I snarled at Jasper, making him back up a step. He was my alpha, but she was my mate. If she said no, it was absolute.

“Meet me outside,” I said, my voice low as my wolf had his hackles raised, trying to protect our mate.

“You don’t want to do this,” Jasper protested, his eyes showing that his wolf wasn’t happy about his second-in-command challenging him.

“I do,” I said. “Our mate is more important than anything.” If he couldn’t control himself and stop scaring her, he’d ruin our future. “Outside.”

He showed me his teeth before walking away. I turned around. Jasmine had her sheets pulled all the way up and looked like she was on the verge of tears. She was holding it together, but barely.

“Hey there,” I said, kissing her cheek. “You’re okay.”

I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t comfortable with the direction that the date had taken. She was visibly shaking.

“Everything will be fine,” I said, kissing her shoulder. “Why don’t you try to get some rest while I knock some sense into Jasper?”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep.”

I pulled away from her and eased her into a comfortable position.

“I’ll be back in a bit.” I closed her bedroom door behind me as I went to talk to Jasper. If he hadn’t scared her, I would be engaged in far more pleasurable activity than having a hard talk with my alpha.

“What the fuck was that?” Jasper spat at me, pacing in front of the house. He was at his crankiest.

“You’re a dick, that’s what,” I said, ice to his fire.

“You’re the dick,” he growled at me, lowering his chin as if he were about to tackle me in human form. “We need to be…”

“The three of us will form mating bonds, for sure.”

“Then why are you stopping us?”

“You are,” I snapped. “Instead of letting her establish a relationship with me, you’re too insecure about your own claim that you’re messing up mine.”

He showed me his teeth. Normally, betas bared their necks or stomachs to show submission. Instead, I showed my teeth back at him.

“Don’t ruin everything,” I warned. “You won’t like the consequences.”

He snarled at me, his shoulders tight. “Don’t threaten me. I’m still your alpha.”

“If you want to be my alpha, you have to earn that respect.”

He lunged at me, even though we’d settled our dominance fights long ago.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” I told him. I brought my hands up and kept them loose. I’d defend myself if I had to.

“Stop!” We both froze when Jasmine’s voice registered.

“You two shitheads,” Jasmine said. “Why didn’t you think to ask me what I wanted, huh?” She had her hands on her hips.

“We’re trying to be respectful,” I replied. “Or at least I am.” I raised my eyebrows at her.

“Both of you, get back in the house before you freeze to death.”

Shifters weren’t worried by a temperature in the forties, but we hadn’t even brought up the subject with Jasmine yet. I could see that there were goosebumps on her skin.

“Let’s take this inside before you get too cold,” Jasper said. I guessed that he could see the same thing. It wasn’t too cold for us, but it was for our future mate.

“Don’t change the subject,” she warned, even though she was heading back inside. She was barefoot, which probably contributed to the way she was beginning to shiver.

As soon as we got into the house, I wrapped a blanket around her and settled her on a couch, sitting next to her and glaring at Jasper.

“Ahem,” she said, clearing her throat. “Okay, first of all, you don’t need to fight over me. Jasper may have met me first, but I feel more chemistry with Blue.”

I could not resist sending a smug look over at Jasper, who looked like he had been slapped.

“But Jasper is the one who invited you into this relationship, Blue, and I’m not going to forget that. Yes, I bailed on the date, but that’s because it wasn’t even remotely what I wanted.”

“What do you want?” I asked. “See, I actually take the time to ask, unlike somebody I know.”

Jasper’s face darkened and Jasmine sent me a glare. “That’s enough out of you.” She scooted away from me, so I shut up.

“Jasper, you have to take it slower with me. You can’t just jump into my bedroom without any kind of warning. I was about to… do some things with Blue.”

“I belonged there,” Jasper protested. “You might not see it yet, but I belonged there with the two of you.”

“There’s something going on,” said Jasmine. “That’s my second point. You guys keep cutting yourselves off. I know there’s more to this than two guys being interested in the same girl, especially since Jasper brought Blue to the date.” She crossed her arms, which created a very distracting amount of cleavage in the V-neck shirt she’d thrown on before she’d gone outside to stop the fight in its tracks. “So you two better come clean before I throw both of you out of my house.”

“You wanna?” Jasper asked me.

“You should go first,” I responded.

Jasper took a deep breath before turning to her and saying, “How much do you know about shifters?”