Page 5 of Running with the Alpha’s Son (The Alpha’s Son #3)

MIN D - LINKING

Once we’re past the house, the gold light from the windows disappearing behind the trees, I take Jasper’s hand and lead him farther into the woods. The air is icy but his hand is warm in mine.

“Where are we going?” he asks.

“Trust me.”

We reach my spot by the lake, where I like to sit and draw, and I point out the small path that leads up the bank on the opposite side. With a leap we cross the frozen lake and make our way up the sloping forest trail. Eventually, we come to a rise. An opening appears between the bare trees and as we reach the summit of this small hill the moon pops out from behind a cloud. Beneath us the forest drops away, the descent on the other side of the hill is much steeper and deeper than the one we just climbed. The tree line is a jagged black carpet leading to the horizon. Moonlight shines down, casting the tops of the trees in an uneven silver glow.

“You said you wanted tonight to be perfect,” I say, staring out across the forest, taking a deep breath, and letting my soul fill with energy from the moon. “It doesn’t get much more perfect than this.”

“Maybe we should have skipped dinner and bowling and come right here,” Jasper says dryly.

“Maybe. But then I wouldn’t have gotten to kick your ass.”

“Why are you such a good bowler?”

“My dad used to be in a league. I’d hang out at the alley when he had games. He taught me everything he knows.”

Jasper turns to me and takes my free hand. “You’re full of surprises, you know that?”

I want to say something funny, make some clever retort, tease him or be all pretend smug, but I can’t because Jasper is looking in my eyes, moonlight reflecting in his. His lips are moist and puckered and right there.

Kissing under moonlight is just better. Every subtle movement, every place our bodies connect, every feeling is heightened. By the time we break apart I’m completely breathless. Jasper pulls me into him and I return his embrace.

“It’s going to be hard to be away from you,” I say. “We only just figured things out. Now we have to be apart.”

“It’s just for a couple of months at most then I’ll be back.”

“Too long.” I sigh and nestle into his chest, loving the way his arms feel around my back and the way he feels wrapped up in mine.

“We can call regularly. I’ll be better at texting, I promise.”

I glance up at him, deathly serious. “You better be.”

“I was also thinking…” Jasper leans away a little so we can see each other’s faces again. “Have you heard of mind-linking?”

“Yeah, sort of. It’s like when wolves can talk with their minds.”

“It’s extremely rare. It requires an intense connection. Some alphas have been able to do it in the past to communicate with their soldiers. But mostly it’s only mates who can manage to mind-link with one another.”

“You think we could…?”

“If we could then we wouldn’t need to worry about phones, or school, or distance. We could talk anytime we wanted.”

“I guess you are the alpha’s son and you do your meditation thing all the time.”

“Right, and you’re the blood wolf. You already have a mental link to other wolves.”

“So if anyone can figure out how to freaking mind-link it should be us.”

He grins. “You read my mind.”

I can’t even with how stupidly handsome he looks right now.

“What do you think? Does that sound okay?” he asks. “Shall we try it?”

“Sounds perfect.”

We kiss under the moon once more, until it’s finally time to say goodbye.

I wake on Sunday morning wiped after what turned out to be a pretty major first date and also a little depressed. Jasper is heading back to Cambridge in a few days and I have the latter half of junior year to worry about.

I check my phone to find a good-morning text from Jasper—he meant it when he said he’d be better at texting—and a string of texts from Katie.

Max! I’m sorry I’ve been awol.

I really want to talk

How have you been since New Year’s?

I’m sorry

Maybe I should be more angry about how she acted at the party, but part of me is still scared that she meant what she said— Maybe we’re drifting apart. Now that things with Jasper are in a good place, and especially with him heading back to college, I want to make sure that Katie and I don’t drift too far. I dial her number.

“Thanks for coming to meet me,” Katie says.

Above us the Brooklyn Bridge is a solid mass, blocking out the sun. We wander a little farther in the direction of Jane’s Carousel, tubs of ice cream in hand, looking for a spot in the park to sit. The weather is still decidedly wintry, but warm enough where the light hits.

“Of course, I wanted to see you.”

