Page 114

Jaz had left.

She was gone.

Still, I sprinted from the house and out onto the street and didn’t stop until I ran into the house and up to her bedroom. I shoved open drawers. Her stuff, it was still there. It was all still there. I fisted my hair. What the fuck was going on?

“Ren?” Mags stood at the door, sympathy in her eyes. “She messaged you?”

“This doesn’t make sense, all her stuff—”

“She asked me to pack everything up, that she’d come for it sometime soon.”

“When?”

She shook her head. “She didn’t say. I’m sorry…goddess, Ren, I’m so fucking sorry.”

The door opened and Willow walked in. Violet was asleep in her car seat, and she handed the seat and Violet to Mags, then strode toward me. I stumbled back. I couldn’t do it. Willow was my witch, my best friend, I was her familiar, but I couldn’t do this. If I let her comfort me, if I let this pain inside me take hold, I’d fucking shatter all over again—and this time there would be no coming back from it.

Willow stopped and held up her hands as if she were trying to soothe a wild animal about to bolt, and I realized my claws had punched through the ends of my fingers, that my canines were extended, and with every one of my panted breaths, my fox’s growls resonated through my chest so loudly I wasn’t sure I could speak, even if I had the words.

“Jaz just needs some time. Give her some time. You two have been pushing things pretty hard this week. She’s just spooked, that’s all,” Willow said and took another step closer. “The bond between mates is stronger than anything. Block or not, she’ll come back. I know she will.”

Willow was wrong. Whoever it was who created the block inside her, had a power stronger than the mating bond. My mate fleeing from me and asking me not to look for her was proof of that.

Fur sprouted across my chest and stomach, my thighs. My fox was taking over. The last time he managed to do that was after Edward’s evil spirit was exorcised from my body and the knowledge of what I’d done had been too much.

My fox dulled the pain. He didn’t understand complex emotions and was all about instinct. He was the reason I’d survived as long as I had without Jasmine’s healing touch.

He snarled and exploded forward, taking over my body and making it his, and I surrendered to it, letting him.

“Ren!” Willow called.

But we were already at the bottom of the stairs and out the door, flying along the street toward the forest.

You are the best male I’ve ever known. I just…I wanted you to know that.

She’d said those words to me before she left yesterday, and I’d been too stupid to realize she was saying goodbye.

Jasmine

* * *

My head throbbed as I blinked into the darkness. Where the hell was I?

The last thing I remembered was talking to Xavier.

He’d grabbed me, held my head, then everything went dark—

I quickly sat up. I was still in his house. Still in the living room where I’d been talking to him. There was no sign of Xavier now, and dim light filtered in through the large windows, the night filled with stars. Had he taken the walls down in my mind, is that why I’d passed out? But I didn’t feel any different. I stumbled to my feet and walked out of the room. The lights were on in the foyer. I looked at the clock on the side table. It was after ten. Ren would be worried. He’d be wondering where I was.

I rushed to the door, every instinct in me screaming to get the hell away from here as fast as I could. I gripped the door handle and yanked the door open—

A scream tore from me, and I stumbled back.

Nothing.

I was looking out at nothing.

No stairs, no path, no houses. No street. There was only darkness.