Page 13 of Jasper

She finally sat down in a plastic chair at a round table. Her stomach gnawed in hunger, but she was afraid she’d throw up if she ate anything because she was so stressed out. Were her parents okay? She’d been gone for hours and had no way to get in touch with anyone. She didn’t want to reach out to Ellie and put her in danger in case people were watching her friend’s phone.

After what felt like an eternity, Joss and Jasper came back into the room.

She stared at them wearily.

Joss cleared his throat. “I’m not in the habit of intervening in the politics of another pack. Our people can lead brutal lives, and what happens in another pack is really not my concern.”

Her eyes stung and she took in a shaky breath.

“However, Jasper is free to help you if he wishes. I’m going to leave it up to his discretion. I’m sorry for what you’ve endured, Melody, but I’m not going to get involved.”

“I understand,” she said, trying to keep her voice from trembling but failing.

Joss whispered something to Jasper that sounded likeapartmentand Jasper nodded.

When they were alone, when it was just the two of them in that big cafeteria with the round tables and plastic chairs, the hum of the refrigerators the only sound, he let out a low growl.

“I’ll help you. But you’ll do things my way, and after I help your dad, I’m walking away again. Period.”

She was simultaneously thrilled and disappointed.

“Oh-kay?”

“I’m going to make a few calls. Did you eat anything?”

She shook her head, not trusting herself not to ask why he was so mad at her.

“Get something to eat before you pass out; you look like you’re about to drop.”

He stalked to the door of the cafeteria, glanced at her over his shoulder for a heartbeat, then stormed out of the building, lifting his phone to his ear.

She didn’t want to eat, but she didn’t want to get yelled at, so she walked over to the kitchen area and took a yogurt parfait from the large commercial fridge, along with a bottle of chocolate milk.

As she sat back down at the table, she hoped again that her parents were okay.

And she hoped that whatever bug had crawled up Jasper’s ass would get taken care of. She was the one who’d been left behind, abandoned to a pack that didn’t want her defective non-shifting genes. She was the one who should be mad, not him.

Jasper was angry,but he was going to help. He was a stand-up guy, after all. Someone who could be counted on. Which is probably why Finn sent her to get him. Because he knew Jasper would come.

He didn’t know this Ludo male, but if he’d taken out Alpha Grimes and imprisoned the high-ranked males and their mates, then he was not a male to be messed with.

Joss told him he could take volunteers with him, but he had to be honest with them that it was potentially a very dangerous thing they were doing.

He reached out to his closest friends: Lucius, Alfie, Benjamin, Patton, and Indio. Even though he’d woken them all up in the middle of the night, they hustled up to meet him outside the cafeteria.

“I don’t want to get involved in a pack war,” Jasper said, looking at his friends. “But I do want to set the high-ranked males free so they can deal with the new alpha themselves. I know where the prison is. It sounds like we should be able to take out the guards, set Finn and his mate free so they can help the other high-ranked males, and then beat it back here before anyone’s the wiser.”

Patton, a gorilla shifter, cracked his knuckles. “Are you sure you don’t want to stick around and help them take out the bad guys? You’re not one to step down from a fight.”

“I’m sure,” he said dryly. “Finn asked for me to help, but he wants me to fight alongside him. My fighting days withthatpack are long over.”

“I get it,” Indio, an elephant shifter, said. “Help but only to get them free, no interfering in the politics and alpha-coup stuff. I’m in. Is that really your soulmate? You never told us you had one.”

“Yeah, she is, but she didn’t want to leave the pack and I had no choice.” He could have kept her safe if she’d wanted to leave, he knew it. But he hadn’t been given an opportunity. He rubbed the back of his neck and mentally shushed his wolf. “It’s not a story I like telling.”

“Clearly,” Benjamin said. “That sucks. But I’ll go along.”

“Me too,” Lucius and Alfie said at the same time.

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