Page 134 of UNAwere

‘You’re okay?’ he asks me quietly.

I nod. I’m not, but lying after being asked that question is like second nature.

‘Leave us,’ Warner grates out. ‘I need to speak with the Luminaire alpha alone.’

I glance at Nolan and give him another smile. He brushes his knuckles against my cheek.

‘I’ll see you later,’ he murmurs.

A hand takes mine, and I’m pulled out into the hall. Lucas looks between me and Jude, and then at our linked hands. He shakes his head and starts walking with us.

‘What happened in there?’ he asks Jude as we go down the corridor.

‘Nothing good.’

Lucas shakes his head. ‘You need to be more careful.’

‘Try having some fuckwit run his hands all over your mate’s body, then come back to me,’ Jude growls, shouldering us through a doorway upstairs.

I trail behind them, still clinging to Jude’s hand. ‘Wait, what? You know?’

‘Of course I know,’ Lucas says over his shoulder to me, as if it annoys him to even be voicing it. ‘I knew as soon as I caught both your scents.’

‘Warner wants me around, to rub it in my face,’ Jude says. ‘I don’t think I can hold it together any longer.’

‘You’re going to have to.’ We’ve stopped in a quiet room with big windows that face out to the garden. Lucas sighs. ‘But I don’t envy you.’

Jude still hasn’t let go of my hand, and I feel him squeeze it. I squeeze back, in a form of Morse code, to tell him how much I care about him.

‘You can’t keep doing this,’ I whisper to him.

He turns to me, nodding. ‘I know, sweetheart.’

‘I don’t want you to get hurt.’ My eyes fill with tears. ‘Maybe it’s best that you do go to Hannah’s? And maybe Warner will change his mind? If you go to him again? Y-you could say you’re needed there.’

He shakes his head, a small smile pressing at his lips. ‘I’m not leaving you, Sybbie.’ He reaches up and takes a hold of my cheek, and I clasp his wrist, my fingers wrapping around the bracelet I made him. ‘Even if we go through with this, I’ll be here. I’m not living my life without you.’

The tears finally slip down my cheeks.

‘Warner will kill you.’

Jude’s gaze darkens. ‘I’d like to see him try.’

‘I don’t want you to get hurt, Jude.’ At the corner of my eye, I see Lucas turn on his heel, giving us some form of privacy in this small room.

‘Hey.’ Jude’s voice brings my gaze back to him.

He kisses me, as if he can’t help it. And it’s like it’s the last time for him. And I realise it probably is. For the both of us. So I cling to him, breathing into his mouth through my tears, as I allow myself to taste him, feel him, one last time.

‘You always have a choice, sweetheart,’ he tells me when our lips part. ‘Even when it feels like you don’t, you do. Remember that, okay?’

I shake my head, burying my head in his chest. Panic prickles across my scalp.

‘Jude, please.’

‘You’re okay.’ He kisses my hair, breathing hard. ‘I’m here. I’ll always be right here.’

‘We should go,’ Lucas says. He glances between us. ‘Sorry…’