Page 44 of Jasper

Jasper nodded but couldn’t speak past the lump of emotion in his throat.

“Reese?” he asked as he cut through the material of Melody’s shirt.

“Yes?”

“Do you remember me?”

“Yes, you’re Jasper. You were forced away by Grimes, who didn’t like non-shifters and didn’t want you mating Melody. He was such an asshole.”

“Yes, he definitely was.” He pulled the fabric gently from her and dropped it to the floor, cutting through her bra as well. “I need Melody to be okay. She’s my whole world.”

“I’ll do my best,” Reese said.

As Jasper worked to cut her clothing away, Reese prepared something that smelled like citrus and pungent herbs, scraping a spatula inside a stone bowl and humming off-key.

He stepped away as Reese made a shooing motion, but held onto Melody’s hand. It was cold, and when he squeezed her hand, she didn’t squeeze back.

Come back to me, Mellie-mine. I need you.

Reese cleaned her skin of blood and debris, then smeared a thick dark-green paste on the wound. Melody groaned and writhed on the bed, but didn’t wake up. The smell was so strong and foul that Jasper’s eyes watered and he had to cough.

“It’s a special blend of herbs and minerals to help accelerate her natural healing. If she could shift, she could heal herself a heck of a lot faster, but this will work. I hope.”

“You hope?” Jasper whispered, trying to soothe Melody as she struggled on the bed.

“It’s the best thing I can do for her, but she’s lost a lot of blood.”

When the wound was covered, Jasper helped Reese wrap white linen around Melody’s torso, using safety pins to secure the material.

He looked at the healer, a wolf shifter who’d gone to human medical school and had learned about alternative methods of healing as well. “Reese?”

“All we can do is wait, Jasper.” Reese smoothed the hair from Melody’s face. “She’s put up with a lot over the years. It’s rough being unable to shift in the wolf pack, and she missed you so much too. But you’re meant to be together, and I don’t think fate would bring you together just to tear you apart like this. I’ll be back to check on her in a while. She’ll be unconscious until she’s healed. We just have to wait and see.”

“Thanks, Reese.”

She cleaned up the materials she’d used to make the healing poultice and then patted his arm before leaving the room.

He grabbed a chair and pulled it over, taking Melody’s hand again as he took a seat.

“Baby, I need you to come back to me. We just got started, I’m not ready to let you go. Can you hear me, Mellie-mine? Don’t leave me. I need another eighty years or so with you.”

“Just eighty?”

Jasper twisted in the seat and found his friends in the doorway. Lucius smiled. “Eighty doesn’t seem like enough.”

“A hundred,” Jasper amended. “Is everyone okay?”

“We’re good,” Alfie said. “It was a hell of a battle. Those wolves were determined to win.”

“I can’t thank you guys enough for coming with me. I didn’t know what we’d face. I thought I was going to die, but Melody is injured more than I was.”

His own wounds were healing, even the bad claw slashes on his side.

It was just Melody’s lack of shifting that made it more difficult for her to heal.

“Joss is with Finn and the high-ranked males. When Melody’s up and able to move around, we’ll all head home, together,” Lucius said.

“You guys can leave. I can get myself and Melody home,” he said, scrubbing at his aching eyes. He was exhausted and also wired. Halfway between crying and screaming in rage.

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