Chapter 20
*****
*Jayden’s POV*
“Jay…”
My fingers stopped moving when she spoke. I never left home for trips more than a day without my guitar. On this trip, it was proving to be a lifesaver as it constantly kept me distracted.
“Yes?” I smiled at Izabella.
She shut the door and then took a seat on my bed not far from me, her legs crossed in front of her.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I got beat up.” I shrugged. “Not a human, though. Don’t be too concerned.”
I gave a light-hearted grin, but she just stared at me in concern before focusing on my neck. Her eyes were full of pity, and I hated that. I had let the scar show because I figured everyone knew about it now that Corey did, and I had run out of concealer anyway. It wasn’t too bad; it had faded over the years. No one noticed it. Corey was quite observant when he was drunk.
“Your scars don’t disappear…”
“Yes. Um, you get why not,” I said.
The stronger a wolf was, the faster they healed. My scar wasn’t close to disappearing even though it had faded a lot. A couple more years maybe?
“Well…”
I watched as she pushed up her sleeve.
“You know what my blood does…” She held out her wrist.
My eyes widened. Was she serious? She noticed my reaction.
“It’ll make you stronger –” she began to add.
“No. No way! You want Sean to kill me?” Not to mention Corey. “And I don’t… I don’t bite people. I can’t hurt you. How could I even drink –?”
“It doesn’t hurt me. I have plenty more, Jayden. I’ll heal. Just have a little and –” she was saying.
“No!” I cut her off.
“Don’t you want to heal?” she asked.
I opened my mouth but paused at her raised eyebrows. Yes. Obviously, yes. But I didn’t want to hurt her. The idea of drinking another person’s blood as well was just mind-boggling.
“It’s fine, Jayden. You won’t be hurting me. You’ll be a lot stronger, and it only wears off after five or so years. Your face must hurt right now. It’s just a bit of blood.”
I shook my head slowly, and she sighed.
“You’ll be able to get everyone off your back. You want that, right?”
I considered it as I stared at her wrist, ignoring my instinct to refuse. She was right. I wanted what she was offering so badly. Of course, I wanted to be stronger and heal faster… but I didn’t want to harm her.
“You-you promise this won’t hurt you?” I asked, meeting her eyes.
“I promise.” She smiled.
I glanced back down at her wrist while inhaling deeply, trying to calm my nerves.
“Alright.”
——
*Corey’s POV*
“Are you serious right now?!”
I frowned as my beer was taken from me.
“Really? Corey?” Trent threw the bottle into the bin.
“I paid for that.” I glared at him.
“I forgot your kind can’t compel.” He smirked, causing my glare to deepen, his smirk broke into a laugh.
“Why the fuck are you here?” I asked, completely annoyed.
He frowned. “You’re not much fun when you’re not completely sober or wasted,” he stated.
I sighed, turning around and signalling to the female bartender. “Hey, Beautiful,” I smiled as she reached us.
The black-haired girl smiled back at me. “Hey. What can I get you, boys?” she asked.
“A –” I began.
“Just water. That will be all,” Trent cut me off.
“Water? You could have gotten that at a grocery store.”
I chuckled at her reply.
“Or a tap,” I added. She laughed. “He’s not much fun,” I explained.
“Mmm, but I bet you are…” She ran her eyes over me and back to mine, biting her lip.
I chuckled leaning my arms onto the bar as my attention shifted away from Trent.
“Would you –” I began.
“So, this is why you get paid? To tell customers to go buy drinks elsewhere?”
I rolled my eyes as she frowned at Trent, her eyes shifting to the man who had served me earlier. Her manager. He was too far to hear us talk.
“Water, thank you, Love,” Trent said, giving her a tight smile.
“Coming up.” She rolled her eyes at him but gave me another wink before walking towards the fridges.
I turned to Trent, annoyed. “What the hell is your problem?”
“You are. What has gotten into you? I would have thought you were out looking for the guy that beat up your mate, but no, you’re looking for another random hookup,” he said.
I snorted. “Excuse me, but all of you need to back off. He isn’t your mate, and I don’t care about him.”
Of course, that was a lie considering that I had come to the bar to drown out my growing need to protect him and the anger I felt when Finn was near him. I was utterly frustrated that I really did want to find the person who hurt him but had no place to start looking, frustrated that I couldn’t stop worrying about those injuries or get him out of my head. I intuitively wanted to check up on him, but he had run from me. It made sense not to want to be close to me when he was already injured.
I refused to acknowledge my reaction to Finn for what I knew it was in the back of my mind. I had hoped the beer would do the trick and drown my cares about what Jayden’s father had done, but so far it was not working.
“You don’t? Really? Weren’t you the one who freaked out when that first guy was hitting on him? Or the one now hating on Finn for being interested in him?” Trent asked.
“Aren’t you the hopeless loner so obsessed with my ‘mate’ that it can only be assumed that you’re attracted to him? Or the guy that ends up alone because he’s so focused on everyone else’s relationships?” I asked, annoyed.
He frowned.
“If you care about Jayden so much, you can have him. I won’t object. I wish you two the best. Please mark him quickly so I can get rid of this pull,” I shrugged.
“This isn’t a joke, Corey. You’re going to look back and hate yourself if he gets hurt or if you go through with this ridiculous plan,” he said.
I scoffed. “Because you just know everything about regret and mates, don’t you?”
“Yes! Yes, I do!” he snapped.
I paused at the heated rise in his tone.
