Jax watched Nova, trying to decipher what she was thinking. Her emotions echoed his longing, but tangled with something else.
She felt longing exactly as he, but she was also fighting something. Fighting him, fighting the pull between them, or maybe fighting herself.
Confusion. Hesitation. Maybe even guilt.
He was about to mindlink her, to say something — anything — but her eyes fluttered closed.
Across the room, Elias moved quietly, hooking Jax's blood to the IV in Nova's arm. The tubing filled slowly, her body accepting the transfusion.
Jax didn't leave her side. He sat in the chair, elbows on his knees, head dropping lower with each passing minute. The weight of the day finally catching up to him.
His forehead came to rest against the edge of the bed. He hadn't even realized he was falling asleep.
A gentle hand touched his shoulder.
"Jax… you fell asleep," Marra said softly. "Why don't you come back to our quarters and rest?"
He blinked, disoriented. Then looked at Nova — still unconscious but breathing steady — before nodding once.
Fin was seated on Nova's other side, one hand wrapped around hers. His head had fallen back against the chair, eyes closed, exhaustion etched across his features.
But then — it hit Jax.
Her scent.
The same, comfort of vanilla and moonlight. But it was something deeper. Older. Calling to something in him that had been asleep for too long.
The pull slammed into him like a tidal shift. Stronger than anything he'd felt. Stronger than the pull that had once dragged him toward either fated mate. Or the pull that he felt towards Nova since the day she arrived. No, this wasn't that.
It was gravity.
A whisper brushed through his mind — familiar yet impossibly ancient.
Mate.
It came through his wolf… but beneath it, woven through it, was something else. Something divine. A higher voice speaking through his wolf.
Marra didn't react. Didn't tense. Didn't sense anything. Nothing changed in her expression.
But Jax looked at her — really looked — and realization crawled up his spine.
There was no pull. No bond.
No scent drawing him in.
It was as if their matebond had… vanished. Burned out. Gone silent.
His brow furrowed. Marra's did too. Confusion flickered across both their faces, quiet and sharp and unspoken.
But she didn't look hurt. Not even angry. More… bewildered.
She touched his arm gently. "Come," she said. "You need rest."
He stood quietly and nodded, following Marra out. Fighting all his instincts to stay there.
She led him back toward their chambers. Her steps were calm.
And Jax realized with a hollow thud:
He couldn't feel her at all.
And she couldn't feel him.
The matebond — whatever fragile thread had remained — was gone.
Jax collapsed onto the bed, not even bothering to pull back the covers. Marra dropped beside him, silent. They didn't touch.
They rarely did.
Since becoming mates, they'd only been intimate once — that first night. A desperate, hollow attempt on Jax's part to forget Nova and do what fated mates were supposed to do. It hadn't worked. If anything, it made everything worse.
He hadn't marked Marra. And she hadn't asked him to.
Whatever bond they shared now… felt more like a friendship than a fated connection. A treaty held together by silence and mutual respect.
"Marra…" he whispered into the dark.
She let out a quiet hum, not bothering to open her eyes.
"I won't let anything happen to you," he said. "You can count on me to protect you."
Her eyes snapped open at that — wide, shimmering. Fear flickered behind them.
Jax turned toward her.
"The day of the coronation," he said softly, "our ancestors… they gave us a warning. Fin, Nova, and I all heard it. And we know you are innocent in all of this."
A single tear slipped from her eye, tracing a line down her cheek.
Jax reached up and brushed it away with his thumb.
"Your secret," he said gently, "it's safe with us. Nova already has some ideas for a solution, I think. She hasn't said much, but… she's thinking about it. And even if she can't solve it in time, we'll figure something out. You won't be alone in this."
Marra swallowed hard, still silent.
For a long moment, she said nothing. Just breathed.
Then, finally, her voice came — small and shaken.
"Why are you being so kind to me?"
Jax stared at the ceiling, his jaw tightening.
"Because you deserve it," he said.
Marra's breath caught. But she didn't cry again.
They lay there in the dark — two people tangled in a bond that never really fit. And outside, the moon continued its silent watch.
"Thank you Jax." Was all she could say.
"Can't let anything happen to the best Gamma Luna in Varos." He whispered with a grin.
His eyes drifted closed as did hers.