by Lola Kidd
But not Leigh; she was different. There was no way his dragon was going to let her go at this point. She was right about that. Now that he’d had her, it was impossible to walk away. The animal was right. She was their mate. Jasper was going to have to figure out a way to win her over.
This rehearsal dinner was the start of his full offensive. This final emergency taste testing was going to be another chance to put the full charm offensive into effect.
If he could pick an outfit and get out of the house, that was. He had to look prefect, and nothing was right.
He took off the white button-down shirt and switched it out for a mint green one. He picked up one of the discarded dark gray blazers, added emerald cufflinks, and surveyed the look once more. Not perfect, but it would do.
He left the compound and rushed to the shop as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to show up late. That would be an awful way to start his charm offensive.
When he arrived, he was surprised to see Roger and his daughter Jessica waiting outside.
“How’s everything going?” he asked Roger as he got out of his car.
“Cindy’s having a tanning emergency. Whatever that is.” Roger shrugged. “She and Suzy are at the house waiting for someone to come and darken her up.”
Jess stepped forward and hugged Jasper. “Nice to see you again. I see you’ve been very busy getting this thing set up for us. Thank you so much for all your help.”
“It was nothing. I had so much help that I barely had to lift a finger. How has everything been so far?”
“So nice! When you live on an island, it’s a nice change of pace to be back around tall trees and mountains. I really wish I could have brought the baby, but I knew he’d want to eat everything in sight.”
“Is Alec at home with him?”
“Yes. I lucked out there. He and Tyler are watching the kids, but they prefer that to dealing with all this wedding stuff.”
Both couples had eloped to a small island. Jasper wondered if Jess missed not having had the full wedding experience. In truth, he would want to elope too. It would be a madhouse when he got married. Planning Roger’s wedding was just a trial run for what he would need to do. It would be so much easier just to grab his mate and jet off to Vegas. His family would kill him, but they could have a party to celebrate on their first anniversary.
As if on cue, Leigh and Melly came outside. He and Leigh locked eyes, and she looked away quickly as her face turned a light red.
“Are you guys ready to come inside?” Melly asked. “Roger, I don’t know if you’ve ever met my niece, but this is Leigh. She’ll be assisting me from now on.”
Roger stepped forward and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Leigh. Leigh, Melly, this is my daughter, Jessica. She’ll be doing the tasting with me.”
“I can send you home with something for Cindy to try,” Melly suggested as she showed them to a table in the back. “I wouldn’t want to serve anything she hasn’t tried yet.”
“She loves everything you make, so I can’t turn down that offer,” Roger said as he pushed Jessica’s chair in.
“Will you be joining us?” Jasper asked before sitting down.
Melly nodded. “Yes, and so will Leigh. She’ll tell you about each dish as it comes out.”
She had already taken a seat next to Roger. Jasper sat next to Jessica with slight irritation. He wouldn’t be able to speak to Leigh until after the tasting—but he had to admit that it was probably better this way. He didn’t want to make a big scene before they had picked the appetizers and desserts for the wedding.
“Really cutting it close, Dad,” Jess said, looking at the list of choices. “I thought you would have picked all this weeks ago.”
“We have it down to five choices,” Roger said defensively. “I wanted to serve them all, but Cindy insisted that it would be too many appetizers, and people would fill up before dinner. And if we serve too many other desserts, they won’t notice the cake.”
Jasper chuckled. “That sounds like Cindy. She doesn’t want to hurt the cook’s feelings if too many people send their food back untouched. And she doesn’t want to hurt the baker’s feelings if people don’t eat all the cake.”
Jessica nodded. “She’s such a sweetheart.”
“I’m a lucky man to find someone so kind this late in life.”
Roger had the same doe-eyed look that Jasper had gotten used to. He was so in love with Cindy. At least that was one thing Jasper didn’t have to worry about. There wasn’t going to be a messy public divorce a year or two down the line. Roger wasn’t a shifter, but Jasper was sure this was a mate-for-life marriage nonetheless.
“First are the five appetizers,” Melly said as a waiter came out with a tray of small plates. She described each of the dishes and then let Roger and Jessica taste them all.
Jasper noticed that Leigh didn’t try anything. “Not hungry?” he asked her.
“I can’t have the peanut dishes,” she explained.
Roger nodded. “Allergies? I feel sorry for you, my dear. Melly’s peanut-crusted eel is the best I’ve ever tried.”
“I’m sure it is,” Leigh said with a smile. “But you get used to it. I’ll have the desserts, though, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
“Everything was so delicious. I don’t think I have room for one more bite,” Jess said as the waiter set the dessert tray down in front of them. “You’re killing me, Melly. You guys are going to have to roll me home.”
Roger bit into one of the macaroons. “I still say we should serve it all. I know it’s a bit much, but the baker will understand.”
Jasper had to agree. “I think the mini-pies are to die for. These get my vote.”
“I think the macaroon is the way to—”
Leigh was in the middle of her sentence when all of a sudden her face turned red and her eyes bulged. She clutched at her throat and scrambled to get out of the booth. She pushed Roger out of the way and fell to the floor.
