“Katie, no. I-I can’t say yes. No, I’m sorry, Beautiful. Please understand why I can’t let you do this. I can’t lose you too.” Jasper kneels in front of Katie and takes her hands in his, trying to convince her why she shouldn’t take part in the testing. He leans his head on her leggings and gives her a pleading look. “Ask me for anything else. We can go on vacation or I can buy you a new purse, take you to dinner at any restaurant in the city. If you want to get Mister Happy a girlfriend, we’ll go to the animal shelter in the morning. Please don’t ask me to be okay with this.”“You won’t lose me, Jasper. Poppy thinks I should do it and Poppy never thinks I should do anything. She trusts Zara and Estelle. We know they won’t let anything bad happen to us.” Katie takes Jasper’s face in her hands and forces him to look at her. “I’m a sigma, just like all the other girls Zara is trying to help. Just like Kara is… err… was… If I can help other sigmas by taking the medicine first, then I nee
“Hey Pocket, can you come out to the anteroom? Please.” Keller connects through a mind link. “I could really use your help here.”“Um, I’m being summoned.” I ease myself off the sofa and look at Estelle. “Can you handle things here?”“Of course, Baby Girl. Go talk some sense into Jasper.” Estelle pulls Katie closer and rubs her hand on her knee. “We’ll be here talking. Making sure this one understands why Jasper’s mad. Then we’re going to make sure she doesn’t use her ability like that again.”“Okay. Dillon and Orli still have another half hour before they should wake up. I’ll be back by then. Hopefully.” I back out of the room and rush through the hall to the front door. I peek out and find Keller sitting on the floor with Jasper. Jasper is laying flat on his back with his knees bent. He has his sweatshirt pulled over his head so only his dirty blonde hair is sticking out from the top. His hands are over the area where his eyes must be and he is muttering something under his breath,
Keller’s POV “You have the envelope, right?” I glance at Zara as we make our way to Mom and Dad’s house for Orli’s first birthday party. “Keller, for the third time, yes. It’s in the bag with her dress and a change of clothes.” Zara clamps her hands on her knees. “You’re stressing me out. I’ll give you the envelope so you can talk to your parents while I get her out of her dress so she can eat cake. They can look at her birthmark before we sing happy birthday. She’ll only be wearing a diaper for that, then I need to wash her up for the tail end of the party.” I turn onto the driveway and slow down, trying to prolong our arrival. “Why are you slowing down?” Zara turns in her seat and crosses her arms. “Just trying to be safe. That’s what you always tell me to do when the kids are in the car, right?” I give her a wide grin, but she’s not falling for it. “Keller, if you would have forgiven Mom months ago, this wouldn’t be as big a deal as you’re making it out to be.” She shakes her
“Keller, Mom said you have something you wanted to talk about?” Dad pulls me aside while everyone is eating at the picnic tables Mom has rented and arranged around the backyard. “Is Orli okay? I need to know now, because if I need to be prepared for that kind of shit. Your mother may act like she’s okay, but she’ll fall apart if something happened to that little girl.” “Orli is fine Dad.” I pull him to the patio near the grill before he makes a scene. “Nothing but good news today. If anything, you’re going to have to deflate Mom’s ego.” “What the Hell are you talking about, my boy?” Dad tilts his head and uses his most serious tone. “I’m being serious.” “I am too, Dad. Have another burger and enjoy the party.” I clap him on the shoulder and grin. “While everyone is getting ready to watch Orli eat her cake, we will explain what’s going on. Marco and his wife are going to help, because his wife was the one who did all the research. She will probably be able to explain better than any
“Wake up! Our mate got out of bed.” Rocky shakes me from the inside, making me bolt straight up in bed. “Huh?” I squint my eyes and look at the clock. It’s only four a.m. I reach my arm out, but Zara’s side of the bed is empty. I don’t hear the kids, so they must still be sleeping. I slide out of bed and listen carefully, the refrigerator open and close and the sound of a glass being filled. Even from this far, I can feel how discontented Zara is. “I got her, Rocky.” I stretch and yawn, then make my way out to the kitchen. Zara is leaning against the counter with a glass of juice in her hand, with a faraway look in her eye. She’s wearing a light yellow cropped t-shirt and light blue panties. “Not now, lover boy.” Rocky snaps me out of my dirty thoughts. “Something’s wrong.” He’s right. Zara doesn’t even acknowledge that I have come into the room. I walk over and clear my throat. She looks at me from the side of her eye and takes a small sip of her juice. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to
“You can wait upstairs with Phil and Sam. If there is a problem, I will call you to come down right away.” Estelle shoos Jasper and me out of the lab. “We have ten sigmas who don’t need two nervous guys around while they are taking this medicine. Especially for the first time. If any of them decide to shift in the middle of this, it could be disastrous for you, Jasper. Any accidents would mean we will have to start the whole thing over with a new volunteer group. It would set us back months.”“Estelle, if anything happe-” Jasper steps forward and tries to plead his case.“Then I will tell you to come downstairs right away.” Estelle puts her hands in the pockets of her lab coat and gives us a stern look. “I have five well qualified medical assistants here and a werewolf healer here. That’s over one medical staff member per volunteer, especially if you include Zara.” “Come on, Jas. We’re just prolonging this for everyone.” I rub my fingers over my forehead and blow a puff of air out. “
By the time we get home, Zara and Katie have snuggled together in the backseat, fast asleep. At some point, they took their seatbelts off and laid down together. If I didn’t know they both have boyfriends, I would think they fell asleep making out. Katie has her arms wrapped around Zara’s waist with her fingers laced together on the small of Zara’s back. She nestled her nose in the crook of Zara’s neck, dangerously close to where I marked Zara. Zara has her leg hooked around Katie’s waist, preventing her friend from falling off the seat, and her fingers tangled into her hair. Her cheek is resting on the crown of Katie’s head, making her pouty lips look even more full.“Uh… they look… cozy?” Jasper observes their suggestive position and rubs his hand on the back of his neck. “Well, if they tangle up like that, it’s more difficult to separate one from the other. They do it when they’re homeless to protect each other. Um, it doesn’t look like… this… but, um… yeah… you get the idea.” I r
“Mom? How far away are you? Can you turn around?” I put the phone on speaker and dig through my work bag to find the temperature strips, cursing myself for not keeping it more organized. “I think we have a problem.”“What happened? Is Dillon okay?” Wherever she is, it sounds crowded. There is a lot of noise behind her. “I stopped at the grocery store. I can be back in ten minutes.”“Dillon isn’t the problem.” I hand Jasper the strips and a stack of reusable bags to fill with ice. “Zara and Katie both look like they have a fever. We’re getting ready to go into the office to check on them. Jas, what did Estelle say?”Jas hangs up his phone and takes the bags from me. “Two other girls have fevers. They put them into ice baths and they feel better. She said to be careful, the fever might make them aggressive.”“Pshh.” Rocky instantly dismisses the idea. “Our mates love us. Unless… well, unless they think we’re going to hurt the baby. Remember when Lavender bit you?”“Shit. Yeah, how can I