Rejected Mate and Following Fate - Awakening Book

Chapter 88: Jasper

I don't know how to react, what to think or feel. I stare at him, gawping, somehow rooted to my spot, anger consuming me, mixed emotions swirling around me like a dense fog. Pain, then relief, some inkling of joy and hope, but it all swirls back around to agonizing shards of biting fear as I try and absorb that this is real.

I open my mouth to speak again, but only noise comes out, a whimper of desperate sobbing that breaks me down and in a second I'm crushed against a strong warm chest, surrounded by arms that used to be as familiar as my own skin. I'm hugged tightly by the one person who used to make my day brighter, before Colton did, before our world fell apart. I can only slump into him, so caught in past memories and how this feels so familiar, so necessary and yet I cannot stop crying against his soft clothes like a wounded child.

"If I had known.... I would have found a way to take you. I would never have left you or abandoned you. I truly, truly believed I was too late. I swear, Lorey." He mumbles into my hair, his breath warming my scalp and sending shivers across my whole body as I collapse against him. Savoring the feel of him, breaking to pieces and trembling at his touch, crying over a million days of haunting pain where I mourned his loss along with my parents. My brain is so fuddled, confused, and I try to pull fragments of possibility together, so not sure that this isn't a dream. Gasping in an effort to curb my emotional breakdown and sniffing back to some level of sanity.

"But how..." the words push out with a weak tone from the chaos of my foggy head and I know I need answers more than hugs right now. They all died. Juan made sure of it, so where was he, how did he survive? Why is he with vampires?

He exhales heavily and rubs his hand over the back of my hair, stroking me in such a familiar way that it pains me and cuts to the core like a knife, squeezing me tight as though his words are going to wound me. My instincts immediately perking up and the red alert flag of instinct moves up my spine in a cold shiver.

"There's so much you don't know. There's so much to tell you. I...... Lorey, the vampires are who saved me. There's something really important... They gave me a home because...." He hesitates, pausing between broken sentences, his voice trails off and his tone fades like a whisper as though he hasn't the will. I pull back in suspicion, blinking away my tears to focus on his face and the joy and pain at being able to look at him again almost ends me for a second time. I impulsively reach up and touch his cheek, grazing his warm skin, checking he's real and bury my face against him again just to be sure. My brother's really alive, and here, holding me, telling me that I have someone left of my blood that still loves me. I wasn't truly alone all these years and had he known, he would never have left me in the home at all, but then....I wouldn't have bonded to Colton. I push it aside, knowing now that despite what I endured, I would never give up my mate or how I came to be his, even if I lost ten years at my brother's side. I have him now, the fates brought him back to me and all I need is truth.

"Because?" I push where he left off, and then pull away again to gaze at his handsome face and absorb every detail and line that I've missed beyond belief. When I realize no answers come, I raise my brow and nudge his abdomen lightly with my palm. He's staring at the top of my head, avoiding my focus; a look of anguish as though he's torn about what to say and even after all these years, I can still read his facial gestures as if we haven't been apart for half my life. "Tell me." I shove my palm into his chest like I did as a kid when he would tease me and hold out on something I wanted to know. His pained half smile at my reaction tells me he remembers me doing this to him so many times as a ten-year-old pup, the happiness of the familiar behavior. His whole body softens but then he lets out a sigh while his brows furrow gloomily and he reaches out to stroke my hair once more.

"No matter what.... you're my sister. You always were and always will be. I never stopped loving you. You have to know that, before...... just tell me you hear me, okay?" His words tremble, his voice low and almost pleading me to agree to his terms. Dread rises in my stomach and I pull at his sleeve nervously, yanking his hand back to my head almost childishly for reassurance. Confused and reverting to habits of old and it only seems to wound him more so. My youthful behaviors so effortlessly returning when my brother is holding me tight. He was always my guardian, my best friend and my mentor. The protector who was always ready to kiss my boo boo's and carry me home.

I love my brother so much. I have missed him beyond belief and if this a dream then I never want to wake up. Sobs catch in my throat and desperation overwhelms me.

"I understand. I hear you." I repeat his words, needing to know what he's holding back and not really laying any weight on them. Of course he's my brother, I know he loves me. He always did. We both thought each other dead but it doesn't change a thing, nor does it matter now. Jasper will always be in my heart and hold a special place that no other living soul can replace. There has always been a dark hole that belonged only to him.

