Chapter Forty-Six - Mason

Running with Jessica put my wolf at peace. Even with the Hell of dealing with her giving me a lycan mark, my wolf didn’t care.

I didn’t either for that matter. Nothing mattered but having her with me. She was safe and at liberty to be free, something I wasn't sure we could grasp with the current drama in town.

The feeling of hot Louisiana air pushing through my fur, and chasing after her, made life seem simple. If only we didn’t have any other problems.

For a brief moment, I let them roll off my back. I imagined them flinging into a mud puddle to drown for good.

Jessica’s wolf zoomed through the woods, over brush and upturned trees. Her ease at shifting shocked me. Not to mention her ability to run so swiftly.

We all knew her wolf was different the moment she shifted.

She-wolves, in normal situations, weren’t larger than an alpha. I’d never heard of an incident where a she-wolf was larger than an alpha. But Jessica was special no matter the outcome of her blood. She was special to me.

Jessica’s tail wagged in my face as I neared her, making me laugh. The closer we grew to the estate the faster she ran. As if she couldn’t wait to get there.

I hadn’t thought about her missing the estate. Not that she stayed there long enough to truly call it home.

The trees cleared and Jessica shifted near the fountain. If I hadn’t seen her naked before, I would have dragged her into the house. Her blonde hair was

windblown, her smile wide across her face. “Told you I would beat you.”

I shifted, chuckling while grabbing her waist. “My view was too good to move.”

She gave me a sheepish look before smiling. “Sure, use that as an excuse.”

It was an excuse. She was quicker than my pride wanted to admit. “You’re fast,” I said, sliding my fingertips against her bottom lip. “I’m proud of you.”

She smiled sweetly at me, then her gaze shifted toward the house. I followed her line of sight to the front door that stood slightly ajar. “I’m pretty sure we

didn’t leave that open the last time we were here,” she whispered.

Stepping in front of her, I walked onto the porch and kicked open the front door. The air wafted out but I couldn’t pick up an unfamiliar scent.

Jessica stepped behind me, her warmth settled against my skin. I stepped inside, noticing the entire house looked ransacked.

She gasped and covered her mouth with her palm. “Who would do this?”

That was a good question. “Better yet,” I said, kicking a few pot holders from the floor, “Why would they do this? What could they possibly want from this

house?”

Dotti didn’t have lots of money from what I could remember. She lived simply and modestly. Jessica stepped into the kitchen, looking at the broken China and

ruined coffee table. “This looks personal. It looks as if they didn’t find what they wanted.”

I agreed, walking toward the stairs, I noticed artwork smashed on the second floor. Glass littered the steps as I walked over them with no shoes.

I could hear Jessica rummaging around in a closet downstairs. Maybe she knew of something hidden. Her grandmother’s room was destroyed. It was

something of her grandmother’s they wanted, not of Jessica's. But what?

From the look of things, it didn't seem as if they found it.

My wolf grew angrier by the minute. This would take days to clean up, and not to leave a scent meant something I couldn’t understand.

Even a human would leave a scent. Everything left a scent.

I opened my mouth to yell down at Jessica when I felt her hand on my back. “Should we tell Jacob?” she asked.

I looked down at her tear-coated eyes. “Probably, yeah. Don’t cry.”

“I’m mad, ya know. Not sad, but mad. It’s hard to control my tears when I’m mad because I want to punch someone in the face.”

I nodded, my eyes shifting toward a small book in her hand. “What’s that?” I asked.

She moved her gaze from the mess to me. “It’s my grandmother’s diary. I want to read it.”

I lifted a brow. “Nosy much?”

She smiled. “No, I think she was hiding something from the family. She knew her mate was a werewolf. What if her diary has something that we need to know

in it?”

I shrugged. “You’re right. There could be something in there that could help us.”

Jessica swallowed as she backtracked from the room. “Can I try to mind link with Jacob?”

“Go for it,” I said, leaning against the doorjamb. “It’s fun at first but grows old pretty quickly. Especially when Jacob’s in a mood. I don't want to listen sometimes but I have to."

Jessica closed her eyes, growing silent when I heard her voice in my head. Smiling, she peeked one eye open and looked at me. “Did I do it?”

“You did it.”

Jessica chuckled to herself while looking down at the worn book. “Don’t tell Jacob about the book. I don’t know what it says. Maybe it’s something I don’t

want him to know.”

I stepped over and tilted her head upward toward me, admiring her pretty blue eyes. “Jacob is my alpha, but you’re my mate. I will always respect your

boundaries. If you say no, it means no.”

“Unless it means yes,” she teased.

“Unless it means yes,” I laughed. “Girls are confusing.”

“That we are,” she said, walking into her grandmother’s room. She rummaged through the tossed chest of drawers and found a robe. She slid it on and put

the diary into the pocket. “I think I hear them nearing.”

The front door opened and Jacob cursed. “Yep, definitely here. Your hearing is good. I'm impressed."

She smiled as she passed me and we walked downstairs to find Jacob with Stan and Liam. “What in the hell?” he mumbled, rubbing his temples. “Is anything missing?”

Jessica shrugged. “I don’t know, to be honest. I’m not sure if she had anything worth stealing or what someone was looking for.”

“Maybe it was a threat,” Liam suggested.

Stan shook his head. “I doubt it. It looks like someone was looking for something.”

Jacob sighed heavily. “Let’s get this cleaned up. Mom wants to have a get-together soon. I don’t want her to show up over here and the place looks like this.

She'll have a complete meltdown. After, we can grab supper before searching for the lycans tonight.”

Jessica moved next to me. “When can I start training? My wolf wants to fight.”

Jacob furrowed his brow. “Maybe tomorrow Mason can help you.”

Jessica looked up at me. “I don’t go back to work until Thursday morning. I can help you.” It excited my wolf to train his mate. I was glad one of us was excited about it because it worried me sick. I didn't want her fighting anyone, especially a lycan.

She nodded before walking to the kitchen cabinet. She pulled out two giant garbage bags. “Let’s get started then.”

I grabbed a bag while starting in the living room. My mind raced with ideas on what her grandmother could have been hiding. The only way for her to have

lycan blood would be if her family had lycan blood or she was turned.

She hadn’t been turned.

So that meant someone in her family had lycan blood. None of it made sense, but then again, if it was a secret, none of it would make sense.

My gaze shifted toward Jessica shoving trash into a bag her father held. It wasn’t her father, which meant it had to be on her mother’s side.

She’d died years before. Would it matter if a secret came out in her grandmother’s diary?

Something told me older wounds would hurt the most.