Katie glances sideways in my direction, a look of worry etched on her brow, but also a questioning tilt to her head. Does she think I’m lying?

“I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t,” she says with a sigh, her breath puffing in front of her face in a little cloud.

I stop walking. “Katie, I always want to see you.”

She sniffs. “I know, I suppose lately it’s just started to feel like maybe that’s not the case.”

“It’s been sort of a wild six months.”

She nods and huffs in agreement.

“But no matter what’s happening in my life,” I say, “I never want you to think there isn’t room for you too.”

We step out from under the bridge and the sun is delightfully warm. It’s so bright I’m forced to squint.

“I think…” She begins to speak but trails off, her eyes traveling across the river to the Manhattan skyline. “I think maybe there was part of me that was jealous.”

“You? Jealous of me? Does not compute.”

“Even though things with Jasper have been hard, it’s also been sort of epic—like a classic love story full of drama and excitement. It’s the sort of romance I always wanted.”

“Believe me, all that drama is not the one. It’s not like it’s been fun.”

“I know.” She gestures with a nod toward the steps by the carousel and we make our way over, passing the fiberglass horses, spinning aimlessly inside the large glass cube structure. “I know I shouldn’t covet your trauma. I think I just saw your life and then looked at mine and wondered why things had shaken out the way they did.”

We sit on the cold steps and I shiver into my jacket but continue to spoon the delicious cookie-dough ice cream into my frozen lips.

“I thought things with the bro-twins were better than ever. It’s not like you’ve been drama-free this whole time.”

She laughs a little and bumps her shoulder against mine. “Tell me about it. I had no idea dating two guys would be so admin heavy.”

“Can you expand on that?”

“It’s part of why I haven’t been in touch sooner. There’s just so much work figuring out when to see each of them individually, when we’re going to spend time together as a group, making sure everyone feels equally valued, squashing any jealous thoughts. Being poly takes work. Today is the first day since New Year’s I haven’t had plans with one of my mates.”

“I’m flattered you’d choose to spend it with me.” I offer Katie my tub and she offers hers in return. Hers is choc mint and it’s super refreshing. “Actually I think I can relate. With Jasper going back to college my life is about to get super adminny too. It’s going to be all schedules and booking dates in advance and finding times to FaceTime.”

“Who would have thought romance would be so much like working a reception desk?” she asks with a laugh.

“Not me. And I totally wouldn’t have signed up for it if I knew it came with homework.”

We share a laugh and it feels so good. Katie hands me back my tub of ice cream and I scoop the remains from the bottom before watching her polish off hers as well. She smudges some on her lip and I hand her a napkin.

“Jasper and I are going to try and mind-link,” I say. “To combat the rising tide of paperwork.”

“Wow,” she says. “I’ve heard about mind-linking. It’s supposed to be really difficult.”

“We’re going to start practicing.”

“Good luck. But I suppose if anyone can do it it’ll be you two. What with your new powers and all.”

At this I sense her mood shift. The sun dips behind a cloud and I’m suddenly reminded of the season once more.

“What about my new abilities?” I ask. “You seemed weirded out by them, when you first heard about them and at the party.”

She places her empty cup down and studies the rocking river. “I can’t lie to you, Max. It is sort of strange. Like you get this insight into me that I don’t get into you. It’s like you get the upper hand.”

“But we’re not in competition?”

“No but—I’m not explaining it right. It’s like you get to know me in this new and intense way and I don’t get that with you.”

To our right, the carousel has stopped moving. Kids are jumping off while others stream on, picking their horses, their faces excited about the ride they’re about to embark on.

“Remember when we used to ride on that carousel when we were kids?” I say.

“Totally. Remember that time you ate too much popcorn and nearly vomited all over Thunder?”

“Who’s Thunder?”

“That was the name of your horse. We named him that because he had a black mane and gold stirrups.”

“See! I don’t even remember my horse’s name, but you do.”

Katie shakes her head like she’s not understanding.

“My point is we know each other better than anyone else on the planet. And no mates or blood-wolf powers are going to change that. And it’s not like I can just read minds anyway—it doesn’t work like that—plus I wouldn’t if I could, but you think if I did there’d be something about you I wouldn’t already know?”