“Oh my God.” Jess was up from the table and at Leigh’s side on the floor. “I think she’s having some kind of allergic reaction. Call 911.”
“Her bag!” Melly got up and rushed to the kitchen. She was back so fast that Jasper was sure she had flown part of the way. She threw the bag on the floor next to Leigh and started clawing through its contents. She found a pen and rammed the tip into Leigh’s thigh. “EpiPen. This should work. I don’t know what happened. I had the entire kitchen cleaned before preparing the desserts. There was no chance of cross-contamination.”
“Unless someone else did it while you were out here with us,” Jasper said grimly. He looked for a bodyguard and motioned one over. “Don’t let anyone leave until everyone can be questioned.”
Jasper put his ear to Leigh’s chest. Something was terribly wrong. The EpiPen had had no effect. Her heart was straining to beat, and she was fading fast. He couldn’t hear any sirens in the distance—clearly, the paramedics weren’t going to get here fast enough to save her.
He couldn’t just stand here and watch his mate die in his arms. There was only one option left. If it worked, she wasn’t going to be happy, but at least she would be alive.
He bent over Leigh and let his fangs slip out. He sank his teeth into the soft skin on her shoulder and bit down, letting his dragon mark her as its mate.
Sometimes when a human was marked, they took on some of the characteristics of their shifter mate. Usually, marking only occurred when the human agreed to it. But this was a special circumstance.
Jasper knew Leigh was going to be very angry with him for doing this. But he knew she was his mate. There was no way he could let her die now. All he could do was wait and see if the mark worked.
Fourteen
When Leigh opened her eyes, she was staring at the ceiling in her bedroom. She sat up quickly, looking around. “What’s going on?”
Her mother was at her side in an instant. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and she looked exhausted. “Calm down. I’m right
here.”
Leigh looked out of her bedroom window and saw that it was night. She shook her head, alarmed. “How did I get here? Why is it nighttime? The last thing I remember, I was at Auntie Melly’s shop doing a final tasting with Roger. What happened?”
Her mother held her hand tightly. “You had an allergic attack. You were dying. Do you remember any of that?”
Leigh racked her brain, trying to remember. The last thing she remembered was being with Roger, Jessica, and her aunt during the tasting. Jasper had been there too, and he wouldn’t stop looking at her the entire time. It had made her very uncomfortable, but also oddly happy. She hadn’t been able to try any of the appetizers, but she had tried one of the desserts. That was where her memory ended.
“I had peanuts. I can’t believe this.” She sat back against her headboard and rubbed her thighs, searching for the site of the injection. When they’d practiced, Auntie Melly had been most comfortable sticking her in the thighs. But she felt no pain. “How sick was I?”
“You almost died.” Her mother’s lower lip trembled. “We don’t know exactly what happened, but the EpiPen didn’t work.”
Leigh was becoming more upset by the second. None of this was making any sense. “How could that happen? Why wouldn’t the pen work? How am I okay?”
She felt so out of control. There had to be something her mother wasn’t telling her. None of this added up. The pen always worked. Though she hadn’t had to use one in more than a decade, Leigh would never forget how she felt after being stuck.
The last time she’d had a serious reaction, she was a small child. A kid at the playground had had treats for his birthday. He’d given one to everyone but her, knowing about her allergy. She should have known better, but she’d asked for one. She didn’t want to stand out and be different. That was the last time her mother had stepped away from her for even a moment when they were in public.
After she’d eaten that cookie, her entire airway had closed off. She’d felt like something was stuck in her throat, and thought she was going to die. Her mother had quickly run over and jammed the EpiPen into her arm. She’d been able to breathe again, but had felt sore for a while afterward. It had been painful to speak for a few hours, and she’d been weak.
This was different. She wasn’t sore at all. She didn’t feel any different. In fact, she felt better than she had in a long time. She felt like running a mile, and like she could fight a bear if she had to. If it weren’t for the missing time and her mother insisting something was wrong, Leigh wouldn’t have known anything had happened to her.
“I have to tell you something. You might be very angry, but you should realize it was a good thing.” Leigh’s mother clasped both of her hands tightly and looked at her imploringly. “Promise you won’t get too angry?”
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of Leigh’s stomach. “Just tell me. Just tell me, whatever it is.”
Her mother bit her trembling lip. “The only reason you’re alive is because Jasper Collins claimed you.”
Leigh threw her head back and laughed. Her mother had to be kidding. She must be trying to lighten the mood before telling her something horrible.
“This is getting more ridiculous by the minute,” Leigh said. “Is this a joke you’re playing on me? I don’t feel like I had an allergic reaction. I feel fine. What really happened?”
“I’m telling you, Jasper claimed you. Do you remember anything about shifter mate marks?”
Leigh nodded. “I do. Are you saying something similar happened between us?”
Because it couldn’t be an actual marking. None of the things she read could be happening to her. There was no way she had been marked by any shifter, let alone Jasper. The only most important part that she remembered was that the recipient had to agree to it. No shifter ever marked a human without them expressly agreeing to it.
“When a shifter finds his or her mate, they mark them,” her mother explained as if she was a five year old. “Marking them lets other shifters know that the person has a mate, and it solidifies the bond between a couple. Sometimes during the marking, the human takes on some of the attributes of the shifter. It doesn’t always happen, and it’s very random.”
