I shrug.
He leans over and tips my jaw up. “Don’t wanna think you believe for a second what you said about revenge. Tell me you know I wasn’t about revenge last night.”
I manage a bit of a nod.
He continues. “Bottom line: I want you. I want you more today than I did yesterday. Doesn’t bode well for me for tomorrow but I’m in it to win it with you, okay? Don’t be embarrassed. I just didn’t want us doing something you weren’t ready for. Make sense?”
“Okay,” I say, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact.
He plants a sweet little kiss on my mouth and then the tip of my nose before he goes.
But the minute he leaves, I hear an aggressive-sounding yelp.
“I know…” I whisper. “Bet you’re wishing you weren’t destined to be stuck with me, don’t you? Is that why you keep hollering at me?”
There’s a single, loud yip in response.
42
JASE
I meet Joel outside the clinic.
“What happened?”
“Couldn’t sleep.” He drives his fingers through his hair. “Been restless the last bit but last night, couldn’t relax at all. Went for a run extra-early, like three thirty or something. Swimmin’ the lake and saw her up on the rocks above the falls. Not facing the lake, facing away, toward the jagged boulders on the back end.”
“Shit.”
“Tried to talk her down, Jase. Even alpha commanded her but she was inconsolable, going on about having to have this kid, about having Wyatt in her dreams, about how the whole pack hates her and how she deserves it. I climbed up there to try to talk sense into her. But she jumped. I… couldn’t stop her.”
“Fuck. What’s her status?”
“She’s stable. But Jase, I’m not done. Somethin’ else I gotta tell you.”
I jerk my chin up.
“She… asked me to make her forget him. Made a pass at me. I turned her down. Of course I did. And she jumped. She hit the rocks and she was bleeding, unconscious. Tyson got there, felt my panic. Mase showed next, then Grey and Rye showed up shortly after. Linc stuck to the surveillance room as we were shorthanded last night with the lunar event. I said I’d hang here and wait for you. Stick around in case you need anything. Yoursister’s in with Cat. I had Evander on your parents’ house, Jase, but fuck… she gave him the slip.”
“Appreciate your help,” I say. “I didn’t feel anything. Not until you phoned.”
“The moon. Your hands were full, I assume, by the scent of you.”
“Yeah.”
And clearly my connection with my council is getting strained because my headspace is clogged with my pending mating.
“But it’s not done?” he asks.
I shake my head.
He claps my back. “Let’s go see Cat. She’ll fill you in on her plan.”
***
“Mitch. Cat. Lay it on me,” I request.
Cat is in her exam room doorway with Mitch Blakely.