Chapter 80

“So, what was going on in there?” Jackson asks softly as we move through the quiet halls, glancing over his shoulder as we go.

“Don’t you know?” I ask, frowning up at him.

He just looks at me blankly, not answering.

“Well, then why did you interrupt?” I ask, confused. Because it’s one thing if Jackson interrupted because he knew that Alvez was going to be a creep, but quite another if he interrupted for…well, why else would he have interrupted?

“I don’t trust that guy,” Jackson sighs, the words slipping between clenched teeth. “Something’s…off about him.” He moves his eyes to me again, searching my face. “Was I wrong?” His words are tense.

I sigh, shaking my head. “No, you weren’t wrong, Jackson,” I say, looking forward as we climb into an elevator and Jackson presses the brass button, closing he doors. “I was…very uncomfortable in there.”

Jackson grunts in a self–satisfied way, pleased I think to have his instincts confirmed. “I

don’t like the way he looks at you,” he says, quite soft. “I knew it was going to be trouble when he gave me that note, asking you to come alone.”

“How did you know the note said to come alone?” I ask, looking up at him.

Jackson turns, instantly frowning down at me like the answer is obvious. “Because I read it.”

I burst out laughing, shaking my head at him. “Jackson, you can’t just read my mail.

“I was helping you!”

“That’s not an excuse!” but I’m smiling, and he smirks back at me, figuring out that I’m not actually mad. Because he really did help me – I’d have been in a very tricky situation, I think, had Jackson not come pounding on the door.

yourself be alone with him,” Jacksons murmurs

come get me. Or

he pretends not to notice that I’m looking at

obvious to me that Jackson is protective of me because some part of him knows, deep down, that I’m his mate or that I’m special to him, in some way. It’s happening, I think, on almost a bodily level he’s driven to ensure my safety by the same biological mechanism that makes a hen protect her chicks. But how…how the hell is he justifying it

her head curiously in Jackson’s direction. He must have figured it out and he’s just…playing

study him, I’m not so sure. Jackson – he’s smart, but in some ways he’s so outside of our world, our culture. Would he be able to pick up on the little clues that Ben noticed,

are much, much less progressive with things like homosexuality and gender

floor, shaking

Jackson asks, stepping out of the elevator and turning his attention back to me.

my head as I continue to look up at him, at the stark panes of his

step as we walk

actually do that. “Me?” he says in disbelief, gesturing towards himself.

I’m certainly the one keeping secrets. “You’ve got them too, you know,”

climb them up to my floor. “Things you’re keeping

you want to know – every single thought

builds in me as we make our way to

the silence bemehow, by

I

that Jesse and Rafe are away, probably exercising. That Luca and Ben are likewise off doing their own thing.

easy, to just…tug

him

it do it do it, I shake my head up at Jackson, knowing

the direction of my thoughts, knowing that I’m

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