Jax jerked out of Wyatt’s hold and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. His knuckles came away bloody, but his nose had already healed from the beating. Without a word, Jax stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind him.
“Tend to your girlfriend.” Whitney patted Trent’s chest, letting her hand trail down his torso before finally pulling away.
Tend to your girlfriend? Who does this chick think she is?
“Despite what everyone here thinks, I’m not some helpless damsel in distress.” I threw the ice pack on the floor and stood. The pain intensified, but I focused on my anger instead. “I’m fine. And believe it or not, I am capable of making my own decisions, too.”
I half walked, half hobbled toward the stairs, each step more excruciating than the last. I gritted my teeth, refusing to let anyone see my weakness, and I climbed the steps to my room.
Once inside, I bit down on my lip to stifle my cry. It hurt so much I couldn’t see straight. I hopped toward the bed and sat, sighing at the immediate relief in my ankle. As gently as possible, I removed my shoe and sock to reveal a nasty looking bruise that was clearly swollen. That was just great.
“Chloe?” Trent entered the room.
I grabbed the nearest pillow and heaved it at him. “What is wrong with you?”
He caught the pillow mid-air. “What’s wrong with me? What were you thinking today? Something could have happened to you.”
“I was thinking how my boyfriend ditched me for the second day in a row without so much as a goodbye or explanation and how you put your brother in charge of babysitting me while you were off doing God knows what.” I heaved a deep breath. “And rather than ask for my input or let me help, you’re trying to keep me locked up in this stupid cabin!”
Trent scowled. “Yeah, well, lesson learned.”
“What lesson is that, Trent?”
“Don’t turn this around on me.” He pointed at his chest. “You think I don’t see the way he’s been looking at you lately. Or the way you tease each other. I’m not blind, Chloe.” He closed the distance between us in a few long strides. “I can see how close you two are getting.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you for real? You’re the one who keeps leaving me with him!”
I could not believe he was standing there accusing me of… I didn’t know what, when it was his fault I was spending so much time with Jax. It’s not like it was my choice.
“I’m trying to figure out what’s going on so I can protect you,” he said defensively.
Okay, that’s it.
“How, Trent? By taking off to meet with Isach freaking Zoya?” I stood, bringing myself flush with Trent’s chest, careful to keep as much weight off my ankle as possible. “Or by bringing your mind-reading BFF vampires here to poke around in my thoughts?”
His expression went from anger to disbelief to understanding all within the matter of a second. “Jax tell you that?”
“He told me about Isach, but I overheard you and him arguing about the twins. How could you?” I asked, hurt weakening my raging anger. “You’re willing to violate my privacy just so you can find out what I know? Do you realize how twisted that is?”
“See, that’s the problem. You don’t get it. There is an entire coven of very powerful witches looking for you, and I have no idea why. You won’t tell me what you know. Every lead Sean has turns out to be another dead end. I’m desperate. I will do anything to keep you safe, Chloe. Anything.” He snarled that last word.
My breath caught. This must be the bloodlust he’d told me about. Arguing with him triggered it. I still didn’t think he’d ever hurt me, but I wasn’t backing down. Not about this.
“I’m sorry I lied, but I am not sorry for doing what’s necessary to keep you safe. I will never apologize for that,” he said.
All I could do was stare at him. The desperation was evident in his expression, in every word he spoke. And in that moment, I wanted to spill my guts, to take away his fear and pain and helplessness. But I couldn’t force the words past my lips.
“And meeting with Isach? How do you justify that?” I crossed my arms, gritting my teeth against the constant throbbing in my ankle. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand here.
Trent paced away from me, rubbing the back of his neck.
“After what he did to me, how could you even think about talking to him? Or believing anything he might have told you?” Unable to handle the pain a second longer, I sat on the bed.
“Chloe.” His voice was tormented. He dropped to his knees in front of me, his gaze pleading. He took my hands into his. “I’m so sorry. I just… I don’t know what to do. The mere thought of anything happening to you, of losing you.” He pressed my hands to his chest, directly over his heart. “I won’t survive it.”
I inhaled a shaky breath. “You won’t lose me again,” I whispered, stopping short of adding, I promise, because I knew it wasn’t a promise I could make.
“Then tell me what you know. Please,” he begged.
“I told you I’d talk when I was ready.”
“And when are you going to be ready?”
“Soon.” I hung my head.
“Do you realize how frustrating it is that you don’t see how serious this is? I have no idea what’s going on. Sean doesn’t know anything more about the coven. They could literally be on our door any second, and I won’t know how to protect you.”
I lifted my head, meeting his gaze. “Trust me. I know.”
“Then tell me what to do. Tell me how to make this right,” he pleaded.
“Trust me, okay?” I blew out a breath. “I know why the coven is coming after me, and I promise I’ll tell you everything soon, but please stop taking off and leaving me here with Jax.”
“You know why they’re after you?” Each word was slow and calculated.
“Yes.” My stomach knotted. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that little bit of information with him.
“Do they want to kill you?” He snarled, his lip curling with barely contained rage.
