Page 96 of Ruthless Alpha Beast

“Jasper, it’s—"

“I know that humans are just as special, witches, too. We’re not better or worse, just different.”

She smiles. “You may be a little better at running than me.”

I laugh, “I think you’re better at reading than me.”

“Hmm,” she concedes. “I don’t know if that’s a human thing, though.”

“No, probably just a Tara thing.”

She smiles. “Yeah, probably just a Tara thing.”

I feel like I could kiss her, but again, I force myself to hold back.

I didn’t bring her out here to seduce her, have my way with her, or anything like that. I brought her here to help her relax.

She turns onto her back in one swift rotation, and I watch the stars continue to sparkle in her eyes.

“I think when all this is over, I’ll probably join the coven. If they’ll have me, of course.”

“Oh, really?”

I haven’t even thought that far ahead. It dawns on me that, as agreed, Tara will at some point be leaving.

My body completely rejects the thought.

“Yeah. They were the first ones to truly accept me when they found out who I was. I’d like to help them somehow, but I haven’t figured out how yet. But I know I can be of use.”

I want to remind her that if Willow’s curse takes over, we’ll all have bigger issues to worry about, but I don’t.

This outing is supposed to be a distraction after all.

“That sounds nice,” I tell her.

Why then do I feel a heaviness in my chest? There’s a big part of me that doesn’t want to let her go. I don’t want us to have to go our separate ways. But why would I force her to stay in a pack where she feels like she doesn’t belong?

I hold onto the hope that things will change. That my pack mates, who are already slowly coming around, might be able to convince her to stay.

Maybe it’s crazy, I don’t know. I just know that I like being around her.

“Yeah,” she says. “It does sound nice.”

Realistically, I was the one to make her feel so crappy. I was the one who made her feel like she didn't belong.

If she changes her mind and decides that she wants to stay, well, that will be totally up to her.

Chapter 19 - Tara

I sit with my hand on the tapestry, and my eyes closed as I try my hardest to access that vision I once saw. This is crazy, completely insane, but I’m all out of options.

That date-night I had with Jasper, or whatever I should call it—I’m not sure—was amazing. A perfect ‘reset’ like he described.

And what that reset showed me was that I can do all the research I want, but I still won't get anywhere. That there’s only so much I can get from books.

I have to be reminded of that fact every now and then; I can get so buried within the literary world.

I squeeze my eyes, tense my forehead—think of the image, think of the image.