Jasper's POV:
Jack's grip was wrong. I crouched down beside him, fixed it. He looked up at me with his whole face, waited for me to tell him he had done it right.
"You've got it," I said. "That's the way."
He beamed like I had given him the moon. He went back to swinging at the grass. I watched him. I thought about how easy it was to love this boy. Jack was a natural with a blade. Not the skill, not yet, but the want. He held it like it mattered to him and listened with his whole body. I had never had that—a man who crouched down, showed me how to hold a thing. I was going to be that for him.
I heard them on the wagon. Chloe and Annie, talking low, the way women talk when they think the men can't hear. Wolf ears hear everything. I heard Chloe say the words that stopped me cold.
"He's
