaxson. Commoners aren’t safe here. Even if they’re the future Luna.”

My wolf is snapping at me constantly, ready to rip her from his hands, but he makes a good point. She isn’t safe here. The sooner I fix this, the sooner she can live here in peace. I will start tonight.

I push past his mate, kissing Aurora’s temple, taking in a long inhale while I try to memorize her scent and keep it in my bloodstream as long as possible.

“I’ll be with you soon, sweetheart,” I breathe into her scalp. I stand straighter, facing Luke and Mary who hooks onto his side as he holds her in his arms. “Take care of her. I’ll come for her when I fix this.”

With that, he nods, turning away with my mate, slipping out the back of the palace like none of them were here to begin with. I double check my surroundings, not a soul watching, and I know that means I have to make an announcement tonight.

I’ll start with my father. It will be the most difficult discussion ever.