Oh, So Now You Want Me?

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty Two

"Oh my God," My hand instinctively reached to clutch my chest, "You scared the crap out of me Jude. What the hell are you doing here?!"

Staring at him I waited for something to be said, but instead he just moved to sit on the edge of my bed and hung his head, running a free hand through his already tousled hair and by the way his hair stuck up at different angels, this didn't look like the first time he had done it either.

"Jude?" Moving back the covers, I inched my way closer to him, wrapping my arm around his shoulder. "What happened? Are you okay?" A sudden panic at the thought of him being hurt chocked me.

"I shouldn't have come." The sorrow and regret in his voice pulled at my heart. "This isn't your problem, pretty girl." Brushing my arm off he went to stand up, but I quickly wrapped both of my hands around his.

I entwined our hands together, holding his as tight as I could and propped myself up by my knees on the bed.

"You wouldn't have come here if you didn't want to tell me." I had no idea if that was true, but I didn't know what else to say. For a reason I couldn't explain, whenever I thought of Jude being hurt or sad, it almost caused me to feel pain.

Jude stood, staring at our hands. "I thought you'd hate me." He whispered with pain etched all over his perfect features. It didn't look right to see such a handsome face ruined by an expression like that. "I should have been there with that guy; I shouldn't have left you alone." He shook his head as if wanting to shake away a sudden memory. "If I hadn't left you, you wouldn't have been hurt. I was so stupid Harper."

Reaching up I cupped the back of his neck and pulled him closer to me. "I'm fine, I wasn't hurt and you definitely weren't to blame for anything that happened. You told me to stay where I was and I didn't. If anything it was my own fault." It was true. I would never blame Jude for what happened that night.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Jude bowed his head. I could tell he didn't believe me, but by now he obviously knew not to argue.

Neither one of us said anything; we just sat together with my arms wrapped around him and his slow, warm breathing tingling the bare skin of my neck. "It's my mom." He said after a few minutes of silence. Jude had barely spoken about his mom. If it wasn't to tell us he had to pick something up for her or that he was doing something for her, she was never mentioned. "She... she's hurt."

Hurt? What was he talking about?

"Normally I know about this kind of thing. When I was younger she told me everything I needed to know about werewolves, what they go through and all that, but I'm out of my depth with this Harper." The heaviness of his words settled in me. Mason told me about Jude and how different he was from us, but I never put too much thought into it. "I need help, but I've got no one."

That wasn't true. "You've got me." No matter what it was I'd be there for him. "What's wrong with her?"

Moving my hand from his neck, he cupped both of my hands in his large ones. "I need you to come with me, but you've got to promise me something." Those beautiful grey eyes bore into mine and the familiar tickle in the pit of my stomach erupted.

I wasn't sure why I felt so attracted to Jude, maybe it was just a girl/guy thing or maybe it was something else. Whatever it was now was definitely not the time to be thinking about it, I would have to ask Richard later, he might be able to help.

"Anything."

"You've got to promise not to tell anyone about this." My forehead creased. Why couldn't I tell anyone? "It doesn't make sense, I know that, but I can't ask for your help if you can't promise me that."