by Lola Kidd
That sounded sweet, but she couldn’t believe it.
“You saved my life to try to get closer to me,” she said. “At the end of the day, you forced me into this situation. You couldn’t get me the decent way, so you had to do something to tip the scales in your favor.”
“So, you’re mad at me for saving your life? What would you rather I’d done? Watched my mate slip into a coma and die in my arms?”
“No,” Leigh said. “I don’t know what I wanted you to do, but this is wrong. What you did was wrong.”
“You’re working under the assumption that I tried to attack you,” he said, exasperated. “Wouldn’t it make more sense that it was someone who’s associated with your father?”
Leigh shook her head. “No. I’ve never been attacked before. Why would they attack me now?”
“Because of the legislation!” Jasper exploded. “Your father supports Ganjis becoming an official town and starting to forge ties with the human world.”
“What? No,” Leigh started, and then she stopped as it sank in. He was right. There were people in town who didn’t want to be found. There were probably people in her father’s own organization who were against the change. She had been so naïve. To her, it had seemed like the perfect route forward. If the shifter town became legitimate, there were going to be more opportunities for everyone to make more money. The entire town would be more prosperous.
But there was a reason she couldn’t go to school, and her parents didn’t like her going out at night alone. It was dangerous for her in the Wasteland. There were dangerous shifters here, and there was a very good chance that one of them was behind this. As much as she didn’t like to think about her father’s business, it was likely he was involved in some very shady dealings with some very shady people.
“Are you getting the picture?”
While she had been thinking, Jasper had come closer to her. He was close enough to reach out and touch her arm lightly. “You’re in danger, Leigh. If you aren’t careful, you could get seriously hurt. Let me help you.”
“How are you going to be able to help me?”
“You could come stay with me until they figure out who’s behind all this,” he suggested, looking deeply into her eyes. “There are several guest houses on my family compound. It’d be no trouble to set you up in one.”
Leigh shook her head. “No, thank you. I’m feeling tired.”
“Okay.” He rubbed her arm. “If you need anything, I’m only a phone call away.”
He set a card down on her desk before leaving the room.
Sixteen
Jasper was so angry he could barely think. He was driving more than a hundred miles an hour, and he was sure he was going to get a speeding ticket. But he didn’t care. Nor did he care if he wrecked his car.
He’d saved her life. And he hadn’t gotten as much as a thank you from her. He’d even waited at her home to make sure she was okay, which hadn’t been that much fun, since he was sure her father was going to try to have him killed. The only reason Mr. Ganza hadn’t done it yet was that his wife was home. Jasper was sure that if he didn’t have his own private security, he would have been dead before the end of last night.
The whole situation was driving him insane. What was he going to do? He had tried to back off, but he hadn’t gotten a chance. He’d known that she was going to be angry that he’d marked her while she was unconscious, but things were getting ridiculous. Someone else was attacking her.
She knew what her father did. She had to know that he was involved with some unscrupulous people. If it hadn’t been his business associates behind these attacks, it was someone from the town.
Jasper had told her father that someone was trying to hurt Leigh and provoke him. If it became publicly known that Mr. Ganza had hurt or murdered someone, it would harm the chances of the legislation passing. Her father had agreed and said he would beef up the security around his daughter.
The whole thing was making Jasper paranoid. He didn’t like his mate being out there with no protection.
The only one happy with this whole situation was his dragon. It thought the mate mark would do the job. Soon, Leigh would be begging him to complete the mating process, and they’d get started making hatchlings of their own.
Jasper didn’t understand how his dragon could be so certain. The mark wasn’t enough, obviously. The animal was sitting pretty, but Jasper knew that the mark wasn’t doing its job. Leigh didn’t want him. She wasn’t magically going to fall into his arms. He’d been close to kissing her in her bedroom, but he’d refrained. He was starting to doubt his dragon’s advice.
The animal was still pushing too hard. He needed to cool off. As long as Leigh remained unharmed for a while, there was still a chance that she’d eventually come around. He didn’t want to push her away, but he did want to keep her safe. But keeping her safe was the hard part.
He couldn’t follow her around himself. There was only one solution: he would have to call in a favor from an old friend. His bear shifter friend Beckett Redding’s family owned a shifter security company. Jessica’s husband Alec had worked for them for a while, and so had one of the founders of MateMe! Shifter security guards were the only people he would trust to keep his mate safe.
He pulled out his phone and called Beckett.
“Hello?”
Beckett sounded sleepy, as always. He was probably hibernating, even though it was summer. It wouldn’t surprise Jasper if Beckett spent most of his year in hibernation. The bear shifter did things his own peculiar way.
“Hey, Beckett. It’s Jasper Collins. I need a favor.”
Beckett laughed. “Of course you do. How’s it going, man?”
“Pretty good. Except for a few things that are going very badly.” Jasper grimaced. How could he explain what he’d done? “I’m going to tell you something that I don’t want spread around.”
“I don’t like the sound of that, man. But I’ll listen.”
