The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate (Jason and Laila) by Caroline Above Story novel Chapter 94

Laila’s POV

Days passed before I heard from Jason again. While I didn’t think he would avoid me forever, I’d hoped he would avoid me for a little bit longer, because my own feelings were still in conflict and I didn’t know what to do with those.

William, meanwhile, was texting me non–stop, and I was the one avoiding him.

For Jason, when he reached out to ask me to share to finally share our celebration meal, he was a bit curt and distant on the phone.

“I was hoping you would accompany me to a restaurant to celebrate the signing of our contract,” he said, after Claire had patched his call to my office phone. “Would that be acceptable to you?”

“That would work for me. Did you have a time and place in mind?”

“Yes,” he said, and gave me an address and time. The time would align with a lunch meal. “Would that work?”

“I believe so,” I replied.

“Then I will meet you there,” he said. “Please alert me if something comes up.”

A

“I will,” I said, and he hung up.

The call had been professional but somewhat cold. I had to check the number to make sure it wasn’t some kind of prank call with someone mimicking Jason’s voice.

No, that was him. The number matched the one I had stored.

“Is everything alright,

?” Claire asked me from the door. “Alpha Jason seemed off today.”

“It’s fine,” I assured her. “He has a lot on his mind. I’m going to speak with him and I’m sure it will help things.”

I didn’t think Jason remembered much fro

the night I had stumbled onto him when he had been drunk. Perhaps Marcus had filled him in some on what had occurred. I had kept my mouth firmly shut, however, not telling a single soul about finding Jason or the things he had said.

The words about me that still made my heart race when I remembered them.

No way they could be true. Jason couldn’t possibly love me. And Marcus’s claims that Jason had been depressed since losing me, and had been looking for me all this time… those both had to be falsehoods as well. Neither of those things properly represented

r the past as I remembered it.

Jason had cast me out. He had scorned me for his new partner. He had never given me a second thought, of that I was sure.

I wouldn’t allow him to sneak beneath my bitterness or try to wedge himself into my heart again. It took me a long time to steel myself against him. I wasn’t going to drop my guard after one drunken conversation, I didn’t care how genuine Jason had seemed to be!

When the date and time arrived for us to meet, I arrived at the restaurant Jason had selected, and found him waiting for me at

the entrance.

“I have a reservation,” he said sternly. He avoided looking at me. “Our table is ready.”

He gestured me forward, to follow the server first, and then moved behind us. When we were at our table, he politely held my seat out for me to help me sit. Then he took the seat opposite me.

As soon as he sat, he lifted his menu, using it like a wall between us, perhaps as a tool to continue to avoid looking at me. After the waiter came and wrote down our order, the waiter accepted the menus and therefore removed the wall.

+25 Bonus

This close now, without the barrier between us, I could see that he wasn’t looking particularly well. His color was somewhat off, and bags hung under his eyes.

“I… must have surprised you the other night,” he said. I must have been staring and quickly looked away. “Perhaps I’m still surprising you now.” When I didn’t say anything, not wanting to bring up any embarrassment for either of us, he continued, ” Marcus told me he explained to you about my depression.” ↑

“He mentioned it,” I said. “I really don’t think it’s my business…”

“Maybe,” he said. “But you stumbled onto me, and I feel you deserve an explanation.”

“We all have our dark moments,” I told him.

“Yes,” he said. “I am sorry that you had to see mine.”

I should have told him that I didn’t need an explanation. That was true, wasn’t it? Yet, when I tried, the word caught on my tongue. -1

As much as I should have pushed to change topics and let this go, the fact of the matter was that I did want to know more. I wanted to know everything, even if I knew better than it.

So I kept my mouth shut, allowing him to continue against my better judgement.

“I’m certain I told you some about Laila, my old lover, who… well… I did not treat her as I should have. I did not appreciate her. So she was abandoned in my pack and unfortunately lost her life. And that of my unborn daughter.” He lowered his head. “If I had known she was pregnant… No. I should have taken better care of her anyway.”

He laughed a little, in a way that broke my heart.

“Did you know? No, I suppose you would have no way of knowing. I had prepared a nursery for my daughter when I thought she might still be alive. It’s in the pack house. How silly of me to keep it as it is, right? The girl would have been six now.” More softly, he added, “Like

1

My heart broke, realizing that he had endured this loss. I had thought he didn’t care about Ava or me, but between his drunken confession and now this, I wasn‘

sn’t so

so sure what to think anymore. His feelings for me, I could still dismiss as drunken ramblings. But these words today, he was not drunk to utter.

Whatever he felt about me, I was willing to believe that his feelings for Ava were true.

My heart broke for him. If I had thought myself to have a child, to prepare and plan to love said child, to only then learn the child is dead, I didn’t think I would recover. Not fully.

I could understand Jason’s moods, his depression, his struggle to cope with his loss and the grief.

So when he asked me, “Do you think I could see Ava again?”

What could I do but tell him, “Yes.”

r

I had tears in my eyes, my heart deeply moved for him. Gods, if only I could trust him enough to tell him that Ava was alive, that his mourning didn’t need to continue.

But how could I? I couldn’t trust him, not for me and not for Ava. Even though I wanted to, I had to keep our secret.

But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t have a friendship. He could know and love Ava, even if he didn’t know she was his daughter

“Yes, I think she would like that,” I said.

“Good. Thank you. I am appreciative of it.” He smiled a little now, painfully but with some relief. Too soon, he seemed upset again, nervous. “I’ve been having a particularly tough time ever since L…”

When he paused, I prompted, “What?”

He looked up at me. “I found Laila’s grave.”

Comments

Support