Page 6 of Jasper

Ellie rolled her eyes and then smiled. “All right. How about this one? It’s supposed to be funny, about a guy who’s having really bad luck.”

“Perfect.”

When the movie started, they set their plates on the coffee table and pulled it close to the couch.

“You know that you could just move on, right? You could find someone to mate with you, maybe ask Alpha Grimes to arrange a mating.”

“No way he’d do that,” she said. “And no guy wants to mate with me anyway.”

“Someone will,” Ellie said. “I think we’ll run into our soulmates at some point.”

“How on earth would that happen? We hardly ever leave town. Besides, I already have a soulmate.”

“If he was really your soulmate, he wouldn’t have split like he did.”

“Well, I still think he’s my soulmate, even if he’s a bastard.”

“Heisa bastard. And I’m sorry that he left. Maybe you’ll get a new soulmate at some point, though. Maybe because he’s such a dick, you can get a new one, who won’t care if you can’t shift.”

“That’s a nice idea.”

But she didn’t think it would happen.

Her soulmate was out there somewhere, holding half of her heart.

By the time the second movie’s credits rolled, Melody and Ellie were ready for round two of snacking, starting with large bowls of microwave popcorn.

Standing in the dark kitchen, Melody stared at the microwave as the bag turned in a circle and started to pop while Ellie refilled their drinks.

“I think we should go with a rom-com,” Ellie said. “Just to cleanse the pallet.”

“Ugh, you’re relentless. Fine, you win.”

“I’ve got just the right one in mind.”

Melody frowned and looked out the window over the sink. “Did you hear that?”

“What? You trying to talk me out of a great movie?”

“No, you nut. It sounded like someone screamed.”

The microwave dinged as the popcorn finished, and in the silence that followed, Melody heard a faint sound again.

“Huh,” Ellie said. “That’s weird. I wonder what it is.”

Melody leaned over the sink and stared out into the darkness. She didn’t see anything for a long moment and was about to turn away when she saw two males wearing black dragging people from the house next door.

“Oh shit!” she said as she ducked to the side in case they looked her way. As she peeked carefully around the corner of the window, she recognized one of the high-ranked males and his mate, who were getting carried away into the darkness.

“What the hell is going on?” Ellie whispered.

“I don’t know.”

Melody went into the family room and called her mom. The phone went to voicemail immediately so she tried her dad.

“I think…I need to go home,” she said.

“Hold on a second,” Ellie said, grabbing her arm. “You can’t go out there! Let me get my mom.”

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