"They saved me because of..... your mother." He dodges eye contact and goes back to staring over my head at the sky in the distance, his emotions all over the place and feeding my nerves. I frown waiting for him to elaborate, impatience growing until one little word catches my attention and I furrow my brows as I repeat back his sentence in my brain and sound it our for myself

"Your?" I hone right on it, loudly verbalizing with heavy questioning as he pauses. I feel his stiffness as he looks left, over the top of my head at the open door of the car which is silent and still. Leyanne and the vampire still tucked inside and leaving us to it.

"She wasn't my mother, Lorey... by blood. I'm not even related to you. I never was. We're not siblings in any other way than marriage."

glare at him, anger rising because it's a lie, frowning, shaking my head. I have the urge to laugh at him. To hit him in the shoulder and tell him to stop messing with me, but the deadpan blank look on his pale face tells me

I snap, eyes glowing with burning rage that he's trying to hurt me or make me hate him and I don't know why. He flinches at the contact but reaches for

pregnant when we met her.... I was five years old. Dad was my uncle; he was raising me because my mother died in childbirth and took her mate with her. I always knew who I was, and then you two came and you gave me a new family." He pulls me in nearer as the choked expression and numbness stills me completely. Freezing out my thoughts as I blink and try to inhale through what he's saying and almost fail at getting enough oxygen in the process. "She was running, from our kind, for fear of what they would do if they found out about you. And we were camping on the south side of the mountain, out there alone. I don't think it was by chance.... they imprinted on sight. It was... beautiful. I gained a mother in the blink of an eye. And a few short months later, a baby sister." His explanation cuts my heart from my soul and rips it into shreds, burning

my mom... you're my brother. STOP IT!" The sobs break as every memory I possess is torn in two and all I thought was real turns out to be a lie. Every moment, every happy encounter and image I have clung to my whole life. None of it is real and I was living in a fake

every other sense of the word, Lorey. He loved you. You were his daughter; it didn't matter to him where you were created. You

my brother, stop saying it. They were all my family. I won't believe you." I can't take this in and he squeezes harder, pinning me tight, as though somehow this isn't the worst he has to say, and I instantly

but the truth is.... who you are is why I got to live.... Do you understand what I'm saying?" he falters and through the mess of

part vampire... and that somehow saved you." I blurt it out, whimpering, wishing none

mean, she was, but...... your father, Lorey, your biological dad. He's the son of the high

words have the same effect as cutting me down where I stand and even though my brain doesn't really compute it, my body reacts just the same and my legs give out. Crumbling but his grasp on me tightens and he holds me up and to him as I break all over again. Nausea choking

of a freaking vampire and for the first time it suddenly makes sense why my eyes are red and hers never were. Why my gifts are strong and yet, I never saw them in her. Yes she was part vampire, but no, she didn't give this to me...

was never a Whyte, I'm not even bigger percent wolf anymore. I was never Jasper's sister...I was an invading half

for two decades, taking over where his ancestors gave up. His wrath and hatred is completely fueled by the thought that wolves took his lover and his child, not once, but twice. He thought you both perished almost two decades ago and created an army to fight a war. Only then

together in my head. Reason and sense bringing sudden calm to my

hitting some weird lull of hysterics to really get this and realize Leyanne is standing right behind me now. No longer waiting in the car, but here

her baby from her own pack and he never knew what happened to her. When she imprinted, she never returned, thinking he would forget her. But he never..... he thought she was dead and so was his bairn, so he came after your kind to avenge you both." Leyanne touches my shoulder and makes me jump with the contact. Weirdly soft for her, as though she's

years later...." I

on that battleground, he thinks you were murdered on the mountain right after." Jasper releases me from his tight embrace to give me room to breathe and it gives

can't be real.... I couldn't be the source of all this death and pain. All those who have died in the battles." I don't

decade. On the strength of being Marina's adopted son and your sole living wolf family. The high lord favors me, and gave me Darrius as my eternal companion to make sure I remain unharmed..... he takes no part of his son's war. He

and recall his son. His son.... would be tamed with the knowledge his child lived. You, my pet, are literally the one to bring peace to two kinds, by just breathing." Leyanne's words sit heavy on me and I stare between the

losses connected to this enemy, only to find they're all linked, and my loss was for nothing. I was the center of the storm and if the fates had only revealed me sooner to the vampire lord, then maybe no one would have died

the grass to sit down and put my face between my knees.

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