Chapter 7
Jasper
Chase's office at the registry isn't much to look at.
It’s small but functional. There’s a desk buried under case files and bookshelves crammed with regulatory manuals and precedent documentation. A single window that looks out at the parking lot.
It's the kind of space that says this person does real work instead of pushing paper.
I've been here before. Too many times.
But today feels different.
Arden is already there when I walk in.
He's sitting in one of the two chairs across from Chase's desk. His posture is perfect. Hands folded in his lap. Eyes fixed on something past Chase's shoulder.
He doesn't look at me.
I don't look at him.
I take the other chair.
We've been doing this dance for weeks now.
Showing up in the same rooms but keeping our eyes elsewhere.
Saying what needs to be said about the case and nothing else.
There's a conversation waiting between us that neither of us has had the space or the nerve to start, and every time we're in the same room it gets heavier.
Not today. Today isn't for that.
Chase glances up from his tablet. "Jasper. Thanks for coming."
I nod.
"I called this meeting for two reasons," Chase continues. "One, I need an update on Ragon's movements. Two, I want to bring Lukas up to speed on the case."
"Lukas?" I ask. Lukas is Chase's senior investigator. His right hand man. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"He'll be presenting with me when this goes to panel." Chase sets the tablet down. "I've already briefed him on the basics. He knows about Alex's involvement and he's agreed to keep it quiet."
My breath hitches slightly.
Alex's involvement.
Because if his role in this gets out to the wrong person, the case turns into a liability. Everything Chase spent months building could be used against them.
"It was essential for Lukas to know the full picture," Chase says. "Including the heat abandonment, Alex's pack stepping in, and where Vee is now."
The heat.
The word drops into my chest and sinks.
I was there. I was in that house while she was alone, burning through heat with nobody.
I didn't know she was in heat, but I knew she was there and I stayed where I was told to stay.
I told myself it was the right call and I have been telling myself that every single day since and it still sits in my gut in a way I can't digest.
She's okay. She's out. She's safe with Alex's pack.
I know that.
It doesn't help like it should.
There's a knock at the door.
"Come in," Chase calls.
Lukas Bridges enters.
He’s mid-forties and graying at the temples with a solid build. His scent is neutral because he prefers to keep it closed off. Alpha without making a point of it.
"Lukas," Chase says. "You remember Jasper? He works in records."
Lukas's eyes find me, assessing. He has the look of a man who's learned to read people quickly.
"And you know Arden," Chase adds.
"Arden." A nod in his direction, then Lukas pulls the third chair close and sits.
For a moment no one speaks.
Then Lukas turns to me.
"Walk me through the heat," he says.
Just that, no preamble.
My stomach tightens.
"From the outside it looks simple," he continues. "Three alphas were sufficient for one omega in heat. You weren't bonded into that pack. There was no biological pull keeping you in that room. So why didn't you leave? Why didn't you check on Verena?"
The question lands exactly where he meant it to.
I open my mouth.
And suddenly I'm back there.
The footage had just finished playing on Chase's tablet.
The zoo. The whole room had watched it in silence.
Marie started crying. Her scent flared, sharp and distressed, the sweetness of an omega in emotional overwhelm that pulls at alpha instincts whether you want it to or not.
Then she doubled over.
Her heat hit fast the way heats sometimes do when an omega's system is already flooded with stress hormones. And Marie had already been teetering on the edge of her heat for days. We could all sense it.
One minute she was crying, the next the scent in the room changed entirely and every alpha in it went rigid.
Chase's team was already moving, packing up, exchanging looks. You don't stay in a room with an omega going into heat if you're not her pack. It's not appropriate and it's not safe. Too many unbonded alphas in a small space going into rut would very likely end badly.
I headed down the hall with them. I knew Ragon expected me in that room with them, he'd already said he wanted me there for her heat. To grow as a pack since we were so close to bonding officially anyway.
Little did he really know.
I muttered some excuse about the bathroom, swore I wouldn't be long. Then I slipped out while I still could, before the pheromones thickened to the point of no return. I had to find Chase before he left.
I was down the steps and across the driveway before I'd fully decided to be.
"Chase."