“No.” Not technically, but it was probably best not to share that with him just yet. “I promise I know what I’m doing. Please just trust me.” I’d always trusted him, and now it was his turn.
He hesitated, then eventually said, “Okay.”
“And tell your friends to stay out of my head.”
“Done,” he said.
“And what was that with Jax down there?” I asked.
Granted, Jax had deserved to be punched in the face for the things he’d said and implied, but he’d said and done much worse before and Trent hadn’t lost his cool like that.
Trent sighed. “Remember when I told you Jax blames me for everything that happened with Hannah?”
“Yeah.”
“He promised that one day, he’d make me pay for what I’d done.” Trent hung his head. “And he knows how much you mean to me.” He glanced up, his eyes filled with despair and regret. “I’m worried he’s going to use you and whatever relationship you two have to get his revenge, that he’s going to get close enough to hurt you because he knows what it will do to me.”
My ears rang with Trent’s words. Did he truly believe Jax would use me or harm me to get revenge? Jax and I didn’t exactly have the most stable friendship, but not too long ago, before I knew the truth, I’d trusted him.
And with the way he’d been acting toward me since we’d gotten to the cabin… I couldn’t shake the feeling there was something more happening, and it wasn’t revenge.
“Then why was he in Malibu pretending to be my friend? He said you thought it was a good idea. Why would you let him get that close to me if you truly believe he’s using me to get revenge?”
Fresh pain sliced across my foot and up my calf. I bit down on my lip to stop from howling in pain.
Releasing his hold on me, he carefully dragged his hands down my leg and lifted my foot to rest on his thigh. “How’s your ankle?”
“It’s killing me,” I admitt
ed.
Easing my foot onto the floor, he stood, and then he lifted me into his arms and deposited me in the middle of the bed. “Don’t move.”
Then he was gone. He returned in a flash with an ice pack, two aspirin, and a bottle of water. He handed me the pills and the water.
“Thanks.” I took them, then reached for the ice pack and placed it on my ankle.
Trent climbed onto the bed and gathered me in his arms. I snuggled up to him and rested my head on his chest, sighing with contentment.
I loved being in his arms like this, and the longer I thought about everything, the more I realized I didn’t want to be anywhere else. No one could or would ever make me feel as safe and loved as Trent did.
“I was a mess without you,” Trent said, his voice low and level. “I needed to know you were okay, but I knew I wasn’t strong enough to check on you myself. If I had gone to Malibu, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from talking to you.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“So, I sent Jax to check on you. Just to make sure you were all right. He did, and he told me you were doing okay.”
I swallowed hard. Jax had been there checking up on me, and I hadn’t even known. How long had he watched me? And what exactly had he seen that led him to believe I was okay? Because I was anything but okay while in Malibu.
“But then Sean found out about the coven, and I knew we needed to intervene. Your ad for tutoring services was the perfect cover,” he said.
I almost hadn’t placed the ad. But some force I couldn’t understand had propelled me to do it. Fate or God, maybe?
“And then you found me at the concert…” I momentarily closed my eyes, remembering everything Jax had told me about what happened while he and Trent were in Malibu.
Trent kissed the top of my head.
“You know there’s nothing going on between me and Jax, right?” I slid my arm across his stomach, letting my fingers sneak beneath his shirt to find hard, warm flesh.
He groaned. “I know. But I came home, and you weren’t here. I panicked, and next thing I know, he walks in carrying you. Seeing you in his arms like that… And then all that stuff he was saying. I lost it.”
“For what it’s worth, every time I see Whitney touch you or smile at you or whisper something to you, I want to gouge her eyes out.”
Trent laughed, the sound rumbling beneath me. “I promise you, there is absolutely nothing going on with Whitney.” Pure, honest truth dripped from his voice.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
Ready or Not
I JOLTED AWAKE, DISORIENTED AND FIGHTING to catch my breath.
“Hey, whoa. Easy, Chloe. I’m right here,” Trent said, rubbing my arm.
“You stayed,” I said like an idiot.
He was half sitting, half laying, and just looking at him in that awkward position made my muscles ache. He chuckled. “I stayed.”
I sat up so he could, too. The room was dark and silent. “What time is it?”
“Almost eight-thirty.”
“At night?” I gasped.
It had been early afternoon when I’d lain down. I slept the entire day away. How did that happen? Memories from earlier flooded me, and my stomach sank. I was glad Trent and I had talked about things, but I needed to find Jax and demand to know why he’d said all that stuff.
“Are you hungry? Whitney saved dinner for us.” Trent eased into an upright position. “I can go get it.”
I shook my head and stretched. The pain in my ankle had subsided, and now it was only tender as opposed to sharp and stabbing.
“Wait. You didn’t eat, either?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to wake you, and I really didn’t want you to wake up and find me gone again.” He reached for me, and I curled up against his side. “Besides, being here with you was a million times better than being downstairs with all of them.”
“Thank you.”
“How’s your ankle?”
“Seems to be better. Guess I’ll find out when I try to walk on it.” But for the time being, I was perfectly content to sit with Trent. I didn’t want to be anywhere else. “If you want to go eat, I don’t mind,” I said.
