Page 11 of Jasper (Were Zoo #20)

“Who the fuck are you?” a male dressed in black asked as Jasper reached the door of the prison.

“Just passing through.” Jasper stepped from the prison with his friends at his side, Finn and Viola at the rear and partially hidden from view.

The male snarled and looked past him to the open door. Claws glistened from his fingertips and fangs slowly appeared in his mouth. “Ludo said something was going on. Whoever you have with you, leave them behind and get the fuck out, or I’ll kill all of you.”

“I’m not leaving without them,” Jasper said.

Someone sounded an alarm, the horn blaring into the quiet night.

The male smiled smugly.

“We need to go,” Patton whispered.

Jasper settled into a fighting stance and let out his wolf enough to enhance his speed and strength, his claws and fangs erupting. He leaned over and scored the dirt with his claws, then picked up a handful and flung it at the male’s head. As the dirt hit his face, he shouted and stumbled backward, wiping at his face.

“Let’s go!” Jasper yelled.

Their group raced away into the darkness. Jasper made sure that Finn and Viola were with them, covering them from behind to ensure they made it out safely. As they broached the woods and came upon the SUVs, Melody wasn’t in the first vehicle.

“Mom! Dad!” she said from where she stood at the second SUV talking to Benjamin, who looked like he’d been in a fight.

“We’ve gotta go now!” Jasper said, grasping her arm and pulling her to the SUV. He pushed her into the driver’s seat and over the console. She squawked as she landed sideways, sitting up and pulling the open door shut. When Finn, Viola, and Alfie were inside his SUV, he put it into gear and slammed his foot on the gas, dirt and rocks flying as the tires found purchase and the SUV lurched down the road. His friends followed closely behind in the other SUV.

Melody turned in her seat. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine now, honey,” her mom said. “Thank you for bringing Jasper here to help us.”

“What’s going to happen to everyone else?” she asked.

“I tossed the keys to Cray,” Finn said. “He’ll get everyone free. But the moment we can, we need to get back up here.”

“You’ll have to come without Jasper,” Melody said. He could feel her eyes on him but didn’t take his gaze off the road as he navigated the twisty turns. “And me too.”

“What do you mean?” Viola asked.

“Jasper’s my soulmate, and I agreed to stay in New Jersey.”

Jasper glanced in the rearview and saw Finn’s scowl. “We’ll talk when we get to the park,” Finn said stiffly.

“We definitely need to talk,” Melody said. “I have a ton of questions.”

Jasper did as well.

“How long do we have?” Finn asked.

“About three hours,” Jasper said.

“We can talk now,” Melody said.

“No,” Finn said, shaking his head. “We’ll talk when we have privacy.”

“I’m not listening, I swear,” Alfie said. “Which I realize means that I was listening, but I promise I’m not actually paying attention.”

Jasper knew Finn well enough to know the sullen turn of his mouth meant he wasn’t going to speak until he was ready to, and that meant back in the park.

Reaching over, Jasper took Melody’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “We can talk in the apartment. Let’s just be thankful we got on the way safely.” He gave her a side glance. “Speaking of safety, why did you leave the SUV? I told you to stay put.”

“I totally heard you,” she said. “And I did, until I noticed someone sneaking up on Benjamin.” She told him how she’d found the flashlight and interrupted the male trying to kill Jasper’s friend.

“Honey!” Viola said. “You could have been hurt.”

“Well, I couldn’t just do nothing, Mom. He came up here with me and Jasper to help get you two free. The least I could do was make sure he didn’t shuffle off the mortal coil in the process.”

Jasper shook his head with a chuckle. “You always did have a way with words, Mel.”

“You know it.”

Finn filled them in on what he knew about Ludo and what happened.

“Ludo is Grimes’ cousin,” Finn said.

Melody turned in the seat to look at her dad. “What? He is?”

“Or was,” Finn said. “You two were young when it happened, but maybe fifteen years ago, Grimes saw Ludo as a threat to his leadership, but Ludo was only fourteen at the time and hadn’t shifted yet. Grimes attacked him, left him near dead on the edge of the territory. Told him he’d slaughter him if he ever stepped foot in Northbelle again.”

