Chapter 3

Jaxon

The afternoon air is thick with the metallic scent of sweat and cut grass.

I run through the practice drill, my arm snapping forward and launching a tight spiral thirty yards down the field.

The ball rockets through the air, landing right in the corner of the end zone, where my receiver would be, and exactly where the touchdown would be completed to announce a win.

If I was a rookie, I’d be elated by the throw.

But with close to twenty fucking years playing this game behind me, throwing a ball in an empty field is the only time I get to fucking breathe.

However, my breathing is cut short when my wolf catches the scent of my Beta almost twenty feet away from me. He growls inside of me with frustration at the thought of being interrupted.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Ethan calls out as he approaches, but there's nothing apologetic about his tone.

I push my hair back, an inkling of what this is about irritating me worse than the sweat cascading down my chest.

“What is it?”

“Your father showed up looking for you. Liza and I managed to convince him you weren't here, but he wasn't buying it, Jaxon.” Ethan stops a few feet away, his expression grim. “Well, eventually he did, but he left another message.”

Fuck.

“Let me guess. More pressure about finding a Mate?” I quip.

At almost sixty, the only thing that Marcus Wolfgang has insistently obsessed about is finding me a Mate from one of our allies with a strong bloodline.

And the constant pressure has been driving me nuts for months.

“Your father's obsessed. He went on for twenty minutes about pack legacy and how you're running out of time. Victoria's name came up about fifteen times.”

I turn to face my best friend—because that's what Ethan really is, despite our pack roles. At thirty, he's been the one person I can count on to tell me the truth, even when I don't want to hear it.

“What's your honest opinion about all this?”

Ethan meets my eyes without flinching. “Honestly? I think you need to deal with your father before he starts camping out here. The man's not going to let this go, and you know it.”

“That's not what I meant,” I say back.

“I know what you meant.” His voice softens slightly. “Look, you are my friend first, Alpha second. And as your friend, I'm telling you that you barely react every time Victoria's name is brought up. That should tell you how much disinterest you have in the woman you've barely met.”

I snort because it's true. “And as my Beta?”

“The pack needs a Luna for stability, whether it's Victoria or someone else. Your father also needs you to have an heir. Do the math, Jaxon.”

Ten minutes after sending Ethan away, the cold jets of water hit me from all sides in the shower. The icy prickles against my skin come as a reprieve for a few seconds before my wolf starts pacing restlessly inside me.

“You are not getting any younger, son.” My father’s voice from last week’s visit charges through my mind.

“Getting a Mate from one of our allies and getting her pregnant means more connections for our pack and a continuation of the Wolfgang legacy. It’s high time you took this seriously, just like you take your games.”

Another sermon.

“Your Mate has to be just like us, Jaxon. Anything else will be a fucking disgrace.” This memory was fresh from a few days ago.

Yet, instead of focusing on my father’s anger and his words, my mind and my wolf take a trip down memory lane.

There’s only one reason why I've put off the idea of finding a Mate.

I already found her. Five years ago.

Water streams down my chest and abs, slithering all the way down to the drain, and as I close my eyes, five years later, I can still see hers. I think of those mocha hazel eyes staring right up at me like I was the man who’d come to solve all her problems instead of destroying her.

The vivid memory of trying to pull back from kissing her to eventually giving in, slams me right in the chest, and I groan like a man reminiscing about how good it felt to take a bite out of a forbidden apple.

Because she was exactly that.

Forbidden.

Not only was she an intern I was one hundred percent not supposed to touch, but she was too fucking young for me to corrupt her. She was thirteen years younger than me and a human no less.

But Goddess. I couldn’t fucking stop.

“This is your chance to tell me to stop, Natalie. Say no to me. Find a guy who’ll give you the life you deserve and push me away, Freckles,” I’d insisted.

“I want you to kiss me and never stop, Jaxon. I want no one else but you,” she’d replied with a voice that had baited my wolf to claim her and charged me with the need to make her mine.

What came next after a night of worshipping Natalie Anderson’ body was the same feeling that clogs my throat and spreads across my chest like a disease—regret.

My cock is hard, my blood is high on the memories of what happened between us, but all I see on top of more regret is...David, Natalie’s father and my best friend, dying in my arms and begging me to look after his daughter.

Natalie was supposed to be off-limits, David’s precious girl who was innocent and too pure for the likes of me. Instead, I’d corrupted her when she needed a shoulder to lean on.

I’d screwed it all up.

No, I fucking coveted her.

I fucked her.

Then I put her life in danger by almost bringing her into the same world that killed her father.

That thought alone was enough for me to cut all ties with her and try to forget her. I had too much chaos in this world: pack threats, territorial disputes, enemies who would use any weakness against me.

My protection of her had to remain invisible because if I let her anywhere near my world, everything would change. As long as I didn't contact her directly, she could remain a normal human being and be safe from the side of my world that could destroy her.

Yet five years later, my wolf and my body have still not gotten the memo. I feel her absence like a hot poker to the heart.

And every day, when the Mate bond threatens to topple me over, I turn to the one thing that hasn’t fucked me over for years. My sport.