39: Goodbye, Aidan
AIDAN
When I peeled my eyes open, it didn’t feel like it normally did when I woke up from my sleep. I would usually be wide awake within the first few seconds because my slumbers were usually pretty shitty.
This time, it felt like I’d been asleep for so long, but I still felt weak to my bones regardless.
I struggled to remember where I was and how I fell asleep there, and the memories hit me like a moving truck.
Collin.
The challenge.
Me winning.
And me dying.
Shit.
But if my eyeballs could dart left and right like they were doing right now and I could remember all of these details, it meant. that I had survived Collin’s attack
And that also meant that…
“Welcome back to the land of the living, man.”
It was Jace who spoke, cutting me off from my thoughts.
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39, Goodbye, Aidan
I turned my head to face him.
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“You didn’t think I was going to let you escape from your responsibilities that easily now, did you?” He asked, looking too calm for someone whose friend almost just died.
And yeah. Leave it to Jace to try and crack jokes while I was at death’s door.
“I feel like shit. What happened, Jace?”
“What happened is that Collin almost got you sent to hell, but luckily for you, I was close by. Since the blade was there, it was easy to identify what he infected you with, and it has been flushed out of your system. You just slept it out,” Jace explained.
“Shit,” I cursed. “How long have I been out for?”
“Just a couple of hours,” he said, and I turned my head to the other side of the room to see that the sun was just beginning to rise through the window.
“Shit. Thanks, Jace, for keeping an eye on me all through the night. I’m sorry I keep dragging you into shit like this.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t just me, and I’m not the one you owe an apology to. She’s ready to chop your head off,” Jace said, chuckling to himself as he pointed to the door.
Tara.
“Where is she? Is she okay?”
“See for yourself,” he said, but it sounded more like him asking for permission to let anyone other than himself see me in my
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vulnerable state.
“Open the goddamn door for her.
Within seconds, Jace opened the door to the suite, and Tara walked in.
Sorry.
She stormed in. And she was charging toward me, her features boiling over in anger.
“Tara…” I called, but I couldn’t get any more words out as she had already closed the distance between us, and her palm landed on my cheek in a dirty slap.
Damn. She had some strength in that arm.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Jace avert his eyes from the scene, and I knew that he would rather be anywhere else than here.
“That’s what you get for attempting to render my daughter fatherless, you jerk!” She yelled.
Well, the slap I just received wasn’t pleasant in any way, but I was pleased to know that Tara acknowledged me as Nadia’s father.
It was the small things,
I spoke as calmly as I could so as not to upset her further. “You know I had to do it to keep everyone safe.”
“Safe?” She balked, echoing a humorless laugh.
- Goodbye, Aidan
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“Yes, Tara. Safe from Collin’s cruelty.”
“And if you had died and he lived, just how safe did you think we were going to be?” She spat, looking anything but angry, and everything sexy.
The discomfort from my shorts was proof of that. I shook it off my mind because those weren’t appropriate thoughts for a conversation like this.
“It’s over now, isn’t it?” I asked instead. “I’m okay. See?”
I opened my arms for her to see that my bruises were all healed up, including the stab wound from Collins’s blade.
“Good for you,” she said, folding her arms across her chest, and making herself appear smaller.
Was I missing something?
I thought Tara would be happy that Vermont pack was safer for her and the others to stay in. Why did she still look mad at me?
“It’s over, right?” I asked again, searching her face for an
answer.
She shrugged. “If you say so. Collin is defeated, and Vermont pack is now yours. You have the loyalty of everyone here as the pack’s Alpha,” she said.
I couldn’t give a single care in the world about being the alpha of this pack. I had more than enough of my own pack to worry about already. All I cared for was them.
“That doesn’t matter, Tara,” I said
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“It does. You dethroned the alpha, and everyone acknowledged you as its new head. You don’t expect to rid a pack of its alpha and not lead them. It doesn’t work that way.
“Then I’ll find a way to sort that out, but I need you to calm down. and talk to me.”
She wasn’t having it.
“I have to get home to my daughter. It’s been hours since I’ve been away, so I have to be back before she wakes up. Now that I know you’re okay, I will not be bothered anymore. Goodbye, Aidan,” she said, turning her back to storm out just as quickly as she came in.
“Tara. Tara,” I called, but she was already gone.
What the hell was that about?
I thought I thought this through before it all went down, but not once in my thinking did I imagine that this would be Tara’s reaction to the outcome.
Why did she look like she hated me even more than she did before?
Was it that she was worried about the fact that I was in charge. of where she lived again? Like all those years ago? Was that it?
Was she just scared for me?
Or of me?
Or did she truly hate me because was so unworthy of anything as good as her?
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“You could fry your brains to chips if you tried to understand why women did the things that they did, so I’ll say leave it be,” Jace said when Tara was finally out of the room.
Ignoring Jace’s words, I spoke instead.
“Go after her and make sure she gets home safe.”
With that, Jace left the room, leaving me to my thoughts.
