Chapter 622 Chapter 622
Asher paced down the hall again, stopped, and looked at the door. What was taking so long? Had she made her leg worse? He spun on his heel and went back in the other direction.
“Breaking in new boots?”
He jolted and turned to see Jesse standing there.
Huffing out a breath, he put his hands on his hips and shook his head. “No.”
Jesse’s mouth quirked like he wanted to grin but didn’t. “The word is out.”
“Word?” Asher glanced at the door again.
“That,” Jesse pointed to the door, “she’s your mate.”
Asher frowned.
“I told no one. Raymond came and asked me.” Jesse tucked his hands in his pocket, “I told him the truth.”
Asher looked at the door, wondering if Journee was telling people. It wasn’t a secret, but it was—he didn’t know what it was exactly, but he had no plans to run around shouting it.
“It’s getting obvious.” Jesse glanced at the door, “your behavior is kind of screaming it.”
Asher put his hands on his hips and looked at the floor. “I feel like I’m losing my mind, Jess.”
“Yeah, that’s part of it.”
Asher looked up to see him smiling at him. “I guess you went through it too?”
“And then some,” he pulled his hands out of his pockets and was looking down the hallway, “mine was complicated,” he said softly.
Asher turned around to see Pasha and Evanna coming toward them with long strides. He knew it was Evanna because she was in jeans with her hair pulled up away from her neck. “I don’t know what to do, Jess.”
Jesse looked at him. “Talk to her.”
“We heard.” Pasha smiled at Asher, “I would have liked to see that.” She sobered, “is her leg okay?”
Before he could answer, the door opened, and Shaelan came out. “Her leg is fine. It’s healing very quickly.” She nodded to Evanna and Pasha, “I think because she has no impurities in her system from her diet all these years, that is making it heal faster than normal.”
Asher heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the door.
“She’s just getting dressed.” Shaelan turned to Pasha. “We need to get more clothes here. Journee has basically nothing, and the new ones that came today…”
“Their rogues, Shaelan…”
“I know.” She cut Jesse off, “But those children and babies…”
“There were babies?” Evanna looked at Jesse, “where are they staying? Will it be warm enough?”
Jesse smiled and went over to put his arm around her. “They will be warm, clothed, and fed.”
“Okay.” Her expression was still serious.
“Rayne wouldn’t have it any other way,” Pasha said with a grin. “I don’t think even the king gets a say in that when she’s around.”
“Rayne is good people.” Evanna nodded. “There’s another meeting,” she looked at Asher and then at Jesse, “We were sent to get everyone.”
Jesse nodded. “I’m not sure what this one is about.”
“Hopefully, about us going out.” Asher looked to see that the door was still closed.
Jesse grinned at him. “I already have an assignment for you.”
“Yeah.” Asher should have felt relieved, but his cat wasn’t having it. He frowned at the floor. “I’ll find you after the meeting.”
Jesse nodded but made no comment, just steered Evanna down the hallway.
“I’m going to go see if Christian has a list.” Shaelan followed after them.
Pasha gave Asher an assessing look and then held up her hand. “Just claws, really?”
He nodded, not wanting to talk about it. Later when his heartbeat settled down and his cat took a nap or something, he’d ponder how Journee had been able to do that. He had tried before. Every shifter probably had, but the one with no clan to watch over her or coach her could do it.
The door opened, and Journee came out without her crutch. Asher lurched toward her.
“Shaelan said that just as long as I’m not running or jumping, I don’t really need the crutch.” She smiled at him, and he forgot everything else, “she says maybe I can shift as soon as tomorrow.”
Shift. Then she wouldn’t need him hovering around her to help her, he thought, and a few days ago, he would have been happy with the thought, but right now, happy about her having the ability to go off on her own again was the furthest thing from his mind. At least he was about ninety percent sure it was his thought, not his cat’s.
“I’ll see you guys at the meeting.” Pasha saluted him and then smiled at Journee. “You and I need to talk about the claws later.” She turned and walked away.
“Everyone seems to be interested in that.”
