(Jason POV) I walked into Alpha Blake’s office expecting to see Aaron. As I walked in, I was surprised to find not one, but seven pairs of angry eyes staring at me. One pair obviously belonged to Aaron. Another belonged to Josephine, who was sitting on Alpha Blake’s lap. Both of my parents were also there, as was the current Gamma (Henry) and the Gamma-heir, Ben. I walked in, and quickly made a joke to break the tension. “I didn’t rob a bank, so you all should probably look for another suspect. Perhaps the cat did it.” I laughed, but quickly realized I was the only one who did. “Sit down, Son,” my father told me. There was only one open chair, and it was right in the middle of the room with the other chairs turned to face it. I sat down. “What’s this about?” The room was silent for a moment. I could feel the tension, and I could also see the eyes of everyone glaze over as they appeared to be mi

(Aaron POV) The meeting with Jason and pack leadership was tough. I never thought that I would be in that kind of heated meeting with my best friend and future Beta, but it had to be done. I had been with Cassie when she felt the first round of betrayal pains. It had been horrible to watch, and there was nothing that I could do to comfort her or make it better. I was grateful that it had been fairly quick, but I couldn’t leave her alone after that. I had to wait around with her until she fell asleep and I could confirm that she was OK. She had done OK for a while, and I had been prepared to go ahead and leave, but then the pains started up again. And again, and again, and again, and again. I called our pack doctor to come to our location stat, and he thankfully was able to get to her apartment in 90 minutes instead of the two hours that it normally took to get from our pack to this location. He confirmed that she was showing signs of betrayal

(Cassie POV) I wasn’t sure what to say when Jason walked into my apartment. After last night, giving him a chance was not something that I wanted to do. Aaron was persuasive yes, and it is always hard to turn down a hot, powerful man who is pleading with you to do something, but I knew I would have but for my wolf. My wolf was adamant that I talk to Jason, hear his side of things, and find out if we could make a lasting connection. Last night’s events hurt her even more than they hurt me. I knew she took as much of the pain from me as she could, in an effort to spare me. Given how much what I felt hurt, I couldn’t begin to imagine what the pains felt like from her perspective. My wolf had always been loyal and kind. She had always tried to support me and boost my self-esteem when my parents would disparage me. She was my constant friend and ally. Jason hurting her was all the more reason for me to reject him and never turn back. At the same

(Cassie POV) The rest of the weekend flew by quickly. I helped Megan run yet more wedding-related errands, which started to take longer due to bouts of nausea she was not only starting to experience, but also had to hide from our mother. At first, I had tried to make excuses in an effort to cover up for Megan, but after the third shopping trip in which I claimed that we had to stop quickly because I had eaten a bad human-made bean burrito, I realized I wasn’t creative enough to keep up. After that day, Megan was on her own. Other than wedding errands, I spent my weekend balancing and re-balancing my checkbook. Buying that ugly wedding dress had really done a number on my finances, and as a new graduate, I really needed to start looking for a job. The problem was, where did I look? If Jason and I were going to make our relationship work, I would soon need to move to his pack. However, I couldn’t look for jobs there without my parents finding out, and I wasn’t ready for them to

(Cassie POV)As Aaron and I hurried back into the dining hall, I felt a little naughty and a little excited. It is probably one of the strangest things that I have ever done: I literally put on underwear given to me by my mate’s best friend and alpha, and that underwear had pictures of super heroes giving the middle finger. They certainly violated absolutely every rule of decorum that my parents had ever taught me. At the same time, Aaron was right: there was something freeing and exhilarating about wearing them.The feeling of exhilaration was immediately replaced by a feeling of guilt when I saw Jason’s angry eyes. How had he found out about the underwear so quickly? Did he disapprove? Of course he would disapprove. Oh, wait – He didn’t think that that Aaron and I had done something together did he? Yes, I went to the Alpha suite but I stayed in the living area. Surely he knew I hadn’t cheated on him; he would feel it if I did. But then again, I had kissed Aaron before, s