Leigh nodded. She already knew all of this. “Yes I know, but shifters never mark humans unless they’ve expressly consented. I couldn’t have been marked. I never agreed to anything.”
“That’s true. Normally, a shifter would never mark someone unless they said it was all right. This was a special case. If Jasper hadn’t marked you, you would have died. Even with him doing it, there was still a good chance that you would’ve died. This was all luck. Fate. Whichever you choose to believe in.”
Leigh shook her head. “I bet you’re all really happy about this. I can’t believe it. Where does he get off marking someone who didn’t agree to it?”
“We’re all happy that you’re alive, as we should be. But Jasper feels terrible about this.”
Leigh got out of bed. “Yeah, I’m sure he feels really bad. This is exactly what he wanted. It’s what you wanted, too. Now it’ll be easier for him to convince me to be with him. That’s just wonderful.”
Her mother sighed. “Listen, you said you didn’t want to marry a shifter, right? That means the mate mark has nothing to do with you, then. You can ignore it. You shouldn’t feel any kind of long-term effects from it. And since you won’t be marrying a shifter, your husband won’t even care. You can keep this a secret for the rest of your life.”
“But I’ll know,” Leigh said bitterly. “Is there anything I can do about this? Call the police and have him arrested? Is there someone I can contact about it?”
“I don’t know what you can do about it. But you can talk to Jasper if you like.” Her mother stood up. “He’s waiting outside, and he’d like to talk to you. He wants to apologize. He’s been waiting for hours.”
Leigh was going to talk to him, all right. “Send him in. I have a lot to say.”
Fifteen
“Be kind to him. Remember that he saved your life,” her mother urged.
What kind of life was it? Now she was marked by a shifter. She had never asked for this. Leigh was angry and wanted to know why it had happened. Had this been another attack? If so, was Jasper behind it? Every time something had happened to her lately, he had conveniently been around to save her. That was pretty suspicious. If she hadn’t been matched with him on MateMe!, it would have been more believable.
He was a very rich man. It wasn’t that outlandish to think there was a way for him to have made all of this happen. Maybe he’d been angry that she didn’t want him after they were matched. Dragons were notorious for being jealous and possessive. If his dragon wanted her, Leigh could believe that he would use whatever means necessary to make her his.
A few seconds after her mother had left the room, there was a knock at her door.
“Come in,” she called, steeling herself for a confrontation.
Jasper looked as exhausted as her mother had. “How are you feeling?”
He was standing a fair distance away from her and wouldn’t come any closer. The sight of him was like a punch to the gut. She had the urge to run to him and touch his skin. She wanted to breathe in his scent. Instead, she backed up until she was at the window and leaned back against the wall. She uncrossed her arms, but she kept her hands clenched tightly at her sides.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” she said. “Apparently, that’s thanks to you.”
“Listen, I understand everything now,” Jasper said. “All this makes so much more sense to me.”
“Really? Because everything makes a lot less sense to me now. Are you the one who arranged this attack on me?”
Jasper looked perplexed. “What? Why would I want to do that? You’re my mate. I know you’re angry about the marking, but I assure you, I would never have done that against your will if there hadn’t been extenuating circumstances.”
Extenuating circumstances. What a strange way t
o put it. His words weren’t making her feel any better.
“I’m starting to think that you’re the one who did this. It makes perfect sense that you’d attack me,” she said. “It gives you the perfect opportunity to get on my good side. My question is, why? Why are you so interested in me?”
Jasper held up his hands. “Hold on a minute. I didn’t search you out. I found you through a dating app. You were on MateMe! I’m not some stalker creep.”
“My cousin signed me up for that without telling me, and my profile was deleted before I ever PMed you or anything.”
She should never have let Fabia sign her up for that thing. Jasper was right about that. She had inadvertently started this whole thing.
“It doesn’t matter why you signed up,” Jasper said. “That’s where I found you. It was a total coincidence, and so was everything that happened after that. I didn’t know you’d be out in the woods that day. I didn’t know you’d be attacked that night. And I definitely didn’t know you have a deadly allergy.”
“I find that very hard to believe.”
Leigh crossed her arms over her chest again. While he was talking, she couldn’t help but notice how nice Jasper looked in his blazer and shirt. She could see all the outlines of his muscular body. She knew what he looked like underneath those clothes, too. Picturing his naked body wasn’t going to make this conversation one bit easier.
“How do you think I could have found out anything about you? There’s nothing about you on the internet. There’s nothing about you anywhere. Go ahead and Google your own name. You have zero web presence. If there was anything before, it’s gone now. I don’t know how you’ve done it, but my PR people would love to know.”
She’d done it by having almost no contact with the human world. She had no official birth certificate, no school records, and no social media accounts. That dating app was the first time information about her had gotten onto the web.
“That doesn’t matter,” Leigh insisted. “Why are you always around when I’m in trouble?”
“Maybe because I’m supposed to be,” he said quietly. “Maybe my dragon senses that something is wrong and searches you out. It doesn’t want anything to happen to its mate.”