WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!
WARNING!
WARNING!
WARNING!
WARNING! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST TWO BOOKS OF THIS SERIES, PLEASE GO BACK AND CHECK OUT THE TOWN OF ANTON AND BURIED SECRETS!
WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!

    ...

Bones POV

As the portal opened and the swirling entrance revealed her trembling body coming through a twisted spiral that shouldn't have been there in the first place with Deacon holding onto her, I couldn't help the existing smile crossing my face at the sight of seeing her alive. At seeing her safe.

Something fierce flared in my belly when she landed those burning sapphire eyes upon me. I melted at the slight toss of those short brunette curls falling carelessly behind her perky shoulders. It was an intimate gesture. One I didn't ignore. No girl would make herself open to another person like that, not unless...they were inviting them in.

She raced towards me until she fell limp into my body, not able to look up at me or move from her spot glued to me at first, only wanting to wrap herself up in the comfort of my arms. Not that I was complaining at all; anything to have her this close made me a satisfied man.

I couldn't imagine what she went through on the other side at the castle. Anything was possible. It tortured me. But then again, I couldn't just ask her. I knew pain. I knew it when I lost my entire family to Audra and all I had left was the wolf pack. I knew the agony and the feeling of no tomorrow. I knew the shame and guilt and I hated it. I knew she wasn't going to be ready to talk about it, so I would wait until she was. I would wait for eternity for her. That's how much I cared.

When I finally wanted to linger at her eyes once more, finding home in them, I cupped both of her peachy cheeks in my rough palms, feeling like I was way out of her league, gaining full access to the marks that covered her.

I'm not an expert at magic or murder or anything, but if I was a witch, I would have made a portal of my own accord and killed whoever dared to lay hands on her like this. She looked broken. Defeated. No one would be able to recognize her. I hope she knows I could see her. Even covered in scars. She should never be alone or hurt. She deserves more than this life ever gave her. What this life gave both of us. We owe it to ourselves to finally have a happy ending when this is all over.

"I thought I would never see you again. He—he wanted to marry me. Make me his. Make me like him. I—I had to get out of there. We barely escaped alive." She panted between breaths. Out of oxygen like her life was depending on air and she was being constructed of it, she continued, "Audra...she has my parents under a spell. I—I have to find a way to remove it and save them. I have to go back."

"What do you mean he wanted to make you like him and she has them?" I asked.

"He isn't just a warlock, he's also a vampire," Saige confessed and I gasped, not showing her. "Audra has been conspiring with him." I didn't want her to know my expressed shock, because it didn't mean anything. I didn't want her to worry.

"You're okay now. You're here with me and you're safe. No one will be able to get a dirty hand on you, not as long as I'm protecting you. We'll find a way to stop them, I promise. We'll come up with a plan and go back when we're ready with stronger reinforcements. We'll do everything we can to save them. Everything's going to be okay." I pulled her back towards me, close enough to ask her for her permission to be closer for a hug, and once I had it with a simple nod of approval, our chests crushed and melded together without disarray, her head tucked underneath my chin like she belonged there. I wasn't going to lose her again. I wasn't going to let her go again. Not ever. I needed her to know I would always choose her side, but I also needed her to know this wasn't her only battle to face and she wasn't doing it alone. It was ours. Loving her was challenging when I had to fight for her. Fight with her. But I wouldn't change anything for the world. I would do it every day if it meant I could hold her like this forever.

I made sure her eyes were fixated on me for what I was about to say next. "Do you remember when I told you I had to kill Audra's witches who retaliated, doing anything I can to get away from her after she killed my family? Do you remember when I told you the only thing that got me through it was the possibility of a future and being with you?"

"I remember," she softly muttered. "I know how much you care for me. I care for you, too. But what does this have to do with anything happening right now?"

A grin rose on my cheeks. For her to say she cared was a good enough invite for me to gain the love and trust of her heart that I wanted and I went for it. "It means I will do anything and everything in my power to ensure that future happens. You and I are meant to be together. No fighting it anymore."

"You really want to be with me that much, huh?" She blushed over her porcelain skin, wrapping herself deeper into my chest and leaning in, eyeing my parted lips.

"You have no idea." I chortled, wanting to devour hers. "I've spent so many years dreaming of our perfect wedding, of marrying my mate in the woods under fireflies."

There was a spark of realization that crossed her face just then. It only made me smile harder that she was remembering that night just as much as I remembered it, too. I mean, how could I not? It was one of the best nights of my life with her. It came second to accidentally falling asleep together as our wolves. It was the night we realized we weren't each other's monsters. Not even our own monsters. That was the night I told her she changed my life. That's the kind of place I would marry her at.

"How come we aren't doing that right now?" She asked, not even slightly sounding like she was joking, easing herself into the idea of marriage by taking my hands.

I knew she was still slightly afraid of what people might think about how she really feels, especially Deacon, when our palms join like fire.

After he fell back into Pansy and Hallie's arms, he was struggling, combing fingers through his unkempt hair. He attempted to start up his vampire healing process from whatever spell Hallie cast using Pansy's immortality. It was the only way to allow him through the portal to Witch Territory, and if from what I heard and witnessed was done correctly, he went in as a human to be able to cross the barrier for her, having limited time to get Saige and get out, or he would die.

Honestly, the heroic side of him was unique to see. I know I was always against him for Saige, but I don't know, he sacrificed and risked his life for her. I know that wasn't all because he was one of her two protectors. Pansy could have done it. It's because he loved her.

But I also think she was trying to work through those differences with him. If there was any feelings left that indicated she wanted to help, choose, and be with him, then I wouldn't be mad at her for carrying such a huge heart around.

