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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY
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The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE
Jasper is quiet for a while, having finished his story. He seems tired, like telling me all that has exhausted him somewhat. But he also seems relieved, like he’s been able to put down a heavy weight that he was carrying.I let the silence envelop us for a bit, then ask him one last question. “Jasper,” I whisper, “is that why you didn’t want to be my mate? Because you’re worried that since you couldn’t protect your sister, you wouldn’t be able to protect me?”Jasper hesitates for a moment, then his answer comes, a whisper even softer than mine. “Yes.”“Oh, Jasper,” I say, rubbing his back. “Just because of one tragic event in your past, that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to be mated, or that you wouldn’t be an amazing mate for someone out there.”“If you say so,” Jasper murmurs. “My dad always told me that since I was so obsessed with being like a human, that I wasn’t a real wolf. I figured any wolf shifter wouldn’t want someone like that to mate with.”“Hey,” I sa
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO
We wake up at the same time the next morning, stretching and tugging open the motel curtains to let the sunlight in. In the daylight, the damage done by Jasper and Zach’s fight the evening before makes me wince. “I hope they don’t charge us for this,” I say, picking up a broken piece of the treasure chest lamp.Jasper just shrugs. “In a town with feuding wolf and bear shifters, there’s a lot of property damage. The humans just seem to go with it.”“Huh.” Maybe things are different in a rural mountain town out here in Montana. I do my best to tidy up our room, then Jasper and I get dressed and showered before heading out to the diner.It’s called the Rocking Ranch All Day Breakfast Diner, a mouthful of a name that’s painted on a peeling yellow sign above the low brick building. Jasper and I slide into a booth with cracked, faux leather seats and page through the sticky, laminated menu pages. “I wonder where Zach is,” I ask, glancing around the restaurant. There are some
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE
Not only is Zach not in his cabin, the whole place looks like it’s been ransacked. It’s far messier than our motel room was this morning, and it looks like a much more vicious struggle took place. The small table in the kitchen has been knocked over, and the dresser drawers have been dumped out.Jasper stands in the center of the wreckage, anger and grief plain on his face.“It’s alright, Jasper,” I say, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find him.”“Do you smell that?” Jasper asks, his voice low and serious. “Bears. Bear shifters.”I sniff the air, and sure enough, there’s a thick, strange scent in the room, one that doesn’t smell like any wolf shifter I’ve ever been near. “They took him,” Jasper says, nearly quaking with rage. “Again. It’s happened again. I can’t believe I’ve let this happen - let them take yet another member of my family.”“It’s not your fault,” I insist. “You couldn’t have known, or prevented this.”“I shouldn’t have let him out of my sigh
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR
Jasper seems to know exactly where he’s going, and all I need to do is keep up. It’s not hard to stay at a full sprint, since it feels so good. The wind in my fur, the mountain air rushing past my snout, the ground firm and sure under my paws - it’s a fantastic experience.We leap down rocky ravines, jump over clear babbling creeks, launching our powerful bodies down the mountain. We reach the valley in between, a relatively flat meadow filled with golden prairie grasses and tiny wildflower blossoms. I smell their fragrant aroma, as well as the birds nesting among the grasses.But this isn’t just a fun adventure. Ahead of me, Jasper is determined, his snout close to the ground as he follows the scent trail of the bear clan. Occasionally he lifts his head, his ears pricked up, listening to the wind and getting a better sense of where we are. He seems to know this land like the back of his paws, and I feel sure footed and confident following in his trail. As we start to leave t
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE
“Well, then we need to get your sister to help us,” Orsina says. I take my phone out of my pocket, but there’s no way we could call Layla from here - I don’t have any signal on my cell phone out here in the mountains.Instead, I take pictures of the stone, getting it from every angle I can and making sure I have plenty of clear photos of the engraving. “I can send these to my sister once we get back to town,” I promise. “We should get you out of here quickly then,” Orsina says. “I don’t know when my family will be back. If they see us talking, we could all be killed.”“Wait,” Jasper says. “I’m not leaving them alone to poke through my ancestral homeland while I just hang out in town. We came here to stop them in their search.”“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go up there and chase after them,” Orsina tells him. “My dad and brothers and uncles are all out hunting for the cave, and they’d destroy you.”“That’s a risk we’re willing to take,” Zach says. “I
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY SIX
Layla’s explanation of the loyalty spell contained in the stone makes a lot of sense. Jasper’s family dwindling down to a few scattered members, plus the fact that Orsina felt compelled to reach out to us wolves for help as soon as she found the stone - it all fits with what we’ve discovered.I scroll through the translation of the poem Layla sent me, trying to make sense of the rest of it. It talks about love, and the two families becoming one. Is that just a metaphor, or is there something else there? The carving itself is strange and almost magical in its ability to look like a bear from one side, and a wolf from the other. At the end of our phone call, Layla told me that she’s sure there is more to the stone, more to its magic and its meaning. She promised to keep researching, and asked me to take more close up photos of the carving next time I had it in my possession. “I really want to come out there and see it for myself,” she told me. “Where are you in Montana, exactl
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN
Orsina doesn’t ask where Jasper plans to arrange this meeting, but from his tone, I’m pretty sure I have a good guess. Sure enough, when he calls the human attorney, Thomas Krat, he gives him the location of his family’s old den.The place where his sister was killed. Where his father came upon him, stunned and injured, half dead, still in human form. Mr. Krat sounds beyond excited to hear from Jasper, and is eager to set up the meeting. Jasper gives him the coordinates, and we plan to meet him and his clients there at 2pm in the afternoon.“Alright,” Jasper says, hanging up the phone. “It’s all set. I’ll let Zach know.”“We’ll see you there,” Orsina says with a hopeful smile. “Good luck.”“To you, too.”Jasper and I go back to our motel room to get ready. Jasper is convinced that he might have to defend me, so he runs both of us through a bunch of training routines. It feels almost like being back in the tree house, practicing various offensive and defensive exe
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT
The bear shifters take us back to their camp. The heavy scent of bears is thick, but I can’t see Orsina. Various other bear shifters come out of their tents and campers as we approach. Zach, I see, is awake now, with bruises around his eyes and a glazed expression on his face. I stand next to him, trying to prop him up, and see Jasper doing the same thing on the other side. The three of us huddle together, our arms bound, our muscles aching after the unfair fight.A short, stocky man with a thick beard approaches us. “I am Barrett, the Alpha of this bear clan,” he declares, crossing his arms and glaring at us. “Please, you have to listen to us,” I beg, trying to get through to him. “We aren’t trying to hurt anyone. In fact, we’re trying to fix everything. Your family is under a curse -”“I’m aware,” Barrett snarls. “The curse of the filthy wolves. They’ve been stinking up our territory for generations. You have killed our family members, encroached on our lands, and stole
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