Mark groaned and rubbed his face in annoyance when he heard knocking against the door. He winced at the loud sound and grumbled over why he was the one who had to deal with person on the other side when  he was still recovering from the full moon.

"What?" He hissed while cracking his eyes open.

Jackson stood in front of her him, his body swaying side to side, drenched in sweat.  "Mark." He rasped out.

Mark's eyes widened in surprise. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on that trip?"

He barely had his eyes open and stumbled in past him and into the house before stumbling over the furniture. Mark could only stare as the prince who was normally light on his feet, barely able to walk straight.

"What the hell is--!" Mark caught the prince just as he passed out, his temperature running high, before glancing around the cabin, stunned.

"Um…GUYS!?"

-----

"What do you think happened?" Jinyoung asked as he placed a wet towel on the Jackson's forehead.

They were all crowded around Jackson's bed, where he was stretched out and watched him take painful breaths, like something was stopping him from breathing.

Jaebum's face was stoic as he stared at Jackson's tired figure as he whimpered in his sleep.

"Maybe he got into those apples again." Yugyeom offered.

Mark shook his head, "He wouldn't have reacted like this. Maybe a little hung over, but not this. He almost looks sick."

"Jackson never gets sick. He had an immune system made of steel." BamBam said with a frown.

Youngjae tilted his head from his spot on Jackson's table, "So why does he look like he's on the brink of death?"

Jinyoung glared at Youngjae, but Mark turned to his Alpha, "You've been quiet. Thoughts?"

"Do you remember what Mason said?" Jaebum said softly.

Jinyoung leaned his head back, "About his mate?"

"I think something happened between them. Something bad." He whispered.

Everyone felt their heart sink, "You don't think…"

"I think she may have rejected him."

-----

Two hours later, Jackson groaned and his stomach before he pulled himself up and sat up straight.

"." He moaned in pain.  

A cup of hot water appeared  in front of his face. "You're up.

Jackson grabbed the cup and glared at Mark."No ."

"Are you really going to take that tone right now? Do you know how freaked out we were? We thought you died. What the hell happened?" Mark scolded.

Jackson's face fell as the memories of the night before slowly came to him.  His heart felt like it was made of lead as he slouched down into the bed with his head in his hands. She said no. A part of him hoped to see her asleep beside him, close enough to tug into his chest.

It was twisted, but he still felt his insides melt at the thought of her body heat pressed against him. To feel her soft little breaths against his neck.

He shouldn't have taken her for a walk that night. He should've just stayed in the cabin with her.

"I screwed up. God, I screwed up so bad."

Mark waited for Jackson to continue but when he said silent, Mark sighed and closed the door behind him before taking a seat on a chair.

It was going to take a while, he could tell.

Jaebum was the Alpha, but he sent Mark anyways because he knew that Mark was one of the only members of the pack that could talk to Jackson without getting him agitated.

"What happened?"

"She knows."

"She kno--oh."

Mark wanted to freak out. He wanted to attack Jackson with questions, but he forced himself to be quiet. There was so much riding on the fact that she knew. Where was he supposed to start? But seeing the way Jackson was acting, he knew he had to be delicate. The life and death of her and their prince hung between the deafening silence.

"The panthers attacked." Jackson felt his body rippling with rage. "They confronted me when I was with her. They wanted me to shift because they must've known that she didn't know the truth yet. They kept provoking me. They wanted to ruin things between us."

Mark looked stricken, "You didn't…"

"I had to."Jackson snapped ferociously. "If I didn't, they would've hurt her. There's no way I would've taken all 5 of them and look after her and they knew it."

"Y-You care about her." Mark breathed out, his eyes wide.

Jackson looked away, his fists curling, "I don't."

Mark frowned at Jackson stubbornness and sighed, "Jac--"

"I like her, Mark, I like her a lot. , I think I love her. I don't care about her because that makes it sound like I only need her to keep me alive. I love her and I'd love her even if it killed me." He grated.

Mark was stunned. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He loved her? Jackson didn't love anything other than his parents.

Hell, if he asked Jackson if he loved any of them, he'd probably make some snappy comment, telling them how he'd kill them over a piece of chicken in a heartbeat.

He loved Areum.

That wasn't something that would come out of the prince's mouth easily.  

"I ed up. I ed up so bad." He mumbled.

Mark's eyebrows knit together, "How?"

"I love her, Mark. I love someone that hates me. It wasn't until she looked at me with….with that much hatred that I realized that I didn't want her gone. I don't want her to leave me and I don't care if I die. I just want to be with her." He whispered.

