Chapter 13 Jesper
jesper
. . .
Mom tugged at my collar until it dipped low enough to expose Rune’s fang marks that faintly glowed green on my throat, marking me as hers.
Her brown eyes lit up like fae lights, and they attained a glossy sheen to them like she was holding back tears. “Oh! My Jesper is officially mated!” she squealed, clapping her hands together. “I’ve always prayed to the Fates for this.”
Aunt Maelis leaned over, blonde hair falling into her eyes as she giggled behind her fingers. “She’s rather possessive, isn’t she? Look how deep they are.”
Heat spread across my face. Rune’s mark pulsed faintly as our bond thrummed, a reminder that she was mine and I was hers.
“Yes,” I admitted, unable to stop the small smile tugging at my lips. “She is.”
They squealed again, hugging me, peppering me with questions about her hair, her laugh, her smile, and where my mark was on her. They asked about every little detail, and I let myself bask in how good this felt.
Family.
Joy.
The bond hummed quietly in my chest.
The front door slammed, and cold rippled through the kitchen. Ice shards hissed against my skin, frosting across the floorboards of the house.
“Darian,” I snarled, scales shimmering and fading on my arms as I broke through his ice sheen.
He stood in the doorway, blue eyes wild, frost curling from his fingertips. “You think you’ve won, cousin?” His smirk cut sharp as glass. “You think a mark erases the truth?”
Aunt Maelis gasped. “Darian!”
“Shut up!” he spat, stalking closer. “You don’t know her like I do.
” He leaned in, shaking with anger I’d never seen on him before.
“I’ve had your mate, Jesper. I’ve felt how tight she is, how she cried when I split her open.
Your precious mate cried for me because I was so big.
Don’t forget I’m bigger than you are, and she’ll never be able to forget me. ”
Red drowned my vision.
I launched at him, magic cracking off my knuckles as my hands shifted to talons. We hit the ground hard.
His ice slammed into my ribs, frostbite burning through my skin, but I didn’t care.
I pummeled him into the floor, each punch fueled by the image of Rune’s tears, Rune’s moans, and Rune’s pain. She’d struggled to take me when we mated. Darian was right about one thing. He was bigger than I was, and there was no way he was as gentle as I was.
He hurt her.
“Enough!” Mom cried, horrified, but Aunt Maelis pulled her back.
“Stop, they need to fight this out. Darian can’t say things like that. Jesper’s not in the wrong,” she said, raw disappointment in her tone.
My fist connected with his jaw one last time, hard enough that the crack echoed as his jaw shattered.
His body slumped as he became unconscious.
I staggered back, heaving, my talons shifting back to my hands, and the matebond roared in my chest like a storm.
Mom’s face was pale, shocked. “Jesper…”
Aunt Maelis pressed a hand to her mouth, and her blue eyes filled with tears.
“I—I’m sorry,” I rasped, shaking. I couldn’t look at them. I couldn’t stay. Not after what I’d done. I never wanted to scare them by losing my temper.
Drakes and dragons were known for having anger issues, and I’d had control of my anger for years.
Until now.
But he deserved it.
I wouldn’t apologize for it.
I bolted through the door, shifted mid-stride, wings tearing out as magic coursed through me. Wind swept over me, and I flew shifted.
I lost track of time, following the matebond to Rune.
The bond tugged me down, and I found Rune already outside of the House of Twilight, pacing, one hand pressed to her chest, golden eyes blown wide.
I shifted back the moment my feet hit the ground.
“Jesper!” She ran to me, hands flying over my shoulders, my chest, and stopping at my face. “I felt you. I felt your anger, and I’ve never felt such raw anger in my life. What the Fates happened?”
I pulled her in, crushing my mouth to hers in a desperate, shaking kiss. “I need you to tell me if he ever hurt you,” I said against her lips. “I need you to be honest with me, honey drop.”
She froze, but she said nothing.