Asher watched her walk and was tense and ready to catch her if it turned out she wasn’t as ready to go without assistance. “That’s because there aren’t many that can do that.”
She stopped. “Really?” her brow furrowed, and she started walking again. “I could do that before I could shift completely.”
“Maybe it has to do with the circumstances you were in.” He watched a few of the others come out of the office area and head toward the cafeteria, “it must have been scary, shifting and trying not to be spotted.”
She nodded. “It was, but even these first few times, my animal knew to stay away from the area the buildings were.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. “The scar on your side. It was bad?”
Journee nodded. “Shaelan was surprised I survived it.” She glanced at him, “that’s what she said.”
“No permanent damage, then?”
She shook her head.
“Good.” He cleared his throat. “If you want to pursue it further,” he paused outside the lunchroom doors, “with that guy, I can talk to Devin for you.”
She stopped in front of him and looked up at him, her eyes searching his face. “What would you do?”
Asher gave her a wide-eyed look and then shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. If he can help us find where you were,” he shrugged, “I don’t know if he was traveling with others then, but if he can help us figure out where you’ve been…”
“We can find the island and get the girls off it.” Her voice was quiet but not steady.
“Yes.”
“If he honestly didn’t know I was a shifter, then I can’t really condemn him, can I?”
She was a lot more forgiving than he was.
“I’m going to let it go.” She said before he could say anything.
“All right, I’ll let Jesse know that it’s resolved.”
“Thank you.”
He turned to go in, and she put her hand on his arm to stop him. He looked at her hand and then at her face.
“Thank you for stopping me out there.”
He put his hand over hers. “You shocked the hell out of me, but I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I saw him and…” She closed her eyes for a moment. “I just reacted.”
Asher could feel the tension coming off her; once again, he wanted to take her away from all of this.
“Damn right, you did.”
He looked to see Amari and Tripp coming from the lobby doors.
Amari smiled at her. “You can go out with me any time you want.” She nodded, bumped against Tripp’s shoulder, and went into the cafeteria.
Tripp looked at the doors and sighed. “I am a blessed man.” He grinned at Asher and then followed his mate into the room.
“They’re, um—” Journee looked back up at him from the door, “an interesting couple.”
Asher chuffed. “You have no idea.” He didn’t want to let go of her hand or for her to move hers from his arm, but they needed to go find out what the meeting was about this time and Asher needed to find out where he was off to. His cat tensed, making it hard for him to move for a second. She probably thought he was crazy when he stopped moving and speaking and just stood there as he conveyed to his animal that he would make sure Journee was okay before doing anything else.
“Is it your animal?”
He blinked and looked at her.
“You have this look like you’re here, but you’re not here.” She shrugged. “My cat does that to me a lot. Distracts me.” She huffed out a breath, “like when I’m running down a snowy hill and, she wants to look up at the sky for some reason, and I fall.”
He cringed. “That’s what happened?”
Journee nodded. “Stupid, right?”
Asher snorted. “No, not really. They’re usually in synch with us, but those few times they aren’t...”
“Its hard to do anything.”
“Yes.”
Noah stuck his head out the opened door. “Are you guys coming in? Everyone else is here.”
Asher blew out a breath and released Journee’s hand. “Yeah, just taking it slow.” He made a point of looking down at Journee’s leg.
“No crutches.” Noah nodded, “take your time.” The door closed again.
“So many people always asking questions or wanting to know things,” she whispered as they started moving again, “so much talking, not much quiet.”
Asher snorted. “Exactly why I like it on the road.”
“I think I need to learn how to drive so I can be alone again.”
He was trying not to grin as they went through the door, but it was hard. Few understood his need for silence. Even fewer were able to be silent.
As the door started closing, Nichelle hurried through it with Daigo on her heels. He screeched to a halt beside Journee, looked up at her, and then took off down the aisle to where Nichelle sat waiting on the floor. Asher didn’t understand wild wolves, but if he were to guess, that young tiger shifter had just become his older sister. He glanced at Journee to get her take on it, and she looked happy, anything beyond that didn’t matter to him in this moment.