“Sounds like you’re trying to get rid of me.”
I glanced up at him, and he winked, sending my heart into a maelstrom of flutters. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand why he chose to be with me, why he loved me over anyone else, but I knew it was a gift to be cherished.
“Do you ever wish you were with someone like Whitney?” I asked.
“What?” He laughed like that was the most ridiculous thing ever. “Why would you ask me that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t mean Whitney specifically, but someone like her, a…”
“Vampire? It’s okay to say that word.”
“Okay, fine. Do you ever wish you’d fallen in love with a vampire instead of me?” I turned my face away from his and rested my head on his shoulder. “I mean, it would be so much easier for you, wouldn’t it?”
“In the long run, yes, I suppose it would be easier if I were in love with a vampire. But none of that matters because”—he gently gripped my chin and turned my face toward him—“I’m in love with you, Chloe, and nothing’s ever going to change that.”
The fierce devotion in his gaze was too much to handle. I didn’t deserve someone like him, someone so loving and loyal and protective.
“What about you? Do you wish you’d fallen in love with a human rather than me?” he asked.
An instant knot formed in my stomach. Of course, he’d throw my question back at me. “No,” I said.
He raised a brow. “Not even now, when a coven of witches is coming for you, and you’re forced to hide from your family?”
“No,” I repeated, scooting up so our faces were closer.
Regardless of whether I’d ever met Trent or fallen in love with him, I would have ended up in the same exact situation I was in right now—the only person able to break the Halstead curse. One way or another, I was supposed to be with Trent. There was no debating that fact or fighting it.
I cupped the side of his face and brushed my lips over his. He welcomed my kiss, allowing me to have complete control.
He’d told me he loved me, that he couldn’t lose me, and Jax insisted that Trent and I would be together until the day I died—the same day that I unavoidably destroyed Trent. But… did Trent really want that? Did he want me until death? Or longer? I needed to know for certain.
“If you weren’t cursed, and I wanted to become a vampire, would you change me?” I asked, barely moving my mouth from his.
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
I flung my leg over his waist and straddled him. “You’d really want to be with me—just me—for an eternity?”
“Yes.” His tone was forceful, insistent. He ran his hands up and down my thighs before settling them on my hips. “Your mortality scares me, Chloe. I have nightmares about it.”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. I held the power to not only break his family’s curse but to rid Trent of his greatest fear. Why was I so terrified to do so? I loved him. I hated the thought of hurting him, and I had no intentions of ever being with anyone but him.
“Not that any of that matters,” he said sadly. “Even if I weren’t cursed, you already said you don’t want to change.”
Tears stung my eyes, and I blinked to keep them at bay. I had said that to him, more than once. “If there was no curse, and I insisted on not changing, you seriously wouldn’t force me?” I asked, my tone full of wonder.
He titled his head, a momentary flash of hurt flickering behind his clear blue eyes. “Why are you so afraid of that?” He sat up straighter, bringing his body flush against mine, and he took my face into his hands. “I would never take that choice away from you. And I’d kill anyone else who ever tried.”
I crushed my mouth over his. He parted his lips, his tongue twisting around mine in a tempting dance. My heart was seconds away
from exploding out of my chest, and every nerve in my body tingled with desire.
“Tell me what it means to be your soulmate,” I whispered.
A throaty groan rumbled from his chest. “It means we’re forever connected. Physically. Emotionally. We can feel what the other person feels. Their pain. Their love and desire. Their wants and needs.”
That explained why I was able to always sense him when we were in Malibu, before I’d regained my memories. The moments when we instinctively moved together like we just knew.
He nipped at my bottom lip. “I’m already yours, so everything I do is to make you happy, to protect you. But until you let me claim you—if you let me claim you,” he amended with a small smile, “you’re free to be with whoever you want.”
Like there was anyone else I wanted to be with. “And what happens after you claim me?” I asked.
“Then you’re mine. You’ll never want to be with anyone but me, and you’ll have this desire to protect me and make me happy, too. Just like I do with you. It’ll become instinctual. It’s an unbreakable, eternal commitment, so you have to truly want it. There can’t be any doubts,” he said.
I didn’t need him to claim me to feel that way about him—I already did. I once again pressed my mouth to his.
Trent wrapped one arm around my back, and his free hand tangled in my hair, holding me to him as he deepened the kiss, skyrocketing the desire in me. Without breaking the kiss, I pushed firmly against his chest until his back hit the headboard.
I’d never been ready to go all the way with a guy before, and I wasn’t now, either, but I was close. The more time I spent with him, the more of myself I wanted to give him. But the idea of being that close to him was terrifying.
Not to mention, I still hadn’t told him my secret, and I couldn’t be with him so intimately when I was withholding the truth about something so life-changing.
“Trent?” I nipped at his jaw, and he groaned, the sound of approval spurring me on.
“Yeah?” His voice was strangled.
“If I asked you to claim me, would you?” I moved to kiss his neck.
He titled his head, his breath coming in shorter bursts. “You already know the answer to that.”
Eternal Choice: (The Cursed Series, Book 2) Page 24