It's not that I wouldn't be happy about her choice; I definitely wouldn't be. I'd probably fight her on it... But Deacon turned out to be a good guy with good intentions, deserving a girl exactly like Saige around. The problem now was that I wouldn't be happy if I didn't have a place in her life at all.

"Because like I said before, I want to do this with you the right way." If it's possible she feels the same way, then I want to change her life, too.

"You would do that for me?" She asked with the most sincerity in her sweet angelic voice.

"Of course!" I couldn't bare to keep things from her any longer, not even the way I felt about her, and if this was us doing things right, I had to be completely honest with her. "And for you, I don't want secrets between us."

With that being said, she deserved to know the truth about the deal I made with her father so long ago. There was nothing left to hide. If it's true about her parents being alive, just under some spell, and we wanted to be happy together one day, she deserved to know the arrangement that would come after we were wed when she turned eighteen —only it never happened because her father died before it could— and it turned out there was more to it; I just could never tell her.

With the bravest of smiles on my face, I sighed and began my speech, giving her no chance to ask about what I was going to confess. "Logan, your dad, wanted a unity where our joining hands in matrimony meant he had a strong, reliable, and honest male Alpha to take over, rule, and portray the leader of the wolf pack in his wake." Saige looked at me confused, yet I kept going. "It wasn't good judgment from some of the other werewolves if you, a female werewolf who is also part witch and a hybrid, lead the pack and rule over what's rightfully yours if you choose."

She had already felt the impact of the pack's hatred towards her at her first arrival and stay at camp; she just didn't know the full extent of it. They didn't want the only one of her kind, a Werewitch, ruling over the pack and putting them in imminent danger while residing in Anton. They feared her. More importantly, they feared the danger she faced.

Her father already showed weakness he couldn't afford at the time, considering he already had plenty of other enemies in different parts and threats from werewolf hunters like Adam and his grandfather, Eugene, just because Saige was alive...so when he died horribly, getting himself killed at the hands of Rufus on his own accord, he was distracting himself long enough to save her life. He knew his fate already. When Rufus left the house, not finding Saige, and stopped searching, it allowed Saige her final goodbyes before she made the next four years a living hell on the run and returned to Anton.

Though it was inevitable she ended up at Anton at some point anyways due to the call of her protectors and I, she didn't realize how much her father, Logan, truly sacrificed in the end, so I said, "Your father temporarily allowed Zachary to rule as Alpha, the only one he could trust to make it safe in the pack for me to still grow up under a true leader and learn how to become one myself, even if it would eventually cause tension in the pack, because you and I still had an arranged marriage I never planned to ever give up. Leaders were never chosen without their next in commands present. This was to overrule negligence and Zach was the only one left who remained. That was until his untimely death being tormented by the werewolf hunters for information on you...then I was forced into the leadership role, being the only one who was trained."

"You should have never had to do it alone and I'm so sorry. If I had stopped running sooner..," she muttered.

They all feared Saige for who she was, but not me. Never me. I meant what I said about home being in her eyes. I spent a lot of my life running from anything I could. In some ways, I was Saige. The only difference is: I was chasing myself and hiding. When I hid behind the hoodie, I couldn't find love in my own eyes, yet I was able to find love in hers. I couldn't find love because I lost a family and I knew loving someone else, I might eventually lose them, too.

She cupped my cheeks as we shared our feelings. Our stories. I told her not to be sorry. That was the extraordinary coincidence in all of this: the same eyes, the same color as mine. She was my soulmate. She was my beacon of hope. I don't think I would have ever been able to stay in charge of this pack alone and grow it if it hadn't been for meeting her in that alleyway as a newly made leader under false pretenses as the one who killed her parents, or kissing her forehead in her bedroom to show her how much I wasn't the man she thought I was.

"You should know it was your father who was a great leader, not me. When he died and Zachary took over —both men like father figures in my life to replace the one I lost to that stupid witch— it was often rough to ease into my role so quickly and find comfort in the consistent demanding and controlling of those I lived alongside for so many years. Not everyone agreed I could and should lead. They weren't really ideal with me taking the title at first. They had their doubts I would make my mistakes and harm everyone. That was until...they had no choice. There were the hunters... They would rather live under my leadership over your partial witch capabilities any day. Except, I like your witch side more than you realize."

When I looked upon those eyes like crazed gems soaking up every ounce of the living and beating heart that was made for her, I finally had a choice. I had so many. She gave me purpose again. They were going to have to accept I was going to choose to be with her and marry her one day and she, too, would rule the pack alongside me and there was nothing no one could say or do to change that. They would have to learn to deal with her presence or be exiled, and possibly killed because to be packless is excruciating. I won't let them test my patience.

When she finally encouraged herself to fill me with her light and surrendered to the depths in my sky blue irises filling up hers, there was something she wanted to say but wasn't quite ready for. I knew a kiss wasn't coming from those lips, but for her to want exactly that in the way she leaned in to press against me again, batting her wickedly cute eyelashes, meant everything to me. It meant she was willing to love me at all.

After everything we've been through, that only made my insides soar higher, fluttering with instant gratification. I held her tightly and gently, scared to release her in case she changed her mind about caring for me. Knowing what was expected, I released her anyways.

She had to make her own choice and I knew what it was: she had to leave Anton.

There was no stopping Rufus and the lengths he would go to retrieve her and get her back. He would try to force a marriage on her and I would die before I ever let that happen. If leaving Anton meant keeping her safe and keeping her away from him, that's exactly what I needed to happen.

Only it would happen without me, because I wasn't going with her. There was a pang in my chest at the thought.

From the looks of it, in hers as well.