Page 19 of Mated in Darkness

“Understandable. I wouldn’t want you to. But if he didn’t turn rogue, then he came here for help.”

“Or someone chased him down here.”

“Maybe. Are you going to stay and find out?” he asked, an odd catch in his tone.

I nodded. “Yes. I need to find out what happened to my Packmate and why someone would hurt him. Along the way, I want to find out what this black mark is. And who attacked my Packmate. Because even if he had gone rogue, someone hurt him. Someone attacked him. And I want to know who it was.”

“Then I’ll help. Whatever I do, I’ll help.”

“Good,” I said, then I shook myself. “I need to call my Alpha. Tell him what happened.”

“Do you want me in the room?”

I studied him then, and my wolf didn’t want him to go. If I was honest with myself, the human half didn’t want him to leave either.

Something was here, something between us, and that could be a problem. Because I didn’t know him, but my wolf wanted to know more about him. That worried me. It worried me way more than I thought possible. Who was this man, and why did I want to throw myself at him and rub against him until everyone smelled me on him and knew he was mine? I didn’t want anyone to get the idea that they could come near him. I wanted to claim him as my own so that way no one would dare go near my territory. I blinked and held back a curse. No, that couldn’t be it. I was just attracted to him, and it was in an odd time and place. There was no way that this could be what I thought it was. I pushed the thoughts from my mind because I didn’t have time for them, and Spencer needed me to focus on him and not focus on my needs, whatever they may be.

“I’m going to call now. See what they want me to do. I want to stay, and I know that they will want me to, but I want to confirm.”

“Okay. I’ll tell them whatever they need to know. Riaz already said that I could.”

I raised a brow. “And the Alpha of the Starlight Pack would, what, hold me back from telling my own Alpha?”

“Stop. That’s not what I said. I just don’t know the mechanics and everything. I’m not a Packmate.”

“No, but you seem to know a lot about wolves.”

“I happen to know as much as I do because I work with Riaz and Rio and the others. But I only know as much as they tell me what I can glean from the news.”

My hackles rose. “You mean what the human media dares to tell you about those savage wolves?” I asked, my voice a growl.

He shook his head. “No. What wolves tell us on the news. I was always on your side when it came to what the government did to you. When they tried to put collars on you and claim that you weren’t human enough in order to deny you any rights. If I was a fighter at all, I would have fought alongside the Pack. As it was, I hid two young adult wolves who were at school with me during that war. I was teaching a biology course on campus, and they were my students. I hid them in my office when those military types were out to hunt them.”

He had such a growl in his voice, his eyes narrow and bright as he said it, that my wolf pushed at me, wanting close. I hadn’t even realized I had taken a step closer to him until it was too late.

“They tried to take the wolves?” I asked, my voice low, dangerous.

Jason swallowed hard, his jaw tense. “Yes. I hid them and led them away and made sure Riaz knew his wolves were here. They protected them. Just like I tried to. These were kids. Twenty years old and getting their damn degrees so they could help their Pack and the others. They wanted to be doctors, for humans and wolves, and look what happened, some fucking commandos show up with guns threatening to take these kids. No, I wasn’t going to have any of that.”

“What happened to these commandos?” I asked, my voice even lower.

“I’m not sure, they went away to search for others, and I tried to warn people, but it wasn’t like you guys told us who you were. And I didn’t want you guys to have markers to point yourselves out. But I did my best to let those I knew who would be of my like mind to protect others. And then that whole serum thing came out, and things got complicated.”

I froze. “You know of the serum thing?”

“I only know because I was part of the team to help destroy what we found,” he said softly.

“What serum are you talking of.” I knew what serum he might be talking about, but in case he thought it was something else, I wasn’t going to enlighten him.

“The one that a certain former general was trying to create in order to make his own wolves.”

“I see.”

“You don’t need to elaborate,” he said, letting out a breath. “I know you have your secrets to protect your people, and I understand it. But I was on the team to help destroy it so that way nobody else could use it as a weapon. I heard that somebody was able to survive through it, but only by special means. I don’t even know what those means are. My job was to destroy it, not study it and break it open and try to recreate it. Riaz wouldn’t let me survive if that was the case.”

He spoke of his execution as if it was natural, and honestly, in our world, it was.

“Why aren’t you Pack?”

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