Page 89 of Chasing The Alpha's Son
“I will try, but you can’t stay here.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“You are his mate?”
There’s a long pause and then Jasper says, “Yes.”
“You want him to be in more pain?” the woman asks bluntly.
“Of course not.”
“Then you leave us be and I will see what can be done for him.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
I sit up at the sound of scuffling. The guy in the puffer is holding back a red-faced Jasper by the shoulders. Coming toward me is an older woman with big, frizzy hair and deep wrinkles. Her eyes are this glowing shade of gold. She has a knitted shawl draped over her shoulders and is carrying a tray loaded with clay pots and bowls, bundles of dried herbs, a kettle, and some other instruments I’m scared to ask about.
Our eyes meet and she gives me a nod.
“Jasper,” I say, and he stops fighting. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
The woman places the tray down on a table next to the bed and takes a seat on a wooden stool.
“Your mate is more stubborn than an oil stain.”
Even though I’m in pain, I can’t help but huff a little laugh. She’s not wrong.
The woman turns to face Jasper. “I promise you, I will do everything I can to help him. Any friend of Mia’s.”
“Max,” Jasper says, struggling against Puffer Coat Guy.
“You’re making it worse, my man,” Puffer Coat says.
Jasper stops struggling and stares at the guy like he just insulted his father. Then he looks at me, desperate and pleading. But I know they’re right. Whatever pain I’m feeling is worse when I’m near Jasper. He needs to go.
“I’ll be fine,” I say, and keep my eyes on him, because he needs to let me take this risk.
Finally, he relents. “I’ll be right outside.”
Puffer Coat Guy takes off his coat and offers it to Jasper. “You might want this.”
Jasper snatches the coat and ducks through the door, slamming it behind him.
I flop back onto the bed and the woman leans over me.
“I am Agatha,” she says. “And your mate is a jackass.”
I laugh then wince.
“Don’t worry,” she says, picking up a bowl and mashing some seeds with the end of a blunt piece of stone. “You are not the first blood wolf I have met.”
She goes to work mixing her concoction, adding herbs and spices and mushing them up with the seeds, sniffing it, then adding whatever else she needs. I close my eyes.
Was she joking when she called me a blood wolf? Or is she for real?
And why does being the blood wolf mean that Jasper—the person I’ve wanted to get close to for so long—is the person whose closeness causes me the most pain?
