Chapter 38
“Thank you for coming in, Tara, and enjoy your tea,” Nessa said enthusiastically, waving farewell to one of her regulars.
Tara had stumbled upon her teahouse almost six months ago when she’d been searching for something to help her sleep. With a few different selections to choose from, they’d eventually found the right tea for her. Since then, she’d come by the teahouse every Monday like clockwork.
Tara wasn’t the only one to swing by. Mondays were always busy, and today was no exception. Work had been slammed since she opened. Nessa would need to order more pastries and sandwiches from her supplier and double-check her tea orders to ensure she didn’t run out of anything by Friday.
This was the first time all day that the place was empty, and she was more than ready for the reprieve. She was grateful her business was thriving, given how much money she’d sunk into the place, but she often felt exhausted by the end of the week from running herself ragged.
Soon, you won’t have to do that. You can work as much or as little as you want.
She smiled at the reminder, glancing down at the ‘Now Hiring’ sign taped to the surface of the counter near the register. An identical one was taped onto the main door, and she planned on posting some full-time positions to an online forum when she got the chance.
“Do you always act like that?” Jasper jutted his chin toward the front entrance.
He’d spent the last few hours pestering her with random questions, most of them silly.
He only did it during lulls in foot traffic, though, which hadn’t been often, but Nessa enjoyed his absurdity more than she let on.
If she let him know how entertaining she found him, though, he’d no doubt up his game.
She followed his gaze to the front door and then glanced back at him, her brow furrowing. “Act like what?”
“Like a peppy robot,” he clarified. “It’s kind of crazy to watch. One second you sound normal, you’re being mean to me and don’t have a care in the world, but as soon as that bell chimes over the door, you’re like a completely different person.” He snapped his fingers to emphasize his point.
“That’s customer service, Jasper. I have to create an inviting environment or no one will shop here.” Her lips twitched and she turned toward him, leaning her hip against the counter. “And I’m not mean to you.”
Jasper frowned. “You wouldn’t let me eat any of the muffins.”
“You had five chocolate chip muffins and two ham and cheese panini before I told you to stop,” she argued. “For free, in case you forgot.”
“But you still told me I couldn’t have any more,” he whined, his mouth twisting into a pitiful pout.
“Because you would have kept stuffing your face if I didn’t. Then where would I be? Down fifteen muffins, all my sandwiches, and I’m assuming those chocolate cake slices I ordered last week.”
His pout disappeared, his eyes flashing bright with interest. “You have chocolate cake?”
“Not for you.” Nessa pointed a finger at him, letting him know she meant business. “That cake is for Murphy.”
She’d ordered it on a whim after learning how much he loved sweets and was eager to give him a few slices when he came by later on. She eyed the time on the register’s monitor.
Only a few hours left until closing time, and then Murphy would be all hers. She’d fill him up with dinner, cake, and then, maaaybe he’d fill her up with something a bit meatier to show his appreciation.
The image almost had her cackling with glee.
“What?!” Jasper exclaimed, interrupting her delicious thoughts. “Why does Murphy get cake and I don’t?”
“When you find your mate, maybe they’ll get you cake, too.” Nessa smirked. “On second thought, you’ll probably always have them in a foul mood, so probably not.”
He huffed, glowering at her. “Now you’re definitely being mean.”
“Just a little.” Pinching her finger and thumb together, she held up her hand for him to see.
“The odds of me finding my true mate are slim to none.” He sighed. “Murphy was lucky to find you, but it doesn’t work out that way for a lot of us.”
“Don’t give up hope,” Nessa said, tempted to reach out and squeeze his forearm to offer her support. Instead, she held back, not comfortable initiating contact. She trusted Jasper, but it still felt too soon. “I’m sure the perfect mate is out there, just waiting for you.”
“You think so?”
Nessa nodded. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet them when you go play bodyguard for that vampire.”
Jasper grimaced. “Mate a vamp? That’s got disaster written all over it.”
“Why?”
“Vampires can have true mates, like any other supe. But they’re far less emotionally driven than shifters, or even humans.” He shook his head. “If my true mate is a vampire, she would be just as likely to forget we ever met as she would to acknowledge a bond between us.”
“That’s horrible. She wouldn’t feel that pull toward you?”
He shrugged. “She might. But she could just as easily ignore it. Vamps are cold to the bone, Nessa. Not just their core temperature, but their hearts. Their souls.” He shuddered. “I pity the bear who has to endure that for a lifetime.”
“On the bright side, if you brought home a vampire mate, it would be funny to watch Zeke squirm every time he saw her,” Nessa joked, expecting him to laugh.
Instead, Jasper’s expression turned somber. “I couldn’t do that to him. Bad enough, Zeke’s true mate severed their bond so she could go shack up with a leech, but to flaunt my mate in his face would be just evil.”
