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I know he does. I press my face into his chest and allow the sound of his heart to soothe my sorrow. I’ll find a way to get through their deaths. I have to. For him.
“Simon, Dwayne, and Sean have been in touch with their families,” he says, likely to distract me from my morose thoughts. “They’ll be going back to them once the capital is stable enough, to live normal lives with the people they love. Whatever else you did, Addie, you made that possible. Every one of us would have been dead a long time ago without you.”
I breathe softly against his chest, inhaling his scent. “That’s something, I guess.”
“It’s more than something. It’s everything, mate.” He kisses my scalp.
“And you?” I ask when an unsettling thought pierces through. “You were listed as having no next of kin on the paperwork I saw, but I don’t know if my dad or Welsh omitted anything—” Christ, what if he has a family? What if he… what if he has awife?
“There is no one. That’s seemingly one of the reasons Welsh sent me undercover. I had no one who would miss me, should things go wrong.” Jacob grabs me by the chin and tips my head up, capturing my gaze. “There is only you, Adelaide Thompson. You’re my family. My kin.”
This time, my blush is from something decidedly more warm and pleasant than shame.
“What about Jack?” I ask to distract myself from the flutter in my belly. “AX1—no one’s been able to figure out his identity. But Jack’s got… a sister, I think it was? She was listed as the beneficiary for his death gratuity payment.”
Jacob shrugs. “He said he had no one to return to. I didn’t ask—you were still in the operating room when he and Welsh came by.”
“Oh.” I shake my head, incapable of handling any more sadness. “We’ve gotta—there’s gotta be something we can do?”
The softest curve graces Jacob’s mouth. He wraps his warm hand around my jaw, cupping my cheek. “So much heart from a woman who spent her life pretending it away. He’s my brother, Addie. They all are. He won’t be alone.”
“And you?” I ask softly. “What do you want to do, now that you’re free?”
He hums as if he hasn’t given the idea any thought. After a moment, he says, “I’d like to take my mate into the mountains for a while. And learn who we are, away from all of this. If she’ll come, of course.”
“I’ll go anywhere you lead me,” I say. It’s my first step on the path to redemption—to let go of the reins and allow him to be my alpha, with all that entails. But it’s also true.
As I look up into his green, green eyes, I know I’ll follow this man for the rest of my life.
EPILOGUE
JACOB
Two Weeks Later
An echo of discomfort stops him mid-swing, the otherwise smooth motion of his axe against wood coming to a halt.
Distracted, Jacob looks to the cabin’s upper floor where his mate’s supposed to be relaxing. The hospital’s cleared her for light activity, but when he carried her up to the bedroom of their rented little retreat less than half an hour ago, he gave her clear instructions to rest while he chopped some firewood and got everything set up.
Judging from the twinge in their bond, she’s not been an obedient girl. No surprise there.
Sighing, he leaves his plaid shirt and axe by the chopping block and walks back inside to make sure his mate stops whatever it is she’s doing that’s twinging her freshly-healed wound.
He finds her in the tiny bathroom, naked from the waist up as she twists to see the fresh, pink scar where the now very dead doctor stabbed her.
“Did you hurt yourself?” he asks, pushing through the door to inspect her wound for himself.
“No, it just pinched a… a bit.” She stutters as he lets his hand rest on her hip to gently press at her side with two fingers. Her skin moves, but her scar stays welded.
“What were you doing?” he asks, sliding his palm up to make sure there is no seepage. “And don’t tell me ‘nothing.’ I felt your pain.”
“Oh, my god, you are such an alpha stereotype. I was unpacking and twisted funny. There wasn’tpain,there was a pinch.”
He flicks his eyes up to meet hers in the mirror, brows drawing into a disapproving frown. “Why were you unpacking when you should be resting?”
She levels his reflection with a flat stare. “I’ve done nothing but lay in bed for the past two weeks—literally nothing, thanks to your overprotective ass insisting oncarryingme to and from the toilet. Do you even care how much the nurses were laughing at you? The doctor said I’m good, Ifeelgood—and I’m one hundred percent done being babied.”
“One hundred percent, huh?” he asks, raising a taunting eyebrow at his stubborn woman in the mirror—and catches sight of her bared breasts. He didn’t pay her half-naked state much mind before—he was too concerned for her well-being—but her flippant attitude, along with the sturdiness of her scar, does support her claims.
