Jade

lypophrenia

"Don't talk like you know me!" she could feel Slate's anger radiate off of him "At least I don't drag her to things that hurt her!"

She heard Bash snort "Hurt her? Says the one that didn't tell her about Tanner for a week! At least I was there to hold her."

Her heart ached at the mention of her brothers name. 

"You shut your damn mouth right now" Slate growled.

Bash only laughed "Did I hit a nerve, Oh, Big bad Alpha?"

"Keep talking" Slate yelled "One more word and I swear-"

She could hear Bash's heavy steps come closer "Or what? You gonna kill me and keep it from her? Well, then go ahead. Maybe then she'll realise how you're not worth her time or breath."

"Get. Out. Now," at this point Slate was seething with rage.

Bash scoffed "Okay, I'll leave but answer me one question."

"What is it?" Slate hissed back

She felt someone brush a stray hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear, soon enough a possessive growl echoed though the room "Why? Why are you here, Parker? Sure she lived on your Pack territory, sure you kept the death of her brother away from her but still...an Alpha shouldn't go through all this trouble for one member that wasn't even in their Pack"

He has a point. She felt a little sad at how insignificant she really was in the grand scheme of things.

"She's...important to me." Slate whispered softly.

There was a long pause before anyone said anything "Don't you have a mate?" Bash inquired. Guilt ran through Jade at the mention of Slate's poor mate waiting for him. She felt a little jealous too. She pondered if it was just because of all the loss that she wanted to be selfish about something. 

"I answered your question." Slate cleared his throat "Now you have to hold up your end of our bargain and leave." There was another long silence before she heard Bash walk out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Jade's better judgment told her to be angry at Slate but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to hate him.

The guilt only grew heavier and heavier.

Once again her mind accepted sleep as her only escape. Her dreamless slumber ended and once again Jade started to come back to her senses. The only difference this time was that she didn't feel as weak as before. Timidly Jade opened her eyes and took in her surroundings.

Slate sat on a chair right next to her bed fast asleep. By the looks of it he needed the sleep more than her.

She turned her head slightly and saw that she was in the same room Sebastian had carried her into. Jade sat up quickly in her bed and winced slightly as pain shot to her head.

Slate's eyes snapped open at the sound "You're awake" he exclaimed and without thinking he hugged her tightly. He held her against his body in a vice like grip, afraid that if he let go of her one more time she would disappear.

"Slate?" she voiced "I don't want to be here...please, I don't want to see them."

He pulled away slightly but didn't let go of her frail form "Jade-"

"Why?" she croaked "I ran from the house last night for a reason."

He gave her a confused look "last night? You've been asleep for a week."

"Then that means...I missed my own birthday." She could help but let out a sad laugh. Her life was one big joke. "What are you doing here? You should be finding your mate..."

She didn't want any weird Alpha talk. As far as Jade was concerned she just wanted to be alone. She had missed her own birthday for crying out loud. 

She expected to see guilt in his eyes just as much as she felt but all she saw was confliction "It's...complicated."

"Complicated?" Jade exclaimed, pushing him away from her and standing up, surprised that she had the strength to "How is finding your mate complicated? Tanner told me that mates are supposed to be your other half but here you are acting as if there is no one waiting for you to find them! And not to mention you tried to Mark me!"

Tell her now — Soren growled — She can handle the duty of being our mate and Luna, if what Orin said was true she was ready to be ours years ago — he knew Soren was right and keeping something as big as this away from Jade caused Slate a great deal of pain over the past two and a half years.

"Then let me explain why it's complicated" Slate whispered as he seated himself on the edge of the bed.

Jade crossed her arms defiantly as she stood in front of him "What is it?"

"I already found my mate." he said confidently "Two and a half years ago to be exact-"

Before he could finish his sentence Jade pulled her hand back and slapped him straight across the face.

He was impressed at how hard she could hit — had it been any other person Soren would've gone mad but since it was Jade, he just enjoyed the fact his mate touched him.

Pathetic, really. 

"How could you do this to her!" Jade screamed, snapping Slate out of his amusing thoughts "How could you be so inconsiderate as to want to mark someone who isn't her? How could you be so cold as to be here with me and not with her! How could-"

Before she could see him move, he got up from where he sat and pulled her against his body — He claimed her lips with one swift motion as one of his hands held her wrist while his other held her head firmly against his own.

Slate would be lying if he said he had no expectations.

He had imagined kissing her a hundred times to this very night. In a hundred different places and a hundred different positions. But in the instant he kissed her, he isn't thinking about anything but her soft, succulent lips and the way her eyes widened with an unreadable emotion as well as the shape of her voluptuous body against his body.

The feel of the skin on her inner wrist and the size of her small delicate hand in his own made his head spin. The thoughtfulness of how she wanted him to find his mate and to stay faithful to only his other half, even though his mate was her filled him with pride.

From that point on he knew that even if she didn't understand what being a Luna or being his mate meant he would teach her. He would wait. 

Today, tomorrow or even the next day but right now, Slate only wanted to learn one thing... and that was to know what was it like to be loved by her — And only her.

He reluctantly pulled away from her slightly to whisper a soft and low "You're her, Jade... You're my mate."