Her Chosen Mate

Part 51

(POV - Marcus)

Marcus came to a halt in the woods, Jaden and Mercucio stopping with him.

"I don't know," he said hesitantly. "I don't know when I'll be ready to get over Helena."

"And that's okay," Jaden reminded him, quietly enough that it was barely a whisper. Marcus offered him a grateful smile in return.

"But I do know that it won't ever happen if I don't make the first move," he finished, turning around to face his best friends. "I know I need to share my past with Aria, and I think I'm finally ready to do it."

Both of their faces split into matching grins.

"I think I might cry," Jaden declared, blinking away the fake tears in his eyes and earning himself a half-hearted punch from his Alpha. "Don't hit me! This is a big deal, man, I'm so proud of you. We both are."

Mercucio nodded, his grin just as wide as Jaden's.

"Whatever," Marcus snickered, his heart feeling lighter. "I can't wait for her to call."

"It's already been three days," Mercucio pointed out, looking a little concerned. "She should have called, by now, right?"

"I've been thinking the same thing," Marcus admitted, recalling the unease that had kept him from sleeping every night since she left.

"Maybe you should try and call Ayla yourself," Jaden suggested, nudging Marcus in the ribs and waggling his eyebrows.

"Shut the hell up and mind your own business," Marcus snapped, his protectiveness and possessiveness front and center when Jaden mentioned Aria's name. He mentally reprimanded himself for losing his temper so quickly, and realized that he was probably on edge because he had finally come to terms with his own feelings.

"Marc," Mercucio cautioned him, keeping his voice quiet and calm. He was often the one to diffuse any sticky situations where Marcus and Jaden butted heads, which happened a lot more often than it should have.

"Yeah, yeah," Marcus grumbled, shaking off the sudden wave of blind anger and turning to Jaden apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't really mean to snap at you like that. I'm just..."

Jaden smiled and patted Marcus' shoulder consolingly. "I get it. You're on edge because she hasn't called and your wolf is wigging out."

"Something like that," he said sheepishly. "Wigging out' was a little too tame for how his wolf was currently handling the situation. If Marcus didn't have a solid grip on his wolf, he would have shifted hours ago and torn through every wolf in his way to get to Aria.

As it was, he'd managed to keep a tight hold on his self-control, aided in part by his Beta and Delta.

"We still need to go over a few more plans for tonight," Jaden said, drawing Marvus' attention back to the present. "When she calls, we'll be leaving the pack with Inara and her sentries, but I want to see if we can't beef up her defences with a few of my men."

Marcus nodded, turning to lead them back to the packhouse where they could flesh out those plans carefully. They'd grabbed snacks out of the kitchen before locking themselves in Marcus' office, strategically combing through every eventuality in their absence and how they could plan counters and defences while the three of them left to bring Aria back.

They hadn't expected anything to happen in their absence, but Marcus was paranoid by nature and preferred having contingencies for his contingencies.

"Inara could probably use more men on the western borders," Mercucio offered, pointing out the thin stretch of wolves that were stationed there. They'd laid out a map of their territory across the huge meeting table, stacks of red chips used to identify groups of sentries and their patrol points. The spot that Mercucio had pointed had very few red chips, indicating the smaller groups along that border.