Nessa blinked at Jasper, shocked. That’s why Zeke hated the vampires? She’d assumed his mate had died, not that she’d … broken up with him to pursue someone else.
But it’s not a simple breakup, is it?
Being mated to someone went so much deeper than that. It was a lifetime commitment, far more permanent than even marriage.
“His mate?” Nessa shook her head in disbelief. “How long were they together?”
“A few years,” Jasper supplied, pursing his lips in irritation.
“Despite being true mates, it was obvious they didn’t …
mesh well together. She wanted Zeke to be someone he wasn’t.
He tried to accommodate her, to shrink himself into the box she’d made to reflect her opinion of an ‘ideal partner.’” He air quoted the last part with a small snarl.
“But it still wasn’t enough. Then he came home one day, and she was waiting for him, hoping to end things. She wasn’t alone.”
Nessa slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head. “She brought the vampire with her?” Her voice was muffled against her hand, but he heard her perfectly.
“Oh, yeah. Didn’t even have the leech leave the room before she severed her mating bond with Zeke.”
That seemed so vindictive. So cruel. What kind of person did that?
“You said that before. Sever … Is it the same thing as rejecting a mate?” She’d almost done that to Murphy, but he’d stopped her before she could utter the words.
“Rejecting a mate is hard, but there isn’t anything magical about it.
You reject someone and hope the other person takes the hint and leaves you alone,” Jasper informed her.
“But when that bond has been established, when a connection, a claim is put into place, the only way to part ways with one another is to sever the bond or die. When you sever the bond, the claiming bite disappears, the threads that bind your hearts and souls together dissolve into nothing. You lose the pieces of yourself that once made you whole.”
“How do you sever it?”
Jasper snorted out an abrupt laugh. “Sick of Murphy already?”
Nessa narrowed her eyes at him.
He smiled, relaxing in his seat behind the counter.
“Words and intention, really. I’m not quite sure how it works—I’m not one to study up on magic and fate—but it’s simple enough.
You say the words intended to sever the bond, and BAM!
” He slammed his palm onto the counter, the loud noise startling her. “Mating is over.”
That seemed horrific. What were the ‘words’ anyway? Were they something specific, like the supernatural version of ‘I want a divorce?’
Nessa tensed, anxiety slamming into her. What if she got mad at Murphy one day, said ‘Being mated sucks,’ or something else like that, and it severed their bond?
You would never do that.
No. She wouldn’t. She would never say something in anger to hurt someone she loved out of spite. Nor would she ever think about leaving Murphy.
“That’s …” Nessa blew out a long breath. “A lot. Poor Zeke.”
No wonder he hated vampires.
“I didn’t even tell you the worst part,” Jasper added.
“It gets worse?” How could it?
“Oh, yeah.” Jasper looked toward the door. “Got a customer pulling into the parking lot, by the way.”
Nessa pushed away from the counter, ushering for him to keep talking. She wanted to know what happened next, customers be damned! “What happened to Zeke after the bond severed?”
“He was really disoriented. Said it felt like he’d been stabbed in the chest a thousand times,” he continued quickly, keeping his focus on the glass door to the teahouse.
“He was pissed, and hurting, so he swung on the leech. Missed him by several feet and fell over. Smacked his head on the floor and passed clean out. When he woke, she was gone, and so was half of his shit.”
“… Wow.”
“I know.” Jasper grimaced. “Not only did his mate forsake him for a leech, he humiliated himself on her way out. I don’t think he’s gotten over it yet.”
Based on how Zeke spoke about vampires in general, she was inclined to agree with Jasper. “How long has it been since this happened?”
“Five years, I think.”
Five years? And Zeke still held such deep-seated resentment for vampires? “I’m surprised he’s going with you then.”
The bell chimed as a customer entered.
“Me, too—” Jasper broke off abruptly, pushing to his feet so quickly Nessa didn’t even see him move. One second, he was relaxed behind the counter, and the next, he was on the other side of it, standing between Nessa and her customer, positively vibrating with menace.
“Leave,” he commanded, the muscles along his back tensing. “You’re not welcome here.”
“Jasper!” Nessa berated, stepping around the counter and smiling apologetically at the young woman standing just on the other side of Murphy’s brother. She looked vaguely familiar, but Nessa couldn’t quite place her. Had they met before?
“I want to talk to her,” the woman said to Jasper before glancing over his shoulder.
Her gaze settled on Nessa, and for a moment, Nessa felt like she was staring into a mirror; as if she’d spotted the ghost of the woman she’d been so long ago.
She’d looked into those same haunted eyes a thousand times before, had seen that tired, traumatized expression on her own face for years after she’d escaped Tony.
Jasper growled in warning. “No—”
“Enough,” Nessa demanded quietly, moving closer to the woman. “Who are you?”
The woman looked down and away from her, her shoulders hunching in on herself as if in shame. “I’m Angela. Dante’s mate.”