Page 49 of Ruthless Alpha Beast

Everyone will die?

All these people surrounding me, yes, even the shifters in Jasper’s pack who aren’t exactly the most welcoming, will have nowhere to go.

It makes me anxious, and with nothing else to do, I decide that I might as well try to help. Isn’t that also my duty as Jasper’s wife?

Jasper tells me not to worry about it; meanwhile, he’s working day and night with the witches to help lessen the burden of the decay on the forest.

I’ve asked him multiple times how I can help, to which he has responded—in true Jasper fashion—‘don’t worry about it, I’ve got it under control’.

I don’t think he does.

I know that his pack won’t say it, because they absolutely adore him and believe in everything he says. If he tells them he’s got it under control, they’ll believe him.

But I am actually living with him, and I see things they don’t see. For example, the look on his face when he comes home after an excursion outside the pack, or the way he speaks to his most trusted advisors on the phone.

I know things are bad. That’s why, for the past week, I’ve been visiting the library to conduct research.

As alowlyhuman with no skills to offer aside from perhaps my interest in books, I figured that was the way to do it.

To my surprise, their library actually has a lot on this stuff. Books on curses, spells, shifter versus witch relations, imagery, and metaphors in magic... the list goes on.

It’s strange because aren’t they supposed to hate the witches? I think Jasper might say something like ‘in order to defeat your enemy, you have to understand them first’.

Ha.

Honestly, he hasn’t been too bad over the past week.

Not sure if it was the wedding that made him behave better, but things in the house are fairly civil. He goes about his day, I go about mine. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.

This evening after dinner, I decide to go to the library to do some more research. It’s already dark out, and for me, that’s the best time to go—when no one else is around.

Jasper is off on some hunt and won’t be back until late, so I take it upon myself to store my remaining dinner in the fridge, clean up, and head across the pack territory to the library.

I know most of the routes by now, even better than I know the people.

I get a few paces, until I come face-to-face with someone I recognize. At least, I think that’s her.

A female shifter in the pack who does a lot of the baking. She’s carrying a whole basket of cookies.

“Tara,” she acknowledges me politely.

Most of the time, the pack shifters ignore me. If we pass, they pretend they don’t notice I’m there.

“Hi,” I nod shyly. “How are you?”

“Well,” she sighs. “As good as I can be. I had a whole batch of berries today that were completely rotted. I was supposed to be making blueberry pie for the pack, but without the berries, I’ve settled for cookies instead.”

A nervous feeling settles in my stomach. It’s definitely because of the curse.

But does she know?

I don’t want to scare anyone more than necessary.

“That’s a shame,” I say. “But I’m sure your cookies taste wonderful, too.”

“Well,” she drops her shoulders. “Yes. But we had cookies last week, and the berries are supposed to be in season. Everyone looks forward to my berry pie.”

I offer her a sympathetic smile.