“Have you heard about the new MateMe! app?”
“Pretty sure that my dad is part of it. I think my stepmom got him to give them money.”
Jasper rolled his eyes. Of course. “I know. That’s not why I called you, though. I found a girl on MateMe!”
“No way, man.”
That was the most excited Jasper had heard Beckett sound in a long time.
“Yeah, except that it didn’t go well. Her cousin signed her up without telling her, and she doesn’t want to date shifters. She wants nothing to do with me.”
“Oh, no. I’m sorry, bro. Is she hot?”
“Very, but that’s not the point. It got worse when it turned out she’s working on this big wedding with me.”
“No way. Dude, this is a roller coaster of emotions. Did you guys hook up at work?”
“Not exactly. But, long story short, I ended up having to mark her to save her life.”
Jasper could have heard a pin drop, the line was so quiet. He was sure that Beckett had hung up.
“Seems like you skipped something important. That’s kinda heavy,” Beckett said slowly. “She didn’t ask you to bite her?”
“No.”
Jasper waited a moment for that to sink in. He was never going to tell this story again. He felt terrible having to say it aloud. He’d marked his mate before she wanted him to, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive himself for that. Yes, he’d saved her life, but it wasn’t right. He wished there had been any other way to save her.
“She would have died without it, so I guess it’s fine,” Beckett said finally. “How’s your dragon doing?”
“The dragon’s pretty happy, actually. He’s sure she’s our mate. He’s ready to get down and dirty and finish marking her.”
Beckett chuckled. “I don’t know how you’re keeping your head, man. I heard animals go crazy once they find their mate. How are you keeping yourself in check?”
“With a lot of discipline and work,” Jasper said.
“Wow, that
sounds intense.”
“It gets even better, actually. This is why I’m calling. And this has to stay quiet too.”
“Wait. Let me call you back on my secure line.” Beckett hung up abruptly.
Jasper waited until Beckett called back. There was a pause after he picked up the phone before Beckett started talking again.
“I didn’t want you to keep talking on my phone, ’cause—well, you know,” Beckett said. “I have all these cool toys from the security firm. May as well use them.”
“I’m glad, cause I’m about to tell you something that’s potentially dangerous. The girl’s father works for one of the crime families in the Wasteland. I’m pretty sure he runs it, actually.”
Beckett whistled. “You really got yourself into some deep stuff. You want me to send someone out to make sure her dad doesn’t whack you?”
“I need you to send someone to watch her. She’s been attacked twice. Once in the woods, and then again when I saved her life. The dessert she ate shouldn’t have had peanuts in it. I don’t think this was an accident.”
“Why would someone want to hurt her? Can her dad take care of this?”
“I think they want to hurt her because of her dad. He’s supporting the legislation to make the Wasteland legit. But there are some shifters who’d really prefer to stay in the dark.”
“So, they’d hurt her to get to her dad.”
“Yeah, and he says he has security, but it must not be very good. She’s almost been hurt twice. I don’t want the third time to be the charm. I can’t follow her around myself right now, either.”
“I’d love to help, but I can’t do that for you right now,” Beckett said. “I’m kinda taking a hiatus from work.”
Jasper almost smashed his phone. Beckett was his best chance of getting help. “Can you give me the name of someone who can help?”
“Whoa, there. I didn’t say no. I can’t do it, but I know Connor can. He has teams for this kind of work. I’ll have him put somebody on a plane tonight.”
Connor was Beckett’s half-brother. Jasper didn’t know him well. The young man was an overweight lion shifter. He and Beckett got along fine but weren’t close.
“That’ll be great. I’ll pay for everything. Just give Connor my number.”
“Don’t worry about it, man. Just make sure you invite me to the wedding when you make it right with your girl.”
Jasper laughed. “Thanks, man. Let me know if you ever need anything.”
He felt a lot better after hanging up. With shifter security watching Leigh, at least she’d be safe.
Seventeen
He could go for a quick flight and still be home before midnight. It had been a long and confusing day. It couldn’t hurt to let his dragon stretch its wings one more time.
Jasper transformed and let his dragon take control. The beast took him along the same route it had flown a couple of days ago. As he soared over the woods, he couldn’t help but linger over the spot where he’d first seen Leigh.
His dragon flew lower and coasted over the spot. To his amazement, he spotted a lone figure in the clearing. There was someone lying near the well. He couldn’t believe it—it had to be Leigh. Why had she come back to the site of their first meeting? Was it a spot she came to frequently, or was she there because of him?
As he got closer, he noticed a man crouching in the trees. Was she meeting someone? Was that why she had been out in the clearing the last time? Jasper’s temper got the best of him and he descended quickly. He was going to confront her if she was lying.
Leigh sat up quickly as he got closer to the ground. But before he could transform, a bear hit him in the side full force. Its claws dug into his flesh, and Jasper roared.
He twisted his long neck to grab at the bear. This couldn’t be a normal bear; it was too big. He snapped at it as his mouth closed around one of its legs, and the bear roared as its blood filled Jasper’s mouth. He knocked the bear off of him, wincing as its claws took a few of his scales with them.
