“I know you are.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said it, but it was the truth. And my new policy was all truth, all the time.

“You used to have more faith in me than this. What happened?”

“You lied to me. You were a Shifter, and you never told me.” And really, this was the crux of our problems. Everything that had gone wrong between us over the past year came back to this single point.

“That isn’t lying. I never said, ‘Hey, Scout, I’m not a Shifter.’”

I sank onto his abandoned spot on the couch. “But you didn’t tell me you were. You didn’t trust me then, so I can’t trust you now. Not after everything.”

Jase clenched his jaw, preparing for an argument. I lay back on the pillows, suddenly too exhausted to keep my head up.

“It was an act. An act, Scout. I would have never done that to you, and I’m still more than a little pissed you think I would.”

He didn’t sound pissed. He sounded sad, and I couldn’t handle it.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“We haven’t talked about it yet!”

I threw an arm over my eyes. God, I really was tired. After a few minutes of silence I felt my muscles relaxing as my mind started to drift…

“You’re not fooling me.”

I made a conscious effort to keep my breaths slow and deep.

“Scout, we need to talk about this. Now. Talley and I have to go back to Lexington tomorrow, and I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. I’m not leaving it like this.”

“You know,” I said, still refusing to open my eyes, “if you would have asked, I would have said yes.”

“Asked what?”

“To go along with Liam’s plan.” I couldn’t decide if I was hurt or angry. Probably both. It seems that true anger is rooted in pain. “I would have gone along with it. Heck, if it would have helped, I would have turned myself into the Alphas. The truth of the matter is you didn’t trust me, yet again.” I finally opened my eyes. “How can you blame me for not trusting you when you obviously have never trusted me.”

Jase’s jaw tightened again, but before he could say anything, Talley stirred beside him. “Shhhhh…” she muttered, still about ninety percent asleep. “It’s okay. Shhh…” Jase once again brushed her hair back from her face and then leaned down to kiss her temple. Something passed between them, I could see it on his face, and I was forced to re-evaluate my entire stance on this new relationship. Because what I saw in that moment wasn’t the popular jock who changed girlfriends with the same frequency as a Hollywood heartthrob. Actually, I wasn’t completely sure who he was anymore, and maybe that was the problem. Maybe I never actually knew him.

“I’ve made some bad decisions,” he said when he looked back up. “I’m the first to admit it. But I’ve always done it to protect you.”

“Did it ever occur to you I don’t need protecting?”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “It did. Around the same time you took down the Alpha Pack’s elite while in handcuffs.”

Travis’s face flashed in my head, abruptly killing any pride I might have felt.

I rolled onto my side to face him. “Are you really fully on board with these… rebels or whatever?”

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “And it’s ‘Jedi’.”

“Seriously?”

This time his smile was genuine, lighting up his entire face. “No, but it should be.”

“I suppose you’re the Luke Skywalker of this Jedi rebellion?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m the Han; she’s the Leia,” he said, indicating Talley with a nod of the head, “and you’re the Luke.”

“Liam and Charlie?”

“Yoda and Chewy, obviously.”

“Sorry, but no. If I’m the Luke, then you have to be the Leia and Talley the Han. Charlie can still be Chewy, but no way is Liam Yoda. Maybe a pre-Dark Side Anakin?”

Jase cringed. “Really? You’re going to bring those horrible prequels into this? Are you sure we’re related?”

“You know, I’m not sure we’ve really got a Star Wars feel going on here anyway. I’m really feeling more like a Harry Potter to your Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.”

“Harry Potter? Someone is awful full of themselves.”

“And this way Charlie can be always-loyal and cooler than cool Neville Longbottom, and Liam gets to be Sirius.”

Jase shook his head. “Sirius dies.”

“Lupin?”

“Also dies.”

“A Weasley twin?”

“Liam isn’t that funny, and Fred dies.”

I searched over the entire cast of Harry Potter. “All the cool people die.”

“Which is why we should stick to Star Wars and Jedi. What kind of cool team name would we get if we went with the wizards? Team Gryffindor?”

“Or, you know, Order of the Phoenix.”

“I think we’re more like Dumbledore’s Army,” was Talley’s sleepy reply. “Although, we’re more like Liam’s Army.”

“You’re awake?”

“She has been the whole time. She was just trying to give us some alone time,” Jase said to me before leaning down to plant another kiss on her cheek. “Yes, it was a very good try, but you’re not getting anything past me, Tal. I’m way too clever for you.”

“It’s a good thing I’ve gotten used to your arrogance over the years,” she said.

“You love my arrogance.”

“I tolerate your arrogance,” she corrected.

“Same thing,” he said before moving his kiss to her lips. It was just a little peck in the beginning, but then she tilted her head, and the kiss deepened. It took all of two seconds for me to get very, very uncomfortable.

“I’m still sitting here,” I reminded them, but they kept going. “Like, two feet away from you.” Still no response. “Seriously, I can hear all your yucky smacking noises and stuff. I would really appreciate it if you would stop.” I was going to have to gouge out my eyeballs if they didn’t.

“Sorry,” Talley said, finally pulling back. She pressed the back of her hand to her lips, and even in the darkness of the room I could see both the blush on her lips and stars in her eyes. “This whole newly-promised-to-be-mated things is kind of intense. Charlie has started keeping a water gun by his hospital bed to use on us.”