Chapter 4

Jasper

I shouldn't have told her like that.

I looked into her eyes, and I saw so many emotions in them. The confusion is the biggest.

She had gotten off the bed and stood there looking at me like I was crazy.

"I think you should leave," she told me in a panicking voice

"I can't, not until you believe me," I told her

"I don't believe you, and if you don't leave, I'm going to start screaming," she said in a voice that sounded like she was challenging me.

"Amaya-" I said getting off of the bed and getting closer to her.

That's when I heard the most ear-bleeding scream ever. I quickly put my hands to my ears to cover them. Thanks to my super hearing, it made it ten times worse.

"OK, OK. I'm leaving." I yelled over her screams.

Once I said that, she stopped. I looked at her one more time and left. I stopped at the door.

"When your ready I can explain," I told her without looking back with my hands in my pocket. I walked out of the door and closed it. I hit my head on the closed door.

Then it hit me. We interacted with the first step of the mating process.

There are three levels before the actual mating process. Touch, verbal, and marking. When you have skin-to-skin contact for the first time with your mate, you take the first step. Then you must verbally accept each other. Then, of course, the marking and the mating but those don't matter if you didn't do the first steps.

  I walked down the stairs to hang out in the living room. I knew people would be in. Once I walked in, my sisters walked over to me. I leaned against the frame of the archway.

"Is she okay? We heard screaming?" Jess asked

"She's so dramatic. She screamed because I told her she was a shifter." I said, rolling my eyes.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Ally and Jessica yelled at the same time. Times like this makes me question how interlinked my sisters were.

Ally came up behind me and smacked me on my head. It stung so badly, I had to scratch it.

"You can't just tell someone that they're something that is meant to be fake in their world," Jessica said in a knowing voice. She did have experience on this topic; her mate is a human.

"Basically, what she's saying is, don't be so direct with it. Now go back up there and fix this." Ally told me

"GO," she said, pushing me out room after I just sat there looking at her.

As I walked up the stairs I had to find out what to say to her. How should I say it to her?

I opened the door to her room and saw her standing by the window, with her back turned towards me, so I stood there looking at her.

She had a full head of curly hair that reached to her shoulders, her arms were crossed against her chest, and she had one of my graphic t-shirts with shorts that looked great on her. Her dark skin color looked shiny and silky in the setting sun. Her thick thighs made her perfect. I couldn't wait to put my head in between them.

"Why- can I sense you, even when you're not near me?" she said, not looking at me.

"Come with me," I told her with my hands still in my pockets.

"What?" she said, turning to face me with a look of confusion.

"Why in God's name would I do that? I don't know you." 

"But you trust me." I walked up so that we were only a few feet away and stopped. "If you didn't, you would have moved."

She looked away from me in a shy way.

I lightly grabbed her hand from her chest and pulled her closer to me. I could feel the sparks in our touch. She tried not to look into my eyes but I lifted her chin so she would face me. 

"Come on" l pulled her arm and walked outside the door.

"If you try anything, I'll scream again," she said, which made me chuckle. I love the banter that we are falling into, becoming familiar with each other.

We went up and down the palace to get to where I wanted to take her. It was a sacred place to the pack, somewhere people would lay their worries and doubts. It had a brick bridge to get to it that had walls filled with windows.

"Where are you taking me?" she said in a whiny voice for the sixth time since leaving her room.

"Just follow" I replied 

I stopped in front of two large wooden doors that were several feet tall. I pushed open the doors to show her.

It was a room filled with stone statues that were eight feet tall and towering over us. The roof was made of glass, letting in sunlight. They were built over the years; every pack in Eardwulf had some variation of this room in their packs. In the center, there was a larger statue in the middle shining brighter than the rest of the statues. There was grass at the bottom of her feet with different flowers, and in her hand were Night Lillies with a crown on her head.

"Who is she?" Amaya asked

"She is the moon goddess. Selene. Creator of shifters" she walked closer and closer to the statue.

"Shifters?" she asked

"Shifters can change into different animals and beings," I told her, not taking my eyes off the statue.

"She made shifters?" she asked, turning back at me.

"Most. But there are some special ones who we call newbreeders."

"Newbreeders?" The little curiosity in her voice made my heart beat faster.

"They are shifters that we're not born one. Most are bitten like you. Never mind," I wanted to warm her up to the fact. 

"Most?" she asked

"Others have a curse on them," I told her, turning to look back at the statue.

"You stopped when you said most were bitten, why?" she turned around and I think she caught on to who it was.

"Ok so if I do go along with this idea that I am a "shifter", will you explain things to me,"  she asked

"Sure let's go with this plan," I told her

"If you were a shifter then you would know that we're mates. Soulmates and that we have a connection, " as I told her this I walked closer and closer to her.

"The more we touch the more we need each other. That's why you can sense me even when I am far" I finally got right in front of her and this time she looked me in the eyes.

"Wh-what are you are talking about?" she said sounding dumbfounded 

"What is it going to take to believe me?" I asked her. I got even closer if that was possible.

I put my hand on the side of her cheek and pulled her closer. She took a deep breath in and I moved in closer.