"Yo-You what?" Mark breathed out, unable to process the rush of information that Jackson hit him with.

Jackson leaned his head back and closed his eyes, "I love her."

Mark stayed silent until Jackson opened his eyes and stared at him, "Why aren't you saying anything?"

He had never seen that look in the prince's eyes.

He saw love.

He saw love and fear.

"Did you tell her?" Was the only thing that Mark was coherent enough to say.

"I told her everything. Everything from who I really am to her being my mate. The only thing I left out was that I would die if she left me."

"Okay, but did you tell her that you love her?"

Oh.

He had left that out too.

Jackson was silent before he picked up the glass and whipped it across the room, shattering it against the wall in anger.

"I couldn't." He voice iced over.

"You couldn't or you didn't?" Mark leaned back in his chair.

Jackson made a face. "Both."

Mark knew that Jackson didn't want to pressure her, but he couldn't help but wonder if the situation would've ended differently if he had just told her how he felt.

Even in love, he was stubborn and there was no doubt that Areum was too.

As if he saw the doubt on Mark's face, Jackson crossed his legs and pulled the blanket off his body.

"You should've seen her. She was so scared Mark. She looked terrified. Like she couldn't trust me, like she thought I would hurt her, but I would never hurt her. She cried and screamed. I've never seen her lose it like that. She hates me. She hates me so much."

"I don't think she hates you." Mark tried to reason.

Jackson shook his head. "She thinks it's all fake. Like everything between us is just because of the pull since she's my mate."

"Is that true?" Mark wanted to make sure that Jackson didn't get confused.

Jackson paused before he shook his head, "It was all real. Yeah, sure, I only met with her because she was my mate, but everything I did was real. She made me fall in love with her. She did, no one else. Mark, I want her. I want to be with her so badly."  

Mark didn't know what to do, part of him was glad that Jackson was going through this. After being such a spoiled brat about mating, it felt like this was long time coming. Someone who pushed her away for so long, only deserved to be pushed away in return.

But seeing him so scared and close to death, made him look like a wounded pup.

"So the what did she do?" He asked gently.

"She told me that she didn't want to be my mate. That I put a huge burden on her and that she wanted nothing to do with me. She left." He pressed the heel of his wrists to his eyes.

"Left? Left to where?" Mark said dubiously.  

"Her sister in Japan."

Mark laughed at him, "What the hell are you still doing here, then?"

"I can't go. Don't you see? She doesn't want anything to do with me. She wants her space. If I show up, miles at where she ran away to, she's just going to resent me more. I'm not going to force her into this. I've done enough damage."

"Ja--"

"You what the funny thing is? I don't care if I die. If she doesn’t want me, I'll take death. But I just miss her, man. Those two days were so amazing with her. I haven't felt that happy in a really long time. I want that, so badly. Just once more." Mark gaped at the tears filling Jackson's eyes.

He rubbed his eyes before any of them slipped out.  He wanted to hold her and smell that mouth watering scent at least once more.

"But I don't regret the time I got to spend with her. I'll never forget her." He said wistfully.

"Stop." Mark's voice cracked as he looked away, "Stop talking like you're going to die."

Jackson laughed, "But I am, aren't I? She said no."

"You can fight this! You can convince her!" Mark barked.

"I can't. I can't do that to her. If I have to convince her to be with me, it's not worth it. She won't mean any of it."

Jackson's eyes twitched and he forced himself off the bed. He leaned against the bed frame, wincing at the blood rushing to his head before hobbling to the door.

"Don't get up! You're going to pass out."

Jackson brushed him off and yanked the door open. The rest of his pack came stumbling into his room, falling over each other.

Jaebum hopped up the fastest and brushed himself off.

"What are you guys doing?" Jackson asked groggily. He knew with their wolf hearing that they caught every word, but Jinyoung just sighed and glanced at Jaebum.

"Your parents are downstairs. We called them. They want to see you."

Jackson closed his eyes and let out a breath. "I can't. Just tell them that I'm sleeping."

"They probably already heard that."

Jackson gave Youngjae a flat look, "Then they'll know that I don't want to talk to anyone."

-----

"Why doesn't he want to see us?" Alison asked with a pout. "We're almost never in Korea. Is he too busy with his mate to spend time with the woman who carried his fat in her stomach for 9 months?"

James bit on his lip, resisting the urge to laugh at his wife's words. No matter how elegant and docile the district thought Alison was, she was quite the opposite when t