He runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “Why did you even go back up there? I don’t understand.”
“For this.” I pull his present out of my jacket and toss it at him. He catches it and holds it out in front of him like he’s never seen festive wrapping paper before.
“This?”
Okay, maybe he hasn’t seen festive wrapping paper before.He looks so confused.
“Yes, I left your present as an offering to the Moon Gods, but I knew you knew that I had it and I felt bad not giving it to you so—”
“So you went back up there to get something for me?” He huffs. “This is exactly what I’m talking about, Max. You keep putting yourself in danger and all I want is to stop that from happening.”
“What danger?!”
His hands fall to his sides. “It’s complicated.”
I gesture at our surroundings. “We have time.”
Quiet settles between us. I think we’re done arguing for now.
“Fine,” Jasper says eventually. “Sit down and I’ll explain.”
“Okay.” I gather up my blanket and move to the couch. “But wait…”
He looks at me strangely as he sits across from me.
“Aren’t you going to open it?”
With an affectionate roll of his eyes, Jasper pulls at the ribbon and lets it fall to the dusty floor. Carefully, he peels away each hastily applied piece of Scotch tape. I’m more of a rip-the-thing-open type of guy, but this makes sense for Jasper. He unfolds the package and lets it rest in his lap.
“Well?”
He pulls out the maroon scarf with one hand and runs the other along it, feeling the soft wool.
“It’s…great.”
Smug, very smug.
Jasper wraps the scarf around his neck, then glances up as if to ask, “How does it look?”
“Perfect,” I say, admiring how the red brings out the green in his eyes. “Now explain.”
Jasper settles back into the couch. “When the rogues attacked my father’s house, it sent a message: the Elite Pack is weak, susceptible to invasion.”
“My dad said something like that, too, that it made people question Jericho—your dad’s leadership.”
“Yes.” He nods, a grave expression cast across his features. “But not just to Elite wolves. Word moves quickly between packs, and now every alpha whose territory neighbors our border knows what happened.”
“So? I thought we got on with the other packs.”
He scoffs. “‘Get on’ is a bit strong. We have peace because there’s a hierarchy. The Elite Pack is one of the oldest in America; our territory is vast, and so is our wealth, our military. People can covet what we have all they want, but they won’t do anything about it if they know they can’t have it. The rogues opened a hole in the wall, revealed a chink in our armor.”
“And your dad is worried that other packs might try and take some of his territory.”
“Not some,” he says, glancing up at me, “all.”
I swallow the baseball in my throat.
“But we can improve our position. The other packs will think twice if we have powerful allies.”
