“It will be so nice to have a baby in the family again.” Luke’s mother, Robin, smiled, hugging Beta Alfred. “And who knows, maybe soon our Luke and Blake will bless us with some more grandpups.” She looked at my mom, joy on her face at the thought.
Despair ripped through my body. My mom took my hand, squeezing it in hers. I was grateful for my mom’s reaction, allowing her to hold my hand, feeling comforted by it as if I were a kid again. Even when I was at my worst, my mom never gave up on me, always trying to push through to me. I didn’t know what I would have done if it weren’t for her. “Let’s not rush our sons. They’re going to be really busy soon, and there’s plenty of time to start families,” my mom said.
“Damn right!” my father roared, never being able to keep his mouth shut for too long. “We’ve got an emerging war on our hands. There are more important things to focus on now than mates and babies. Let’s not encourage this foolishness.”
“Everyone knows a mate strengthens a werewolf!” Robin replied.
“When the mate’s not a distraction!” My dad looked angered at being argued with. I was surprised at Robin’s boldness. She usually knew better than to get into an argument with my father. “That’s enough of this talk. Let’s eat.” His word was always final.
Yes, mates strengthened werewolves but loss weakened them. It was a double-edged sword. That was the reason why werewolves would fight for their mates above all else and start wars over them. That was the reason why Alpha Édouard was unlikely to surrender. As long as his mate, Sofia, was alive, he would fight to the death of his entire pack to see her returned to him.
After dinner, I went back up to my bedroom where I saw a text message was waiting for me.
Jasmine: Thank you so much for today! Next time lunch and the ride are on me
As much as I wanted next time to be as soon as possible, I resisted. It would be for the best if there wasn’t a next time.
I ignored the text, descended the stairs, and exited the packhouse, undressing as soon as I entered the woods. Once I was stripped of the last piece of clothing, I shifted into my wolf form, succumbing to my animal brain, forcing all my human emotions deep to a place I wouldn’t retrieve them.
Chapter 18
Jasmine
Onthenextdayoff from work we had together, I took Lucy for a ride in my new car. It was now nearing the end of August and Lucy’s youngest brother, Neil, would be turning sixteen in a couple days. We stopped at a shopping center so Lucy could buy him a present. We were browsing different colognes at a cosmetic store when a question I’d been wondering for two years suddenly came to me.
“Lucy, what cologne does Luke wear? I hope this isn’t weird, but it smells really nice and I’d never smelled it before.”
Lucy tilted her head, considering me. Finally, she replied, “Luke doesn’t wear cologne.”
“Oh, weird, maybe it was someone else’s cologne I smelled. It’s been a long time since I last saw him anyway, so I’m probably just misremembering.” But that didn’t sit right with me. I only ever smelled it when he was around, and I couldn’t forget how divine and sensual it smelled. I sniffed a few of the samples, and nothing came close to how wonderful that scent had been.
We continued shopping for the remainder of the afternoon. I let Lucy drive my car home, which I almost instantly regretted. Lucy was a terrible driver, and I was certain that the car I had just bought less than a week earlier was about to end up in a scrapyard. Luckily, we made it home unscathed. I made a mental note to never allow Lucy behind the wheel of my car again.
After dropping Lucy off, I headed home to start dinner. I loved my new car and took every opportunity to use it. I was constantly offering to run any errands for my parents and grandparents. As I was driving home, my phone rang. Seeing a call was coming in from my grandmother, I took the call via Bluetooth. “Hi, Grandma!”
“Hello, Jazzy dear. Would you like to run an errand for me?”
“Absolutely!” I replied.
“Wonderful. I’m in the middle of cooking dinner and just realized I forgot to pick up your grandfather’s prescription today. Would you mind swinging by the pack clinic and bringing it over? I have some muffins to trade you.”
“No problem! Be there in a few minutes!” I replied, turning to drive toward the clinic. I headed into the downtown area of the pack and drove past the packhouse where I saw Blake’s Jeep parked in the driveway. It had been about a week since he’d taken me to the dealership, and seeing his car now brought the longing to see him I harbored to the forefront. I did my best to ignore it and drove directly to the clinic.
I entered the clinic to pick up my grandfather’s prescription. I was surprised to find Luke’s mom was working at the front desk. Granted, adult werewolves very rarely needed to go to the clinic, especially at my age, being apt at healing themselves, so I wasn’t necessarily familiar with all the staff that worked here, since I wasn’t a frequent visitor. My grandfather, on the other hand, was now aging and, clearly, his wolf was becoming weaker, so he wasn’t able to heal himself as easily anymore.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Hemming. I didn’t know you worked here.”
Robin smiled at me warmly. She had a very friendly and motherly composure to her. I recalled meeting her in the past and wishing I had a mom like her. She was the complete opposite of my cold mom. “Hi, Jasmine. Nice to see you. With all my pups now grown and out of the packhouse, I needed something to do. Luckily, I have connections through the luna and she got me set up over here.” She winked at me. “What can we do for you today?”
“I just need to pick up a prescription for my grandfather.”
“Oh yes, let me go grab that for you,” she said, standing up and moving to the back where all of the prescriptions were organized. After she found it, she came back to hand it to me. “There you go.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
“How’s Lucy doing? We haven’t seen much of her lately. I know it was devastating for both her and Luke when they found out they weren’t mates.”
I was irritated—clearly Luke’s mom had no idea that Luke was still seeing Lucy and carrying on as if they’d never discovered they weren’t mates. I wanted to ask how she felt about the fact that Luke was presently copulating with someone who wasn’t his mate and acting as if she was. I did my best to put my feelings aside and replied, “Lucy’s fine.”