“Wow, I had no idea,” Melody said. “I can’t believe that Ludo got Grimes, though.”

“He was smart,” Finn said. “He and the males he’d amassed to his side over the years went after the mates and forced the males to come along. But I did hear the guards saying that Ludo killed Grimes, his mate, and Dario.”

“What’s going to happen to the pack?” Melody asked.

“Well,” Finn said, “hopefully Cray hid the keys and can get himself and the others free at some point. Once we get to the park, I’ll need a vehicle so I can get back up there and help.”

“Dad,” Melody said, “by the time we get to the park and you get back, it’ll be daylight.”

“She’s right,” Jasper said. “You should wait to time it until dark. You need to eat and rest, anyway. You two look like you’re about to drop.”

“They didn’t feed us, but it’s only been two days,” Viola said. “Feels like longer, though.”

“I’m sorry you were both taken,” Melody said.

“We’re glad you weren’t home,” Viola said. “Did you hear from Ellie? Are she and her mom okay?”

“They’re fine,” she said. “I didn’t tell her where I was because I didn’t know if someone might look at her phone.”

“That’s smart,” Jasper said. “I’m sure she and her mom will be safe. It sounds like Ludo only went after the high-ranked males to make sure everyone would stay in line and not challenge him.”

“He only came in with somewhere around ten males,” Finn said. “I still can’t believe he got through the patrols and did so much damage, but we definitely were not prepared for an attack.”

“It’s rough out in the open like that,” Jasper said. “The park has high stone walls, security around the clock, plus motion sensors and cameras everywhere. We’ve had some issues in the past, but we always upgrade whenever we find a deficit.”

“It sounds really safe,” Viola said. “I’m glad.”

The rest of the ride was quiet, and while Jasper could tell Melody was tired, she wouldn’t rest. Her mom dozed off a bit toward the end of the drive, but otherwise there was a weird, uneasy silence until they reached the park.

“Where are you going?” Melody asked as Jasper stood outside of the apartment she’d been in the day before. Her parents were inside, helping themselves to the food and drinks in the refrigerator.

“I have to check in with my alpha,” Jasper said.

She stepped out of the apartment and pulled the door shut. “I was hoping we could talk.”

“We can,” he said, looking down at her. “But you need to talk to your parents first, and I have to go over things with my alpha plus the others in the park. I’ll come over for breakfast and we can deal with everything.”

She blinked up at him, wanting to ask him to stay with her or take her with him. Or something. “I don’t want you to go.”

He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. “Rest, sweetheart. I’ll see you later in the morning.”

She watched him until she couldn’t see him anymore, and then she just stared into the darkness of the park. She could make out the buildings and hear the animals in the distance, and she knew that there were males patrolling the park who would ensure they were safe.

Not that she thought Ludo would come for them. He couldn’t possibly know who’d helped get her parents free or where they’d gone, so they were safe, she was sure of it.

Turning on her heels, she went back into the apartment.

“So let’s talk,” Melody said when she found her parents at the kitchen table eating sandwiches.

Her mom put her sandwich down and said, “Aren’t you hungry? Would you like to eat something? We could talk later, you know. After a good rest.”

“Mom,” Melody said. She folded her arms and leaned against the counter, facing them and trying not to scowl too deeply at them.

Her dad finished his bite and took a long drink from a tall glass of ice water. As he set the drink down, he said, “No, Vi, it’s fine. She deserves to know the whole truth.”

Her wolf perked up as she waited for her dad to speak.

“When you were seventeen and Jasper was eighteen, he came to me and asked if I would support your mating, and I said of course. You’re soulmates, and I wasn’t in the business of standing in the way of that. I gave him my blessing and he went to speak to Grimes. But Grimes didn’t like that you couldn’t shift.”

Her dad stopped speaking for a moment.

“I knew that,” she said. “He always looked down on me.”

