Chapter 69

Renee’s POV

My heart beats in my eardrums. I had no idea Jasper had feelings for me like that.

I mean maybe at a time when we flirted with the idea of dating, but to love me?

“Does this mean it’s my turn?” Jasper asks cockily.

Eric crosses the room so fast it takes a minute to process what’s going on. Before anyone can react he has Jasper up on his feet holding him by the collar of his shirt.

“Get out,” he growls. Jasper stares down Eric, letting him know that despite Eric being the older brother and alpha he isn’t afraid of him.

“I was invited here,” Jasper smirks, “by your wife,”

Suddenly there’s a sickening crack and Jasper is on the ground. He weakly starts to pick himself up but before he can gather himself, Eric yanks him up and pushes him against the wall. May now we’re all up on our feet.

“Keep her name out of your mouth,” Eric commands.

Jaspers lost a button to his shirt exposing some of his bare chest which has blood sprayed across it. His nose how crooked and his hair is disheveled. He spits and a thick strongly red stand of salvia hangs from his lips.

“You hear that, Annie?” Jasper says his head flopping to the side to get a look at me past Eric’s shoulder. “Your name is a title, wife,”

The pit of my stomach churns. Eric tightens his grip on Jasper, snapping his head to back in the direction of Eric.

Eric leans in close, the veins in his neck pop. “Talk to her one more time I dare you,”

“Eric stop,” I say finally finding my voice.

Andrew steps in between me and Eric looking ready to take on whoever he needs to in order to back up Eric.

“Get out,” Eric says, throwing Jasper to the ground.

Everything in my body leaps forward towards Jasper, but I force myself to remain still knowing tending to Jasper would only make matters worse.

Luckily Emily fastens herself to Jasper kneeling on the ground next to him and inspects his nose.

“I’ll take you to the doctors,” Emily says seemingly forgetting that Jasper is a doctor.

Jasper gently shrugs her off. “I can take care of myself,” seeing the hurt in Emily’s eyes he softens his tone. “Thank you,” he says and sloppily peels himself up from the floor. Emily looks at me anxiously and I nod, telling her to go with him.

“I’ll at least take you home,” Emily says gently. There’s no way Jasper can drive.

“Every one get out!” Eric yells and smashes a wine glass on the floor, thousands of tiny shards go flying across the room.

The red wine mixes with Jaspers blood on the floor.

Andrew is the first to listen to Eric’s orders and exits the living room without a word. Once Jasper is on his feet, Emily wraps her arms around him and does her best to keep him steady as he stumbles his way out of the house.

“I’ll call you,” she tells me before her and Jasper disappear from sight.

Once I hear the front door close shut, I spin on my heels towards Eric.

“You ruined the party!” I shout at him, taken back by my own anger in my voice. Eric stares at me baffled.

“Me? You’re the one who decided it would be a good idea to put us all in the same room” Eric shoots back and I can’t believe he’s blaming me for what he’s done.

“You never let me have anything good,” I say and I know talking in such extremes is childish, but i genuinely believe this to be true. Though by the way Eric rolls his eyes and laughs it’s evident that he doesn’t think so.

By this point I’m fuming. Eric walks away and I’ll be damned if he thinks he can walk away without so much as a pitiful apology.

I storm after him, ripping the sheer black curtains out of my way. “It’s true!” I yell after him and Eric turns around looking at me like I’m crazy which only endorses me further. If he thinks I’m crazy now, he’s seen nothing yet.

“I wanted a nice marriage; you ruined that, I wanted to pay for Debbie’s health treatments; you took over that, my wolf almost died because of getting it by a car just so I could get away from you,” I count off my fingers.

“How is that my fault?” Eric aka only focusing on the last thing I told him.

“Because you ruined our marriage so I had to get away from you, and in turn you ruined me having a wolf!” I know it might be a stretch but whatever.

Eric steps closer to me and I refuse to back down.

“I ruined the marriage? You walked out!” Eric yells, “You faked your own death and assumed a new identity. Who does that?”

“You got entangled with Mia!” I remind him. “Rather than deal with her properly you just let others think you two were married,” I can’t help it, tears stream down my face. “Do you know how badly that hurt?”

Eric winces and reaches out to touch my face but I seat his hand away.

“I didn’t think I wanted a fated -mate so I didn’t care what any one thought about my love life,” Eric says softly. I shoot him daggers.

“Not even your wife,”

Eric looks at me speechless. “I didn’t respect you like I should have,” Eric says hanging his head in shame and I hate myself for wanting to forgive him. Instead I let him revel in his guilt. I turn my nose up at him.

“No you didn’t,” I confirm. “You hurt me over and over again, do you know how hard it is to trust you?” I know I’m digging into an open wound, but I have to get these words out. Eric has to know he hurt me.

“No;” he says and looks up at me. I duck in a breath, his eyes look moist. “I guess I don’t,”

I nod slowly. “There’s a lot of things you just don’t know,”

Eric chuckles softly. I reel back in confusion.

“What is so funny?” I ask utterly confused.

Eric shakes his head. “That’s the one thing I do know,” he says. “That, and that maybe I never really knew you at all,”

“You never tried,” I tell him and Eric’s face falls again. “And I never knew you either,” I say as that realization dawns on me.

Eric brings his eyes up to meet mine. “I’ve always been honest with you, perhaps to a fault,” he says.

While it’s true that Eric always made it clearly known that he never wanted a fated-mate and that work was the most important thing to him. I still never who who I was truly married to. He also made that known that in many ways he was a closed book and it was to remain that way.

“I don’t know anything about your family; that Jasper was your brother, about your mom, or dad-except from the few scraps of information I’ve learned,” I shrug. “I don’t know who you are. I know what you are,”

I take a step back and look him up and down as though seeing him for the first time and not as my husband but as the stranger he is. “You’re a loner and an Alpha, a workaholic, and a closed book,” I sum him up.

Eric looks away from me. “That’s how you see me?”

“That’s how you present yourself,” I say honestly. The silence grows on. I silently beg Eric to say more to reveal himself more deeply, to prove me wrong. But he doesn’t. He has this chance and he’s blowing it.

I sigh. I’m too tired to beg him to be better.

I walk away. He did say he wants everyone out.