Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty - Mason

When I got off the next morning Jacob waited for me in the parking lot. It was strange to see him so on edge. Being an alpha he usually had a sense of control about him. He didn't seem in control at the moment.

I shoved my wallet and keys from my locker into my pocket and met him at my truck. “What’s wrong? I can’t think of a good reason why you’d be waiting for me right now. Was there another lycan spotting?"

Jacob rubbed his palm over his hair and sighed. “I think Jessica is going to get curious.”

I laughed while unlocking my truck door. “You think she’s not already curious?”

He placed his palm around the edge of the back of my truck. “I never expected her to take a job at The Eagle. It’s going to drag her into everything that goes on in this town. She has access to all of us. She’s already asking me questions I don’t want to answer. My fear is she finds out and runs. Or she decides to investigate by herself.”

I shrugged, knowing she would definitely investigate by herself. “I’m not sure we could stop her. Would it be that bad to tell her the truth?” I asked. “What would it hurt?”

Jacob sighed.

“Your grandmother knew. Maybe that’s the reason she wanted Jessica to come down here. To take over her position of ‘taking care of the boys,’ as she saw it. What would it hurt to ease her into it?”

He looked worried. “I don’t want her to leave, Mason. She needs to stay and keep the estate. None of us have the time. I don't want to risk her telling anything either. I haven't seen her since we were kids."

“Give her a chance,” I said, with my own agenda. “Bring her to the pack house. Show her your wolf…”

Jacob frowned. “I don’t think there is another way. Maybe this will make her cautious. It’ll make her steer clear of anything supernatural.”

“Exactly,” I said, clearing my throat.

My mind wandered to telling him the truth. Should I do it now or wait until he told Jessica everything? “Jacob,” I said.

“Yeah?” he asked, his mind clearly thinking about Jessica.

“Do you think we all have mates?”

Jacob looked over and lifted a dark eyebrow. This brought him out of his stupor. “Well, if the rumors are true, then yes, we do.”

I shifted, nerves rolling over my skin.

“Wait a second,” he said. “Are you telling me you think you found her? Is it the girl from Maurice’s a couple of months back?”

I didn’t even remember that girl’s name. All she’d done was sit on my lap and play with my hair all night. Her scent wasn’t right. It didn’t drive my wolf up the wall like Jessica.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know how to say this…”

Aaron blew the horn from behind us as he pulled up with Seth and Liam. My body stiffened when Jacob waved at them. “We’re all having breakfast at the

diner. I called them over to talk about telling Jessica the truth. Come on.” He started toward his truck but then turned back. “Did you want to tell me something?”

My gaze slid toward the truth of my brothers and shook my head. I was not going to tell Jacob about Jessica in front of them.

“Nah, we can talk about it later.”

I slid into the hot leather of my truck and started the engine. Jessica had texted me ‘Good morning,’ and I shot her a text back before I followed them to the diner.

We rarely ate together, and I did enjoy it, but not with Jessica as the topic of discussion. My wolf wanted to take control of the conversation. To let them know

I had her best interest at heart because she was mine.

But I also didn’t want to tell them the truth altogether. In case Jacob didn’t take well to it, I wanted to be alone.

Potentially in a field in case he shifted.

“She can take it,” Seth piped in. “Come on, you know she can.”

I tightened my fingers into a fist on my thigh. He was devouring his second plate of food while I pushed mine around.

“I don’t know,” Aaron said, leaning back. “What if she tells the newspaper? Could you imagine the uproar in town?”

“We’re hardly problems to the town,” Liam said. “In fact, if they only knew how much our families have saved this town over the years.”

Jacob sat back. “I don’t think she will. My grandmother knew and she never told a soul.”

“Yeah, because she was mated to one of us,” Liam said.

My heart rate picked up and I shoveled in a bite to keep myself busy. “Well, that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t keep our secret,” I said. “She is your cousin. She loves you, Jacob. I vote that you tell her. Easily. Don’t just shift and break her house. Bring her to the pack house and we tell her together. Then…if she’s skeptical. We shift and show her.”

Seth pointed his fork at me. “I think he’s right. Then we don’t have to tip-toe around her anymore.”

Liam looked at me with a knowing look. Seth just wanted to go after her. But once she was introduced to the pack, I was telling Jacob the truth. That Jessica was my mate.

Jacob nodded and braced his elbows against the table. “I’ll text her today. Maybe we could cook some dinner for her and invite her over.”

He pulled out his phone and texted her while Liam and I had a silent conversation. This was it. We were going to tell her the truth. I was going to get my mate sooner than I ever imagined.

“Hey, Jacob. Is your mom still okay with me looking at that VW Bug? Jessica needs a ride, so we don’t have to keep carrying her around.”

Jacob didn’t look away from his screen. “Yeah, she said it needs some work, but you can look at it.”

I ate the rest of my food and smoothed my palms down my thighs. My wolf was growing restless. I couldn’t stop his anxiety about tonight.

The bell on the diner door dinged as two older men came in. “Did it eat your cow too?”

I looked over my shoulder, attempting to hear their conversation. “Whatever it was ate every single animal on my property. Tore their heads clean off. I can’t imagine what it was. There was so much blood…”

“Black coffee?” the server asked him.

“Yes, ma’am, thank you.”

I glanced back at the boys, and they all looked concerned. “That’s Mr. Earl. His property is down the Prospect Road,” Liam said.

Jacob shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Jessica is coming over tonight,” Jacob said. “Let’s pay so we can go check out his property while he’s away.”

We all stood up and paid for our food. The ride over to his property felt surreal. We hardly had trespassers, and now this one didn’t want to leave.

Liam drove us toward Mr. Earl's property line through a trail in the woods. When we made it to the fence, I could see several animals, big animals, dead in his field.

A shiver worked down my spine. “Do you smell that?” I asked.

Jacob lifted his nose in the air and nodded. “Lycan. He killed everything. Even the ones that weren’t eaten.”

It was out of spite and that scared me. He’d been so close to Jessica’s house. “I picked up his scent in the woods near Jessica’s house the other night,” I blurted out. “We need to get her some protection. A gun…”

Jacob scoffed. “She can’t shoot a gun. We’ll have to make sure someone is there every single night.”

“We could take turns,” Seth said several yards down the fence.

My wolf growled lowly, and I swallowed him down. Once we told her the truth tonight, I was going to protect her every single night.

If she wanted, I'd lock her in my room in the pack house, so she didn’t have to sleep alone.

Seth wasn’t going to protect her from anything.

My fingers twitched in anticipation of tonight. I’d never been more excited to cook dinner in my life. “Let’s go,” Jacob said.

I left the fence with so much adrenaline that I could hardly keep myself together. Tonight, we were going to tell her the truth. Tonight, I was going to claim my mate.