-Jackson- I woke up feeling better than I had in a very fucking long time. Daphne was practically sleeping on top of me, and she was the most amazing sight to wake up to. I had been so pissed when I thought she wanted to go back and leave me once again, but when I came back, it was clear that she had had some time to think and had changed her mind. She wanted to be mine, and I had made her mine. We had marked and mated, and now no one could pull us from each other. I began lazily playing with her hair. My cock was rock hard again, wanting to be deep inside my little mate, but I had enjoyed her body all night. I would let her rest a little now. Daphne stirred slowly, blinking open her eyes and smiling at me so sweetly. “Morning,” she whispered. “Morning.” I leaned closer and kissed her, and she sighed contently. “Goddess, I love waking up to you,” I told her. She blushed so sweetly, and this time came to me, kissing me harder, more passionately. I groaned as she pulled away, but t

-Daphne- Even though our little paradise was great, Jackson and I couldn’t figure out if this truly would work before we went back to our world and face the monsters waiting there. Or maybe it was me who had monsters to face, but as my mate, Jackson would stand by my side and hopefully it would help me remain strong enough to defeat them. “How are you feeling?” Jackson felt as I got my jacket on. “Nervous. Scared. Like I might throw up,” I confessed. He let out a low whistle before we both chuckled. “That’s a lot of feelings,” he said. “A lot,” I agreed. He stepped closer to me, wrapping his arms around me, and smiled at me. I felt better when he held me. It calmed me that he kept me close. “You got this,” he said. “You always have such strong beliefs.” “I believe in us. Is that bad?” “No, not at all, but in me? Yeah.” “Stop looking down on yourself, Daphne. What the hell did your family do to you?” “Told me everything I did wrong all the time,” I confessed to him. “All t

-Daphne- I had expected little openness or kindness, not just from Jackson’s parents, but also his pack. After getting some clothes and stuff ready for me in his room, we went down to eat some breakfast with the rest. We had not eaten yet, since we wanted the confrontation over with as fast as possible, but I barely saw it as a confrontation. It had gone so smoothly with his parents, and that surprised me. I knew they would probably be more acceptive of me and Jackson, but this was something else. This was love and family, I noticed. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched the happiness around. It made me feel good to sit among, and many people had questions for me too, making me feel welcome and hopeful. Maybe I didn’t have to be so scared to be alone. Maybe I could find people who truly had my back. Jackson held my hand through it all, making me feel very secure and safe. It did not scare me sitting there or felt uncomfortable. I felt good. Had I ever had dinners like this before? I

-Jackson- I grew worried right away when I saw my mate and my mom returned. My mom looked fine, but my mate was clearly upset, and when she sat down beside me, I hurriedly moved closer, wrapping my arm around her and bringing her to me. “What happened?” I asked, my face close to hers. She shook her head, which worried me. I could see she was clearly upset, and I wanted her to talk to me. I waited until the dinner was completely over, and then we went back to the room we were now staying in. I could feel her trying to slip a little away, like she didn’t want to burden me with this, but that was not how it worked between mates. “Daphne?” I called. “Yeah?” “What is wrong?” She shook her head while looking out a window, and I moved up behind her, wrapping my arms around her and giving her neck a small kiss. I felt her lean against me, and it felt perfect having her so close. “Talk to me.” “The… phone call went bad,” she whispered. “How bad?” “Bad…” I stood like that with her fo

-Jackson- I was right. The moment my dad could get me to the office, he practically dragged me there, pushed me down in the important alpha chair as I called it, and then made a show of throwing a huge stack of papers in front of me, telling me to “go for it”. I wanted to call him an ass, but he could see it in my eyes and warned me not to push it without words. We could have an entire conversation with just our eyes. It was quite impressive. I raised an eyebrow, and he just stared at me. Then I sighed and shook my head. “You’re the one who wanted to run off with your mate, now you pay for that,” he told me. “Actually, you kidnapped her.” “No, she came with willingly, as she has already expressed.” “Was it that willingly?” he asked and sat down in front of me, looking a little disappointed. “It’s not like I threw her over my shoulder and took her with kicking and screaming.” He raised an eyebrow this time. “Okay, I threw her over my shoulder, but she wasn’t kicking and screaming