Page 36 of Jasper

After he took Melody to meet Joss and Jeanie, he and Melody spent hours in his house—which was hers now too—making love and talking. Then he’d dropped her off at the apartment complex to meet up with her parents. He’d been walking through the park on his way to the employee cafeteria when Joss had called and asked him to relieve Amadeus in the security office for an hour.

Which was good for Jasper because it gave him something to do to pass the time instead of missing Melody. He’d heard that it was difficult for mated wolves to be apart from their soulmates, and that had turned out to be very true.

Even now, as he stood behind the counter of the security office and stared at the stark white walls, his wolf was banging around in his skull demanding to find their soulmate.

The door opened and a middle-aged female walked in. “Hi, I was wondering if anyone turned in a set of keys? I can’t for the life of me find them.”

“Sure, let me check lost and found.”

He ducked under the counter and lifted a large plastic box, setting it on the counter. “Feel free to look through this,” he said. “If they’re not in there, we can check with the ticket office and other buildings and see if they were turned in.”

“Oh, thank you,” she said, going onto her tiptoes to look into the box.

Jasper’s heart clenched suddenly, and a bolt of fear ratcheted down his spine like bony fingers. He inhaled sharply.

Turning to one of the offices, he leaned in the open door and said, “Hey, Justus, can you pull up the cameras for the apartment complex?”

“Sure thing,” Justus said. “Everything okay?”

“I don’t know, I feel weird.” Jasper lifted his phone from his pocket and dialed Melody. It went straight to voicemail.

Shit.

He turned before Justus even pulled up the footage. “Send help to the apartment complex,” Jasper yelled. “Sorry, lady, I hope you find your keys!”

Jasper hit the door with enough force to crack the glass as it swung hard into the side of the building. He called Joss as he raced through the park toward the apartment complex, worry for his mate on his mind. His wolf wanted out, wanted to shift and find her fast, but there were humans around and Jasper couldn’t do anything but run as fast as he could.

“Joss.”

“Melody’s in danger,” he said as he dodged a family on their way to the carousel.

“What? Where?”

“At the apartment complex, I think. I’m on my way. I just got this awful feeling, and I think I was feeling her emotions. I had Justus pull up the footage but I didn’t wait to see what he found.”

“I’m on the way. Shit, I just got a message from Jupiter that there are intruders at the back of the park. Hurry.”

Jasper ended the call and doubled his efforts.

Hang on, Melody, I’m coming!

Jasper skidded to a halt when he saw a bleeding and bruised Finn cradling a sobbing Viola.

He scanned the area and didn’t see his mate.

“Where’s Melody?” he asked as he joined them.

“Gone,” Finn said. “A handful of Ludo’s males attacked, and as I was fighting them, one of them took Melody. I didn’t realize she was gone until the males scattered and she wasn’t there.”

Jasper didn’t know how anyone got into the park—there were security measures all over the damn place. He jogged past them to the complex and walked along the side of the building until he reached the fence at the back. At one time there had been an entrance, but it had been closed off after a wolf pack had tried to gain entrance and take over.

Pounding feet made him look over his shoulder and he saw Joss, Jupiter, and several other security members coming his way.

“Where’s your mate?” Joss asked.

“That asshole’s people took her.” Jasper was seething. How the hell did this happen? She was supposed to be safe in the park.

He’dpromisedshe was safe with him, and the first damn time she was free to walk around the park, someone took her.

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