When I looked at him, it was clear he was upset, and it made me uncertain about what to say.
I didn’t want to say something that would further push him toward the sudden change in mood, so I settled for: “You don’t even have a mate.”
He was quiet for a few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh.
“Yeah… not anymore,” he mumbled.
Not anymore? The implication of what he meant left me shocked into silence as I noticed his eyes had become glassier. I wasn’t sure how to respond, how to ask if he was alluding to what I thought.
“Hey,” he called, turning from me.
The bartender stopped as she was about to unpack some bottles of water.
“Uh… Forget the water.”
My mouth dried as I guessed that was right about what had messed Trent up in the past few seconds.
“Something strong?” she asked with a smile.
“Please,” he replied.
We were quiet for a few seconds as we watched her go about making the drinks before I bought myself to ask the question that I figured I already knew the answer to.
“‘Not anymore’…?”
Trent took a few seconds before he answered.
“I’ve only told Izabella this. Kade and Jay know, obviously. My mate… She… She, uh… She’s gone.” He cleared his throat.
I clenched my jaw considering the situation. He was closer to me than he was to Izabella and had never alluded to that, he never showed signs of someone who had lost their mate. Jayden and Kaden had not mentioned anything of the sort, either. Irritation began to overshadow the dread I had felt moments ago.
“Is this your way of getting me to accept Jayden?” I asked, pissed.
Lying about his mate being dead was a little over the top, wasn’t it?
“I used it on Izabella when she insisted she hated Sean, but I’m not using it on you. I get that Jayden’s not what you expected, and I get that it’s tough for you to even accept him as a friend because you’re afraid you’ll end up considering him as more. But that’s alright, Corey. Being drawn to him is alright. I mean, who isn’t? I love him –”
A growl escaped my lips before I even realised what was happening, there was no chance I could stop myself.
I clenched my fist at the reaction. That was it, why I was trying to get drunk. I couldn’t even control my reactions to him anymore.
Trent pursed his lips, trying to hold back a smirk that made me angrier.
“Don’t you dare. I didn’t do that. It’s this fucking… bond,” I hissed at him.
He rolled his eyes. “If it makes you feel better, I was going to say, ‘I love him like a brother’.”
I tried not to respond to that as the stupid mate part of my brain itched to say they weren’t brothers though, and so he should back off. I shoved it away quickly and let out a breath.
“You don’t understand… how lucky you are…” Trent’s voice became a whisper as he stared at the counter before looking at me again. “Whatever it is you’re afraid of, Corey, you know we’ve all got you no matter what.”
“I know,” I muttered.
Obviously. But they were my friends, that’s what they did. I wasn’t worried about them.
“Then it’s Galaxy? You’re their Beta –” he was saying.
“You think that makes it any better? I can’t be seen as the gay Beta. I won’t be.”
He opened his mouth, but I continued.
“Maybe no one will be able to fight me out of my position, but I can’t force anyone to stay in the pack. What’s worse is that everyone will think we’re weak. Everyone will think that Galaxy is a fucking joke! I won’t have that! Not for anything. Not for anyone. And he’s an Omega. How can someone so weak be a Beta’s mate? Do you know how many times our pack has been threatened in the past year alone? Jayden will be fine once we’re no longer mates,” I said.
I wanted to point out what Trent said about everyone liking Jayden, I wanted to say he would find someone else, but couldn’t bring myself to because I hated that fact. I didn’t want to be with him, but I didn’t want him to be with anyone else. If we broke the mate bond, I knew the part of me that hated the thought of him being with someone else would disappear. Well… I hoped it would.
I got up to leave but Trent grabbed my arm.
“No, he won’t. You know he won’t, Corey,” Trent said. “Just because someone’s gay does not make them weak. You won’t randomly lose every ounce of strength you’ve ever had,” he said.
I knew he was right, but that wasn’t the only problem.
“You pretend to have so much faith in your pack… But you don’t, and their seeing that will lead to more problems than you accepting Jayden, you being gay or bi, ever will,” he said. “Besides, do you think you’re the only one that feels this way? Are you happy with the fact that some of your pack members might be just as afraid as you are about admitting who they’re mated to?”
I didn’t speak. What was I supposed to say? I was worn out and knew he was right, so there was no point in arguing. I wanted to insist that I wasn’t afraid, but that would be a lie.
“As for him being an Omega… if you really care about his safety… wouldn’t the best place for him be with you?”
“With me?” I gave a breath of disbelief.
“Once you choose to be kinder to him.”
I bit the inside of my cheek feeling ashamed and remorseful as the interactions I had with Jayden flooded into my mind. It was worse after seeing what his father had done to him. It couldn’t have been the first time if the man followed him all the way out on our trip. He must have felt so tortured having his mate be horrible on top of his father being a piece of shit.
I cleared my throat, trying to get rid of the choaked feeling as my chest tightened, my eyes beginning to burn.
“Let’s go back to the house,” Trent sighed. Glasses clinked as the bartender placed our drinks on the counter. “Or you might end up with another hangover,” he added with a light-hearted smirk.
I chuckled, happy the mood was lifting and the topic changing.
“Let’s have these drinks first.” I turned back to the bar.
“You know I don’t drink, right?” he asked as stared at the glass in front of him.
“You need it more than I do,” I replied.
He laughed grabbing his glass. “Yeah? One drink. Just one,” he said.
I smirked.
“Alright.”
*****
Comment