“Because the reasons we don’t know aren’t reasons we can’t anticipate,” I finished.
“Exactly.”
We continued jogging, and when we came to a small creek, I ran through it, while Jackson sailed over it easily, dropping into a roll before springing to his feet.
“Show off,” I muttered, as we continued up the path that would take us through our part of the forest. Across town, I had two other pack members doing their patrol, and we’d likely meet in the center.
“Bryce and I always used to run through here as kids,” Jackson told me, laughing breathlessly. “She’d always try to race me and often lose. By then, I was training for the brigade but also shifting a lot, so I was eating more, working out. Yet she was always convinced she could outrun me.”
“Did she ever?”
Jackson snorted. “She got winded barely two minutes in.”
“And as a wolf?” I pressed.
“She ran well as a wolf, but don’t you remember she was always slower?”
The truth was that I had shoved Bryce and anything to do with her so deep down in my memories that I had to really think to recall anything. I just ran on, not able to admit why I’d blocked her out.
“Her daughter…” I said, instead. “She’s a shifter, too. I can sense it. There’s something else about her that I can’t quite work out. Do you know what it is?”
Jackson shook his head. “Beats me. Must be related to her father. Unless he’s a shifter, too. In that case, I have no idea. I don’t really get a lot from her in that sense.”
Why did I? I wondered. My footsteps faltered.Maybe it’s my alpha instincts. I’d always been able to get a keen sense ofpeople, read them a little better, and when they were shifters, it was even more.
“Do you know who her father is?” I asked Jackson, wondering if he was from Honeycreek or if he’d been in White Bay and abandoned Bryce. Or had she left him in this town like she’d left my pack? Was that her daughter’s other scent? Pure human, maybe.
“Nope,” Jackson said, his eyes cutting away from me.
“Bryce never mentioned?”
Jackson shook his head.
I snorted. “If she won’t tell you, then she really won’t tell me.”
“What exactly happened with her and the pack? I never really understood, but the way the guys looked at her before… I didn’t like it. I mean it, Mase. I want her protected.”
“I know,” I said. I tried not to think about the jealousy curling through me at the man whose hands had pressed into the same places on Bryce’s body that I had. “And shewillbe. She chose to leave, but you know how packs work.”
Jackson bit his lip. “I feel like I abandoned her. I should have left when she did.”
“No,” I growled, protective over my pack. “You’re my second. You belong with us.”
“And Bryce doesn’t?”
“Brycechoseto leave,” I told him. “If you couldn’t sway her mind, then that means she’s stubborn, just like you.” I knocked into him, grinning. After a moment, Jackson smirked as well.
“True.”
We continued running, my eyes scanning the trees for more scorch marks or evidence of ifrit presence. But I couldn’t concentrate on that long enough to take notice, my thoughts drifting to Bryce over and over. The proud lift of her chin, the spark of her emerald-green eyes. The way her arms had curled around her torso as soon as she got out of the car. She’d done it as if wanting to make herself small, and I hated seeing that.
I hated knowing I’d had a part in that.
I had to focus on the pack. Bryce wasn’t my concern now, not properly. She’d been a momentary blip in my mission of protecting my pack and watching out for more demons. She was now safe in Jackson’s house. But every time I pictured Bryce and Cassie sitting in the backseat of Jackson’s car, the thought of their scents blanketing every inch of the cottage I’d rescued them from, my inner wolf stirred.
It called out to them both, and I hated that.
I needed my focus, not to think about the girl’s ruined birthday, or questioning why I thought about getting her a gift when I didn’t know her, or needing to know that they were protected. Neither of them was my concern anymore.
