Page 48 of Phantom’s Mate
“They’re scared,” she said. “And they can’t admit it.”
“I know. But it’s so fucking hard to keep this whole thing from flying apart. They’ve lost their homes, their pride in themselves, their bond to Raines. They have the responsibility for all the females and cubs of the men we lost, and no way to provide.”
He closed his eyes, and then said, almost too soft to hear, “What if I’m not strong enough?”
His mate said firmly, “You’re the strongest man I know. You’ll get us through this.”
He kissed her gently.
After a moment she said, “Have you decided what to do with the artifacts?”
He shook his head. “I know I should sell them; the gods know we need the money. But I feel like they’re cursed. All those people, dead. And everything’s gone wrong since we took them.” He touched her cheek. “Everything except you. And him.” He looked down at the baby.
She said, “The village wasn’t your fault. You tried to tell Raines to stop. He Compelled you with that horrible artifact.”
Nick froze. He knew Raines had used one of the artifacts to magically Compel his followers to do what he wanted.
But he hadn’t realized that the first thing he’d done with it was order the massacre of the village.
Jax just shook his head. “I can’t stop seeing their faces. I can’t stop imagining it’s you, and Maxim.” The baby curled its little hand around his finger.
His mate slipped her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder.
Fuck. Jax really loved her. And she loved him.
He looked at Brittany. She was watching the two of them, tears in her eyes.
Jax said to his mate, “I know I’m not the greatest guy in the world. But I want to do right by you. The life the clan used to have—looking for power by beating down other people—” He broke off. “It’s what I was raised to, but it’s not what I want. You and Maxim deserve better.”
“So we find another way.”
He said softly, “I don’t think I’m a good enough person to do the right thing.”
She kissed his shoulder. “I have faith in you.”
Britt pulled Nick out of the room through the wall, and luckily he didn’t resist. He looked shell-shocked, like everything inside him and been dug up with a stick and jumbled around, and he didn’t know which way was up.
She waited for a bit, holding his hand, until his eyes focused again and he spoke. “Fuck,” he said.
She nodded. “Still hate the guy?”
“I hate him even more now.”
Not what she’d expected, but at least it was honest. “Why?”
“Because even the fucking bad guy gets a happily ever after.”
She nodded. That she understood. “And why is it always everyone else, and not you?”
He glanced at her. “Something like that.”
“You could still kill him,” she said, testing the waters.
He gave her a longer look. “You don’t mean that. If I fired a bullet at him, you’d probably throw yourself in front of it.”
Probably not, but nice that he thought so.
“Well, I’m dead, so it wouldn’t help. But it would look badass.” He snorted.
