Chapter 252

Book 2~ Chapter 17

**Jake’s POV **

+25 Points

I know she’s lying. Not about everything, but there’s something bothering her, and I don’t like that. I especially don’t like that she doesn’t feel comfortable, or is too embarrassed to share whatever it is. I’m a fixer, it’s what I do, but how can I fix something if I don’t know what it is I need to fix?

Poppy keeps eating as if nothing happened, carefully cutting her pancakes into small pieces while Leo and I pretend the conversation never happened. The conversation about her flinching. About the moment earlier when something scared her badly enough that she jerked like someone had shouted in her ear or pinched her.

She said it was a muscle twitch, but my wolf disagrees, and he’s been uneasy ever since. Not aggressive, or protective in the usual way either, just… alert. Like he’s trying to hear something that’s just out of reach.

Leo notices everything too. I know he does. I can see it in the way his eyes keep drifting back to her whenever she isn’t looking. He’s watching her the way a wolf watches the edge of the forest when it knows something is moving in the trees. But neither of us pushes, not after everything. The last thing either of us wants is to corner her into running again.