Savior of the Wolves

Jessica’s POV

I wasn’t sure how long I had been playing with my food, struggling with what to say. How to start. But Aiden stood beside me and politely reached out for my box. He grabbed it with familiarity like this was routine for us.

He walked away, threw it in the trash, and turned back to me, “Mom set the other room up for you. She has you some things in there now.”

“How do you know all of this? Were you gone?” My mind was whirling at just how long he’d been up. Did he meet with others while I laid, unaware, asleep where he had once laid beside me?

“No, I woke up just before you.”

I stared at him, making it obvious that I expected the truth. I knew there was more.

His lips pursed as he explained. “We link,” he said finally. “It’s like mind reading, except that we permit it. We can link with anyone in our pack...like calling out their name sort of.”

I should’ve been shocked...dumbfounded, but I wasn’t. I was just curious.

“Like…how close do you have to be to hear each other?”

I wondered if that was how I got so many snickers from Bailey and her group. They could say anything they wanted amongst themselves, and I would never know. Had they been making fun of me the whole time? I wouldn’t be at all shocked. The secret looks that they all gave each other…well, it would make sense now.

“Yep. Even from miles away,” he explained proudly.

Well, that cleared up the Bailey question.

I knew my mouth was wide open. He was telling me details about a life that doesn’t exist. But it did. I saw my first glimpse into it, last night.

“Come on,” he held his hand out to me, “we’ll go see what Mom found for you. She sounded excited. She definitely enjoyed doing it.”

I wanted to protest but his mom was great. I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings.

But I did pretend to not notice his hand and pushed off the bed and walked towards the door.

He stepped around me without implying that he noticed my action either and opened the door for me.

I felt self-conscious as I stepped into the hallway. I half expected to see Josh there, but he wasn’t. I saw Aiden watching me as I looked around. I was only pleading, over and over, for no one to see us out in the open…together. Luck would have it, not a soul was around. Not a sound could be heard either.

As we walked into the room next door, it looked a bit different than it did last night. It only had bedsheets before and now there were flowers and clothes folded on a dresser. A couple of bags sat on the bed and Aiden reached over and held up a key. “For you,” he said, sitting it back down.

The door closed behind him and I couldn’t help but follow it with my eyes.

“Talk to me,” he said almost the second the door shut completely, walking towards me.

I began to back away from him and he stopped with a look of sadness, “You know I won’t hurt you right?”

“Do you have any idea how confused I am?”

He walked closer to me, “I won’t ever hurt you.”

“That’s what has my head spinning.”

“What does?” he asked, inches from me.

Tears began to well up in my eyes, “Less than twelve hours ago I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you couldn’t stand being near me. You were cold to me, you avoided me, and your little girlfriend had all her friends snickering behind my back every second of the day. She made my life hell hanging all over you...in front of me...every chance she got.” I took a huge breath, “I’m not stupid...no girl acts like she does if there’s nothing going on. What you do privately with her is none of my business. But you need to know...I know. Last night was...”

He stopped me from finishing, “Who snickers at you?” he asked defensively.

His concern again threw me off, but I know what I saw. “It doesn’t matter now,” I said in a curt manner.

“It does matter and she’s not my girlfriend,” he answered quickly, staring intensely at me. He took another step toward me, looking deeper into my eyes than anyone ever had before. “Is that why you left?”

“That’s part of it, of course,” I said through gritted teeth. “And please don’t treat me like I’m a fool. I’ve seen you.”

“I don’t think you’re a fool, Jess.” The way he said my name made my knees feel weak and I nearly forgot my point.

“What was my point?” I tormented in my own thoughts as he was heavily distracting me. I was engulfed in his deep, penetrating stare.

“She’s forward, but if you just think about it, you’ll know you’ve never seen me return her affections.” He grew serious, “Because I never have. Especially behind closed doors.” He stressed the last sentence especially.

He was staring at me. Studying me. His thoughts...dissecting me. I was so conflicted by my gratitude. I didn’t know how to say thank you while letting him know I still felt what I felt before. I felt confused, torn, belittled...alone.

So, I just blurted it out, “I left because I didn’t belong here. I felt like I was causing trouble with...a lot of you...so it was time to leave. Your family has been so kind, but I could tell there was more that I didn’t know. Now I can see why. And when I thought I was helping by leaving, you nearly kill yourself to save me. Nothing about that makes any sense.”

“I had to save you,” he said, staring at me with as much emotion as I felt boiling up inside of me.

“No” I yelled, “you didn’t! It wasn’t your fault that I fell. The bear would’ve killed me before that even happened anyway. But you jumped off the cliff...after me.”

I was trying to calm down after almost yelling the entire last fifteen seconds.

“My life has been so hard since I lost my mom. Every time I have a plan to fix it, fate shows me that I’m not in charge here.” I blurted out, panting, tears streaming down my cheeks.

He closed the few steps to me before I knew what had happened. He wrapped his arms around me.

---cont...