“I find myself in need of an accomplice that can keep a secret, and I thought of you,” I explained. “Can you help me with a romantic gesture?”

“Happy to be of service. Come on in, and we’ll sort out the details,” he said, showing me into the living room.

“Violet took me to visit my late wife’s grave today,” I began.

“That doesn’t seem very romantic,” Jasper remarked, raising an eyebrow.

“No. You’d think it would have been pretty macabre,” I agreed. “But somehow, her willingness to talk about my old life made me fall even more in love with her. She’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

Jasper smiled, and I could tell he was pleased that he had set up the match between us. “You tell me your plan, and I’ll help make it happen,” he said.

Chapter 23 - Violet

“Violet, you’ve got a phone call over here,” Walter said, calling me to the front register. “They said they tried your cell but couldn’t get a hold of you. Sounds important.”

I hurried over to the counter and took the phone from him, placing the receiver to my ear. There were only a few wolves who would call me at the shop, and I couldn’t imagine why any of them would need to get in touch with me while I was at work.

“Hello?” I said.

“Violet, it’s Terry,” a man’s voice said. “Alpha Nile told me to call you. There’s been an emergency.”

“An emergency?” I asked, panic rising in my voice. “What happened? Is he alright?”

“I’m not sure what it was, but he said he needs you to meet him right away,” Terry said.

“I’ll head home right now,” I told him.

“Not home,” he replied. “The alpha said you should go to the lookout tower on the north side of town. Do you know it?”

That could only mean the gazebo where Nile had taken me on our painting date. I hadn’t been back there since, but I knew the pack used it to monitor for threats from both within the town and outside of city limits.

“I know the one,” I told him.

“Good. Better hurry,” Terry said.

I hung up the phone, fear taking over as I tried not to imagine what kind of emergency would mean that Nile couldn’t call me himself to tell me about it.

“Walter, I gotta go,” I told him quickly, grabbing my purse from behind the counter.

I pulled out my phone and saw that I had three missed calls from Terry’s number, but none from Nile or Penny’s preschool. What in the world was going on?

“Everything okay?” Walter asked in concern.

“Um, I’m not sure,” I said. “Terry said it was an emergency and that Nile needed me right away. I’ll call you when I find out more, but I really need to leave.”

“Of course, Luna Violet. There are times when I’m your boss, but this isn’t one of them,” he said, bowing his head slightly.

I thanked him quickly and rushed out the door. I grabbed the keys from my purse and then realized that Nile had dropped me off this morning. It wasn’t a far walk, but I cursed the distance as I hurried my pace. My mind raced with worst-case scenarios as I did my best not to draw attraction from the human contingent of town.

By the time I spotted the stairs leading to the lookout gazebo, I felt as though my heart was about to beat out of my chest from the anticipation of finding out what I was heading into. There was no one in sight, so I decided to let the anxiety out of my body by running the rest of the way. I burst into a sprint, feeling the burn of the lactic acid as my muscles worked overtime to propel me toward my destination.

I was about to pass through the wooden gate that blocked the stairs from the street below when two men stepped out from behind the barrier. I careened to a stop to avoid hitting them and was prepared to fight back when I realized it was Alpha Jasper and his second, Killian.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked, confused and concerned by their sudden appearance.

“We’re really sorry about this, Violet, but we need to put this blindfold on you,” Jasper said, holding up a blue strip of cloth.

I eyed them suspiciously, wondering if something had happened that had turned these friends into foes. Had the alliance between our packs turned sour?