Chapter 6

Jasper was angry, but he was going to help. He was a stand-up guy, after all. Someone who could be counted on. Which is probably why Finn sent her to get him. Because he knew Jasper would come.

He didn’t know this Ludo male, but if he’d taken out Alpha Grimes and imprisoned the high-ranked males and their mates, then he was not a male to be messed with.

Joss told him he could take volunteers with him, but he had to be honest with them that it was potentially a very dangerous thing they were doing.

He reached out to his closest friends: Lucius, Alfie, Benjamin, Patton, and Indio. Even though he’d woken them all up in the middle of the night, they hustled up to meet him outside the cafeteria.

“I don’t want to get involved in a pack war,” Jasper said, looking at his friends. “But I do want to set the high-ranked males free so they can deal with the new alpha themselves. I know where the prison is. It sounds like we should be able to take out the guards, set Finn and his mate free so they can help the other high-ranked males, and then beat it back here before anyone’s the wiser.”

Patton, a gorilla shifter, cracked his knuckles. “Are you sure you don’t want to stick around and help them take out the bad guys? You’re not one to step down from a fight.”

“I’m sure,” he said dryly. “Finn asked for me to help, but he wants me to fight alongside him. My fighting days with that pack are long over.”

“I get it,” Indio, an elephant shifter, said. “Help but only to get them free, no interfering in the politics and alpha-coup stuff. I’m in. Is that really your soulmate? You never told us you had one.”

“Yeah, she is, but she didn’t want to leave the pack and I had no choice.” He could have kept her safe if she’d wanted to leave, he knew it. But he hadn’t been given an opportunity. He rubbed the back of his neck and mentally shushed his wolf. “It’s not a story I like telling.”

“Clearly,” Benjamin said. “That sucks. But I’ll go along.”

“Me too,” Lucius and Alfie said at the same time.

“Thanks, guys.”

“How long is the drive? When do we leave?” Alfie asked.

“About three hours. Since I haven’t been there in seven years, I’m going to have Melody sketch out the layout just to make sure things haven’t changed. We’ll leave in time to get there after dark so we can get in and out without detection.”

That was the plan, anyway.

The males all nodded.

He took them into the employee cafeteria and introduced them to Melody. He was glad to see she’d eaten something, but she still looked scared and tired.

And pissed.

Indio grabbed a tablet of paper and some pens from a drawer in the kitchen area and brought them over to the table. Jasper pulled off a piece of yellow paper and slid it across the table. “Draw the layout as best as you can around the prison. How many people did you actually see?”

She clicked the pen. “Um, I saw a couple taking Jeremy and his mate out of their house, and then there were at least two people in our house while I was hiding in the cellar.”

She was smart. She’d hidden and waited until it was safe to leave.

He watched as she sketched on the paper, making notes in her chicken scratch.

He was not paying attention to the curve of her jaw or the way she pursed her lips when she concentrated.

Deliberately turning his gaze away from her, he talked to his friends about the trip and what they might encounter in the small wolf-only town of Northbelle.

After Melody had finished the map, it was clear that not much had changed in the time he’d been away.

“Let’s meet at seven,” Jasper said to his friends. “That will give us time to load up and get on the road, and should put us in Northbelle after ten. We’ll scout, finalize our plan, and get the hell out of there.”

“That works,” Lucius said.

He said goodbye to his friends, then turned to face Melody, who was still seated.

“I’ve got a place for you to stay, come on.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. There’s an apartment complex at the back of the park, and I’ve got the keys to one of them so you have a place to clean up and rest.”

He walked to the kitchen and grabbed sandwiches and drinks to stock the refrigerator in the apartment, then met her at the door.

“Just so we’re clear,” he said, looking down at her, “I’m not planning to get involved in any kind of battle between the high- ranked males and this Ludo guy. I will get your dad and mom free, and they can set the others free on their own. Then I’m walking away with my friends, period.”

She blinked up at him, her brow furrowed.

She looked away. “He’s counting on you. But I knew that was a bad idea.”

The door opened as she pushed it with a huff and trudged away. He caught up to her quickly, letting her words hang between them.

It made his skin itch to not talk to her. Or hold her hand. Or ask how she was doing.

Mostly, his brain wanted to explode with the need to find out why she didn’t reach out to him all these years.

By the time they reached the apartment complex, the sun was up fully and neither of them had said a word.

Using the key, he unlocked the door to a first-floor apartment and opened it, feeling inside for the switch and turning on the overhead light in the living room.

He let her inside and followed, putting the food and drinks in the refrigerator.

“There are towels and a few toiletries in the bathroom; the apartments are always stocked with necessities. You can rest until this afternoon. I’ll come by and bring you to the cafeteria for an early dinner and we’ll meet with the guys again, plus the alphas to make sure they know what we’re planning.”

She stood in the middle of the living room. He looked at her— really looked at her—and realized she was wearing pajamas.

“I’ll bring clothes for you too.”

She nodded, twisting her fingers together.

He remembered that she used to do that when she was thinking too hard.

Once more he wanted to put his arms around her and kiss away the things that were worrying her.

But that was a road he wasn’t going to go down.

He was going to help her parents out—it was the least he could do for the male who’d taught him to be a wolf when his own father had failed miserably—and then he was going to get the hell back to New Jersey and try to move on.

“Right,” he grumbled. “Rest well.”

He turned on his heels and reached for the door.

“Why did you leave me?”