(Jason POV) The past week has been one of the hardest weeks in my entire life. The last time I saw my mate she was angry and in tears because I blamed her for something she didn’t do; the last time I talked to my mate was by text message when she told me that she wasn’t sure how to feel; and the last time I had any type of contact with her at all was when I felt her kissing another man on Tuesday night. Since Tuesday night, I have been going out of my way to stay busy and avoid uncomfortable conversations with pack leadership about where things stand with Cassie. Right now, my plan –my only plan—is to attend her sister’s wedding and pray to the Goddess that she will talk to me. I feel like I’ve never had so much riding on a single wedding; not even the one involving Alpha Blake and Josephine. It's funny to think about how much I have changed in the few short weeks that I have known Cassie. Growing up, Aaron and I both “sowed our wild oats,” although in different ways. For me,

(Jason POV)It is a small miracle that I make it through the wedding ceremony without losing my s---t. I think the only thing keeping me calm about my mate situation is that I am distracted by whatever is going on with Aaron and our pack. Meanwhile, the only thing keeping me calm about whatever is going on with Aaron and our pack is that I am distracted by Cassie and trying to find an opportunity to approach her.With the ceremony complete, we follow the crowd of people to the area designated for the reception. As we do so, we engage in small talk with a few other alphas and betas in attendance. Aaron seems completely distracted now, even more so than he was before we arrived. His eyes seem like they are constantly scrolling through the crowd, and a couple of times I sense fleeting waves of worry emanating from him. A few times, I see him and Alpha Ryan exchange brief looks. I know they cannot mindlink because they are part of separate packs, but they seem to be communicating s

(Aaron POV) We knew that Danny had plans to make sure Cassie rejected Jason tonight, but no one knew what those plans were. When Candy walked in and kissed Jason, it was pretty easy to figure out what had happened and who was behind it all. It was also pretty easy to fake being mad at Jason for the situation, because the truth was, I still was. Jason never should have bedded that she-wolf. He jumped to conclusions about Cassie without giving Cassie a chance to explain. He of all people should have known better; what he did was almost the same thing that Allison did to me years ago. When I saw the hurt and pain in Cassie’s eyes, I almost said “f—k it” and bailed on the careful plans we had laid out. Goddess knows, I wanted to. I desperately wanted to comfort Cassie and tell her it was almost over. But I couldn’t. Not yet. I had expected Jason to blow up, but even I could not have expected Jason to blow up quite as spectacularly as he did. Challenging both Alpha Fred and fut

(Aaron POV)The next morning, I woke up with a stiff neck and Cassie’s head awkwardly slumped on my shoulder. It was both the worst and best sleep that I had had in a while.Cassie woke up a few minutes after me. After a few moments, I saw her look at me with horror in her eyes.“Cassie, stop.”“Stop what?”“Doing that thing you do.”“What thing?”“I see the wheels in your brain churning. You think and overthink and overthink some more until whatever you are thinking about becomes something that you did wrong.”“You don’t know that that is what I am doing. How could you possibly know what is going on in my head? Besides, I just woke up.”I raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s true that I haven’t known you for that long, but… tell me that I’m wrong.”Cassie looked at me, completely silent.I smirked. “Told you. So what is it that you are blaming yourself for this time?”Cassie looked down at her hands. “Last night, you told me the story about your mate and your mother. I turned it i

(Cassie POV)Finally, the doctors announced that Jason was healed and ready to be woken up out of his coma. They said that it would take about two hours for him to wake up. They said it was fine for him to have visitors in the room waiting for him to wake up, but they encouraged us to limit the number of people. Of course, given Jason’s family and his role in the pack, “limiting the number of people” meant that there were around 30 people all piled in the room, eager to see and talk to him.Right at the two hour mark, Jason began to stir. Little by little, we saw him start to move his fingers, and then his toes, then his arms and legs. Finally, he groggily opened his eyes and looked around the room at all the people.I had chosen to stay in the back by the door, wanting his parents and sisters to be center stage. As Jason scanned the room, he and I locked eyes. I gave him a half-smile.Turning back to his mother, he asked for a glass of water, in a hoarse voice that indicated t