The answer burned in her silence.
My rage spiked, magic licking under my skin, until she grabbed my face and kissed me again.
Harder.
Her kiss broke down the fury clawing at my throat enough for me to breathe.
The weight of it all dropped me to my knees in front of her.
“I’m sorry,” I gasped, voice breaking. “I should’ve protected you sooner. Tell me. Please. Tell me everything he’s done.”
Her knees folded, and she wrapped her arms around my waist, leaning her head on my chest.
I held her.
“At first, he was fine. He liked drugging my food when he bought us things. I thought he was being nice. I really didn’t know he wanted to actually drug me until after we broke up.
” Her voice was a whisper against the night air, spilling the truths I dreaded.
“The first time we had sex, he was in control. He didn’t give me a moment to adjust. I bled, but he didn’t care. ”
A loud snarl tore from my throat. “You bled?”
“I healed just fine, and I punched him in the dick after. He sobbed, apologizing, and I thought he’d just gotten carried away.
But then, it happened every time.” She trembled in my arms. “He enjoyed experimenting with ice during sex, but I hated it. The frostbite burned, but not in a good way. My nipple almost fell off once. He said he lost control, cried again and apologized, and I was dumb enough to believe it. It just kept happening. He always apologized, but when I wouldn’t respond to a text or was around the agents or Tibby’s other friends, he’d get so mad.
It was a cycle I didn’t realize I’d fallen into until it was over. ”
Tears burned my eyes, and I shut my eyelids, letting them just fall. “I’m so sorry, Rune. Maybe if I knew, I could’ve—”
“You couldn’t have done anything.” She looked up at me with red-rimmed golden eyes.
“I was convinced he was just losing control and feeling bad after. Tibby started noticing something was wrong after a few months, but I shrugged him off. It was only after he showed up at my house after I ignored him and tried to coerce me into sex on my porch that I realized his true nature.”
“Coerce?” I croaked, anger blazing through me hot.
“He wouldn’t have taken my no for an answer,” she admitted, and we both knew it wasn’t just coercion.
“I paralyzed him with my venom, and Tibby had gotten home when it happened. He burned him on the left half of his face, and it scarred. We left him, but when we checked maybe an hour later, he was just gone. Then, when classes started, he kept trying to act like we were just fighting. I hate him, Jesper.”
A sharp crack split the silence.
We both turned to look at the entrance of House of Twilight to find Dimitri outside, his fist buried in the siding of the house, the stone cracked around his knuckles. His red eyes burned with the same rage coursing through me.
“Dudes,” Carson, their house head, blurted as he stumbled out of the house, wide-eyed. “What the fuck is this?”
“Mind your business,” Dimitri snapped, storming past him into the house.
Carson turned to me. “Who the fuck are you? She’s my charge, and she’s not allowed out past curfew.”
“I’m an agent. A watcher.” My voice came out low and dangerous. I’d never wanted to harm anyone as badly as I did right now, and I was afraid that anyone would suffice. “And she’s my mate. Go the fuck back inside.”
Carson stumbled back, blinking, before disappearing through the door.
Rune laughed softly, shaking her head, and threw her arms around me. Relief bled through the bond, a balm against my fury.
The air shifted with magic. Drecken stepped out of a rippling portal, his tall form cloaked in a white lab coat.
His blue eyes landed on us, on the mark on my neck, and on the way Rune’s matebond wound visibly into me.
He froze.
“So,” he whispered. His usual confidence faltered. “It’s true. You’ve mated.”
The air turned even heavier, if that was even possible.
His throat worked, words he didn’t say straining at the edges. For once, Drecken looked vulnerable.
Rune pulled back from me and looked at him with her tear-streaked face. “Drecken?”
“Are you okay?” he rasped.
She nodded, gently getting to her feet with my help.
“Good, good. I’m sorry. I need to—” he muttered roughly and vanished in a snap of magic before Rune could even reach for him.