one night with the alpha

006

Jasper

He slid out of the car and then buttoned his suit jacket as his bodyguards gave another quick scan of their surroundings. He was aware of the people around him stopping in their tracks, the whispering as they tried to figure out who he was. The private hospital catered to the wealthy and was known to have innovative procedures. Which meant the humans here expected to see famous people.

They never knew it was shifter owned, didn't even know there were such beings as shifters. As he walked in, everyone instinctively gave way to him. Some of the shifters - recognizing him - bowed, to the confusion of the humans.

Jasper made his way to the office of the doctor who'd operated on his mate. The man had to make sure his mate came out without scars. Otherwise, he'd see to it that he never practised medicine again. Jasper had sent ahead a serum that was made from his blood plasma together with someone he trusted enough to make sure none of it would be left in the hospital's hands.

As the heir to the lion throne, his blood was the strongest save for other royals. With the serum, Cressida had a higher chance of not being scarred especially since fate had made her so compatible with him. When he got to the doctor's office, a female was waiting for him and he could feel her excitement about her. Even composed, he got the sense she wanted to start bouncing off the walls and was doing all she could not to. 

A small frown marred the perfection of his smooth brow, he'd been expecting Dr Winston to be a male for some reason. Instead, there was a tall blonde looking at him with the awed stars most females had when they saw him. He stalled his annoyance with his people, they knew better than to allow something like this.

He shot Conner, the man standing with her, a look that portrayed his displeasure with the situation. He'd sent him the serum and had expected him to know his reluctance to deal with females however qualified they were. The last thing he wanted was another female making a fool of herself over him whilst he was worried about his mate.

"Your highness, this is Dr Margo Winston, the foremost plastic surgeon in the state." Conner introduced with nervous eagerness. "Dr Winston, his highness prince Jaspar Marcelle Del Piero."

"Your highness." the female greeted with respect, her curtsey fluid enough for a royal audience.

"Doctor." he acknowledged then got to the point. "How is Ms  Álvarez doing?"

Jasper tensed as he saw the frown that appeared on the woman's face, his eyes narrowing on her. She didn't seem to notice, her eyes inwardly focused. "She seems to be healing better and faster than a human should, even before we used the serum." The Dr explained in a thoughtful yet puzzled tone.

"Any idea why?"

She shook her head. "All the preliminary tests we've done have shown her to be as human as any other. There're no unusual substances in her blood or any genetic mutations that might account for it. We'll know more as time goes."

"Make sure no one has any access to her results, and I want every record of them once you're done."

After a few more minutes with the doctor, Jasper left to see Cressida. He knew if he was in the same room with her he'd never be able to leave her again. The last thing he wanted was to cause her more pain than he already had. If she was in his life there would be nothing but pain for her.

She was in a private room, one that had a one-way mirror accessible from a small room beside it. Jasper went in alone and his heart hurt as he looked in on her. She sat propped up on her bed, her beautiful eyes holding back pain that lashed over him harder than anything he'd ever experienced. Yet she smiled at her family as they crowded about her, at his son.

He'd never seen the boy in person but he'd known she'd had his son. Seeing the boy as he held his mother's hand with a worried look on his face broke him. He should never have known anything but happiness. Cressida had done a good job of raising him in a safe environment. He'd never lacked anything.

Jasper wanted nothing more than to hold his son to him, to hold his mate. But they were lost to him. His eyes greedily swept over them, his jaw hard. 

The door behind him opened. "I said not to be disturbed!" he commanded.

"Jasper," his mother's teary voice was the last thing he'd expected to hear, the last thing he wanted to hear.

He closed his eyes to give him patience for her. "What do you want mother."

"I have a grandson, she kept my grandson from us!"

Anger swept away the pain he'd been swamped inside and he whirled about to face his mother and saw his father standing behind her with the door closed. "No," he said in a hard tone of voice "You kept my son from me." he declared.

His mother reacted as if he'd just slapped her, her head drawing back and her mouth hanging open in a show of emotion that she'd have called undignified. He continued, "You're the one who agreed to a blood bond. Cressida doesn't know who I am but she did her best to find me and tell me about J.J. 

Had you not interfered I'd have been there when she was pregnant, when my son was born, when he took his first step. Instead, you and Sophia robbed me of that. You have no idea how angry I am at you mother, so don't start on the one woman I treasure and respect above all else."

"You will not talk to your mother like that!" his father commanded.

"And she can say bad things about my mate without knowing her?" Jasper demanded of him. "She hasn't even apologised for being one of the reasons I can never be with her."

"There's still a chance..." his mother started to say.

"NO!" Japer shouted the denial knowing what her mother was going to suggest. "I will not make Cressida into my mistress."

"She's the mother of your heir Jasper," her mother pleaded coming closer to him. "You can marry Sophia to fulfil the blood oath but have nothing to do with her. You need your heir."

"Mother," he stated in an uncompromising tone. "You will leave them alone."

She blinked back tears, her posture even more regal and stiff than before but didn't say anything else. Jasper turned back to watch his mate and son in the other room. He looked at the boy wishing he could get closer, close enough to inhale his scent. He'd been reduced to having one of the men he had guarding them steal one of his son's shirts just to know his scent.

There was no mistaking that the boy was his son. J.J was a miniature version of him with skin that was about two shades darker and his mother's deep brown eyes. He was a miracle and Jasper would do everything in his power to protect him, even from his grandparents.