Page 16 of Jasper

“I went to Alpha Grimes and asked to mate you on the next full moon. He refused, saying that your lack of shifting was a disease and needed to be cut off, that he couldn’t allow you to mate with anyone and spread the defective gene to others. I told him I didn’t care, that I would just take exile and leave with you.” He stepped closer, taking up all the space in front of her until all she could see was him, glaring down at her. “He told me thathe would kill you. If I tried to take you away from the pack, he would hunt us down and kill you, that he would never allow you to mate anyone.”

She stared up at him, her mouth open in shock. She wasn’t sure what to say to that because she had no idea that any of it had happened.

Was it possible? Had her alpha put his foot down about her taking a mate?

“I came here. The pack alpha, Joss, knew my dad before he died and he offered me membership in the pack. When I got settled, I sent a letter to you that said I would come for you whenever you were ready and I’d make sure you were safe here in the park. I never heard from you.”

She inhaled sharply. “Now I know you’re lying. I never got a letter.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Melody, but I sent a letter to you, and then I waited. I waited for such a fucking long time to hear from you.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair with a frustrated grunt.

She didn’t want to believe him, but she couldn’t help but hear the truth—and the hurt—in his words.

“You thought I abandoned you,” she said softly. She reached for him, grazing his forearm with her fingertips. He jerked at the touch, and she dropped her hand.

His eyes were filled with wariness as he stared down at her, a statue…unmoving. “You didn’t get my letter.”

It was a statement and a question rolled up together.

She shook her head.

“Don’t you think I would have reached out to you if I did? We’re soulmates, Jasper. There’s only ever been you for me. I just thought…well, it doesn’t matter.”

“What did you think?” His voice softened slightly—was he was warming up to her?

She didn’t like the prick of tears in her eyes at opening up those old wounds, but what if she never got another chance to be in this position again? What if after he helped her parents get free, he walked away again despite the conversation they were having now?

“I thought you finally figured out that I wasn’t good enough to be your soulmate, that the burden of my non-shifting was too much for you to bear.” Her mouth went salty and although she tried to stop the tears, they hit her anyway.

Lowering her head, she looked at the floor through the veil of tears.

He curled his finger under her chin and lifted her head to look at him. The tears spilled over her cheeks and she sniffled. He brushed the tears from her cheeks in the heavy silence that followed her admission.

“Did you really think I didn’t want you anymore?”

This time when he spoke, the wariness and anger were gone, replaced with warmth laced with confusion.

“We were young. It made sense.”

“What made sense?”

“That someone like you wouldn’t want to tie yourself to someone like me.”

“Someone like me?”

She tilted her face from his grasp and scrubbed the wetness from her cheeks. “You’re a powerful wolf. And you’re gorgeous. You could have had anyone in the pack. I never really understood why you stuck with me after I couldn’t shift, so when you left without a word, I just assumed…” She let the end of her thought hang without speaking it.

She’d been hurt when he disappeared, and for a long time she’d been hopeful he would come back. But that hope had been gone for years, and now that she was laying her soul bare, shewished she’d never come to see him. Because his rejection a second time?

It would ruin her.

His eyes bled to amber and he snarled.

With a swift motion, he jerked her into his arms and kissed her.

It was new and familiar at the same time.

Soft lips demanded her surrender as he kissed her like his life depended on it, like she was air to breathe and he’d been dying slowly this whole time.

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