Page 8 of Heartless

Theo’s violet eyes flashed and when he grabbed my wrist, I felt his power scratch across my skin like the sharp end of a plume. “Vail, your family might have written the book on banes, but they’re no friends to us. I’ve heard rumors about Elijah Marrow, and they’re disturbing. Even for a descendent of the Skin King. Just… be careful who you trust.”

Disappointment bit hard, but I nodded. “Thanks for telling me all this, Theo…”

I tried to dredge up a smile, but he dropped my arm like he’d been scorched, and when his gaze flew back to the window, I expected to see the other librarian glaring in at us.

Except our audience was male, had eyes like blue flames, and was bristling with an alpha power I could feel through the door.

Chapter Five – Jasper

Of all the places to finally find her, I wouldn’t have guessed a glass box in the library, with Theo Grille holding her hand. I’d been avoiding this building since Hunter Moon, given every vertical surface came with some memory of Vail pressed up against it. But Nadia had mentioned she’d seen her heading in this direction after lunch, and I didn’t even wait around to ask my Head Omega why she seemed so down. Just took off like a pup after its first rabbit. Which meant I was panting and sweaty, and probably looked like I was half out of my head.

More than half, since I was technically now a shifter without a wolf.

The sulky shit had gone into full retreat the moment he saw Callum’s mark on her wrist. Didn’t try to push through my skin, or claw off my balls. Just turned around and disappeared. At the time my gut was on fire from Vail calling herself the Sawyer Luna-in-Waiting, and I was too distracted to realize what he was doing. He’d given me the silent treatment before; frozen me out when I went my own way or kept him under wraps for too long. So it wasn’t until I tried to shift I realized how bad things were. My wolf hadn’t just shown me his asshole when he took off – he’d cut all ties, and gone so deep, I could no longer feel him under my skin.

A terrifying fucking realization for any shifter, let alone a Clan Alpha.

Luckily, I still had enough juice to heal my wolves, or I might have tossed myself off the academy roof. Instead, I’d spent every hour since my aborted shift setting bones, calming omegas, and licking away wounds. I was worn down to the marrow, foggy from lack of sleep, and vibrating with the need to shift, but what the hell else was I meant to do?

Chase down Vail and beg her to come back. I didn’t need my wolf growling in my ear to tell me how much I’d fucked up. But when I’d gone to do just that, I’d found her curled around Cal, and he’d been grinning at me like the cat that got the cream. Because… his bed. His mark. Her hair spread over his pillow and her fresh laundry scent tangled in his sheets.

Lucky my wolf was sulking, because the only thing that stopped me going feral was the lack of sex in the air. The scent of her blood was bad enough, and the sight of the claw marks on her calf had jammed a permanent ache under my ribs. So I’d healed her, trying not to groan as my tongue melted on her skin. And Cal watching it all with eyes that glowed like the devil’s asshole.

I might be scarred from the sight of her in his bed, but I drank her in now. She was dressed in her ass-loving jeans and a bulky jacket that reminded me disturbingly of Cal’s leather pants. Her dark hair was damp, and I prayed to the moon goddess those weren’t his finger grooves in the thick waves. I’d seen what he could do to a good girl and her ponytail, to say nothing of Tilly slinking out of his shower, glowing from more than just a good body scrub. I forced myself to focus on her eyes – those luminous, forest green pools. A dozen thoughts flickered there like lightning, and while her fear made me want to howl, I perked up as it faded to a glimmer of curiosity. Maybe it was just her wolf looking for mine, but I latched onto it. Her fear was a mindfuck, but curiosity I could work with.

I finally pulled my gaze away and looked at Theo Grille. Like all Sawyer wolves, he was a strange breed. Too pretty for his own good, he’d caught more than one alpha’s eye, but to my knowledge he’d shown no interest in mating with any of them. Including my mom, who’d been stalking him ever since I put my dad in the ground. Subtlety was never her thing, and I tried not to picture them together, since I didn’t need to add to the scars I was already carrying. I was glad the male was holding out, but right now, I needed to get him gone.

I jerked my head, which was enough for him to step forward and pull open the door. It made a sucking sound, like it had a heavy-duty seal. Perfect. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted anyone to overhear.

“Clan Alpha,” he said cautiously, as he stood in the doorway, his arms folded and head cocked like he was guarding the Clan Caves from invaders. “Can I help you?”

