Chapter 26
Jasmine
ThenextdaywasSaturday, and I was scheduled for the late shift at the café. Checking the schedule and seeing that I was supposed to work with Lucy for several hours, unable to face her, I texted Valerie to tell her I was sick. I knew she’d be very concerned for a couple of reasons. For one, when adult werewolves got sick, they got really sick. There was no such thing as a small cold, since our wolf was capable of healing us. Only young werewolves who had yet to shift were capable of getting colds. In summary, she would likely assume that I had to be hospitalized. Second, I never called out from work, so she would definitely think I was hospitalized. But I couldn’t even bring myself to care enough to make a believable excuse.
Of course, next thing I knew, I had a frantic text from Lucy that said,OMG! ARE YOU OK! YOU’RE SICK????
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have made such a dramatic excuse. I replied,Too much birthday drinking haha. Late night.It was still pretty dumb, but werewolves could get hangovers if we drank enough, so it was a semi-believable excuse. It wasn’t really believable that I, personally, would call out due to a hangover, but it wasn’t completely outside the realm of possibilities.
She replied with,Nice! I guess someone had an after party last night. Hope it was with Mr. Hot Alpha!If only she knew. At least she would relay the information to Valerie so she wouldn’t worry too much about me.
I went downstairs to face my parents, who were home from work that day. I found them sitting on the couch, anger on both their faces as soon as they saw me descending the stairs. My mom was the first one to stand. “Do you have any idea how worried we were last night, you leaving and staying out so late without saying anything to us? And you wouldn’t even answer your phone.”
My dad spoke next. “This is absolutely unacceptable behavior. What has gotten into you?”
My mom chimed in, “Is this Lucy’s doing? That girl is no good. I wish you would find some more suitable friends. She’s not a good influence on you.”
My dad asked, “Where were you?”
I couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Answer me!” he yelled.
“I was getting drunk at the party lake.” Okay, so my answer was half true. But drinking would be far less bad than what I was actually doing in my parents’ eyes. My mom audibly gasped.
“I thought they patrolled that lake these days.” My dad narrowed his eyes at me.
“Well, there’s a new alpha in town!”
“I don’t want you going anywhere near that lake anymore. I’m going to submit an official complaint. That’s just asking for a security breach. The whole pack should be being patrolled at night. What else do we pay pack fees for?” My dad looked irritated.
“I am very disappointed in you right now. This is not how we raised you to behave.” My mom slapped me across the face. I was completely shocked. My mom had never raised her hand to me before. “Next time, the claws come out,” she warned and turned away to leave the room.
In order to get out of the house, I decided to go to the gym. I needed to do something with all of the anxious energy within me. Hitting something would help. And that was exactly what I did. I spent at least fifteen minutes pounding my fists into a punching bag. Suddenly, I saw from the corner of my eye that someone stationed themselves next to me. I turned my head to see that Blake was doing the same thing I had just been doing. When he saw me looking, he turned to face me, a smile on his face.
“I can’t lie, seeing you beat the shit out of that bag was really fucking hot. Now you’ve got me all worked up.”
“Don’t you have your own gym?”
“This one has hotter women. Do you want to spar with me?”
I agreed and he led me outside to the sparring field. We spent the afternoon working on our fighting techniques. He shifted into his wolf form, and I stayed in my human form as I practiced my kicks while he attacked me.
He mindlinked me,“Damn you kick like a badass. I need you as one of my warriors.”We switched, and I did the same thing, attacking him in my wolf form while he kicked me. I practiced how I fell as a wolf after being kicked, so I could recover quickly and get back into the fight immediately. Once we’d had enough, I went back behind one of the partitions that were set up to switch back into my human form and put my gym clothes back on.
After we were dressed, I walked back over to him. “I need to ask you for a big favor.”
“I’m good at favors, especially the sexual kind.” He winked at me. I hesitated, then he spoke again, more seriously. “What is it? I won’t judge. Although I’m hoping it is a sexual favor.”
“Goddess, it’s so embarrassing,” I trailed, wondering whether I could ask Blake for this.
“Hey, Jasmine, whatever it is, you can tell me. I won’t think any less of you. I promise.” He spoke softly, touching my arm in a friendly gesture. The way he said it made me believe he was being sincere and gave me the courage to proceed.
“Can you please order me a vibrator and have it shipped to you?” I said very quietly, practically whispering. I could sense my whole body overheating with embarrassment. What was I thinking asking Blake for this?
“Are you serious?” He studied my face, his piercing blue eyes penetrating me.
Responding frantically, I blurted out, “I have cash. I’ll pay you back for it plus extra for the trouble. I don’t have my own credit card, and my Amazon Prime account’s connected to my parents,’ so they will see anything I order. And I definitely can’t have it shipped to the house in case my parents get to it before I do. I don’t know who else to ask.”