Chapter 7

Melody was not really a blunt person and she didn’t really like confrontation. At least not on her own behalf. If someone wronged a friend or family member? Hell yes, she’d stand up for them. But for herself? Rarely.

But she couldn’t let things go between her and Jasper.

She hadn’t planned to ask him about their shared past, but here she was, unloading a huge question on him while he was clearly trying to escape her presence.

The wolf part of her whined in her head, wanting to close the gap between her and her soulmate, emotionally and physically.

Jasper froze at her blurted question.

Why did you leave me?

She felt raw and exposed, like a festering wound that refused to heal. She’d thought she was healed from the harm his absence had left on her heart and soul, but seeing him had poked right through that facade.

He turned slowly, his broad shoulders taking up the doorway.

Glowering, he asked, “What?”

“Why did you leave me?”

“I had no choice.”

His arms folded slowly, mechanically, and he stared down at her with a hard edge to his eyes. He looked gorgeous and furious, an impossible combination, like some kind of dark, avenging angel.

She sniffed. She felt small and insignificant, and she didn’t like feeling that way. So she was going to put on her big girl panties and take care of this situation. Have it all out, right now, with the male who haunted her dreams like some kind of specter in an attic.

Folding her arms to mimic his posture, she straightened her shoulders and said, “How did you have no choice? You were my mate and you abandoned me without a trace. You disappeared and didn’t even say goodbye. What the hell did you think that would do to me?”

His gaze hardened even more for just a moment, and then he snarled. “Do you know anything?”

“Excuse me?”

“I left because Alpha Grimes threatened your life.”

She threw up her hands. “That’s ridiculous! Why would he do that? And why the hell are you making me pull every freaking sentence out of your mouth like they’re state secrets you can’t bear to part with? Tell me everything or go to hell.”

His eyes darkened, and little striations of amber streaked through them. A muscle in his jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth together. Then he stepped into the apartment and slammed the door shut hard enough to shake the room.

“I went to Alpha Grimes and asked to mate you on the next full moon. He refused, saying that your lack of shifting was a disease and needed to be cut off, that he couldn’t allow you to mate with anyone and spread the defective gene to others. I told him I didn’t care, that I would just take exile and leave with you.” He stepped closer, taking up all the space in front of her until all she could see was him, glaring down at her. “He told me that he would kill you. If I tried to take you away from the pack, he would hunt us down and kill you, that he would never allow you to mate anyone.”

She stared up at him, her mouth open in shock. She wasn’t sure what to say to that because she had no idea that any of it had happened.

Was it possible? Had her alpha put his foot down about her taking a mate?

“I came here. The pack alpha, Joss, knew my dad before he died and he offered me membership in the pack. When I got settled, I sent a letter to you that said I would come for you whenever you were ready and I’d make sure you were safe here in the park. I never heard from you.”

She inhaled sharply. “Now I know you’re lying. I never got a letter.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Melody, but I sent a letter to you, and then I waited. I waited for such a fucking long time to hear from you.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair with a frustrated grunt.

She didn’t want to believe him, but she couldn’t help but hear the truth—and the hurt—in his words.

“You thought I abandoned you,” she said softly. She reached for him, grazing his forearm with her fingertips. He jerked at the touch, and she dropped her hand.

His eyes were filled with wariness as he stared down at her, a statue…unmoving. “You didn’t get my letter.”

It was a statement and a question rolled up together.

She shook her head.

“Don’t you think I would have reached out to you if I did? We’re soulmates, Jasper. There’s only ever been you for me. I just thought…well, it doesn’t matter.”

“What did you think?” His voice softened slightly—was he was warming up to her?

She didn’t like the prick of tears in her eyes at opening up those old wounds, but what if she never got another chance to be in this position again? What if after he helped her parents get free, he walked away again despite the conversation they were having now?

“I thought you finally figured out that I wasn’t good enough to be your soulmate, that the burden of my non-shifting was too much for you to bear.” Her mouth went salty and although she tried to stop the tears, they hit her anyway.

Lowering her head, she looked at the floor through the veil of tears.

He curled his finger under her chin and lifted her head to look at him. The tears spilled over her cheeks and she sniffled. He brushed the tears from her cheeks in the heavy silence that followed her admission.

“Did you really think I didn’t want you anymore?”

This time when he spoke, the wariness and anger were gone, replaced with warmth laced with confusion.

“We were young. It made sense.”

“What made sense?”

“That someone like you wouldn’t want to tie yourself to someone like me.”

“Someone like me?”

She tilted her face from his grasp and scrubbed the wetness from her cheeks. “You’re a powerful wolf. And you’re gorgeous. You could have had anyone in the pack. I never really understood why you stuck with me after I couldn’t shift, so when you left without a word, I just assumed…” She let the end of her thought hang without speaking it.

She’d been hurt when he disappeared, and for a long time she’d been hopeful he would come back. But that hope had been gone for years, and now that she was laying her soul bare, she wished she’d never come to see him. Because his rejection a second time?

It would ruin her.

His eyes bled to amber and he snarled.

With a swift motion, he jerked her into his arms and kissed her.

It was new and familiar at the same time.

Soft lips demanded her surrender as he kissed her like his life depended on it, like she was air to breathe and he’d been dying slowly this whole time.

If she had her wits about her, she might have resisted a little, but help her, she’d craved his kiss for seven long years, and now that she had it, she didn’t want it to end.

He fisted her shirt at her lower back and pulled her closer, until she could feel the ridge of his erection against her stomach as he bent her back slightly and deepened the kiss.

She clutched at him, adrift in the surge of emotions that being in his arms again brought forth. This was better than all her fantasies.

Jasper, here in the flesh.

Solid muscles, the deep and sweet scent of his arousal that mixed with hers between them, and the way she felt small and protected in his strong arms. She could hear the rumble of his wolf in his chest and an ache grew in the center of her body as heat spread through her.

As abruptly as the kiss had started, it ended. He took a step away from her.

Immediately, she hated the loss of his heat, and she rubbed her arms.

“You should rest,” he said. “I’ll come get you later this afternoon.”

The door shut as he walked away from her, leaving her alone in the apartment.

What the hell had happened? Why had he walked away?

Turning from the door, she explored the apartment and then stretched out on the bed in the master suite. She wasn’t sure if sleep would come because she had some serious questions banging around in her skull after that kiss.

She just didn’t know what the future would bring.