She chews her bottom lip, perhaps thinking about all the little thoughts she does want to keep secret, because the truth is there are things we keep from each other, that are secret—that’s going to be true about anyone. But if they’re secrets, we need to respect that. Eventually her face softens and, as if coming to the same conclusion, she turns to smile at me. “No.”

“Right, because we’re soulmates. Not in the same way you have Todd and Simon or I have Jasper. In a whole other way that’s just ours.”

At this she begins to tear up.

“We don’t need to read each other’s minds,” I continue, “because we already can.”

She laughs and it’s music to my ears, a trill that swoops in to harmonize with the honky melody pumping from the carousel.

“I didn’t mean it when I said we were drifting apart,” Katie says, wiping a tear from her eye. “I mean, maybe we are a little, because we’re growing up and whatever, but I don’t want to.”

“Katie, we could never.” I wrap an arm around her shoulders and she leans into me. To our left the carousel is spinning once again and I catch a glimpse of a horse with a black mane.

“Are you looking forward to going back to school?” Katie asks, and in unison we turn to face one another and shake our heads.

“Nah!”

The first week of classes simultaneously drags and whizzes by. Every second I wish I was with Jasper, or calling him or texting him. I struggle to concentrate in my lessons, thankful most of the teachers have decided to take it easy on us during the first week back. My mind is so adrift wondering what Jasper is up to, waiting for his next message that I hardly notice time passing.

I glance at my phone under my desk during Calc on Friday and can’t help the smile spreading on my face. Jasper has kept his promise to be better at texting since he left for Cambridge on Tuesday.

Mind-link practice tonight?

I type back “ YES ” in all caps then struggle to regain my focus. Seriously, when will I EVER need to use calculus in real life?

“Ready?” Jasper asks, his face bright on the screen of my phone, which is propped up on a pillow at the foot of my bed.

I pull my legs under me. Maybe sitting like a yogi will help me access my cosmic wolf connection.

“Ready,” I say.

Jasper closes his eyes first. His college dorm makes an impressive backdrop behind him. It looks more like he’s calling from some historic library than a bedroom. Dark wooden shelves are filled with wide-spined books featuring academic-sounding titles. His face is lit in lamplight, accentuating his chiseled jaw and bringing out his freckles.

He’s already slipping into a deep state of concentration, his breathing has slowed, his muscles relaxed. I need to stop gawking at my hot boyfriend and do the same.

I close my eyes, take three deep breaths, and try to open my mind.

In the darkness of my mind I let the walls I’ve held in place for protection dissipate. The noise of the world creeps into my consciousness like a fuzzy murmur, a woolen blanket of sound on all sides. I do my best to block it out and return to the calm, blank, nothingness. Whenever I’ve reached out before I’ve always visualized the presence of other wolves as squiggly red lines, like veins or electricity. I do my best to search the darkness for them, trying to hunt out the one with Jasper’s energy, his life force.

They start to come into view, small and distant at first, but growing larger, flickering and vibrating. They race toward me until I’m standing in the midst of them, a sea of pulsing veins, each the strand of a life, a spark of consciousness. There are too many to count. Their red light extends and floods the void around me a dark crimson. I squeeze my eyes tighter, trying to find Jasper among them, reaching out with my energy and my consciousness.

Suddenly, a howl tears through the silence, erupting from nowhere and everywhere, and a blinding pain slices through my brain. My eyes shoot open and I clutch my head, crying out in agony.

“Max!” Jasper shouts, eyes open as well, peering into the phone with terror in his expression. “What’s wrong?”

The pain lessens more slowly than it arrived, but fast enough that within a few seconds all that’s left is a pounding headache.

“I’m okay,” I say, despite the fact I can’t quite catch my breath and sweat has broken out across my forehead. “I’m fine.”

“No you’re not. What happened?”

“I…I don’t know. I heard something—a howl.”

Jasper tilts his head like he doesn’t understand. Probably because I’m talking gibberish.

“What do you mean?” he asks. “What howl?”

“I think…” I say, trying to string together the thoughts swirling in my aching mind, “I think it was calling to me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Someone is calling me,” I say. “And whoever they are, they’re in pain.”