He turned and read my face. "Jasper—"
"The zoo footage. That's evidence of deliberate harm. You have what you need now. Can we move? Can we get Vee out?"
Chase's expression went careful.
"It's not enough yet," he said, anger sharpening his features.
“I already brought the zoo footage to the board.
They watched it. You know what they said?
All they see is an omega going over a railing.
No clear aggressor on camera and no physical contact.
They said it's not enough for a hearing. I need everything airtight before I bring it in front of them again.”
“But you just told Ragon to go discuss Vee’s placement.”
“I was bluffing, Jas.” Chase huffs. “I was hoping to intimidate him into giving her up on his own. But he’s still determined to dig in, even after seeing what he did. Stubborn bastard.”
"But the registry… this is documented manipulation—they know what happened after because I reported it myself. I stayed in that room and watched it happen so I could."
"I have to put it all together. I have to interview witnesses.
I just have to keep trying harder." His eyes held mine.
"You know how the registry works. Reports and a bad incident or two won't move them.
They'll find a way to explain it away, say Marie is young, insecure.
That she didn't mean to cause real harm.
I need more. I need time to build the case properly. "
I wanted to argue. The words were right there. It had already been too long, too much. Vee couldn't take much more of this.
"Fine," I said instead. "Then I'll stay with Vee. While you finish the case. I'll stay with her, make sure she's okay, keep her close until—"
"Jasper." Chase's cut me off carefully. "You have to go into that room."
I stared at him.
"Marie is in heat. Ragon is going to use it.
" He looked at me steadily. "He's been building toward claiming her.
You know that. He has the paperwork filed.
If he claims Marie during this heat, he'll mark Vee as soon it's over.
The case will become infinitely harder if Vee is claimed too.
It's almost impossible to get an established omega out even unclaimed, but claimed. .. she'll be lost to us."
"Three alphas can handle a heat—"
"Not the point." Chase stepped closer. "Ragon doesn't trust you yet, not completely.
He's been watching you. Waiting to see if you fall in line. If you don’t go back into that room right now and stick with them, you lose whatever ground you've built with him. He’ll kick you out.
And if he kicks you out, I lose my inside source, my biggest witness, and the only person actively monitoring what's happening to Vee. "
I was quiet.
"More than that," Chase continued, "your presence in that room could be the only thing that keeps Ragon from claiming Marie tonight.
He wants to. But he's just figured out that Marie deliberately lied about Vee to hurt her and he doesn't know why.
He's going to have doubts about claiming her right now and I need you to take advantage of that.
" He paused. "You slow him down. Talk him out of marking her. Buy me time to get Vee out."
"And Vee?" The words came out harder than I meant. "While I'm in there slowing Ragon down, while I'm buying you time… what about Vee?"
Chase didn't flinch. "She'll be okay. She'll have to be."
"You have to take her with you. Let her stay somewhere else for now."
“Jas, you know if it were that easy, we wouldn’t be going to all these lengths just to get her out.
The registry won’t allow me to take her right now.
Ragon has custody and Vee won’t ask for help.
She’s turned me down twice. This is the best I can do right now.
I already asked when I showed them the footage.
I told them I’d give her a safe space to stay for the rest of the investigation at least. They won’t listen. ”
“She can’t stay here while Marie is in heat, Chase. The pheromones are going to mess with her head. She’s already been neglected enough. Even with her instincts flattened… what if she starts craving alphas again and everyone is tied up in that room?”
He breathed deep, eyes raking over the gravel below us.
"Alex's pack is next door,” he continued. “I'll contact them and tell them to watch for her, to be ready to help if she needs it. Give her a place to go if she wants. They'll be there."
"That's not enough—"
"I know." The professional certainty drops for just a second.
"I know it's not enough, Jasper. None of this is enough, but it's what we have right now. You think this isn’t killing me? One damn alpha shouldn’t have this much power over another person’s life.
But if we blow the case trying to do more than we can do, Vee ends up back with Ragon anyway and we've lost everything. She’ll lose her only chance. "
I stood there.
The house was behind me. Vee was in there somewhere, probably thinking about how we all just found out Marie lied and we still left her alone.