Thirty-Six - Vail
He was lit up from behind by the full moon, and when he lifted his muzzle and howled, the ground seemed to tremble under my feet. At first I thought it was the Arras squad on my heels, but as I turned to look, I saw that everyone on the field had stopped dead. As his howl continued to spiral into the sky, I realized this wasn’t the same joyful, rousing cry from the pep rally. This was force and fury. Punishment and control. A Clan Alpha laying down the law, so that every shifter went to their knees, and every wolf was driven onto their belly.
I struggled to keep my own feet as Jasper’s howl broke off and his wolf looked my way.
In three massive bounds he was right in front of me. Behind him, the Frost Moon seemed to shimmer and boil at its edges. His alpha power was so potent, it was rising off him in a haze. I started to lower myself to my knees, but as soon as his fur peeled back to reveal golden skin, he tossed me over his shoulder and stalked towards the darkest knot of trees.
The moment my body smacked against his naked back, I was hit with a barrage of images. Sunlight on snow. Claws on skin. Slaps, and kisses, and faces in mirrors. The sight of myself strolling down the hallway on Reed’s arm made my chest ache, but other pictures quickly followed. Of the collar in a box. Of my dad in a diner booth. And a green dot moving slowly across a black screen. But then every image was of me. My eyes. My lips. The tips of my hair and the curl of my ear. When an image of my sleeping face on Reed’s pillow filled my mind, I began to kick. “What the hell are you doing, Jasper? Put me down!”
He took another few steps then set me on my feet. But instead of backing away and giving me some room, he put his hands on my shoulders, whirling me around. I looked down and saw Pearl kneeling in the snow. She was dressed in designer jeans and a leather coat, but instead of her usual bitchy expression, her head was lowered and her shoulders curved in like she was crying. I looked at Jasper for an explanation, but the rage in his face made me take a step back. Which was a good thing, since when he spoke, his voice slammed into me like an avalanche. “Tell her, Pearl!”
The Arras alpha lifted her face, and it wasn’t tears on her cheeks, but three deep red grooves. Claw marks, I realized, curving from her brow down to her mouth. “I gave you the Wolf Fire,” she said in a low, tight voice. “In your champagne, the night of the Hunter Moon Formal. Dana had gone through your backpack during gym, and saw a bottle there. Some kind of drug, I don’t know what. But when we gave you the Valentino purse, we hid our vial in the pocket. You admitted to taking something, so it wasn’t hard to convince people it was Wolf Fire.”
“This is scent shield,” Jasper told me, and held up a brown vial like the one my dad had given me, back when I still believed he was my dad. “Was this what you were taking, Vail?”
I just stared at him, my arms wrapped around my body. Did he want me to thank him for making Pearl kneel in the snow and tell me I wasn’t to blame? I hadn’t put the pieces together – which knowing the bitch, I really should have - but I’d always assumed it was some kind of mix-up. My dad giving me the wrong serum, or it reacting badly with my wolf. One thing I’d known for certain was I never meant to hurt Jasper, or to put Baron and Felix in danger. I shivered and looked back the way we’d come. “Can I go now? I’m cold.”
He hissed something at Pearl, who stumbled to her feet and hurried back through the trees. When she was gone, he turned to me with a frown. “I should have believed you. I knew it wasn’t something you’d do…”
I shook my head and took another step away. “I’m glad you have your proof. And that Baron and Felix can stop hating on me. But it’s not like you’ve solved a great mystery, is it? We all know why Pearl thought it was okay to drug me. And why she knew you’d believe it. Because even though you offered to claim me that night, you never really saw me as anything but an outsider. A dud. Maybe even a void.”
“I didn’t.” He scraped his hands through his hair, his eyes wild. For once they weren’t the hard alpha gold, but the icy blue I loved so much. Only there was no teasing, cocky glint. Just pain that went all the way to the bottom. It made my heart ache, and I was suddenly kneeling in the snow, just like Pearl had been. The pain in my stomach had somehow traveled up into my heart, and I rocked over my knees, unable to stop the tears from flooding down my cheeks. “Baby, no.” Jasper was crouched over me, his face buried in my hair. “Please don’t cry.”
“But it hurts! Everything hurts so bad, Jasper!” I gripped his shirt, burying my face against his neck. I tried to tell myself to pull back, to push him away. He didn’t deserve to hold me, or to kiss away my tears. And if anyone was going to believe I wanted Reed, I couldn’t be clutching at another guy like this. But even as I tried to ease back, I couldn’t force myself to let him go. When I looked down, black claws had sprung from my fingers and were buried in his shirt. I gasped, and something twisted in my belly, tight enough to drain the blood from my face. “I think it’s my wolf, Jasper,” I whispered. “I think she’s trapped.”
