Bonding With The Enemy (BxB)✔

Chapter 33 - That's a Thing He Can Do

Darren was leaning heavily against Jasper as the two wandered back towards town. Every time he tried to walk alone, he felt his knees threaten to buckle beneath him, thus forcing him to accept the assistance. 

He had no idea how Jasper got to him so fast without a car, but what he did know was that thanks to water damage, neither one of them had a working phone, so they had no choice but to head back on foot.

"I told Gerrit to call the Red Point Police, but this doesn't look like a place they would think to check." Jasper explained as he tightened his grip around Darren, whose arm was draped over his shoulder.

"hmmm..." Was all Darren managed to mutter. 

He was too sore to think properly, and every breath he took felt like he was inhaling shards of glass. The rogue's eyes were burning from the river water, and his mind was unfocused, yet he felt like there was something important that he was forgetting...

Reaching up, the rogue remembered that his collar was now gone, having been left at the bottom of the river. Momentarily, the fog in his mind lifted and he began shooting cautious glances towards the Alpha.

"Hey..." He spoke hesitantly, "You're...You don't seem surprised...?"

That brief question was all Jasper needed to understand the rogue's meaning. "No."

"Why not?" Darren asked more boldly.

"I've known."

"Since when?"

Jasper smiled sadly. "You remember that night we had the pillow fight?"

Darren's mind struggled with the recollection, but eventually he was able to piece together the events that the man was referring to. "But...You kept referring to me as a she? You said you were still looking? And...And what was that thing about you thinking it was my sister?!"

The Alpha chuckled. "You didn't seem interested, so I wasn't going to push it, though sometimes I couldn't help myself. Going into heat was the worst part, I'm sure you know how it is. And I only kept referring to my mate as a 'she' because at first, I wanted it to be a woman. That's what I was raised to expect, but when I realized it was you, I thought that if I kept acting like I was still searching for my mate, then maybe you'd get jealous. But....you didn't, so I tried suggesting it was your sister to see if that would work. "

The rogue stared back in thought. He did feel that the man was acting a little too thick in the head to have not realized this sooner. There had been too many close calls.

"I just don't understand why I couldn't sense the bond until now." Jasper continued.

"You don't know?"

The Alpha shook his head, and Darren explained. "You remember the thing I was wearing around my neck?"

"That weird choker that you never took off? Yeah, it was hard not to notice. You even kept it on when you shifted."

"It's called a Rogue's Collar. It has special properties that protect me from being influenced by other werewolves, so things like the Alpha Command or a Mate Bond wouldn't affect me."

He felt the Alpha's grip tighten a little and knew the man wasn't happy with that answer. "You were really going that far to avoid me?"

"I'm surprised you didn't know. Liam recognized it right away so I assumed he'd have told you about it."

"No. As a matter of fact, it turns out there's a lot that Liam didn't tell me..." He quickly glanced away and cleared his throat. "So are you going to explain how you wound up trapped in a car in the river?"