Heart for Three

8

Arsen

The professor's voice droned on as I snuck another glance at my phone. It had been nearly two hours since I'd texted Jax when he told me abruptly that he was heading home. He still hadn't answered and I had a feeling deep in my gut that something wasn't right. It wasn't like him to ditch school.

Even for impromptu hookups with girls, he'd just find some empty janitors closet somewhere or something before letting girls affect his attendance. People saw how Jax was and expected him to be some slacker, just floating through life while his dad paid for his schooling. But he was anything but that.

Besides entertaining a constant flow of horny girls, Jax was extremely focused on graduating, and following in his fathers footsteps to become a successful alpha. I was his chosen beta, and I'd be there with him through it all.

I sighed when I saw that there were no new texts, and shoved my phone back into my pocket.

As much as I respected him as my alpha and best friend, I didn't agree with his seemingly insatiable debauchery. And though he'd never admit it, we both knew it was just an act.

I'd been watching him suppress his fear for years, jumping into bed with any woman that fell for his charm. He pretended he loved the constant, meaningless hook ups. He pretended that he didn't dread the day he would meet his perfect mate and reject her.

But when he let his guard down, I could see his loneliness and desolation. We'd been best friends since we could walk, and I probably knew the guy better than he knew himself. I knew every hook up felt hollow and empty to him, never giving him the satisfaction both he and his wolf desired.

He'd never admit that he was scared. The Oracle had come to his father when we were fifteen, promising an imminent death for his future mate. Both Jax and his father had taken her warning to heart. But I was more skeptical.

I still remembered the night the batshit old lady had appeared at our pack house, a mess of crazy gray hair, wrapped in a moth eaten black shaw. She had demanded that she speak to the alpha and rising alpha at nearly one in the morning. Her long bony fingers were wringing each other as she spoke in tongues, rocking back and forth and babbling to herself like an insane person. I could still hear her hoarse voice repeating the same rhyme over and over.

"A girl so pure, heart for three. Veins full of magic, Luna to be. A painful death, three hearts shatter. Love and protection, none will matter. She must die, cast into hell, those left earth side, an empty shell. Accept the bond, it's already too late, an ancient curse has sealed her fate."

Over and over again she had repeated it, burning the rhyme into my brain. She would switch from English to Gaelic, to Latin, and back to English again. All the while obsessively wringing her hands together and rocking. She had only answered our questions in short, unhelpful replies. Leaving us with more questions than answers.

Over the last six years I'd gone over the prediction every way I could, trying to figure out exactly what it meant. I'd even tried to find the Oracle to talk to her, to get a straight answer out of her. But, I learned that she had died not long after she came to see us that night.

Hell, I'd even gone to the local witches coven to see if they knew anything about it, seeing that oracles were just witches with an affinity for foresight. But of course, they wouldn't help me, being the stuck up bitches that they were.

Jax had given up trying to decipher the old woman's rantings. Instead he had convinced himself that rejecting his mate would save her from whatever painful death the Oracle had seen. His dad didn't know what to do, but agreed with his son that rejection would be the best choice. I still wasn't sure it was even real.