Now, though, hearing their spiteful words, my wolf growled.
“I’ll bet as soon as you’ve popped out a kid or two, the Goddess will return and annul the marriage,” one of them was saying.
I strode up to Jasmine’s side. “What is going on here?” The women all wore mourning black. As one of them batted her lashes, I found I didn’t care about their excuses. “You were bullying my wife. Disrespecting me and my fellow alphas.”
The woman who batted her eyes faltered, uncertain. “Alpha, we didn’t mean—”
“Doesn’t matter what you meant. The only people allowed to bully Jasmine are her husbands,” I said flatly.
The women frowned. Jasmine flinched. I ignored their reactions.
For the last few years, I’d been too preoccupied with my own life and the suffocating duties of being an alpha to think much about Jasmine. Even when I saw her in town, I didn’t care to think much about her. It was hard enough keeping up the pretense that I knew what I was doing. Everyone saw me as the rebellious alpha, but if they knew how much I tamped down on those impulses, they’d admire my restraint.
“Go away,” I told the group of women, tired of the way they were still gawking at me. I probably should have worded my reproach better. Now that she was our wife, we really shouldn’t bully her anymore.
The thing was, I couldn’t make that promise. Especially when it came to Owen. I’d give it my best shot to try to be accepting and not take out my frustrations on her, but Jasmine Philips had always just been so…frustrating.
The group of women scampered off, looking just as determined as ever. I glared at them, then turned to Jasmine. She stared at the floor, the dress hugging her curves, looking strangely vulnerable and resigned.
“I don’t want to go back to that party,” I said, because there wasn’t anything else to say.
She let out a small sigh. “I don’t, either. Everyone keeps staring at me like I’m going to cut your throats tonight.”
I snorted softly. “Let’s leave, then.”
“Owen will think I’m off planting bombs throughout the town,” Jasmine responded dryly.
I snorted again, amused. “So? You can blame it on me. Tell them that I dragged you away and insisted that you come on a run with me.”
Jasmine’s head jerked up. “A run?”
The idea formed perfectly in my mind. It would release some of this excess energy, as well as give me a chance to observe her more. We shifters were more natural in our wolf form, at least in my experience. We could run freer, behave more like ourselves.
Yes, going on a run would be perfect. I didn’t even know what Jasmine’s wolf form looked like, and I found myself eager to see it.
“I don’t run,” Jasmine said, gesturing to her wedding dress.
“We’ll shift,” I said confidently. “It’s been a while since I’ve gone out into the forest just to have fun. Nighttime is always the most exciting time for it, too. And if you think about it, it will make Owen stop being so paranoid, too. He can’t expect you to report your every move to him, and when he sees that nothing bad happens when you’re out of his sight, he’ll loosen up.”
To my surprise, she flushed and shook her head. “I can’t shift in front of you.”
“Why not?”
Her shoulders hunched inward, and she looked at the floor. “Because. I can’t. Besides, I’d only slow you down. I’m not much of a runner, no matter what form I’m in.”
I moved closer, frowning. “What do you mean by that?”
She closed her eyes, as though she was deciding whether or not I was mocking her.
“You do shift, don’t you?”
She lifted one shoulder and let it drop.
Frowning, I grabbed her hand and pulled her down the corridor, away from the party. She trailed after me, occasionally tugging her hand back like she was trying to escape me but couldn’t quite make herself pull all the way away.
Finally, we emerged from the building on the other side. I started to make our way toward the forest, more determined than ever. “Why don’t you shift?”
“I do. Just not in front of other people anymore,” she mumbled.
