"Your face is red," Jack says.

"Shut up," I mutter.

I can't even bring myself to look at Leon's car driving in front of us, so I keep my eyes on the glove compartment.

"I saw what you did," Jack says.

"Seriously, don't you guys know how to pretend like nothing happened?"

"Nope. We're very straightforward men."

"Yeah, right. Straightforward, my foot. Where does your straightforwardness go when asked who's going to be your mate?" I mumble.

Jack takes a deep breath as we make a slow right turn. He starts, "Cassie, h–"

"I don't want you making excuses for him. He does a good job of that himself."

Jack laughs. "You're right, he does." His voice then turns serious. "But I still feel like I've to ask you to forgive him because he wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for our pack."

"I doubt that."

"No. Trust me, Cassie, if it weren't for our pack's orthodox belief over having only werewolf mates, you would have had a mark on your neck since a long time ago. You've no idea how much he's holding himself back when it comes to you."

"And you guys have no idea how unbelievable that sounds. And if he's holding back then why not just ignore me completely? All I'm asking from him is not to make me like him more when he has someone else."

"Irene is only a friend. They've known each other since they were kids, that's all."

"What about Irene? She thinks of him as only a friend, too?" I ask him, sarcastically.

Jack doesn't reply.

"Exactly," I tell him. "Your best friend is playing with the hearts of two girls."

Jack shakes his head and easily says, "Nah, he's just trying to play with yours."

I punch him on his arm, earning myself some future bruises, while he laughs. "Why don't you guys take anything I say seriously?"

"Why don't you take anything we say seriously?" he fires back.

"And what are you saying?"

"That he loves you."

"It's not enough. I'm not going to settle for cheesy flirtations and awful pickup lines from him. He's my mate. I want my right as his mate."

"Ooh. Didn't knew you wanted to have sex with him this bad."

Two more stronger punches on the same point on his arm. Now I'm sure I'm going to get some bruises tomorrow. "Don't joke when I'm talking seriously."

"Alright, alright," he says, still laughing. "I get it, okay. I know you're frustrated."

"'Frustrated' is an understatement, and it's not just about Irene."

"What else are you– oh, Philip?"

I nod. "I know I've no right to ask you and Leon to be lenient towards Philip. But he's my brother, Jack. How could I've let him be captured like that knowing he could get killed?"

"I know. I understand that. And so does Leon. That's why he ordered us to capture Philip without hurting him."

"What? Leon said that?!"

Jack nods.

"Then why was he arguing with me about it?"

"Cassie, Leon and I, we care about you a lot. I know you won't believe that yet, but we do. And we can't imagine what would've happened if we hadn't come there on time," Jack says, sounding like he's indirectly scolding me.

"Philip would never hurt me."

"He asked those guys to fight with you."

"I could've taken care of those guys. You think I'm not strong enough?"

"It's not about whether you could've taken care of those guys or not. If it were me or Leon in Philip's place we would have never put you in a position like that in the first place. Do you get what I'm trying to say? Your brother might actually end up hurting you whether he means it or not. That's why you can't afford to be this careless with him."

"I was not being careless. And I trust Philip. No matter what he told his men, he would never let me get hurt."

"Maybe you trust him, but we don't. Especially, considering he attacked our pack using cursed rogues."

At that, I shut up and let Jack scold and preach me for a while.

If there's one thing I know about today, it's that I'm more confused than I was yesterday.