~~~Valerie~~~
When I had our supper ready, and Azure wasn’t back from getting her things, I stepped out onto the back stair landing to search for her. I didn’t see her running back, and I was about to go after her when I spotted her and Jackson coming around the side of the building talking.
They weren’t whispering, but I was too far away to make out what they were saying. For the first time, I heard a hint of Jackson’s voice. The sound was deep but not raspy or hard, just manly. Something about the sound felt familiar. If I was a little closer, I might have been able to make out his words and remember from where I had heard his voice.
Feeling drawn to him and the sound, I took a step down the stairs. The slight noise my foot made on the metal got their attention, and they turned toward me.
Azure beamed up at me. Jackson only gave me a questioning smile.
“I was beginning to worry about you. Supper’s ready,” I said sheepishly, embarrassed that they had caught me trying to spy on them.
“Can Uncle Jackson eat with us?” Azure asked.
Uncle Jackson? I froze in surprise. Why I was surprised, though, I wasn’t sure. I had suspected he was her uncle.
Jackson opened his mouth to speak, distracting me from my shock, but Azure interrupted him.
“Oh, crap, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone who didn’t already know that he was my uncle. And you can’t stay, can you, Uncle Jackson? Grandma Rose said you had some important stuff going on. Oh well, maybe next time.”
She sighed and hugged him before either of us could say anything. He hugged her back. The way he closed his eyes and smiled as he did so told me he loved her very much.
“Night, Uncle Jackson,” Azure said as the man started to leave.
“Good night, Mr. Nichols,” I said before he could turn completely away.
He nodded his head the way he always did and put out a hand to wave. Even in the darkness, I could see that there wasn’t a mating mark on his palm. It took everything in me to remain standing when all my body wanted to do was crumple to the landing in despair. I had so wanted him to be my mate.
Jackson kept walking away as if he hadn’t noticed my breaking heart. Azure saw my shift in mood and asked me if I was okay when she reached me. Her words caused Jackson to falter a bit in his steps, but he didn’t turn around.
“I’m all right, sweetie. I’m just tired. Let’s go in and eat,” I told her.
“Are you sure?” She looked questioningly back at her uncle, probably wondering how he managed to upset me.
“Yeah.” I shut and locked the door behind us and showed her to the spare room. While she settled in, I put the bread in the oven.
Once we had sat and before she could push anymore about what was wrong—she had that look on her face that said she knew more was wrong with me than simply being tired—I asked her why she never told me Jackson was her uncle.
“It isn’t a big secret. Most of the people who’re originally from Greenleaf know we’re related. My father and Uncle Jackson were cousins and in a sense brothers. When the sickness started gaining ground here, people got scared. They started threatening Uncle Jackson’s life, his family, his control over the town and the pack.”
“Why him?”
“He wasn’t special. Most of the alphas and leaders of our world were under attack in some form during that time. People blamed them for causing it or not stopping it. Uncle Jackson tried to get my parents to go into hiding with me, but they wouldn’t, then they got sick. After they died, Grandma Rose and he decided that the best place for me was the orphanage. By that time, so many people had died that they were worrying more about themselves than anyone else, and in a sense, everyone forgot about me.”
She looked sad as she said that last part. I wanted to pull her into my arms and cry with her. Before I could move, though, she said, “Ms. Talia called him—she’s always finding reasons to call him—and Grandma Rose just as soon as she was done talking to us. Grandma told her that if I was okay with staying here with you, then she was.”
I found her tone in regards to Ms. Talia suspect. Did she suspect the woman of having feelings for her uncle? Did she disapprove of the woman’s feelings? Why? Would she disapprove of me having feelings for him? I wanted to question Azure about her comment, but didn’t.
“And what did your uncle say?” I asked instead when she took a bite of food instead of saying more.
“Pretty much the same thing, then he met me here to ask me in person how I felt about things.”
“And what do you think about staying here?” I asked. I was nervous about how she would answer, so I didn’t look at her while I waited for her reply.
“I told him that you’ve been the nicest person to me since the day I walked into your store and that I thought I would love staying here with you for as long as you let me. If you move away, though, as you said you wanted to do, I don’t think I can go with you. You’re great and all, but I love Greenleaf, and my family is here.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to city hop with me,” I replied without realizing that we’d turned a simple few nights, maybe a week stay into something a bit more permanent. “Moving around like that isn’t good for anyone. I don’t want to move, no matter what I say about it, but after tonight, I think I might have to.”
“Why? Is it because of me?”
“Oh, no, sweetie. Because of you, I want to stay more than ever, but I saw your uncle’s palm when he waved goodbye. It doesn’t have a mark. I don’t know who my mate is or how I got this mark, but it’s obvious that no one around here wants to be my mate or they would have claimed me…unless they’re ashamed of me, which I can see why. Either way, I think I should go. I need to either find my mate or go back to my world. You would like seeing my world, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
“He waved goodbye to you with both hands?” Azure asked, sounding confused, as that isn’t how someone usually waves goodbye.
“No, he waved with just one hand.” I raised my hand and mimicked his farewell.
“Then how do you know he doesn’t have the mark? It could be on the hand he didn’t hold up.”
She had a point, I thought, but something told me that the mark would have been on the hand he had raised, and I told her that.
“But you don’t know for certain. Do all human women jump to such conclusions before thinking things through?”
“Most people think with their heart, not their head,” I said. “Yes, I’m scared that he doesn’t want me, so I’m making up excuses, but my instincts tell me that his right hand was the hand he touched me with that day in the bookstore and would be the hand to have this mark.”
I held out my right hand. The hand was the one in which I would’ve given Jackson his stuff.
Azure took my hand in hers and examined it carefully. That was the first time I had let her get more than a glimpse of the mark. She traced the lines with an awed look on her face. I knew from past conversations that the mark fascinated her. She had told me that most people’s marks were in places that they could easily cover with clothing, so she had only seen a few marks in her lifetime. Her mother’s had been on her left upper arm. Azure had seen it a time or two but never gotten to examine it.
“Why are so many marks in hidden locations?” I asked, curiously. They formed with skin-on-skin contact, and most people shake hands upon greeting, so one would think more people would have them on their hands.
“I don’t know for sure. No one has ever told me. I think it is because most mates wait until they are in private to touch and shifters and weres seem to wait until they are in the animal form if at all possible. I think most see the mark as something private and prefer not have them where the public can see them. Still a good number have them on the top of their hands and palms as you do.”
“I see.” I understood what she was talking about with wanting the marks to be private. I didn’t like having mine in such plain view of the world. I didn’t mind Azure looking at it the way she was, but I didn’t want everyone I met doing so.
With a grave expression, she let go of my hand and said, “He’s a fool.”
“Jackson isn’t a fool. We just aren’t mated.” I gave my mark a quick glance before going back to my food.
“But…”
“Have you seen a mark on his hand?” I asked.
“No, but…”
“Okay, then. He doesn’t have feelings for me, and he doesn’t have to have them.”
“But you love him, don’t you?”
“I find him attractive, yes. I love that he cares about his people, but I don’t know him enough to love him.”
We ate in silence for a bit after that, and when I spoke again, I changed the subject of conversation to her schoolwork. I didn’t want to send her off the following morning without her having done all of her homework. She let me change the subject.
After she went to bed that night, I lay in my bed smiling. I was glad to have someone else in the apartment with me. I missed my sister greatly and couldn’t wait for her to join me once things were a bit more settled, but having Azure there was nice.