Chapter Fifty-Four - Mason

The pack house was quiet the rest of the day.

A tension had formed in the house between all of us. No one spoke of it, but it was connected by an invisible rope that tied us together.

Jacob had locked his door after getting the ingredients to make the elixir for the lycans.

I was glad about it. Lying to my alpha’s face felt sickening. Wolves were known to move in packs. Werewolves survived because of their alpha and his ability to

make smart decisions.

I was betraying my long-time best friend and alpha for my mate. She needed more time. I understood it but my wolf didn’t.

He wanted to knock on Jacob’s door and tell him everything.

I followed Jessica’s scent to the bathroom. She’d spent so much time in there reading over the last two days. I kicked the door open, but her eyes didn’t pull

from the page.

“I’m not hungry,” she said.

I shut the door behind me and walked over to her side before sitting down. She looked over at me with a confused look. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I said, tapping the diary with my fingertips. “Anything new you want to share?”

“Grandmother was introduced to the pack and accepted as one of their mates,” she said. “Nothing we didn’t know already.”

“Anything else about the mind links?”

“At this point, they don’t know she heard them. I’m not sure why she’s not telling them. I assume it will come out eventually.”

I eyed the thickness of the dairy. “Did she fill that entire thing up?”

“Mostly,” she said, turning to face me. “It goes into the late 80s when my mom is older. Have you spoken to Jacob? Was he able to get the elixir ready?”

“He hasn’t come out of his room,” I said, moving her between my legs. She leaned back against my chest. “He has all the ingredients. I’m sure he’ll come out

when he finishes.”

“Maybe,” she mumbled. “He seems mad at me.”

“I’m sure he is,” I answered honestly. “Your wolf is challenging his. It’s not something alphas deal with very often. Especially Jacob, being we’re the only

wolves in the area.”

Jessica shifted to face me; her pretty features full of stress when someone knocked on our bedroom door. She stood up and I followed her into the bedroom.

Seth stood on the other side with a hot dog in his hand. “Dinner is ready. Jacob finished the elixir, too.”

He left before we could respond.

Jessica shut the diary and placed it underneath her pillow. “I thought you weren’t hungry?” I asked.

“I’m not,” she said, looking over her shoulder in the doorjamb. “But I want to know more about this elixir.”

We both walked downstairs to the kitchen. Everyone sat at the table with chili dogs on their plate. I grabbed both of us one, despite Jessica not being

hungry, and made our plates.

She sat down beside her dad who reached over and patted her shoulder. At first, I wasn’t sure how he would fit in. Now I was excited that he showed up. He

would always have Jessica’s back.

If things went bad, we would have someone else on our side.

I slid Jessica’s plate in front of her, but she didn’t budge. Her gaze was on the bright green elixir sitting in front of Jacob.

He nonchalantly ate his food while we all pretended nothing was wrong. When he swallowed the last bite, he sat back and looked around the table. “This is

the elixir that Jessica pulled from the book. It didn’t make a lot, but I plan to stay up and make more tonight.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” Seth asked.

Jacob shrugged. “Something tells me it will.”

Aaron’s scoff sliced through the silence. “Are we just going to ignore the fact that Jessica’s wolf knew where this was? It’s super weird. I don’t like it.”

I growled at him.

Aaron rolled his eyes. “You can’t get mad every time someone comes at your mate…”

“Can’t I?” I asked. “It’s my job to protect her.”

“No one is claiming it won’t work,” Seth interrupted. “Aaron is being dumb. It was found in our books. Are you suggesting our families didn’t write these? It’s

the same handwriting.”

Aaron shrugged. “It’s just weird.”

“It is weird,” Jacob said. “But until we’re proved otherwise, we have no reason not to believe this won’t work.”

Liam leaned forward and braced his forearms against the table. “I have a thought, but before I say it, I want to make sure no one jumps at me.”

Jacob gestured for him to continue.

“We think Jessica’s mark resembles a lycan…why don’t we attempt to use the elixir on her—”

My wolf shoved forward, flinging me across the table at Liam. I felt hands grabbing at me, pulling me down but my wolf wanted his blood. Had he gone mad?

Did he think my mate was some sort of science experiment? Over my dead body would they put any elixir on her.

“Mason!” Jacob shouted, his alpha voice sliding over my skin.

My wolf retracted, leaving me a heaving mess in my chair. Liam’s eyes were large. “I’m sorry—”

“Shut up,” Jacob growled at him.

“If you ever suggest something that could hurt her again, I’ll tear your throat out,” I growled.

Jacob put his palm up for me to back down. “That’s a stupid idea, Liam. We don’t know how that would affect her. It’s going to kill the lycans. Jessica isn’t a

lycan. We don’t know if it would hurt her. We’re not doing that. We’ll wait until tomorrow. Like I said, we have no reason to believe that this won’t work.”

My fingers tightened into fists on the table. I stared down at the design on my empty plate.

Jessica hadn’t looked up since Liam spoke. I felt her hostility through our bond, but I also felt her sadness.

I reached over and touched her hand resting in her lap. “Don’t worry about it,” I mumbled. “I’d never let that happen.”

She pulled her hand from mine before standing up. “I need to be alone.”

She stalked off, leaving a heavy silence in her place.

Seth scoffed and shot Liam daggers. “Way to go, asswipe. Let’s use the elixir on Jessica. What a dumbass,” Seth mumbled.

“Stop it,” Jacob said, picking up the elixir. “No more talk about it. We’re not doing that because she’s not a lycan. Why would a lycan know where those pages

were?”

No one said anything.

Because it didn’t make sense. “I’m going to finish making the elixir,” Jacob said. “I’ll call if I need any help or rest. We have a long day ahead of us. I don’t

want anyone out tonight. We all rest, because frankly, none of us know what lies ahead of us tomorrow.”

Jacob left the room quickly. I went to grab the plates but Stan reached out to stop me. “Go check on Jessica. I’ll handle the cleanup.”

“I’ll help too,” Liam said, avoiding my gaze.

Reluctantly, I walked upstairs to find her lying on the bed, looking at the ceiling. “You okay?” I asked, kicking the door closed behind me.

She nodded. “I can’t be mad at him. I’ve thought the same thing. Red mark means lycan.”

“You’re not a lycan,” I said, sitting down beside her. “And if you are, you know about our pack. So, that means something.”

She turned on her side, her eyes heavy from restless nights. “I’m tired, but I need to read.”

“I’ll read for you.”

She shook her head. “No, it needs to be me. She’s my grandmother. I’ll take a few hours to rest and then read more when I wake up.”

“You need to rest throughout the night. Alpha’s orders.”

Jessica’s gaze shifted toward mine. Her wolf’s golden sight flickered at me. It almost seemed as if she challenged Jacob to make her do anything.

Jessica rolled over, without another thought and went straight to sleep. I sighed heavily, slipping in behind her and curling her body into mine.