“But you haven’t been here, not since you decided to segregate yourself.”
“I didn’t—” Aisha’s face is turning red. “That’s not what happened, and you know that. The only reason I turned my back on the pack was because it had already turned its back on me.”
“But I didn’t,” Jasper snaps, getting to the heart of things.
“You didn’t?” Aisha asks, planting her hands on her hips. “What about at your birthday party? Remember? Last year? When they turned me away at the door and you did nothing.”
Jasper’s voice turns mumbly, he clearly doesn’t feel great about what happened at that party. “You shouldn’t have brought Troy. You knew what would happen.”
For a moment Aisha studies him, then she shakes her head, disappointed.
“Yeah, so I did know what would happen. I just thought you might have done something about it.” She pushes a breath of frustration through her lips. “Fine, you want me to go. I’ll go. I hope your dad gets better. I really do.”
Aisha stomps toward the elevator, passing me as she goes and shooting me a look, one I can’t quite figure out how to decipher. But it’s a mix of exasperation and care, like she’s over it, but she also knows Jasper needs help right now, even if she can’t be the one to provide it.
The doors to the elevator slide shut, Aisha disappearing behind them, and the second they do Jasper crumbles. He holds his face in his hands, his chest expanding and contracting in rapid succession.
I hurry to him, try to pull his hands away from his face but he resists, he won’t meet my eye.
“I’m an asshole,” he says.
“You’re stressed.”
“I shouldn’t have spoken to her like that.”
I study Jasper’s face. Dark rings circle his bloodshot eyes, his hair is unkempt, his clothes are the same as he was wearing yesterday.
“Have you slept at all?” I ask, leading him to the sofa to make him sit.
Jasper stares at his hands, which he clenches and unclenches.
“No one is coming to help,” he says. “All that work trying to get people on our side, and no one is willing to stand up to Walter.”
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“We sent word to all our allies, asking if they’ll fight with us.”
“And they all—what? They said no?”
Jasper shakes his head. “They don’t think we can win.”
“That’s insane. So they’re just going to let Walter and his whatever, his—”
“Axis Pack.” Jasper jumps in to help me.
“Right, this Axis Pack, they’re going to let them destroy us?”
Jasper is a little calmer now, he sniffs and sits back, looking me in the eye for the first time since I arrived.
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve met with so many alphas, but their packs are small. Even with all of them our army is still no match for Walter’s.”
“How do you know this?”
“Apparently, he’s been going to these alphas as well. Some have turned on us already and backed his cause. Some he’s scared into submission. Either way he’s talking a big game and we’re alone in this.”
My head is swimming, I can’t understand how no one would be willing to have our back.
“What about Aaliyah and Carmine? They were just here. They saw what he did.”
