Chapter 0249
To my surprise, Jackson makes absolutely no move to put me down. Instead, he just looks at Luca
evenly for a second. “Your girlfriend?” he asks, the words low and light with disbelief. He hums
consideringly and then turns his face back up to mine. “What do you think, rk?” he murmurs,
nodding over to where Luca stands, not bothering to look his way. “That your boyfriend over there?”
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I can’t help it then, loving the assurance in his voice, the calm way he dismisses Luca’s jealousy. A
slow, happy smile spreads over my lips as I stare down at him, not saying a single word regarding
whether Luca’s my boyfriend or not.
Because honestly, I don’t know.
But Jackson’s right – Luca doesn’t get to boss him around on this, does he?
“Didn’t think so,” Jackson murmurs, low enough that maybe only I hear him. But then he grins at me
and lowers me to the floor as Luca strides to my side, grabbing my hand.
“Okay, okay,” Rafe says, stepping forward with a sigh. “Clearly, clearly we need some ground rules
here.”
And I sigh, ncing up at both of my mates, before crossing the room to Rafe’s side.
Because my brother is right – it’s time we got some things straight and I might need some physical
distance from them to do that.
“What are you even doing here?” Luca growls at Jackson, his arms crossed as they stand about a
foot apart.
“Came for breakfast,” Jackson says, giving a calm shrug. “I was invited.” He nces at Jesse now,
who grins at him.
“Coffee?” Ben asks, starting to pour Jackson a cup.
“Sure,” Jacks says, crossing the room to take it from him.
“Look, can we cut this bullshit,” Luca snaps, clearly worked up. “What is all this happy family
nonsense!? Are we all just going to pretend that McClintock and I didn’t try to kill each otherst
night? That we’re not going to do it again if we don’t get this two-mate nonsense figured out!?”
“I’m not going to kill you,” Jackson says evenly, taking a calm sip of his coffee. I blink at him, a little
surprised, wondering where all this confidence came from. This is, in some ways, a very different
Jackson than the grief-stricken wolf who stormed out of herest night. “Are you going to kill me?
Or…try?”
Luca sputters, not wanting to seem like the aggressor now that Jackson has proimed himself
neutral. Then Luca grits his teeth, storming over to Jackson. Rafe grabs the back of my shirt, not
letting me go to them, knowing that my first instinct is to stand between them, to negotiate.
“Let them figure it out,” Rafe murmurs when I look back at him. “This, weirdly, is not actually your
problem.”
“Yes it is,” I mutter, crossing my arms. “I’m going to go from two mates to none if they tear each
other to pieces.”
Rafeughs lightly, but we both just watch as the argument unfolds.
“You think I can’t see what you’re doing?” Luca snaps, ring into Jackson’s face. “You get toe
in here all calm, pretending you’re fine with this, looking like the good guy – making me look like the
bad guy. But I’m the only one being honest here – you don’t want her with me just as much as I
don’t want her with you.”
“True,” Jacks murmurs, shrugging and looking down at his coffee before taking a sip. “But, getting
into a fist fight isn’t going to fix it.”
“Sure would be fucking nice though,” Luca growls, his hands balling to fists, “to knock you into next
week –“
“Enough –“ Rafe says, stepping forward now with a frown. I gape at him a little, pissed. What
happened to letting them figure it out!?
He nces at me with a tiny shrug before turning back to Jackson and Luca.
“So,” Rafe says, his voice calm and considering, “despite your insistence on fighting, I want to point
out that you two actually…agree.”
“What?” Luca asks, his face screwed up in a confused frown as he turns towards Rafe and me. I
look up at Rafe, my face mimicking my mate’s.