Page 14 of Gift Wrapped Protector

School didn’t close because the expected snowstorm didn’t add up to more than an inch? Wake up, buttercup.

Your brother ate all your cereal? Eat some bran.

You lost the soccer game? Try harder next time, no one ever won without practice.

Goldfish died? The toilet is that way.

You failed your driver’s test? Walking is good for you.

So, that girl you had a crush on likes someone else? I believe it, but get your ass back out there, son, and try again.

Didn’t I mention I have cancer? No? Well, I do, now get back to work.

Good old Dad. His brothers were upset too, and that rankled his beast. All three looked to him for guidance, as if he needed any more responsibility weighing him down.

Shit.

Jasper wasn’t mad at them. He simply couldn’t believe this was happening. Sure, the years without Mom had been rough, but he’d never thought his father would ever stop fighting.

No treatment? It was beyond comprehension. Maybe he just didn’t want to live without his wife anymore. Jasper’s Wyvern let out a sorrowful growl. His beast seeming to understand his old man where Jasper did not.

Even worse were his parent’s parting words. Who had time to think of women just then? His old man never used to have shit timing, but what else could explain it? Jasper didn’t have the heart to fight, so he’d simply nodded and left the room.

If loving his wife had made Arthur Wessex give up on life after the doctor had given him bad news, then Jasper was just fine, never knowing that kind of love. He could not even imagine it.

“Better off alone,” he muttered, taking a left onto the highway, and settling in for the long drive to the mountain cabin where his assignment was, hopefully, staying out of trouble.

Better get this over with.

ChapterSix

The hours ticked by slowly, but Jasper’s brain kept coming back to his discussion with his dad. Seriously? What was the man thinking? How could he expect Jasper to even consider finding a mate in the middle of all of this mess?

Besides, he was still young. Sixty-five in Wyvern years was like being in his twenties to normals. He had plenty of time for that.

“Find your mate, son, and become the man I know you can be,”his father had said, clapping his large hand down on Jasper’s in a show of affection that was pretty flamboyant for the staid man.

Not wanting to argue, Jasper just nodded his head, squeezed his hand in a brief shake, and left. There was so much he wanted to say to him. So many things he was grateful for.

Hell, Arthur Wessex could’ve left him and his brothers to be raised by the scientists who’d hatched them in a federal laboratory deep underground, but no. He didn’t walk away.

When the eggs yielded human babies, the General had acted. He’d superseded every order and initiated his own. The boys were his, and anyone who wanted to argue the matter would have to deal with him.

No one wanted to take on General Wessex, and after word got out, the paperwork was filed, and he took the four young Shifters home to his wife, raising them as his own.

It was brave, and more an act of love than any other Jasper had ever known. All his life, he’d tried to be what his father wanted him to be. Jas had always done his duty, and what was asked of him.

But a mate?

Who needed to be tied to one person for eternity when there were so many wonderful women to sample? He loved his father, but there was no way he was about to search for the old ball and chain.

Dad was probably just worried because his time was running out. Loneliness was a terrible companion for old age, or so he’d said.

Fuck.

Now that he’d considered that, it was all he could think about. This was not good. Jasper was not focused at all.

He should not be on assignment. He should be home. Hell, Jasperwantedto be home. To spend whatever remaining time his old man had with him. But no, he was going to be stuck on a mountain with some stuck up, snobby littlegrrrr, he couldn’t even say it.

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