Jasper just stared at the discarded towel lying on the floor, his mouth hanging slightly open in shock and his eyes unblinking.

Did she just hear what he had said? All of it?

He needed a moment to overcome the initial shock and decide on what to do now, when suddenly a strong hand grabbed him by the neck and smashed him hard against the wall, making it crack.

The air was knocked from his lungs and all he could feel was the fury radiating off of his coven leader. He was mad, and Jasper perceived the deep growl that rumbled in the man's throat.

Carlisle held him so tight that his neck would have snapped by now if he were still human. Jasper didn't dare move.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see him draw closer until his lips were only inches from his ear.

The man's growling was louder now, his breath making the hair on Jasper's neck stand up and prickle his skin, his hand trembling from the heavy vibration of the growl within his throat.

Despite the decades spent as a soldier, surviving and killing numerous of their kind, Jasper now had to battle his instinct of throwing him off and giving him a growl of his own. Even in this position it would be easy for him to ram his elbow into his stomach, or kick back hard enough to break his knee caps, then throw him to the ground, detach both or at least one of his arms, before he'd eventually rip his head off.

The sounds of bones breaking and skin tearing had accompanied him for so long that it wouldn't even bother him to hear it again. He wouldn't even flinch.

Like Carlisle was knowing what he was thinking at the moment, he slammed Jasper's head into the wall again and the boy breathed in plaster dust that made him cough.

"Have you lost your mind, Jasper? What has gotten into you?!" Carlisle demanded to know, his voice still sounding like one deep, long growl, making it hard to make out the words.

The coven leader was unsurprisingly in full coven leader mode, and now he was determined to show Jasper what he thought of his blatant disrespect and the provocation. He didn't let anyone tell him how to lead his coven, and he sure as hell wouldn't let anyone tell him to end the life of one of his coven members, especially when that member was still so very much in need of protection.

Jasper knew that he was in no position to tell Carlisle what to do, but he still had been the one who had steered the conversation into this very unpleasant direction. Just talking about his worries and doubts would have worked and Carlisle would definitely have listened, but he had chosen to let his anger get the best of him and yell and demand from him to do what he deemed to be the right thing.

And now Carlisle would show him what that misconduct would get him to make it abundantly clear who was the head of this coven.

"Answer me!"

Jasper blew out some air through his nose, feeling his father's painful grip on his neck and the cold, rough wall press firmly against the side of his face.

He remained silent as there would be nothing that could justify him going off at him like that and doubt his position as his leader, but the tactic of not answering his question turned out to be not the wisest one.

The coven leader pulled him away from the wall, then marched him back into the study and practically threw him over the broad desk, then seized his wrists in his left hand and pinned them to the small of his back.

Jasper could still fend him off, he could fight him and he had very good chances of winning, but it hadn't been his goal to challenge Carlisle or take his position. He was not interested in taking over this coven.

"You do not demand, and you do not tell me how to lead this coven. It's my decision how to raise my offspring and you better accept it or hold your tongue. My coven, my rules," the enraged doctor clarified for his wayward son.

While Jasper fully understood that Carlisle had to react to that challenge and needed to put him in his place, Jasper admittedly didn't have time for it now.

Maddie had heard, he was convinced that she had, and now he needed to check on her and make sure that she understood why he said it. His intention wasn't to make her feel worthless, he just needed Carlisle to see what he was doing to her by not even briefing her about the basic nature of vampires and keeping the knowledge she needed to survive on her own from her. She was maybe safe from being detected by humans, but she was not safe from their wicked, bloody-minded kind.

"Carlisle, let me go!" he ground out, the impatience he was feeling getting worse with every passing second.

Where the fuck was the girl? Had she run? If so, he needed to find her. He had just made everything worse and needed to be able to think of what to do, but receiving coven discipline over a valuable complaint successfully kept him from doing just that.

The hand around his wrists tightened, and a growl rumbled in his coven leader's throat. "What was that?" he asked in a dangerously low voice that would have made any other vampire beg for mercy in order to not infuriate him any further.

"I demand that you let me go before I hurt you and I really don't want to do that," Jasper hissed into the table top while trying to twist his neck to make eye contact with his father, but he could barely move.

Carlisle's other hand was like spiked iron shackles around his wrists and he pushed them higher onto his back until his arms hurt. "I've had enough of your disrespect."

Suddenly Jasper felt himself being pressed harder onto the desk - if that was even possible - and then got his legs roughly kicked further apart.

"Carlisle, let me go!" he yelled out as he was starting to feel panic build up inside of him. He couldn't waste any time, and Carlisle wanted to whip him now?!

"You better learn to hold your tongue, Jasper."

"Let. Me. Go!"

His upper body was secured across the table by the hand around his wrists and Carlisle's forearm pressing down on his back, and he could suddenly feel and hear how Carlisle lifted his right hand in the air, ready to strike him.

Jasper bit down on his lips. It took everything he had in him to not hurt Carlisle now. He really didn't want to lose control over his instincts and turn into the murderous soldier on the battlefield that he had been so many years ago. This matter was not important, Carlisle and his hierarchy could wait, but why couldn't the man see it?

