He growls with frustration, glaring at me in a way that makes it feel like my chest is caving in.
Wait. Wait just a flippin’ minute! I’m done! So, so done.
“I’m sick and tired of you looking at me like that, Jason Creed,” I snap. “And the way you’re snapping at me right now? I was trying to help you!”
His head jerks in surprise before he laughs in a verynotnice way. “How does stuffing one into me and basically disabling me help me, Bailey?”
I growl out my own frustration. “I was going to go try and get help. Or sneak up and tackle her and get the necklace on her neck. I kept the bag with me because of the necklace in it and as soon as I got outside her goons caught me.”
“What necklace?”
“The other necklace Mimi Young made to disable the SCC witches the night they tried to siphon Erica’s magic.”
He’s frowning now, so I explain. “I snuck it from Greyson’s and rushed here to help you because I overheard Erica on the phone with Vivi and it was obvious you were in danger and they didn’t seem like they were gonna rush over here to help you, soIrushed to help you.”
“You rushed to help me?” he asks, eyebrows up.
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
He scoffs. “Let me get this straight. You snuck into Grey’s, meaning he didn’t know. Also meaning you told nobody what you were doing? None of our council, not your father, nobody?”
I don’t answer, because all this is obviously rhetorical.
“Then you got on a plane to bring me a potion and a necklace on the other side of the Atlantic… without telling a soul?”
I gulp.
He lets out an annoyed-sounding short, low growl. “Fuck, Bay. When I get us outta this fuckin’ mess, you’re getting your bare ass spanked.”
I jerk back. What? What? And that’s the second time he’s called me Bay. He doesn’t call me that. If he called me that, it’d make me think he was calling me it in a way that meantbaewhich I’d have loved, and I know for a fact he’s not ever done that!
“You obviously don’t know that necklace is useless,” he goes on.
I’m blinking as my brain is still trying to comprehend what he just said to me. But he’s spitting more facts out angrily.
“That necklace is useless unless it’s a Young witch that puts it on the Starling witch. I can’t use it; you can’t use it. Has to beGrey or one of his cousins. Or Mimi who initiated him into the coven ahead of that night so he could put those necklaces on the SCC witches. So, you wasted your time coming here because now we’re fucked. I’m locked in an invisible cage, can’t do anything for who knows how long. Can’t even protect my fuckin’ mate from them.”
Through tears, I shakily ask, “Wh-what do you mean,protect your mate?”
He’s still staring at the staircase and shouts, “Fuck! You’re not stupid, Bailey. I do not understand where your head was at with this shit!”
I sniffle and his eyes hit me. His expression softens at my tears and he reaches out like he’s about to touch my face and I flinch. But his hand stops. He can’t touch me. And now he lets out another loud growl and shouts, “Fuck!”
And I scamper another few feet away from him and that intensity. Because it feels like it’s about to electrocute me. His eyes flash with more anger as he gets to his feet and paces.
I give him a minute, but he doesn’t stop pacing, though it’s directly in front of me. Back and forth and back and forth.
He eventually stops and stares at me, arms crossed over his chest.
Finally, I work up the nerve to ask, “Who do you need to protect?”
He laughs bitterly, rubbing his forehead with his hand.
I ask, “Do they have Dani? Is… is sh-she your mate?”
My heart is pounding really hard. I’ve been telling myself I’d get through his mating, that I wouldn’t let the hurt show, but even as mad as I am for how much of an asshole he’s being, I’m also upset now because my chance to walk away with myhead held high is disintegrating. I’m not sure I can stop it from showing. And even more, I’m not sure how I’ll live with myself if me putting him in this position to try to keep him safe means something has happened to his fated mate. If I’m responsible for Erica’s sister getting hurt, I don’t know how I’ll cope.
Jase squats in front of me, but he’s so tall we’re still not at eye level. I look up at him, lip trembling.