There was pressure around his back leg. He turned and saw that a giant boa constrictor was wrapped around it. Jasper shot fire from his mouth until the snake was covered in flames. The creature fell off him and transformed back into a man. He rolled around on the ground to extinguish the flames and then ran off into the woods.
Jasper puffed smoke out of his nostrils and looked at the bear with cold eyes. The bear looked behind him to the well. Jasper wouldn’t take his eyes off the creature.
Leigh hadn’t been meeting anyone here. These shifters were here to attack her. He didn’t know what they wanted, but they were going to have to go through him to get her. He stretched his wings and roared loudly enough to shake the ground.
The bear considered him for one more moment before running off into the woods. Jasper stood watch in front of Leigh until he couldn’t hear the bear crashing through the woods anymore, then he transformed back to a man.
“We need to get out of here,” he told her. “Those men were here for you. I’m going to transform. You can get on my back.”
Leigh nodded briskly. He transformed and anxiously waited for her to get onto his back. It took her several long minutes to navigate her way up his side. Once she was settled, she nudged the scales underneath her foot.
“Okay, I’m good.”
He beat his wings and slowly rose off the ground. He didn’t want to risk her falling off.
He took her away from the Wasteland, toward Penicalla. The shifters who’d tried to attack her were likely from the shifter area. He touched down on the edge of the woods and let her slide off his back before transforming again.
“What the hell were you doing out there, and who were those men?” she asked him angrily.
“I could ask you the same thing. And you’re very lucky I’m here at all. You could have been seriously hurt.”
Smoke poured from his nose and mouth. His entire body was overheating.
Did she know how much trouble she was in? Those men were dangerous. He’d saved her life—but she was still being mean to him. She was treating him like he was the enemy.
“They were attacking you,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “They followed you, and you were following me. If it weren’t for you, they wouldn’t have even been near me.”
“Come off it,” Jasper growled. “I was out flying. I wasn’t trying to find you. I just wanted to clear my head. I saw those men in the trees, ready to attack, and I swooped in to save your life.”
That wasn’t entirely true, but she didn’t need to know that he was jealous. His dragon already thought of her as his. It was going to be difficult to convince it otherwise at this point.
“I was out there on my own for close to twenty minutes,” she said. “If they’d been following me, they had plenty of time to attack.”
“Why are you out here?” Jasper asked.
“What?”
“There’s no reason for you to be up and moving right now. You almost died. Does anyone know you’re out here?”
Her face turned red. “No. I just wanted to take a walk and clear my head.”
Jasper shook his head. “You’re lying. You live in the Wasteland, not near it. I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in, but you’re in great danger. The shifters of the Wasteland aren’t all nice people.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Let me get you home.” He’d had enough of this argument. She wasn’t going to tell him anything, and he was too tired to keep debating her.
“I can get myself home.”
He held out his hand. “If you’ll let me borrow your phone, I’ll call you a car.”
She handed him her phone slowly, and he made the call. Then they sat in silence waiting for the car.
She glanced over at him when the car pulled up next to them. “Thank you for your help. If those men were there to hurt me, you surely saved me.”
Jasper nodded. His dragon preened at her thanks, but he wasn’t
interested. She was hiding something, and most likely so was her aunt. They hadn’t found anything strange in the background check, but Jasper knew something was up. He wasn’t going to stop until he figured her out.
Once he knew more about her, it would be easy to win her over and keep her safe. But he couldn’t protect her if he didn’t know why people were out to get her. There was a good chance this was about her father, but Jasper couldn’t be positive it wasn’t about him yet.
It seemed like all of Leigh’s troubles had begun when she started working with him. A small part of him feared that he was the cause of all the troubles Leigh was facing. She had almost died not once, but twice, since she had met him. What if this was all his fault? He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if that were the case. It was more important than ever that he figure out what was going on.
Eighteen
Leigh shook as the car rolled down the road. Someone had tried to kill her, or at least, had tried to kidnap her. There were many people in the Wasteland who might want to hurt her. She shouldn’t have been so careless. Her parents hadn’t even let her go to school because of the danger. She should never have been out there alone at night.
If Jasper hadn’t been there, who knew what would have happened to her? When the dragon descended, a small thrill had gone through her body. It was so powerful and rare—the most fascinating of all the shifters. Dragons had powers that no other shifter had. There was a magic about them, even for girl from a family of shifters.
She’d gotten to see him spit fire, up close and personal. This was a night she would never forget. Even if it had likely been an attack on her, she had gotten to watch Jasper’s dragon in action.
“Where should I drop you, miss?” the driver inquired again.
She had told him where to go generally, but she hadn’t said yet that they were going to the Wasteland. She had planned to tell him to drop her off at a human village on the other side of her town. Now, she was having second thoughts. There was a chance that whoever was after her could still be following her, and she couldn’t assume that Jasper was following her again.