He lifted his hand higher and Jasper squinted his eyes shut as he was still battling his instincts, when suddenly-

"Carlisle, stop!"

Esme had appeared in the doorway, a look of utter shock on her pale face. She stared at them through a curtain of brown curls that had fallen into her face, breathing heavily and holding the towel tightly between her hands.

Both men looked at her, but Carlisle quickly turned his back on his wife again.

"Leave, Esme," was all he said as he lifted his hand again.

She dropped the towel to the floor. "Enough, stop it!" she shouted now and ran over to them. With both hands she grabbed his raised one, pulling at it to keep him from hitting her son.

Her maternal instincts were pushing through full force, and Jasper gasped at the intensity of her emotions as they were relentlessly washing over him and made him almost choke as his throat painfully constricted.

"You will let him go this instant, Carlisle," the petite woman ordered. "Stop it!"

Carlisle huffed, but eventually gave in and pushed away from his son. Jasper took a deep breath when he was finally being released from the tight grip, then wiped his hair out of his face before he straightened up and spun around.

That had been close... but the drama wasn't over yet.

Carlisle took a few long strides towards the window, then turned around again, glaring at his son with pitch black eyes.

The agitated coven leader was starting to pace now as it would calm him and he needed to sort his thoughts after what he had been about to do just a few seconds ago. Suddenly his head snapped up and he focussed on his wife.

"Esme, what is-" "Maddie is gone," she interrupted him and swallowed heavily when he didn't immediately react to the information. Maybe he just didn't see why the girl's sudden absence was so alarming.

Her mate raked a hand through his tussled hair, blinking at her like he had trouble understanding what she had just said. "Wh-"

"She took a shower but didn't come back downstairs," Esme told him. "She's not in her room, she left."

"Why would she leave without telling you? Is she thirsty?"

Shaking her head, Esme replied, "No, she was fine, I'm-"

"She heard," Jasper threw in, looking in between his parents.

Esme's eyes widened while Carlisle's seemed to narrow.

"What are you talking about, son?" he demanded to know. His eyes were boring into Jasper's, and the younger man quickly dropped his gaze and focussed on the carpet underneath his feet.

"She must have heard what I said... Sir," he let him know, then slowly lifted his head and gulped when his eyes met his father's once again.

"Are you sure?"

He gave a nod. "I believe so... I don't know how much she heard, but I picked up her scent when I left the study and," he said, then he pointed at the white bundle lying on the floor, "her towel."

He didn't know if Carlisle noticed it himself, but the coven leader's eyes instantly darkened until they were jet-black again. "She heard?!"

Jasper took a step back and bowed his head again. Carlisle was mad and judging by his tone of voice, he would be for a little while longer.

"I'll go get her," he half offered and half stated after a moment, but when he looked back up into his father's face he realised that Carlisle wouldn't have any of that.

"You've done enough already, you're not going anywhere," he growled, his eyes boring into Jasper's.

Esme reached for her mate's arm. "But Carlisle-"

Jasper shook his head in confusion, and he frowned at his father while pointing out of the window. "I need to explain to her that-"

"I said No!" the coven leader's booming voice resounded throughout the room, instantly making everyone fall silent.

"Carlisle," Esme pleaded quietly when the shock subsided and pulled at his arm, "please let him take care of this."

"That is not up for discussion. I will go get her," he told his wife, then turned to address his son in a lower voice. "And you better hope that she hasn't heard anything."

He was just about to storm out of the room when his son's voice stopped him and made him glance back at him over his shoulder.

"But she has," Jasper shot back. "And I am the only one who can explain to her why I said it! She wouldn't believe you, Carlisle!"

The coven leader fully turned around, and Esme stepped up to him to grab his hands and squeeze them slightly. "I trusted you when you said they need to solve their problem without us, now you need to trust me. Let him go, Carlisle. You are too worked up right now, I want Jasper to go get her."

"No."

Her face scrunched up as though his unwillingness was physically hurting her. "I don't know what has happened up here, all I know that you were yelling at each other and that Maddie's gone. I'd go get her, but I won't be able to explain anything to her."

"Esme," Carlisle groaned and shut his eyes for a brief moment, "I can handle this."

"But I don't want you to."

He looked back at her, his jaw set, but eventually he let out a sigh and nodded his head. Despite his position as the leader of this coven, he couldn't and wouldn't ignore his wife's opinion and her intuition.

"Fine. Jasper, go find your sister and bring her home. I will handle the rest, and don't you even think about laying a finger on her."

Esme frowned at her mate, but he just ignored it.

"In the meantime I'll try to call her," he said and grabbed the phone lying on his desk, then turned around again and held up a warning finger as he whispered, "Jasper, don't you dare do anything you don't have permission for."


Jasper quickly picked up Maddie's scent and he followed the invisible trail that led him into the forest.

