Reunion: Moon Fever Book Two (Redfern Shifters 2) by Olivia Concord

Author:Olivia Concord [Concord, Olivia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eton Field
Published: 2022-07-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Fifteen

Jasper wished he hadn’t come.

He’d told himself to wait, to stay with Dee and Rafe until they’d tracked down the cat shifter—then confront Stella. But Chef had sent a text—he hadn’t even known she had a phone—informing him Stella had taken the witch’s tea again that morning.

He’d been furious with Chef for spying on Stella and sending him the message, obviously trying to drive them apart.

But it had hurt. More than he’d thought possible. It had made him furious with Stella.

“I’m going to do my duty,” he said. “To Redfern and to our pack.”

She stared at him, eyes wide with an emotion he couldn’t read. Fear? Pain? Did she care about him at all?

He told himself he had a right to be angry, but now that he was close to her, his anger kept slipping away from him like the wind blowing out the flame on a match.

How could he see himself as a victim when she asked him to get his feet off the dirty, thinly padded rags she called a bed?

And the rats. His privileged upbringing in the Cross family had protected him from ever seeing one indoors. The thought of any vermin in Chef’s kitchen was unimaginable.

He wouldn’t have imagined it in any shifter’s house. The Nightrocks were wolf shifters, creatures that instinctively terrified most animals—if there were any rats in the home, the level of filth and neglect had to be unimaginable.

And she’d slept here. On the floor, surrounded by the poorly stored food that drew them indoors.

“Which means what?” she asked. “What does duty mean when it comes to me?”

“I don’t know!” he snapped.

She flinched, making him pause.

What did she think he was going to do—hit her? He’d noticed how she’d edged around him to get closer to the door.

Well, no wonder. She’d been raised by a monster who made her sleep in the domestic equivalent of a dumpster.

He looked away from her, struggling to be logical. “I’ll tell you what’s real,” he said. “Our families are dead. There are cat shifters out there who haven’t paid any price for what they’ve done to us. Our pack is hurt and afraid. And Redfern might not survive if we don’t do something to help save it.”

She paused. “Agreed.”

“We need to put up a unified front,” he went on. “You and me. The alpha and his mate.”

She stared at him a moment. “You’re not going to kick me out?”

His tender ego wanted to shout at her. How could you try to break the bond after yesterday? He still remembered the feel of her cheek on his chest as they were falling asleep, the smell of her hair in his nostrils.

But he had to admit she had good reasons for being afraid of him. Reasons he’d given her and reasons life had given her.

“No,” he replied. “Do you want me to?” He raised an eyebrow and glanced around the room. “Would you rather live here?”

She looked down at her feet. “No.”

“Good.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

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