CHAPTER 33

JASMINES POV

The barrel of the gun aimed at me felt grander than it looked. My heart pounded in my chest, but I forced myself to meet the gaze of the brown-haired lady.

“Listen…you’ve got the wrong people,” I started, my voice calm despite the storm brewing in me. “We are just workers at the diner…”

“Quit the lies or I’ll blow your eyes off,” she fired, her fingers twitching on the trigger. My hands returned to the air, trembling as my mind raced to figure out what else to say, “Save those lies,” she snapped, taking careful steps forward.

“You think it’s my first time dealing with wolves? I know what you are I know what you do! The fake lives. The lies, the masks you wear to blend in,” she paused, her eyes flicking from me to Caine, then back to me.

Caine shifted to my front, holding my other hand behind him. “You don’t want to do this,” he said, his voice low but firm. “Killing the wrong people won’t bring those you’ve lost,”

“But it will give me peace!” She snapped, and I saw tears trickling down her eyes. She reached for her pocket and took out a picture. “Look at him!” She yelled, waving the picture at our faces. “You creatures took him away from me!”

The man in the picture was familiar—I recognized him to be the man who received us into the camp and gave us his tent. Cold chills ran down my spine as his warm gestures filled my memory.

“We are sorry about your loss, but you’ll end up doing something wrong. Something you’ll regret…”

“I don’t care about right or wrong anymore!” She yelled, interrupting me. “All I care about is justice. And if I have to go through a few innocents to find the guilty, so be it,” she hissed.

“Look,” I tried again, desperate to buy time for Caine to come up with an idea. “You’re hunting wolves, right? We could help you. My friend and I. We know dozens of them. What do think?” I asked.

She laughed, a cold, humorless sound. “You take me for a fool, don’t you?” Her gaze flicked from me to Caine. The distant sound of a siren made her focus falter, and I guess that was the second Caine wanted.

Before she could return her gaze to us, Caine swiftly grabbed the gun from her and locked both of her hands behind her. She stepped on him aggressively, bit his flesh, and slipped out of his grip.

The gun fell a distance away from the two of them as they engaged in a fight. She was too fast and strong for a human, dodging most of Caine’s hits.

“The gun!” I heard Caine’s voice in my head. With a little hesitation, I grabbed the gun from the floor and aimed it at her. She froze, letting go of Caine who was locked in her arm.

“Go ahead. Kill me just like you did my parents,” she breathed, her voice laced with defeat and sadness. My hand dropped slowly, leaving the gun to fall into Caine’s hands. The sirens got louder, the tires of the police vans squealing as they headed our direction.

The girl raced to a black bike by the side of the diner and mounted it. She ignited its engine and glanced at us. “This isn’t over,” she said before speeding off.

Caine flung the gun into the woods and grabbed my hands.

“Quick, we can’t afford the cops finding us here,” he said. He raced through an alley by the side of the diner and popped out at the front where his car was packed. Imani and the rest were gone by then.

“Where do you think they are?” I asked, jumping into the passenger seat.

“At home, Jerry hates hospitals,” Caine ignited the engine and drove off.

*****

When we got to the pack house, I found more cars than usual parked in the garage. Seemed weird, but I thought it was too early to start raising suspicions.

“What’s my dad doing here?” Caine muttered as we dismounted. We went into the house only to meet a council of wolves—the alphas council.

“Dad?” I spotted my father, but he didn’t respond. His expression was mixed with pity—for me.

“We’d like to have a conversation with you,” Alpha Morgan said, leading the way into his car. I was driven to his home and walked into his office. With just two of us standing in the room, I feared he might be able to hear how hard and fast my heartbeat was.

“Quite an exploit you’ve had,” he broke the silence as he paced from pillar to pillar. “Sit,” he instructed. The door opened and my father walked in, escorted by a few guards.

“Have I done something wrong?” I was forced to ask, the tension and curiosity in the room growing on me.

My father ignored my questions and sat opposite the alpha.

“What have I done?”

“The question is…what haven’t you done?” Alpha Morgan corrected, his gaze lingering on me for a moment. His eyes had this way of forcing words out of my mouth, and once again, it worked.

“I had no idea the smoothies had wolf’s bane in it. If I did I wouldn’t have served it to them. Moreover, they are Caine’s friends, and I wouldn’t want to hurt them. You can ask around…I’m not that…”

“Jasmine,” my father put a pause on my running tongue, allowing me to catch my breath. I exhaled, leaning back in my chair. The room was filled with silence once again, and I found myself trying to understand why they weren’t punishing me yet.

“We know you didn’t do that. You can’t hurt anyone,” my father said with a smile, glancing at the alpha whose gaze was fixed on me.

“Okay….so…what then?” I dragged my words.

My dad took his time to answer me, his hands flipping through the green old book he’d given Caine and me a few days ago.

“It’s about your mother,” he answered, stopping at a page and redirecting his gaze at me.

“Mom? What…happened to my…to my mother,” I stuttered, fear filling up the holes in my heart. I could feel my eyes getting already. “Is she…is she,” I couldn’t say the words because I almost broke down.

“Far from that, young girl,” the Alpha chirped in. “I fear your mother kept secrets from your fatter. From the pack”.

“Secrets?” I repeated, looking at my father to see if he was listening to the alpha. He was, and that heightened my anxiety. “How?”

“Sweetheart,” my father called my attention. “We fear your mother might have lied about being human”.

********