CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN

Dessert starts off tense, but then baby Stella decides to start smearing her entire face with raspberry frosting from Layla’s cake. Everyone laughs at her silly antics, and soon the tension in the room dissipates.

Later, Sarah and Nash appear in the doorway. They ask to speak to just Jasper.

He glances over at me, pleadingly.

“Mind if I join as well?” I ask. I can tell that Jasper doesn’t want to have this conversation without me by his side - the one person he’s really been able to talk to since coming here.

“Sure,” Sarah shrugs. We go out onto the porch, and Nash begins.

“It’s hard for us to trust you,” he says, “but Sarah reminded me that there was a time when it was hard for my pack to trust me, too. I don’t know everything about what you’ve been through, but now that you’re asking for a second chance, I can’t bring myself to deny it.”

“Thank you,” Jasper says. I can hear relief, gratitude, and disbelief in his voice.

“Still,” Sarah says, “there’s something