She hadn't taken the same path the had previously walked, but instead she had headed north. Judging by the concentration of the scent particles in the air, she had run as though she had been longing to get away from the house and from them. Admittedly, Jasper was feeling a little nervous as he didn't know what he'd find once he would reach her.

There were all kinds of possibilities of how she'd react to his presence, but none of them seemed exceptionally pleasant.

This really shouldn't have happened... his words had only been meant for Carlisle's ears and no one else's. No wonder she had run, he had insulted her like she had probably never been insulted before.

He was getting closer, and he noticed that she hadn't even tried to mask her scent or change directions, switch from the ground to the trees or just take high jumps. She hadn't evaded the ferns and low branches, hadn't tried to leave no traces behind.

Nothing.

She was either completely useless when it came to running and hiding, or it hadn't crossed her mind that one of them would come find her because all she had been thinking about was getting away from him or them as quickly as possible.

He ran quicker now when he realised just how fresh her scent was in the air. She hadn't gotten very far.

Time to prepare himself...

It only took him a few minutes until he reached a clearing and that's when he saw her.

The closer he got to her, the more he had wondered if he was just imagining it or if he was indeed smelling blood, and now he knew why. Maddie was kneeling on the ground, sucking on the gaping wound on the neck of a cougar she had just caught.

Blood helped when you were feeling off. Just like running.

Jasper watched the young girl while he tried to decipher how she was doing at the moment. However, she was only focussing on feeding and even though his ability reached out to her and tried to pick up what she was feeling, there was nothing.

He frowned, especially when he noticed something else.

Usually she played a little with her prey first, but now he could only detect one injury and it was the one she was drawing blood from. The cougar's tongue was hanging out and the sleeve of her sweatshirt was ripped and showed dirt marks of the animal's claws, but apart from that there wasn't much evidence of a fight because there probably hadn't been one.

"You are not supposed to hunt on your own," he remarked when she pushed the dead animal off her lap and wiped her mouth on her shoulder.

She shot him a death glare that was so cold and hateful, that he had almost stumbled back in surprise.

And then he felt it.

Anger... and hurt. Betrayal.

Her emotions hit him so suddenly, it felt like a punch to the stomach.

He caught himself in time before he would have shown any signs of shock and briefly cleared his throat.

"Carlisle's rule, not mine."

She just snorted, then shook her head as she pushed herself up from the ground and wiped her hands on the legs of her sweatpants. Her hair was still wet, hanging in tangled strands around her young face.

She'd have to shower again once she'd come home because he saw that she had tiny twigs and drool in her hair, and the left side of her mouth and cheek was smeared with the blood of the animal she had just drained.

"You're not talking to me anymore?"

When she just bared her teeth at him for a second and then turned around to walk away, he took that as a No.

"Very mature."

She walked further away from him, not even stopping to snap at him for his stupid comment - she really wasn't talking to him anymore.

What was he supposed to do now? He could feel her anger, which most likely was rooted in her disappointment and feeling of betrayal and hurt. A sense of fear was also somewhere in the mix, just like a little bit of shock that was slowly decreasing in intensity. Feeding must have helped her overcome the initial shock - so she really heard what he had said in the study.

Well, it would have been hard to overhear, judging by how loud he'd been...

That she was ignoring him now was less than ideal, but he needed to show understanding. It wasn't her fault that she had heard.

"Maddie," he called and jogged after her. She picked up her pace when he was getting close, and he internally groaned that she would give him the cold shoulder now in such an annoyingly childish manner.

"You weren't supposed to hear that," he said, hoping that if he cut right to the chase, she'd understand why he was here and would give him the chance to explain himself.

She didn't stop.

"I didn't mean it the way you think I did. You misunderstood."

Now she only got quicker, her head demonstratively turned the other way.

"Stop that, please. I wasn't-"

She wasn't interested in hearing him out it seemed.

Groaning, he told her, "I want to talk to you, so please stop and look at me."

Nope, that also didn't work.

"Stop it!" he demanded and grabbed her by the wrist to yank her back and force her to look at him. Her eyes were hard and coal black when she faced him, and just like his touch was burning her, she wrenched her arm free from his grasp, looked him up and down, then turned around again.

He looked after her as she was heading deeper into the forest.

"For how long do you want to keep that up, huh?" He caught up with her again and tried to walk right next to her, but she started to change directions, picked up her pace and turned her head away from him so she wouldn't have to see his face.

Jasper really didn't have any patience for that and his plan to be sympathetic and understanding with her was quickly fading. But he also didn't want to change her emotions at the moment as there was still hope that he could manage to make her listen to him without manipulating her.

"God dammit, girl, grow up!"

He grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back, and Jasper felt it even before he saw it.

Her sharp teeth had penetrated the skin on his hand, they had dug right into the fleshy part between wrist and little finger, and he hissed in pain.

When she let go, the pain intensified for a moment and all of a sudden he felt blind rage overcome him due to this vicious attack.

A growl emitted his throat and on impulse his abused hand shot up into the air to backhand her.


And they are back in the forest! Let's see if we can manage some bonding that'll last, hm... :-/

Thanks for reading and reviewing guys!