“What?”
I looked over at Luke who covered his face with his hands and then removed them to look at me. “My dad mentioned something about this to me.”
“What did he say?”
“Your mom’s brother or nephew—is one of them the alpha of your mom’s pack?”
“Yes, her nephew’s currently the alpha. Her brother used to be.”
“She clearly wants them to come and make sure that I honor the mate bond, Jasmine. My dad told me about this. Look, Jasmine, I’mnotplanning tonothonor it. There’s nothing to worry about. I will go to your house right now, and I will speak with your parents just like I planned to. We’ll fix all this.” He rubbed his thumbs against my palms, spreading a calm through my body.
“That ship has sailed,” I replied bitterly. I knew I had told him to hold off on speaking with my parents, but I didn’t mean for so long. Why hadn’t he taken more initiative? Why did he keep promising to take responsibility and then avoiding it until it was too late?
“Jasmine, it hasn’t sailed.” He straightened up. “I can still speak with them. Yes, they heard through the pack gossip, but they still haven’t heard from me what I intend to do. I will assure them that they have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Why?” I could sense his concern as he looked at me.
I looked at Luke and felt anxious at what I was about to say, knots twisting in my stomach. But I pushed through it and said, “Because I’m not sure we should do this anymore. My whole life’s falling apart over this mate bond. This is not how it’s supposed to be. Everyone else is happy when they meet their mate, and I’ve just got tons of anxiety. I don’t know if it’s worth fighting for anymore. Plus, you’re having a baby with my best friend—my best friend whom I lost because of all of this. The whole situation’s a huge mess.”
He reached over and pulled me against him as much as he could with the center console in the way. “Please, Jasmine. Don’t say that. It will work out.”
“Maybe the best way for it to work out is for it to not work out at all.”
He held me tighter and said, “Please just sleep on it. I’m not ready for us to reject each other, Jasmine.” I nodded into his chest, the sparks and calm being emitted from him forcing me to forgive him. “This is really uncomfortable, by the way, maybe we should get into the back seat.” He chuckled. I chuckled too, and we got out to move into the back.
“Much better.” He pulled me against him. “It feels nice cuddling with you. I will definitely miss this if you choose not to be with me anymore.”
It did feel nice. Being so close to him, once again, made me forget how frustrated I was with his behavior, the bond flexing its power over us. We stayed like that for a while and, the next thing I knew, I was waking from sleep.
“Did I fall asleep?” I looked up at Luke.
“Yes, you did. And you looked so cute. I didn’t want to wake you.” He smiled. “You were like a sweet little fox.”
“Oh Goddess, I hope I didn’t drool on you.” I wiped my hand against my mouth.
“It’s okay,” he said, leaning forward to kiss me. Before I knew it, we were making out at the back of his car, parked in a forested area, like a couple of teenagers. He pulled away and said, “I’ll miss this too. Kissing you is really magical.” He put his mouth back on mine.
Eventually we stopped, falling back into a cuddle, and I said, “I should probably get home.”
He nodded and got out of the back seat. I followed. He came around and opened the front door before I could get to it and helped me in. Then he got back into the driver seat and stopped at the end of the street. “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you all the way home?”
“No, it’s better that my parents don’t see your car. Things are really weird right now.”
“Okay, can you at least text me when you get in, so I know you made it back safely?”
“Sure,” I replied.
He then got out of the car and came around. I had already opened the door, so he just helped me down once he got there. He then pulled me in for a tight hug and kissed me. “Please think about staying with me, Jasmine. I promise I will always be good to you. I know things are complicated with Lucy now, but I know they will eventually work themselves out.”
He gave me one final kiss and let me go. I began to walk away and turned around to see that he was standing there watching me go. I waved to him, and he waved back, and then I continued walking. As irresponsible and frustrating as Luke was being, he was very sweet.
Chapter 54
Blake
OnFridaymorning,Iwas alone in my office going through different financial reports that the accountant had left me to review. A knock at the door broke my concentration. When I looked up, I was surprised to see my mom in the doorway.