I exited the bathroom to find that Luke had had the same problem that I had. He took my hand and led me to the valet area. The valet person smirked and asked, “Good night?” Luke and I looked at each other laughing. He then went to retrieve the car after Luke handed him the ticket.
Luke drove me home. I sighed in relief when I saw that the lights were all off, so my parents wouldn’t bear witness to my disheveled appearance. Luke got out and opened my door for me. He then walked me to the front door.
“I had an incredible night with you tonight, Jasmine. I’m looking forward to our next date.” He pulled me against him until our entire bodies were touching. He looked down at me and brought his lips to mine. We must have kissed for at least ten minutes before finally pulling apart. “Have a good night, Jasmine,” Luke said and turned to go. Before I entered the house, he turned to look at me, smiling and waving goodbye.
I ran up into my bathroom to clean myself before my parents could possibly have a chance to take in my appearance. I sighed as I washed my face, thinking that this had to have been one of the best nights I’d ever had in my life. That night I dreamed about Luke’s scent overtaking all of my senses and woke up aroused, tangled in my bedsheets.
Chapter 38
Luke
Thedayaftermydate with Jasmine, I ran the border of the pack grounds in my wolf form to do a patrol check. When I got to Mike’s location at the northern border, I stopped and mindlinked him to see how things were going.
“All good, Mike?”
“All good today, Beta. Sent the juniors out one hundred yards at the start of the shift.”
“Good.”
“That was the first time you witnessed an interrogation on Sunday, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“Yeah, that was definitely an interesting experience.”
“Alpha Blake’s so much like his dad it’s uncanny. The sick shit he comes up with, like feeding one guy’s balls to another.”
My stomach churned recalling the incident.
“His dad used to do the same shit. One time he cut a dick off and shoved it in the guy’s ass. I think his son may have actually been there for that one too. That was many years ago.”
I recalled that Blake used to be forced to attend tortures with his father. I couldn’t imagine having to witness what I did at only ten years old. Even at twenty-one I felt like I had endured some form of psychological damage watching Blake mutilate live people.
When he was a kid, Blake would often come into my room, woken from nightmares, and ask if he could stay the night. He’d be shaking, with tears in his eyes, so I’d let him sleep in my bed with me to try to comfort and help him. Even back then I noticed that he’d begun to change. He had always been such a happy-go-lucky kid, but it was as if his dad had stolen his innocence, forcing him to grow up too soon as he became more serious and withdrawn.
After he met Ria, it seemed like he’d begun to heal. A lot of the happy-go-lucky parts of him, from when he was a kid, began to come back. He joked and laughed more easily. We were all really happy for him, and everyone loved Ria. She had a biting sense of humor—very sarcastic. She teased Blake relentlessly, which he took in good humor. Their bantering was always hilarious to listen to. She was a perfect match for him. We all cried when we found out she’d been killed in battle. That was the final straw that completely crushed Blake. He was never the same again after that. The old Blake had been completely wiped from existence. Now Ria was a topic we all did our best to avoid.
*** Four and a half years ago ***
It was early January—the time of year that’s dark, cold, and snow is a permanent part of the landscape. The roads were so terrible out where we live that it was almost impossible to leave the pack territory, especially if you didn’t have a vehicle made for off-roading.
I had a fully loaded schedule. I was in my junior year of high school and was now training with the warriors after school three times a week and all day Saturday. It didn’t leave me much time for a social life, but I still found time to hang out with my buddies when I could—anything to get out of the packhouse. Ever since the battle in late August, it was like a cloud had descended over our residence and never left. Blake, who I’d always been close to, no longer talked to me. Instead, it was a constant show of arguing and throwing of objects between him and his father. At this point, we may as well have hired a permanent, live-in handyman with how often someone had to come over to make repairs. Of course, that was when Blake was home, which most of the time he simply wasn’t. No one knew where he went. He disappeared sometimes for days at a time.
At first, I tried to talk to him. We all did. But it was fruitless. Blake, as we knew him, was gone, and all that was left was an empty shell of who he had been. His father had been cracking away at him for years. And then Ria finished him—breaking him for good.
I had been sitting at the dining room table one afternoon, working on homework, when the doorbell rang. Being the closest to the entrance, I got up to answer it. I opened the door to a very attractive girl, who I instantly recognized as the older sister of one of the guys in my class. Her name was something with aK—Kayla, Karla, Kara? Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked disturbed as she looked at me.
“Is Blake home?” she asked.
“Wait here, I’ll go check.” I sighed, closing the door on her. The polite thing was to let her in, but I knew that could be a recipe for disaster.
I walked up the stairs to the alpha floor and knocked on Blake’s door.
“Yes?” Blake’s voice sounded.
“There’s someone here to see you. A girl.”