He was staring at my claws in complete shock. Maybe the surprise was too much for even my wolf, because they disappeared back into my fingertips. I quickly tried to check his shirt for blood, but he grabbed my hands. “Vail. Stop. I’m okay. And I’m… sorry. I just wish to fuck there was another way.” He cupped my face for a moment, then the gold surged in his eyes, and he looked out over my head. “Alphason, get out here.”
I twisted enough to see Reed walking through the trees, his attention going from my tear-streaked face to Jasper’s protective stance. I couldn’t miss the flash of hurt in his face, and I tried to pull away, but Jasper held me still. “Tell her about Hunter Moon, Marshall. Tell her how you helped fuck up everything for us both.”
I jolted in surprise at the rage vibrating in his voice, then tried to focus on his words. What was he talking about? Reed had barely spoken to me at the Hunter Moon Formal. “You’re being crazy, Jasper. Why would he...?”
Reed interrupted me in a monotone, his blank mask back in place. “I gave Pearl a vial of Wolf Fire from my dad’s stash. Stuff he’d confiscated from a bane pack he’d driven off our land. A few days before the dance, Pearl came to me and said she needed some, and I didn’t ask why. But she’d been raving about the two of you for a while, saying she was going to save Jay from the packless dud. Get you kicked out of school. Do whatever it took. I thought she was going to use the stuff herself, maybe seduce Jay at the dance, but I didn’t really care. I just figured she was doing what was best for the clan. ”
What was best for the clan…
I felt those words like chips of ice being driven into my heart. And as it put my brief run-in with Reed at the Hunter Moon dance in a new light, I sucked in a pained breath. I’d had stomach cramps even then, and I’d gone to the bathroom, thinking it was my period. Reed had stopped me on the way out, and asked me about the results of my lab tests. Somehow, he must have heard about Klein’s conclusions, and though he didn’t call me a void to my face, he’d made his suspicions clear. What he had said was things weren’t going to end well. I’d stupidly assumed he’d just meant my pack status. But he’d meant Jasper and me. Our relationship. Because he’d already given Pearl the Wolf Fire and knew she intended to use it to drive us apart.
“That’s how bad he wanted you gone.”
My hand whipped out and struck Jasper’s face. “I got that,” I told him through gritted teeth. “And I’m not stupid. I know you’re doing the same thing. Making sure I know my place.”
“Not your place,” Jasper ground out. “You have to know who you can trust.”
“And who’s that exactly? You?” I looked at the vial of scent shield in his hand. “The man who gave you that?” My gaze swiveled to Reed. “I don’t have a clue who any of you are.”
“Vail…” Reed took a step towards me, but Jasper reared to his feet and brought him down with a blast of alpha power. Reed staggered sideways, half-falling against a tree. His hands tried to find a hold on the snowy trunk, but another burst of Jasper’s vengeance sent him to his knees. The pain on his face made me shudder, but I forced myself to look away. I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to get away from them both.
I grabbed Jasper’s arm, yanking helplessly on the collar digging into my throat. “Take this off! Just… give me a minute to myself, okay?”
“No,” he said, his face as hard as stone. In the moonlight he looked like a statue, and though there was some of that blue pain in his eyes, I knew it wasn’t enough. Scary Alpha was still in control. “I’ve told you over and over. You’re not safe.” He took my arm and began heading further into the trees. “You need to leave the academy, Vail.”
I gaped at him. “You’re not serious.” When he just kept pulling me along, I turned hard in his path, pushing against him until we were chest to chest. I peered desperately up into his face. “Tell me you trust me now, Jasper. Just tell me you’ll let me make my own decisions about staying or leaving. And that I can choose my own mate. My own pack. Tell me you trust me enough to do that, and I will do whatever it takes to stay safe.”
“I can’t!”
The words were barely out of his mouth before I turned and ran. Behind me, I heard Reed’s body slam into Jasper’s. It was like hearing two mountains detonate, and I clapped my hands over my ears. But I didn’t stop running, even when I heard Reed yell, “Break me if you have to, Jay, but stop breaking her!”
I didn’t turn to look. A roar came out of Jasper’s mouth that wasn’t human, but I didn’t care. I kept scratching and slipping through the snow, desperate to get away. Because they weren’t fighting about me. And it wasn’t even about their pack. It was two stupid boys who couldn’t see past their own bullshit. Maybe Reed had changed, and now I wasn’t a void I had some value to him. And maybe Jasper was ready to forgive me for Hunter Moon.
But he still wanted me gone.
So, I ran.
And stumbled right into a scowling blonde in a leather jacket.