Chapter 22

Jasper Hartford’s POV
I could feel my heart racing as the weight of Nico’s words hit me. I knew enough women to have a healthy level of fear when someone asks to speak to you alone. Given the events that happened just a few minutes ago it was a safe bet to assume that he knew my secret and that was bad news.
I turned around to face Lizzy. I pulled her into my arms and pressed my lips against hers. Savouring the way she tasted and the strength her presence gave me. I didn’t want to let her go, I knew everything would be different after this conversation and I wanted to savour this for as long as I could.
I ran my fingers through her hair and pulled her close to me but I could feel her pulling away from me. I held onto her for a second or so longer then broke our kiss
“I will see you after school baby,” I said as I let her go.
I watched as she walked through the canteen and out of the door before I turned around to face Nico. He was watching me with interest, like he was seeing the real me for the first time. I guess in a way he was.
“We can’t talk here, come with me to my car,” He said.
I nodded my head in agreement and followed him to his car. I felt anxious as I walked towards Nico’s car, as though everyone was watching us and wondering what we were doing.
They probably had suspicions about what was going on and I wondered if some of them might know the truth. It was a terrible feeling and it wasn’t one that I was used to.
I sat down in the seat beside Nico. He was my best friend but for once I had no clue what he was thinking. He didn’t seem annoyed like I expected him to be, in fact it was difficult to read any kind of emotion from him.
The silence stretched out between us, making me feel more anxious than I already was.
“Say something,” I said as the tension got too great for me to deal with any longer.
“Your wolf, he’s an omega isn’t he?” Nico asked.
“He is,” I answered.
“How does that even happen? I thought it was impossible,” Nico said, the shock clear on his face.
“I thought so too but I think it is some kind of punishment from the moon goddess over the way I treated Lizzy,” I replied.
I had put a lot of thought into this over the last couple of days. With the way that I felt about her it should have been obvious that she was my mate. I could have used that knowledge to shower her with love and make her life better and yet I didn’t. I let my jealousy take over and I made her life a living hell for years.
“That doesn’t sound right, I have heard of alpha’s doing a lot worse,” Nico replied.
“The difference is most of them don’t let the power go to their head until after they take over as alpha. Way after they already have their wolf.” I replied.
Nico laughed.
“You are probably right about that but what does it mean? What did your dad say?” He asked.
“I haven’t told anyone, the only other person who knows about my wolf is Lizzy,” I replied.
“You need to tell your dad,” Nico said.
“I can’t, nobody can know about this,” I said.
I could feel my heart rate rising as adrenaline flooded my system. This is exactly what I was worried about. The more people who knew my secret more danger there was of everyone finding out, including werewolves outside of our pack.
“You can’t keep this a secret from our alpha, he needs to make plans for when your secret gets out,” Nico said.
“My secret won’t get out,” I growed, fear suddenly giving way to anger. How dare he doubt me? He is my beta, he is meant to trust me completely.
“Here’s the problem. You are used to solving all your problems using your fists and your alpha tone. Now you can’t do that anymore without risking exposure. Take today for instance, you almost showed your weakness to the whole school,” Nico said.
“Well I will just have to think of another way to resolve my issues,” I said.
“That would just lead to more issues. As I said, you usually solve your issues using your rank and your strength. If you start changing that now then people will be suspicious,” Nico said.
“I see,” I replied.
If people did notice that I had changed then there could be a major issue. If they worked out I wasn’t as strong as I used to be then I was a liability to the whole pack.
As I am the alpha’s natural heir and I am of an age where I can take over the pack if I wished therefore, I can also be challenged. If anyone challenges me and wins that challenge then they can legitimately take over the pack and there was nothing my dad could legitimately do to stop it.
Nico was right, I needed to let my dad know about this. I was just lucky that Nico had no interest in leadership, otherwise I would be in real trouble when he turned eighteen in three months' time.
“I will tell him now. Can you keep an eye on Lizzy?” I asked, it didn’t feel right leaving her alone.
“Isn’t that Adam’s job?” Nico replied, sounding indignant.
“Well yes but I can’t exactly tell him where I am going can I?” I asked, matching his tone.
“Fine, but you owe me.” Nico rolled his eyes.
I ignored his attitude and said goodbye. A few minutes later I was in my own car and on the way back home. The whole journey I kept thinking about my discussion with Nico. All this time I had been worried about the wrong thing. I was so busy worrying about what people would think of me that I didn’t even think about how this might affect the pack.
When I reached my dad’s office he was in the middle of a meeting with Nico’s father, the current beta. My dad was talking about someone he wanted to promote in his consultancy business but Nico’s father seemed to be strictly against it.
“Jasper, what are you doing at home?” He asked, once he became aware of my presence.
“I needed to talk to you but I can come back later if you are busy,” I replied, really hoping that he wouldn’t send me away.
“It is fine, we are done here,” My dad replied, shooting a pointed look at his beta. His beta clearly had more to say on the subject but he knew better than to contradict an alpha so he just nodded his head before walking out of the room.
Once he was gone I told my dad about my wolf and what I learned when I was in the library with Lizzy. He listened in silence while I gave him as much information as I had. Once I had finished he was quiet for a few minutes while he considered what I said. Eventually he seemed to reach some kind of decision.
“You need to mark her now,” He said.
“Ok,” I said but then the weight of what he said dawned on me.
“Wait a moment, what did you say?” I asked.
“I think you heard me. You need to mark that mate of yours now,” He replied.
“That is against our laws, she won’t be eighteen for another month and a half. I will mark her then.” I replied. I was shocked that he would even suggest such a thing.
“It may be a law but it isn’t one that is enforced and it is broken all the time. As long as you don’t brag about it nobody would even mention it,” My dad replied.
“I guess but it doesn't feel right, it feels like I am tricking her into being with me,” I replied.
“That’s not true, you two have been getting on really well and you can’t tell me that your wolf doesn’t want to mark her,” He said.
“That’s true but it isn’t the point. I couldn’t tell her why I wanted to mark her now and I can’t lie to her,” I said.
“You can and you will. You have responsibilities to this pack. She might have an alpha wolf and we can’t risk her rejecting you. So for the good of our pack you will mark her, even if you have to do it by force.” He said.
I felt sick. This went against everything I believed in and everything that my dad taught me. He always told me that I had to respect women and marking someone without their consent was the height of disrespect.
I couldn’t do this to anyone but least of all to Lizzy. She was so innocent, she would believe anything I told her and I couldn’t break her trust like that.
“I can tell you are struggling with this so let me make it simple for you. If you don’t mark her in the next few days I will command you to mark her and because your wolf isn’t an alpha, you will have no option other than to obey,” He said.