Page 73 of Her Reborn Mate

“We can’t just blow up the ship in the docks.” Both of us knew what had to be done. It was just very difficult for me to put it into words.

“You should get out of the boat. If anyone has to take it out of the harbor, it has to be me. Face it, what do I have to live for? My dad’s dead. My grandfather’s an evil cunt. I don’t have any other relatives left. If I can be a hero at this moment, let me be one. For the pack.”

I shook my head. “No. You’re wrong. You have so much to live for. You are young. You have Will. The entire pack is your family. I cannot ask you to sacrifice yourself.”

“Come down from there. We’ll push the boat, and it will sail into the sea by itself,” Vince said. I could see that he was invested in this idea. It was just that I knew better; this wouldn’t work.

“Okay, I’m coming down,” I said, faking and moving away from the ship. When Vince turned away to go back to the ship, I went back behind the wheel before he could jump onboard, turned the engine on, and wheeled the ship around. I accelerated it to move away from the docks.

Behind me, I could hear the pack yelling, especially Vince, saying, “Lexie don’t! Come back, please!”

There was no coming back from this. Even if I put some weight on the accelerator and tied the wheel to aim for the sea, the ship wouldn’t just go there by itself. The wheel would come free, and the ship would rear towards town. I couldn’t afford that risk. Someone needed to be behind the wheel at all times.

It wasn’t some sacrifice that I had pre-planned. It came to me while I was standing on the ship. Saving the pack and the town would ensure a new start, the turning of a new leaf, for everyone.

I didn’t want Will to know about this. He would do everything in his power to stop me. Even if he were to jump from the cliff and swim toward me, there wouldn’t be any time. The bombs were about to blow in ten minutes. Hundreds of bricks of C4 strapped together sat on the deck behind me, all of them blipping and bleeping. I wondered how extreme the explosion would be, then realized it wouldn’t matter.

I’d be dead the minute the first bomb went off. There wouldn’t be much pain—only a little bit of remorse. I wanted to spend my life with my mate. But at least when I’d go to the afterlife, I’d have my parents and grandparents with me. I would wait for Will there patiently.

I looked back and saw that the docks were a safe distance behind. Below, the sea was deep, and the waves were still. It was a good night, as far as nights went. All the hundreds of stars in the quiet sky reflected on the surface of the ocean. Fireworks above the town in celebration of the new mayor. Distant music blaring from the town square.

A promise of a new life for the townsfolk. Tomorrow, a new day would dawn, and things would be better. I just won’t be there to see it.

As I accelerated the boat and headed deeper into the sea, I wondered what would happen to Will. Would he live despite the pain of losing his mate? Did he deserve such a fate? I felt terrible for all the times in the recent past that I had rejected him and shunned him, and all for what? Because he had said Ariana’s name. If I could go back in time, I would accept him the moment he came to me in Bangor. It would give us some more moments of love and joy, if not an entire lifetime.

As the bombs’ timer reached five minutes, my body froze, and the memories from my past started playing again.

This time, however, the most prominent memory that stood out from the rest was when Will and I were driving in his new Jeep back from Vermont. We had been holding hands the entire way home. He kissed me deeply every chance he could get. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel those kisses on my lips.

We talked a lot on the way back. Mostly about what we’d do when we finally got married.

“I could take you on a worldwide honeymoon,” Will had said.

“Why does it have to be worldwide?” I’d asked.

“Well, I reckon you’d want to visit the more exotic places like India, Turkey, and Persia. You always said that you wanted to visit the East,” Will said.

We were on the last leg of our journey by then, with Fiddler’s Green just a few miles away. The weather, for once, was clear, cool, and calm—no stormy skies. Just the blue canopy of the world dotted with tiny clouds.

“Do you always remember everything that I say?” I’d asked.

“Always,” Will responded. “I know how you once said you’d love to ride an elephant in India. Of all the animals in the world, you mentioned elephants. Did you know that I had a chronic fear of elephants?”

“How could you fear such cute creatures? Look at their tiny little tusks and their squiggly ears!” I’d protested.

“Do you know they can crush a human’s skull just by stepping on it?” Will had asked. He had looked so genuinely concerned for his safety in the vicinity of elephants that I’d burst out laughing.

“Okay, you can look from afar as I ride one,” I had said once I’d stopped laughing.

It was such a clear and spontaneous memory that sprung from the reserves of my mind. I smiled as I recalled it, no longer scared for my life at all. It would all be all right. Somehow, things would find a way to be A-Okay.

Now, the timer on the bombs said two minutes. In two minutes, a massive explosion would rock the surface of the sea, and the entire town would know that their lives had been saved. I would die a hero.

I pulled my foot away from the accelerator and killed the engine, stepping away from the controls and onto the deck. Even if I started throwing all the bombs overboard, I’d never make it in time.

“Mother, father, I’m coming to you,” I whispered as I closed my eyes and waited for it all to be over soon.

Alexis?Will called out.