I loved them too much to give up now.
Chapter 21 - Jace
“Hey.” I put an arm around Jasmine’s waist as she bent over the garden box, carefully tending to the same dirt she had tended to just that morning. “There’s nothing you can do to make the plants grow faster.”
“I know. But if I can find a way to put more herbs in the gardens, then we’ll have more, faster.” Jasmine leaned back against my chest and let her head fall to my shoulder. “I don’t know what else to do. I keep asking other packs, but other than Burgess, they don’t want to deal with an omega, even if she is the alphas’ wife.”
Her dismal tone made me want to jump through the phone and punch whoever was talking to her like that. My wolf growled, and I felt a restless agitation sweep through me. I breathed through it, pressing my lips to Jasmine’s neck.
“I’ll assign a team to go pick up more herbs,” I promised her.
She had found various concoctions that helped the pack members who had fallen sick or succumbed to violence. It calmed those who were possessed and allowed sick members to regain their strength. It seemed there was some truth to what her grandmother said about plants absorbing sunlight. The herbs grown in the various gardens around town certainly helped.
We thought perhaps the gardens were part of the key to this fight, but how? Would it be a matter of finding the correct balance of herbs? Or was it more complex than that, perhaps a ritual that needed to be performed but was lost through time.
Today, she’d spent most of the day with the priestess and nuns. Apparently, there were many holy rites unique to our packthat involved herbs, such as the lavender tea that we used in our gratitude ceremony, while other packs used water. But what it meant, I could only guess.
Jasmine shrugged out of my embrace and moved to another garden box. “I think I should expand my garden. We have a lot of empty space here, and if I build another few garden boxes, I can plant even more. And I was thinking, we should put together some sort of sprinkler system. Then we can use it to water everything while also protecting the town from fire.”
I didn’t point out that a garden sprinkler would do nothing against a town-wide fire. Instead, I started helping her to plan out where to put another few garden boxes.
Feeling helpless was a shitty place to be. I knew she was feeling helpless, and I was feeling the same. Nothing the other alphas or I were doing helped. We had even paused all town projects, sending anyone who wasn’t part of the pack out of our territory for fear that they’d be infected.
“None of Penny’s advice is working,” she said after another half hour. “All I can think to do is keep researching and gardening, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough.” She rubbed her forehead, leaving behind a streak of dirt.
“We did theorize that each pack is unique.”
“But there’s still one thing that I haven’t tried with Killian.”
An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. I had an idea of what she wanted to try, and I didn’t like it. I opened my mouth to say just that, but Jasmine lifted her hand.
“I’d rather tell you, Renz, and Owen all at once so we can get the arguments out of the way at the same time, rather than having to dispute the same objections three times,” she said.
So she already knew we weren’t going to like it. That made the unease grow, and my wolf snarled blackly. My jaw tightened, but I nodded. We went inside and washed up before we joined Renz and Owen at the dinner table. The two of them had made a basic meal to share.
“I want to try the hugging ritual with Killian,” Jasmine announced as we were dishing up our food.
My jaw tightened again. Yes, that was exactly what I expected. I had to bite back my automatic answer to just say no. Owen and Renz both tensed, too. They glanced at me quickly, checking my response. I avoided their gazes. We three were relying on each other more, but we still had to have our own opinions.
“We don’t know that it worked with the omegas, but we also don’t know that it didn’t work,” Jasmine continued. “And I know that there is a danger. He attacks the bars every time he sees me, even being in the straitjacket.”
Her gaze dropped to the table and the food laden there. Her lips pinched tight, and her shoulders trembled. Irritation swept through me. This was upsetting, yes, but why was she acting like that? As though we were already telling her that she couldn’t do anything, and we were giving up on Killian? That wasn’t what was happening here!
Renz spoke softly. “Killian isn’t in his right mind.”
“That’s the point,” I snapped. They gave me a startled look, and I leaned my elbow on the table, rubbing my forehead. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I knew this was going to come up. But it’s too dangerous.”
“I agree,” Owen said. “If you get close to Killian, you’ll only get injured. He’ll feel terrible when we get him free of the darkness.”
If we got him free.
At this, Jasmine drew herself up. “I know that. He’s been possessed. When I tried to ritual with the other omegas, they were freed, but we don’t know if it was me. There was no light. But also, Penny tried the ritual on her alphas. That’s how it started.”
“But we can’t guarantee that you’ll be safe,” Renz argued.
Jasmine nodded. “I know. But we haven’t tried this, and we need to. We’ve been using the herbs and doing research, but this has been getting worse for days, and we have a possible solution that we haven’t tried. I haven’t brought it up because I knew that all of you would be against it.”
“Damn right, we’re against it,” I muttered, but the irritation and anger had passed, leaving me bone-tired.
