“Thank you for coming tonight, Jasmine.” Ivy glanced at me.
“Thanks for inviting me,” I replied.
“I also want to say, I’m very sorry about what happened with you, Luke, and Lucy. I never thought that Lucy’s high school boyfriend would have turned into her chosen mate. I feel terrible about it. You’ve always been a good friend to Lucy, and it makes me sad that all of this has torn the two of you apart. I just hope one day the two of you will be able to move past this, but I also understand if you can’t.”
I nodded and said, “Mm,” noncommittally.
“Also, please know that I still love you like a second daughter, even if you and Lucy are no longer going to be friends. Please feel free to come to me if you ever need anything. Don’t be a stranger, Jasmine.”
Ivy dropped me at home, and I thanked her again. I went into the house to find my parents sitting on the couch.
“Where have you been?” my mom questioned. “You left your cell phone at home. We tried mindlinking you and couldn’t get through. I hope you weren’t going outside the territory alone.”
“I know about Katie and Tyler,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at both of them. My mom gasped and I turned to the stairs, walking up to my room where I was looking forward to changing back into comfortable clothes and curling up in bed. Before I could grab for my sweats, I heard a knock on my door. I turned around to my dad entering.
“Can I please sit down?” he asked.
“Go ahead.”
He pulled out my desk chair and took a seat on it. “Please take a seat as well.” He gestured at my bed. I did as he asked, crossing my arms and sitting down. He waited until I was seated and asked, “How did you find out about Katie and Tyler?”
“I met them today.”
“I see,” he replied. “I didn’t know they were in town.”
“Ivy invited them here.”
“I suppose it was only a matter of time before Katie returned to visit her old pack.” He sighed.
“Why did you hide them from me? I had a half brother all this time, and I had no idea.”
“This goes back over two decades, Jasmine. All I can say is I’m sorry. At the time, I was doing what I thought was the right thing. Looking back now, I probably would have done things differently. While I’m glad I ended up with my true mate and we have you, I probably should have fought more to keep Katie and Tyler in your life. But, at the time, it seemed impossible to make it work. Since your mom’s father was the alpha of her pack growing up, that came with a lot of expectations and responsibility. Her father and brother came here and made a lot of demands that I was too young and dumb to fight at the time. Additionally, Alpha James and Beta Alfred encouraged me to go along with the demands so that your mother’s pack wouldn’t be a threat to us, and I wasn’t going to fight our alpha and beta.”
I nodded.
My father continued and chuckled. “It’s a bit ironic, isn’t it? It’s like history repeats itself. With Luke, I mean.”
A pain pulsed through me at the mention of his name and I lay down in my bed.
My dad looked at me with concern and said, “I’m sorry, honey. It’s really not funny. I know that your mom and I were really tough on you growing up, and it was mostly because we didn’t want the same thing to happen to you that happened to me. But I guess you can’t escape your destiny. If you’d like to tell me more about why you and Luke decided to reject each other, I’d love to listen.”
“It’s too hard, Dad,” I replied.
“I understand, honey. I want you to know that I love you and am not angry about what happened. I’m concerned, but I know that you will find someone else. You were always too good for Luke. I don’t care if he’s beta of the pack. You deserve someone that’s crazy about you. When he came over that day and spoke with me, I could tell that he wasn’t right for you. I didn’t want to say anything since you were mates, and I assumed the mate bond would take care of everything. But I guess it’s just not enough sometimes. But don’t worry, Jasmine. There’s someone else out there for you.” He bent over to kiss me on my head. “Have a good night, honey. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.” He exited my bedroom, softly closing the door behind him.
I forced myself to get up so I could change into more comfortable clothes. After I was in my sweats, I unlocked my phone to look through the text messages that had come in while I was away. There were some from my parents and one from Blake.
Blake Sexy AF: How are you feeling?
I looked at it and found I didn’t have the energy to reply. I put my phone back onto my bedside table and turned off my bedroom light.
Chapter 59
Jasmine
Thanksgivingwasatmygrandparents’ house. I skipped out and stayed in bed, knowing I couldn’t possibly handle another social situation. My dad brought leftovers into my room. I picked at them, barely touching them. I called in sick for both my shifts that week, skipping out on work Saturday. After being the type of person who never called out, I realized I was becoming one flaky employee now. I could add that to my list of things I went from perfect at to bad at. I couldn’t even be bothered to do any schoolwork. I realized I didn’t even care what grades I got anymore.
I was completely pathetic. I had no more motivation for anything in life. Maybe I could just decay in my bed slowly over several months until I was dead and didn’t have to suffer anymore.