✔ | 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍, jasper hale

thirty-four

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"I'll get you some clothes, and we have a guest room just down the hall," she told him, reaching beside her to flick on the lights only to freeze on her spot.

An incredibly familiar figure leaned against the walls of their hallway; their hands were tucked inside their pockets as if he had been waiting for them for a long time already.

The moment their eyes met, Madelline could feel herself choking on a sob. The once-large hole inside her heart gradually faded into nothing as she continued looking into the eyes of the man she loved so much.

"Jaz? Is it really you?" she whispered. Her voice was shaking nervously, as if everything she was seeing was just a figment of her imagination, created solely to temporarily fill the gap inside her.

A nod was all it took before Madelline rushed towards him, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him close against her body. She melted at the familiar feeling of being inside his arms once again and nuzzled her face against the crook of his neck.

Jasper Hale was finally home.

He couldn't take it any longer. Madelline deserved better; that was right, but Jasper will do everything in his power to make sure he deserves Madelline. Call him selfish, but if overcoming his bloodlust means being within his girl's arms every day, he could feast on alternatives—even bunnies—every day.

"I missed you, darling," he whispered, cradling the back of her head, delicately.

Madelline pulled away, tilting her head back so she could look at him properly with a soft smile. "I missed you too."

She placed her hands against his arms as she analyzed him from head to toe. "When did you come home?" she asked.

"Hours ago, Alice saw a vision of Bella, and we tried to come home as fast as we could," he told her.

Madelline's eyebrows furrowed. "What vision?"

"You didn't know?" Jasper's eyes widened in surprise. Out of all of them, he assumed Madelline would be the first to know since she shared the same ability with Alice.

She shook her head in response and sighed. "I was training the whole day with Jace," she told him, only to realize that she forgot that she brought him along. "Wait! Speaking of Jace, he's—" she trailed off as soon as she turned around and met with nothing but an empty hallway.

"What the hell? He was just here," she mumbled, letting go of Jasper's arms to enter their living room, searching for a particular blonde head.

Her search didn't go for too long when she noticed a blonde hair peeking out from their sofa and a pair of black socks peeking out from the other side. She held back a snort and walked toward where he was.

"You really made yourself at home."

At the sound of her voice, Jace shot up from his position and slowly turned his head to look at the two behind him. He sent the girl a sheepish smile and quickly stood up.

"I didn't want to interrupt, so I went here instead," he attempted to explain further, only to come up with nothing. He scratched the back of his neck and looked away from her to meet the pair of eyes, looking at him perplexedly, behind her.