Page 38 of His Rejected Alpha Mate
“I don’t know how much longer I can take this, Papa. They should be here with me. I know he doesn’t feel comfortable in Kade’s house—“ I trailed off and sighed. “We seem stuck in this holding pattern.”
“It’s only been two weeks of dating.” Papa reminded me carefully, as if I would raise my voice at him. I knew better than that. Upsetting Papa was a crime in my parent’s house.
“We’re shifters. When we meet our fated mates, that’s supposed to be it,” I pointed out stubbornly. It had been a couple of days since I’d seen Jasper for more than a few minutes. Video calls once the little kit was in bed weren’t cutting it. “Jasper stayed in a relationship instead of going ahead with the bond. Others divorce their spouses to be with their fated mates. Nothing has gone like it should.”
“I know, baby bear.” He gave a laugh. “I need to stop calling you that now. You have a family, grandchildren on the way. You are hardly a cub now.” The sadness in his voice made me pause with a teasing remark on the tip of my tongue.
“What’s wrong, Papa?”
“I did not tell you this, okay? The council is keeping it to those that strictly need to know. Kade hasn’t been told.”
Ice chilled my blood. This had to be something incredibly serious for the council to restrict information. “I swear I won’t say a thing. Is Kade safe?”
“He should be. I’d never knowingly put him, or the babies, in danger.”
That wasn’t nearly as calming as it should have been. My bear agreed, sitting up and paying attention to how my papa spoke. “I won’t say anything unless I see that I need to, okay?”
“That’s all I can ask.” He paused on the line, and I could almost feel his tension through the phone. His worry must have been plain on his face because he’d refused to do a video call with me. “I’m sure that you’ve heard the rumors of a sickness affecting shifters by now.”
“I have. Kade was talking about it in the office not that long ago.”
“Well, the council has been downplaying it, but the numbers are worse than we thought.”
“How bad is it?” Dread lined my tone. Unlike Jasper, I didn’t have a gift. I felt something coming, though. He’d explained about the flashes of visions that he occasionally received, particularly in times of stress. The gift didn’t seem to manifest around me, making me a blind spot to him. It made me wonder if that was one of the reasons that he was using to keep me at a distance.
“We’ve lost a couple of older betas. They were old and vulnerable. Still a terrible loss.” My heart broke for the death of the shifters. Our older shifters were wise and treasured. Papa let out a sob.
“Papa?” He took a minute to get himself together, and I wondered where my dad was. It was unlike him to be so far away from Papa, especially if he was upset.
“There was… a… an omega lost her baby. They nearly lost the mother too. She hadn’t caught it. The baby had.” I heard the hitch in his voice as he choked back more tears.
I could hardly blame him, my own voice was thick with emotion. “Is she okay?”
“She will be eventually. It happened in the second trimester and happened so fast.” My mind couldn’t take it in. “One of her other children is a beta and had become ill. Flu-like symptoms. Not very common in shifters, so she contacted a healer and then a witch. No one seemed to know what to do. Shifter healing should have done something.” Papa sounded so hopeless. “The little boy survived. Seems the baby would have been a beta too. Whatever this thing is, it’s killing people.”
“Kade is safe, right?”
“No one anywhere near here has shown any symptoms. As soon as anyone does, we will insist that Kade stay away from any beta. We can’t seem to figure out how it’s transmitted. Human scientists are helping healers research. These things are slow going since the packs won’t share information. The council has pushed emergency funds into it.”
The line was silent while I processed the information. “Kade cannot know that it killed a baby. Not while being pregnant. Three babies are a lot. He needs as little stress as possible.”
“I know, Papa. He won’t hear it from me.”
“Don’t tell Jasper either. He’ll never be able to keep it from Kade. He’s been so protective since he came to Sweetwater.” Didn’t I know it? Papa and Dad hadn’t gotten the opportunity to get to know their son-in-law. They were missing out on family time by having us all divided. I vowed to press Jasper a little about telling Angelica so she could meet her grandparents properly.
“I won’t, I promise.” The doorbell rang, an alert going off on my phone. I opened the notification to see a worried-looking Jasper at the door. “Papa, I have to go. Jasper’s here.”
“Don’t say anything!”
“I won’t.” I repeated. “Bye.”
Taking a second to smooth back my hair, I tried to shake off the feeling that something was wrong. Jasper had never sought me out without calling, certainly not in the middle of the day. I opened the door and looked around for Angelica.
“Hey, Jasper—“ The scent hit me in the face before he could even hold up the box.
“I think I’m pregnant.” Jasper announced.
Wordlessly, he walked into the house and I followed. He put his phone and keys on the coffee table and turned to me. “Do you have a bathroom I can use?”
