Page 26 of Off-Limits Mate

“I know,” I whisper.

I can’t help it. I know I sound sad. Because I’m freaking sad about it.

The bed dips, and Jasper’s broad shoulder nudges against mine. “Amara. It’s okay. I’m going to tell him.”

“Are you?” I look up at him, upset that I’m practically crying.

“I am. I just… He just walked in. He obviously looks like he’s been through it, and I don’t want him to like… figure it out. I want to actually tell him,” Jasper says softly.

I sigh. It makes sense. “I just feel like this is… like it’s all going to disappear at any moment or something.”

“Oh, Amara.” Jasper scoots closer, wrapping an arm around me. “This is real. I’m not going anywhere.”

“How are we going to tell him?” I nibble at my bottom lip. I don’t want to ruin their relationship, or Nolan’s and mine. I just want us to be the same group that we are now. But with Jasper and me as… a little closer than we have been.

“We’ll figure it out,” Jasper says. He leans forward, and I tip my face up to his. When he kisses me this time, it’s… soft. Sweet. Reassuring.

I lean into it, slowly putting my hand on the side of his face, pulling him closer.

“What. The fuck. Is this?”

Nolan’s voice shatters our kiss. I jump back and off of the bed, Jasper doing the same. Nolan’s standing in the doorway, and his eyes are flicking between Jasper and me.

His face is red. I’ve never seen him look so angry. Not once.

“Nolan. Stop. I can explain,” I say quickly.

“You,” Nolan snarls at Jasper. I hear the hint of the wolf in his voice, and I go still. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Jasper stands. “Amara and I slept together.”

I whip around and look at him. “Jasper! You can’t just tell him?—”

I don’t get to finish that sentence.

In a heartbeat, Nolan shifts. His wolf is huge, and it charges into the room without a second thought.

I scream. He looks enraged. I’ve never seen the crazy, wild look in his eyes before. Even as a wolf, Nolan is always in control. Not this time.

I crouch down, trying to make myself small in the corner. Nolan’s snarling, his snapping teeth an inch from me, when I hear another growl join the sound.

Jasper.

I scream again as he surges forward. The room that I’ve been staying in isn’t big. In fact, it’s fucking tiny. And two grown, full-size male wolf shifters are absolutely too big for it.

The furniture is shattering around me. It sounds like a bomb, made of wolves, is going off in the room. I try to crouch down, wondering if I should shift, too, or if that will just make it worse…

I don’t notice, at first, that Nolan throws Jasper through the bed frame. I don’t notice when the wood splinters everywhere, ricocheting around the room in a hail of tiny darts.

When one of those splinters pierces my thigh, I feel nothing, at first. Then, when I notice the amount of blood, I feel terror before the pain.

I slowly sink down. The boys are still ripping into each other. More blood and fur are flying through the air. But the piece of wood is through my thigh. Through my femoral artery, I think.

It’s absurd that I remember that. It feels utterly absurd to look at your own body and see how much blood is leaking out of it and remember exactly what part of you is failing.

But here I am. Staring as blood leaks out of me onto the floor.

The growling and snarling and snapping stops. For one second.

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