“Yeah, he did,” Viola said. “It was beyond your control, just an odd twist of fate that kept your wolf from ever coming out. Grimes thought that you’d pass along what he called your ‘defect,’ and he decided that he wasn’t going to allow you to mate with anyone.”

“Jasper told me about that conversation,” she said. It still baffled her. “I can’t believe Grimes wanted to keep me from being mated.”

Her dad nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid he did. Did Jasper tell you about wanting to choose exile and take you with him and Grimes’ threat?”

She nodded. A bit of hope fluttered in her heart. She still couldn’t believe that Jasper had stood up to the alpha on her behalf, but she’d never known. Or that her alpha had threatened to kill her if she mated Jasper.

“Unfortunately, that’s when shit hit the fan,” her mom said, grimacing. “Grimes saw himself as some kind of perfectionist with shifters, and he didn’t want you tainting your children. Which is ridiculous, of course. Your dad and I told him as much, but he was unmovable.”

Gaining his composure quickly, her dad said, “At any rate, Grimes forced Jasper from the pack immediately, barely gave him time to pack a bag. He joined up with Joss at the park in New Jersey and that’s that.”

Her hackles raised. “That’s not that at all, Dad. Why didn’t you tell me? And he said he sent a letter asking me to join him. What happened to it?”

“Don’t you understand?” her mom asked, her voice plaintive. “You would have been killed if you left. Grimes was determined to keep you unmated and childless forever. He would have found you no matter where you went.”

“You took the letter?”

“We had no choice,” her dad said. “We knew if we gave you the letter, if you realized that Jasper left to save your life, that you would have gone to him. We couldn’t risk your life, not when we didn’t know if Jasper could keep you safe.”

“You should have given me the choice,” she said.

“We did what we needed to do to keep you safe,” her dad said. “I have no regrets about that.”

“You could have at least told me! I spent the last seven years thinking my soulmate abandoned me, and he clearly thought the same thing! He was so furious when he saw me, so angry and hurt. You…you had no right to keep things from me. It’s my life and was my choice to make!”

“You’re our child,” her dad said, his voice going low with authority and the power of his wolf.

She ignored the authority he was trying to exert over her and said, “On top of all of that, when things went tits up with the pack, you said Jasper was the only one who could help. You destroyed my relationship with him, you left him floundering without his home pack and his soulmate, and you still expected him to save you.”

“He did,” her father said.

“Yeah, I’m not really sure why. He should have told me to go to hell.”

She stared at her parents for a long moment, then walked out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” her father demanded.

“For a walk.”

She heard their protests as she opened the door, and then silence once she’d closed it behind her and stepped out onto the concrete walkway. She rested her hands on the iron railing in front of the walkway and stared out into the darkness, her mind spinning.

All these years, she’d thought Jasper had just walked away from her. In reality, he’d sent for her, but she’d never known. It was no wonder that he’d been so angry when he saw her: he assumed she hadn’t wanted to be with him.

But how could she not want to be with him?

Not only was he her soulmate, but he was just a good male. Despite his anger at the past, he’d still gathered his friends and gone on a mission to save her parents.

But things weren’t settled between her and Jasper. She’d agreed to come back to the park so they could talk, and there were so many misunderstandings and so much lost time between them. What if no matter what she said, he didn’t want anything to do with her?

What if she was still alone after all this time?

A knot formed in her stomach and her wolf let out a soft, mournful howl in her head.

“Hi, are you okay?” a male voice asked from the darkness ahead.

He stepped into view, and she recognized him as Lucius, who’d come with Jasper to help set her parents free.

“Not really. I need to see Jasper. Can you take me to him?”

Lucius frowned. “It’s really late. Shouldn’t you be resting with your family?”

She stared at him in silence, until he fidgeted and said, “All right, I’ll take you to the cafeteria and call Jasper. If he says he won’t see you, though, I’ll need to bring you back here.”

“Thanks for taking me to Jasper.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I don’t know if he’s going to answer.”

She met him and they started off toward the cafeteria. “I bet he will,” she said. Because she was very sure that he wasn’t asleep right now.