I held onto my temper, since Vail was looking at me like I was about to kick her favorite pup. “You can give me some privacy with Vail,” I told him. “Keep the battle-axe on the front desk away, if you don’t mind.”

A fleeting smile touched his smooth face before he looked back at Vail with raised brows. Something passed between them, a mental question and answer I couldn’t even guess at. It was an intimacy I didn’t want to see, especially since I still had his cousin’s smirking face burned into my brain. “I’m just going to talk to her, Omega.”

He didn’t step aside until Vail gave a little shrug, and rested her butt on the glass case she was standing next to. The omega finally left, taking his fruity scent with him, and I forced myself to walk slowly inside and shut the door. I watched Vail’s eyes widen a little as I filled up the space. We hadn’t been this close since the woods on the Frost Moon, and then I’d been so furious at Reed and Pearl, I’d been afraid to touch her. I knew I still needed to keep my distance, even if my hands were itching to reach out and touch her. Instead, I took a breath and said, “I need to apologize, Vail. I screwed up. I wasn’t there when you needed me, but I’m here now. And I’ll do anything to get you to give me another chance.”

“Another chance?” Her face had paled and her eyes widened as she listened to my apology. But now her brows bunched up into a furious knot. “Are you kidding me?”

“Just… let me spend some time with you. We could go to the pool…” I hadn’t really thought past the groveling, I realized, and cast about for something else we could do that might take the freaked-out look off her face. “Or we could just hang here, and… talk.”

Not super smooth, and her mouth fell open in shock. “How can you say this, Jasper? After everything that’s happened? You want to just pretend like we’re back before Hunter Moon?” Fuck, I wanted that more than anything. Only, I didn’t want it to be pretend. But she wasn’t finished, her anger making her scent spike in the still air. It was an echo of the way it had curled around me when I kissed her senseless out in the stacks, minus the killer glare. Still, I was instantly hard, my musk tangling with her spice. If she noticed, she was too busy trying to gut me with her eyes. “I asked you, Jasper. I begged you to trust me, and to let me choose. But you said no.”

The raw hurt was painted all over her face, and I was glad my wolf wasn’t around, or he’d have neutered me, for sure. “I know. And I didn’t listen. But when everything went down in the woods, and I pictured you being dragged off by the Denners, or worse, I knew I didn’t just want to keep you safe. I wanted you to need me. As badly as I needed you. Real mates, they’re two halves of a whole, Vail. They keep each other safe. And the truth is, if I don’t let you choose, I’m fucked. Because there’s never going to be anyone else for me, sweet wolf.”

Her flinch at the pet name was like a punch to the gut, but I was glad I’d finally got the words out. It left me as exposed as a blood claw tapping my jugular, but she deserved to know. Still, I steeled myself as she folded her arms tight against her body.

“Do you remember what you said to me in that hotel room?” When the silence stretched, her eyes narrowed, and I swallowed hard. What the fuck didn’t I say? Warren’s warning had freaked me out, and I’d been so set on bending her to my plan, I’d been half out of my head. “You told me actions, not words,” she said flatly. “So how are you going to prove you’ve changed?”

“I can’t prove that yet, but I can show you how serious I am.” Gritting my teeth, I shrugged out of my blazer and rolled back the sleeve of my shirt. She tracked every movement, and she didn’t miss the way my hand trembled, because a little divot appeared on her brow. But, fuck me, what I was about to show her went against every survival instinct I possessed. Alphas weren’t just protective of their weaknesses, they were taught to root them out and cover the wound with titanium.

But if I didn’t fix our bond, I was pretty sure my wolf would find a way to break me altogether.

The wound on my wrist was red-raw and oozing. Not a crescent moon claiming mark, but a jagged tear, like a lightning bolt. I’d been patching up wolves all day, but this wasn’t from the Denner attack. And it wasn’t going to heal on its own, no matter how much alpha power I pumped into it.

Vail sucked in a breath as she stared at the wound, her scent going haywire. “This isn’t a claiming mark,” I told her, just in case it really was jealousy I could scent on the air. “It’s kind of the opposite, actually. My wolf… I guess you could say, he’s put me on notice.” I couldn’t keep the pain from my voice, but I focused on tugging down my sleeve. I didn’t need to be flashing that shit around when my enemies’ blood was still soaking into the ground outside. “He’s cut me off. No extra power, or enhanced senses. I can’t shift, either, which I guess makes me the biggest dud in the school, right now.”

Vail’s eyes widened. “You’re making that up.”

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