His pack lived in the countryside for the peace, and though there was one other property within walking distance of their home, no one had lived there for as long as Jasper had known the place existed. Whether the price was too steep, the cottage undesirable, or something about the interior was bad, he did not know. He kept expecting to just see another car on the road one day, pulling off onto that twisting little dirt path that slithered through the trees.
“Did someone move in across the road?” he asked Val, nodding toward the light. The urge to cross the asphalt just tosee if he might glimpse the cottage from the road was tempting, but Jasper knew that until the dead of winter, it was impossible to see anything without walking down that path.
Val frowned, cocking his head. “You know, I think I might have heard someone driving when I was getting out of the shower, but I didn’t think too much about it. I mean… About time, I guess? I’m surprised nobody moved in sooner. It’s nice out here.”
Jasper could agree with that much . “Maybe we should go say hi tomorrow or something. Might not be a bad idea to have friends out here when the weather gets bad.”
“Maybe,” Val hedged. “Come on, let’s get inside. Brady and Cass are waiting.”
As petty as it was, they couldkeepwaiting as long as Jasper was concerned. He would have to sit them down and tell them both that his body wasn’t working right, that they wouldn’t get to have the family they wanted to build together, that he was the wrong choice of a mate after all. The frisson of anxiety that threaded through his mind let him know Brady was indeed waiting for them, and not for the first time, he wished Cass was as tied up in their bond as everyone else.
While Val unlocked the door to let them into the house, Jasper turned to throw a glance toward the dirt road. It was a short walk; he would try to think of something nice to bake, maybe, so he’d have an excuse to go over. Maybe it was a pack with an omega. Couldn’t hurt to try.
As he stepped into the house, though, he could have sworn he saw someone standing at the edge of the shadows spilling across the road, tucked just out of sight.
And it looked like they were facing him.
Epilogue II
Valentine D’Arlowe knew that the belief they had failed their omega would spread through the pack bond, tainting everything it touched until it brought their ruin unless he did something about it.
The house was quiet as he sat at the kitchen table, his head in his hands and his heart breaking piece by piece, chipping away until there was almost nothing left of him. Though he had suspected Jasper’s diagnosis would be just as disappointing as he suspected it to be, he kept turning the details over in his head to find some sort of way to fix it. An omega becoming infertile at twenty-two just didn’t seem fair to him, especially when Jasper wanted children more than he wanted anything else. There had been stay-at-home mom jokes when they were still teenagers.
That had served as the motivation for Val to ensure he had a good job. Good enough so that Jasper could stay home, take care of the house, and pretty it up however he pleased while they waited for one successful heat. In the end, there hadn’t been one. His heats ranged from several hours to nearly a week; he’d hadtwo awful heats in one month, then went six months without having another one. Such things were common enough that Val knew what to expect, but he still hadn’twantedit.
Jasper was the most important thing in his life. Of course, he wanted Jasper to have everything he had ever wanted. What alpha wouldn’t?
He pushed himself away from the table and walked a slow circuit of the downstairs, aware of the settling of the house, the wind in the pines, the occasional snap of a twig as small animals scurried through the undergrowth. Winter would come soon enough, but Jasper was already freezing them out, and that was something Val had to stop as soon as possible. It would be devastating.
Bonds could rot straight through. They could fall apart. Mending them took serious time, dedication, and effort that would be hard for someone hurting as much as Jasper was. That meant Val needed to put a stop to the dissolution while he had the chance; Jasper needed the bond, and so did Brady. And even if Cass was barely an echo, Val didn’t want to lose him, either.
He didn’t want to lose anyone he cared about. Such was life as a pack alpha.
A soft crunching sound caught his attention, and he frowned, one foot in the kitchen and one foot in the living room. On another night when he was busier or already in bed, he might have missed the sound for how quiet it was, but it wasn’t silent. There was a slow, steady rhythm to the crunches, muted but consistent. Footsteps. Was he hearing footsteps?
You don’t know what people might have moved in across the road.
Fuck.Fuck.No, it was fine. It might have been a deer, a bear, or even a wolf that had come slinking out of the woods in search of food. Mostly, he could ignore the animals as they wouldn’t tryto break into the house, but that was assuming the soundwasan animal. And he needed to verify that in case it wasn’t.
It took the emergency services far too long to drive as far out as the house.
He flicked off the kitchen light, bathing the downstairs in darkness, and the footsteps stopped.
Val remained frozen, waiting for his vision to adjust, head cocked toward the noise as he held his breath. If someone was creeping around the house, then he would need to get the gun closest to him, and he would need to put a stop to it. Plenty of odd things happened out in the countryside where few people were around to witness it. And though he had never been paranoid about what might happen, he wasn’t stupid enough to ignore something so obvious.
The nearest window was the bay window in the living room, and he crept up to it, his socked feet near-silent on the glossy hardwood floor. Why someone would be near the house was beyond him, but he didn’t need to figure out the logistics of it all just yet. He needed to verify. That was all.
If there were a person walking around the front of the house, they might stare at the window searching for movement. That was a risk Val had to take.
He edged up as close to the curtain as he could, slipping a finger beneath the edge to tug it away from the wall. Though he had wanted blinds for the house, Jasper made it very clear he wanted curtains, and Val was not in the business of denying his omega anything he wanted. But as he eased the edge of the curtain aside so he could peer out into the night, he appreciated his mate’s decision. It would have been much harder to sneak open the blinds.
At first, he saw nothing more than some pines next to the house and the edge of the car. Sighing, he almost dropped the curtain when movement caught his attention, his gaze honingin on something just visible next to the car. In the next breath, someone stepped into his line of view, though their back was to him, so he couldn’t make out their face.
Fuck. Holy fuck. Someonewas outside the house.
Good enough. Val smoothed the curtain back into place and made for the slim closet next to the door, popping it open so he could lay hands on the rifle tucked inside of it.
Though plenty of people would argue it wasn’t the safest place to store a gun, he didn’t care. Having quick and convenient access was more important out in the country, where anything might happen and wild animals could be a serious concern. The plan had been to move all the guns into more secure storage once they bred Jasper, but that wasn’t happening.
