“Oh my god.” Sierra blurts out, tears hitting hard, and yet sense brings us all back to the seriousness of where we are. We can’t get swept up in this, even though it’s a huge deal, while our world is still crumbling around us.
“Who is he?” I cut in like a knife, pointing sharply at the stranger, focus pulling back as that dark shadow moves closer to our inner circle of safety within my guards. I can’t ignore him if he insists on coming nearer and all my defensive senses spike up.
“Don’t recognize your own brother?” Jasper’s husky voice comes at me from under his fabric shield and he slides it back slowly, revealing amber eyes glowing in his human shape. That handsome face, those wide shoulders, and yet there’s not a single hint of sibling adoration in his eyes.
“Jasper! Why are you here?” I blanche, torn between elation and yet sudden anxiety given our last interaction. His whole aura is different from before, and I know that he came here with the mindset that he had the last time we meet.
“Your father sent me to bring you to him. You paged him after all.” He pulls back the cloak enough to reveal his tall and strong physique, draped in tailored black clothing, and air of superiority on him now I see him like this. He doesn’t scream wolf anymore. In his posture, his manner, or his fashion sense. He’s spent too many years with the likes of Darrius, and it’s rubbed off in all the wrong ways. He’s as cold as one of them and that joy of finding me last time, has evaporated.
“He can stop this mess before I go to him. Call off his demons first!” I spring to my feet, suddenly enraged that he thinks he can click his fingers to summon me, even though I was the one who put out the call. I am not about to run off into his fold of demons with a brother I don’t trust anymore.
“The quicker you see him, the faster this battle will stop.” Jasper sneers at me, anger tinging his words at my refusal, and he clenches his jaw in agitation at my own disdain seeping through. I can feel his anger simmering below the surface and I know being here has probably stirred up a million pains in his heart. Memories he doesn’t want to relive.
“You know he has no intention of stopping this, don’t you? This is just a ploy to move me out of the battle zone….. because I’m important to him!” I retort, not sure that it’s true but unwilling.
“You’re important to me too. You don’t need to be here, among this. Come with me and see him, in a safe space. No one will touch you by my side.” Jasper steps to me and I move back in perfect sync, so our distance remains constant. His flash of furrowed brow showing his displeasure at my evasion, and he grits his teeth that I’m being headstrong in this matter.
“Stop it now. Alora go with him, you’re no use here and I give you my word, your father will be waiting. The only way to end this is to find a middle ground. You know what he wants.” Leyanne lays a hand on my shoulder as though to coax me, but I shrug it away. She brought Jasper to me, so no way in hell is she on my side in this.
“I want my pack to be safe. I’m going nowhere until everything stops. If he wants to see me then he calls his creatures of right now!!! NOW, JASPER!” I erupt at him; tears bite my eyes and desperation seeps out. I won’t abandon them to swan off until I know nothing else will happen while I’m gone.
There’s a moment of silence as we stare at one another in a battle of wills. Tension sparking between us and that good old Whyte stubbornness shines through. Leyanne drops behind me and moves back to the still hugging pair of wolves who are lost in their own world right now. The mate bond pulling them out of reality.
“Fine….. if he calls a temporary halt, then you come with me. I won’t let anyone touch you.” Jasper relents, exasperation evident as he tenses, yet it doesn’t fill me with any sense of trust.
“He can come here. I’m not his dog. I have what he wants right here, the person responsible. He can come if he wants to talk to the child he claims to care for. Otherwise, I’ll happily fight to the end against him.” I shrug, showing my petty side, but I don’t care.
“Why are you so stubborn and headstrong?” Jasper yells at me, a flash of his temper breaking through and very much like the brother who would lose his cool with me when I was being willful. It only riles me more.
“Same reason you are, you stupid asshole. Why the hell are you so dumb, so sure the only answer is death to the Santo pack? Why can’t you see past the hatred in your heart and realize there’s a better way than this.” I snap at him, moving forward so we hit almost nose to nose, squaring up to his taller height with a new fierce building inside of me.
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