(JASPER'S POV)
Once Mason was done with Gilbert, he stepped back, and I was already moving.
I gathered Gilbert back into my arms, pulled him flush against my chest, and held him tight — tighter than I'd held him before, tight enough that he made a soft, surprised little noise and then settled against me with his cheek pressed over my heart. I could feel it hammering under his ear. A heart that was supposed to be turning to stone, and it was going like a war drum just because he was breathing against it. I didn't care that he could feel it. 'Let him feel it.' Let him hear exactly what he did to me.
For one long, suspended moment, the hall was quiet around us, and I just stood there with my mate in my arms and breathed.
But across the room, not everyone was breathing easy.
