Damn it, I knew I had smelt that scent somewhere – on her, that day I had gone to her house.
Look who came! Why’s he here? Did something happen to Jasmine? my wolf was starting to freak out again and I couldn’t help but shut him off again despite the headache that awaited me.
“And how may I help you?” my tone had definitely softened as well; I was finding him much less annoying by the second.
“I just need to have a word with you.”
Chapter 20
Control Freak
“You must know that even though Jasmine doesn’t show it, she’s scared of werewolves,” He began in a flat tone.
“I know,” was my deadpan reply. I had looked into that incident I overheard her talking about, and was told that she had come impossibly close to both rape and death, all because of rogues. She had been saved in extremis by her warlock cousin, Karl. And although she had gotten out of that encounter physically unharmed, she’d been mentally scarred. Quite the trauma.
“But what she’s even more scared of is losing herself,” he added on a sigh.
I cocked an eyebrow at him in question while giving him a quizzical look, “What do you mean by that?”
He let out yet another sigh, looked around the kitchen for a split-second before shifting his gaze towards me, “That is to mean she’s a little bit of a control freak.”
“Huh?” my eyes narrowed.
He lost me there, my wolf interjected, breaking through the wall I had mentally put up.
Ditto, I didn’t bother shutting him off again for he would probably just find a way to come out again.
“When I first entered high school, I met for the first time a non-relative warlock,” his eyes slightly lost a bit of their shininess as if to say he wasn’t unaffected by what had happened afterwards.
What do we care about his high school life? My wolf all but snarled. Shush! Was my only answer. There had to be a reason as to why he was telling us this.
“His name was Cole,” I certainly didn’t miss the ‘was’ part; there had to be a tragedy at the end of the story. “He looked and acted like any normal teenager, yet he was a warlock whose natural talent left many speechless.” He shrugged while a small rueful smile made its way on his face, then continued in a distant voice that made me think he had dived deep in his memories, “We became friends, and almost all too soon, we were given a nickname. The Inseparables was what everybody used to call us.”
He paused, inhaled deeply and then silently exhaled through his nose before carrying on, “Naturally, with that closeness came frequent visits. In a very short time, he became family. Jasmine loved him almost as much as she did Jake or Jason, and the boys grew very fond of him as well. We had been very happy for him when, in our senior year, he told us it turned out he was a werewolf’s mate, especially since Katie was one of the sweetest girls ever.”
“So happy,” he repeated under his breath in a tone that spoke of how close the two friends were.
Then what? My wolf snapped, not liking the suspense. I mentally rolled my eyes at his eagerness and refrained from urging the warlock myself.
“They had been mated for a very short amount of time when they had gotten into a car accident –a terrible car accident.”
So? I thought unimpressed, wondering how the hell that could relate to his she’s-even-more-scared-of-losing-herself statement of earlier. He didn’t seem to have finished his explanation; thus, I could only guess it would be all clearer in a moment.
“She had died on the spot for her injury had been to the heart whereas Cole had gotten away with just few broken ribs and scratches.”
I shivered at that. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain he must have felt, the heartache, the sorrow he must have been through.
“Within days, he had started acting out of character. A little over ten days after his beloved’s funeral, he had basically lost it. Overwhelmed by his emotions, he could no longer keep his powers under control. He snapped in a crowded place and almost killed dozens of citizens.”
What a pity! I felt bad for this friend of his; nevertheless, I still saw this little story-telling session as useless.
“Sadly enough, Jasmine had witnessed his outburst therefore when he was killed by order of The Witches’ Council, we couldn’t bring her to believe he had died out of chagrin or whatever. I had insisted on being a part of the assassination team – my way of bidding him farewell – and it had saddened me to no end when he had welcomed his death with a smile, saying he was finally going to join her.” He paused one last time before putting an end to his little monologue, “When, much later, I told Jasmine what had transpired, she told me she’d make sure I’d never have to come bid her farewell.”
My eyes widened, finally getting what he had been trying to explain. Jasmine didn’t want to get involved with me because she was afraid of snapping. She was scared of losing control over her powers –for whatever reason that might be, and I was apparently considered as a potential reason– just like Cole and end up the same way he did.
“Damn it!” I punched the table in dismay. And here I thought it wasn’t going to take too long to bring to like werewolves, I mentally cursed again. She had something else in store besides her fear of werewolves though, something I hadn’t bet on facing.
Tough! Was my wolf’s comment.
You don’t say! I quipped, feeling sarcastic because of my irritated state.
Sooner or later, she’ll come around... hopefully. The ever-so-confident alpha-ultra male was not
