They knew something.
And whatever it was, they didn’t want to say it out loud.
My pulse thundered in my ears.
*I’ll ask one more time,’ I said in a low and deadly voice, coming down the stairs, the storm in my chest already rising. “Where. Is. Kasmine?”
There was a beat of silence before Jorja cleared her throat. I heard the nervous bob of her swallow before her votee, brittle as glass, finally broke the quiet.
“She… uh… she stepped out briefly,” she said, her fingers wringing the hem of her blouse: ‘She’ll be back soon.”
The floor shifted beneath me.
I blinked.
Stepped out?
Stepped out with who?
“Was it Jake?” I asked. The words were so thick in my throat like they had to fight their way past disbelief. “Did she step out with Jake?”
They said nothing.
The air in my lungs curdled. My chest heaved. My body moved before my mind caught up.
CRACK!
My fist collided with the wall beside the stair railing, drywall splitting under the force, white dust crumbling to the floor, and a long, jagged dent spidering out from the point of impact. I didn’t care. I barely even felt it.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” I growled, turning to face them.
That was when Dad snapped to life. He shoved off the couch, eyes flashing with frustration like I was the one being unreasonable.
“Yes!” he barked. “She stepped out with Jake. And I hope, for all our sakes, they patch things up soon.”
For a moment, I just stared at him, then I laughed. It was more pain than humor, more despair than rage. I dragged a hand down my face, and when I dropped it, my eyes were glassy and cold.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” I said, my voice turning rough and hoarse. “You’re still doing it. Still pulling strings, still playing matchmaker even after fate has spoken?”
Dad said nothing.
“I told you all to let us be. But you’ve been hell-bent on breaking us apart.” I whispered, stepping backward toward the door now. “And now your irrationality is about to cost Kasmine her life.”
They both froze.
I paused at the threshold, one hand gripping the doorknob, the other still balled into a trembling fist.
“You better pray to every god you believe in,” I said, my voice already trembling with fury, “that nothing happens to her. Because if it does, I swear to you…”
I looked them both dead in the eye, “…I will set this whole fucking pack on fire. Literally,”
I yanked the door open and slammed it behind me with enough force to shake the hinges.
The screen glared up at me from the passenger seat, the little blue dot that was Kasmine inching farther into the gray nothing at the edge of town. Off any main road. No lights, no houses, just empty backcountry. And she was still moving.
I panicked even more. What the fuck were they doing in the middle of nowhere at this ungodly hour?
Thank the Moon she didn’t rip that necklace off because she was upset with me. If she had tossed it in a drawer or somewhere out of anger, I’d be driving blind right now.
Norlan had been on the phone with me almost all the way. He kept assuring me everything would be fine and that I’d find Kasmine alive and well. But why did I find it so hard to believe him?
The road narrowed to cracked asphalt. I shoved the accelerator to the floor; the engine howled, the speedometer climbing past ninety. Trees blurred by in the headlights, nothing but black between them.
Jake’s name pulsed in my skull in time with the thud of my pulse. He’d thought he played a smart game. But all he’d done was sign his death warrant.
KASMINE
Okay, Jake, I said slowly, drawing in a breath to steady the rising nerves clawing at my throat. “You’re in control now. Let’s talk. It’s getting really late.”
My voic sounded softer than I intended, but the pressure in my chest was anything but calm.
Jake didn’t answer right away. He scoffed, but it wasn’t his usual light-hearted scoff that used to come with a smirk and a shake of the head when I teased him. No. This one was laced with something bitter.
My spine stiffened.
For a brief second – no, less than that I saw something. I could swear I saw a different Jake sitting before me. Not the cool, sweet, composed Jake I used to know. But he blinked, and was gone in a millisecond, almost as if I’d imagined it or like my eyes had lied to me.
Jake was quiet for a long beat before he finally spoke in a low and almost fragile voice like it might snap if he spoke too loud.
“I did love you, Kasmine…”
He didn’t look at me. He kept his gaze ahead, staring out through the windshield into the darkness as though the trees beyond the roadside would offer him answers I couldn’t.
“I really did love you,” he repeated, slower and softer. “I just… I wish you had loved me back. The way I loved you. Maybe then…” His fingers curled around the edge of the steering wheel, knuckles going white, “Maybe then I would’ve had the guts to fight for you.”
Something inside me dropped. It felt like the ground beneath us was starting to shift.
I turned toward him more fully, my eyes narrowing slightly as I tried to read his face. But he still wouldn’t look at me.
“Jake…” I swallowed. “What are you talking about?”
He finally moved just his head, but not to face me. He shook it slowly, The faintest bitter laugh slipped from his lips, but it held no humor, only ache.
“I knew,” he murmured. “I knew about you and Kester. All this time.”
My heart thudded painfully against my ribs.
“What…” I tried again, my voice hoarse, “What do you mean?”
This time, he turned, and his eyes found mine. They weren’t soft or kind anymore. They were tired and sad and filled with something long buried that had finally clawed its way up.
“Don’t lie to me,” he said quietly.
He leaned back in his seat, exhaling through his nose. His hand ran down his face before he let his arm drop heavily onto the gear shift.
“I heard both of you,” he said in a clipped tone that cracked at he edges. “That day in the office… The restroom,
I froze.
Je wasn’t blinking.
“You thought I didn’t hear you, huh? But I heard it all.” He let out a harsh, joyless chuckle, his eyes darting to the windshield again like he couldn’t stand to look at me anymore. Your panting… the way you stifled your moan, the way he kept slamming into you slowly, probably teasing you with his cock to see how much you could hold back from screaming and letting me know how good he fucked you… And you, telling me you were okay. That I should go back to the office… I’m no fool, Kasmine.”
My lungs forgot how to work. My breath hitched..
No. No. He couldn’t have -.
“I stood outside that damn door for a full minute, Kasmine.” His voice had dropped lower. “Listening, Knowing. Knowing. And still, I pretended I didn’t. I convinced myself you’d explain it. That it wasn’t what I thought.”
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply