After the incident with his mother's family, the need to apologize burned inside Jasper like a wildfire, but his responsibilities to his pack kept demanding his attention. He and Gwen spent the afternoon hosting an inter-pack volleyball game on the beach, leaving sand in far too many uncomfortable places. After a phone call from Uncommon Scents's biggest warehouse about a manufacturing error in the latest batch of perfume bottles, he'd been forced to set up an emergency teleconference with half a dozen members of the company's leadership to determine the source of the defect.

Only after an overly long Alphas-only banquet serving what was left of the elk did Jasper finally get a moment to himself. He limped around the top floor with his apology present carefully hidden behind his back, searching for any signs of his mother's scent.

Would she be on the same floor as the rest of the Alphas, or would she be staying in one of the dimly lit towers that catered to vampires like her husband? Jasper's heart sank as he realized how little he knew about her life now. He hadn't even known she'd had another son until Steven had literally tackled him.

And that pup... Goddess, all Jasper knew about him was Steven had been extremely excited to meet him, yet he'd made him cry. Regardless of what his mother had done, Brooke was right. There was never a good reason to treat a pup so terribly.

At last, Jasper caught a trace of his mother's familiar lilac scent. He followed his nose down a series of hallways, only to find that the smell remained faint around the door at the end of the trail. She hadn't been in her room for at least a few hours.

Judging from their stronger scents and their muffled conversation, her husband and son had gone inside without her.

Jasper raised his hand. Paused with his knuckles almost touching the door. Would they even want to see him again after how he'd acted, or would talking to them make everything that much more painful for everyone involved?

There was only one way to find out.

Jasper knocked. "Could we talk for a minute?"

The voices inside quieted to the faintest of whispers. Silenced. For a long moment, all Jasper could hear was his own heart thundering in his ears.

Dr. Hoffman cracked the door open, squinting from inside his dimly lit room. "Is everything alright, Jasper?"

"No. I mean, yes, but not..." Jasper sighed. Goddess, he'd delivered speeches in front of countless boardrooms filled with some of the richest werewolves in the country, yet he could barely say a word to this vampire without tripping over his tongue. "I'd like to apologize for how I acted earlier."

"One moment." Dr. Hoffman eased the door shut. The whispering resumed.

Though he couldn't hear a word of what Dr. Hoffman and Steven were saying, he could imagine their conversation well enough. It was up to the pup whether Jasper would be allowed inside. After how badly he'd upset him, Jasper couldn't blame Steven if he never wanted to see him again, much less speak to him.

At last, Dr. Hoffman opened the door. "Come on in, but please try not to get Steven too stirred up. It's almost his bedtime."

With the room's lighting set to be dim enough to allow vampires like Dr. Hoffman to rest comfortably, Jasper had to squint as he navigated the maze of toys and suitcases scattered across the floor.

Steven sat cocooned in a bundle of blankets on top of his bed. Only his face and a pure white seal plush peeked out from inside.

"Your brother has something he wants to say to you," Dr. Hoffman said gently.

Steven hugged the stuffed seal as he looked up at Jasper with wide eyes.

Jasper knelt beside the bed so he could look Steven in the eye. "Hi, Steven," he said softly.

Steven pulled the blankets around himself more tightly but raised the seal's paw in a timid wave. "Hi."

"I'm sorry about how I acted earlier," Jasper said. He fidgeted with his moonstone pendant, running his fingers back and forth over the cool surface. "I never should have treated you like that."

Steven didn't say a word. He just hugged his stuffed seal closer as if the little fluffball could protect him from the horrible Alpha who'd snapped at him just for existing.

"It's okay if you don't want to forgive me," Jasper said as he brought the gift out from behind his back, "but I was hoping maybe we could start over."

Steven's nose twitched. He scooted his blanket cocoon closer to the edge of the bed and leaned over to sniff the carefully wrapped package. "What's that?"

"Guess you'll have to open it to find out." Jasper set the present in front of Steven, nudging it until it rested beside his blankets.

With his other arm still securely wrapped around his seal, Steven freed one hand from his makeshift shelter just long enough to snatch the present. The paper ripped as he made quick work of the wrapping.

"Chocolate!" Steven's cheer quickly morphed into a howl, filling the room with the sound of his joy. His fingers scrabbled at the plastic sealing the box shut, with only the pup-proof packaging sparing the bed from an explosion of candy. "Mom always says it can make anything better."

"Yeah," Jasper said around the knot tightening in his throat. He wiped his eyes, praying to the Goddess that Steven wouldn't see the tears threatening to fall. "She does."

"That's a lovely gift, Jasper." Dr. Hoffman sat beside Steven, gently prying the box out of his grip and removing the plastic keeping it closed. "Now Steven, what do you have to say to your brother?"

"Thank you!" Steven slipped out from inside the blankets and made his stuffed seal pup do a little dance. "Stella says thank you, too."

"You're welcome." Jasper fiddled with his moonstone pendant. He'd have to thank Brooke for giving him those chocolates in the first place, assuming she even wanted to speak to him after how he'd acted. "If you're not too busy, do you think we could hang out sometime?"

A furry brown tail burst through Steven's pajamas, wagging so quickly it looked like he was moments from helicoptering around the room. "Really?!?"

"Really." Jasper leaned toward him, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I happen to know a super fun ice cream shop in Periwinkle Port, and I'd love for you to help me decide which flavor to try."

"Awesome!" All traces of Steven's earlier timidity had vanished, leaving him a beaming bundle of boundless energy.

"You can have one piece of chocolate before you go to bed," Dr. Hoffman said, opening the box to reveal a brightly colored array of sweets shaped like seashells. "After that, we need to make sure you save room for that ice cream."

"Can Stella have one, too?" Steven made the stuffed seal 'swim' to the box and put on a high-pitched voice. "These look delicious!"

"Only if your dad can have some, too," Jasper said quickly. With dozens of chocolates in that box, it couldn't hurt for Steven to share them with someone else, especially since he was bound to go sugar-crazy otherwise.

"Then I insist on you having one, Jasper." Dr. Hoffman offered him a fanged smile. "It's only fair."

They each took some of the chocolate, with Dr. Hoffman setting aside a white piece shaped like a cowrie shell and filled with raspberry cream for Jasper's mother. The caramel center of the dark chocolate sand dollar Jasper selected melted across his tongue, and the pecan pieces hidden inside gave the chocolate the perfect amount of crunch.

As much as he enjoyed the treat, Jasper wasn't done talking to Dr. Hoffman yet. "Would you mind if we talked outside for a minute?"

"Not at all." Dr. Hoffman bent down and ruffled Steven's hair. "I'll be back soon, buddy. Make sure nobody sneaks any extra chocolate while I'm out, okay?"

Steven gave him a quick salute and a chocolate-stained smile. "You can count on me!"

Jasper and Dr. Hoffman slipped into the hallway. With the rest of the building lit brightly enough for werewolves' comfort, the vampire kept his sunglasses on until they emerged into the darkness outside. Once they'd gotten away from the rest of the resort's lights, he led Jasper to a bench overlooking a burbling fountain glowing with bioluminescent plankton

"We should have plenty of privacy here since most non-vampires will be getting ready for bed," Dr. Hoffman explained. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about, Jasper?"

"Steven isn't the only one I owed an apology," Jasper said. "Things have been hard ever since Mom left, and seeing her with you and Steven just..."

Jasper bit his lip, but he couldn't stop the tears from falling. His mother had left Cedar Pack ages ago, yet the hole she'd left in his life had never felt as hollow as when he'd seen her as part of someone else's family.

"I spent so long thinking you stole Mom from me, but she looks so much happier now. " Jasper wiped his face. Admitting that perhaps his mother was doing better away from him, his father, and the rest of Cedar Pack eased a tightness he hadn't even realized had been building in his chest. "I didn't even know I had a brother until today."

"She tried to tell you about him in her letters." Dr. Hoffman's voice didn't carry an ounce of judgment, only a quiet statement

"I really need to open those." It would take him at least a week to read through the mountain of envelopes, but he'd already missed far too much of his mother's life as it was.

"You kept them?"

Jasper barked out a bitter laugh at the sight of Dr. Hoffman's incredulous expression. "Of course I did. Ignoring those letters made it easier to pretend one day I'd wake up and realize that Mom leaving was nothing but a nightmare." His voice cracked as his throat tightened. "I thought maybe someday she'd come home and tell me everything herself. Then we could all be a family again."

Dr. Hoffman rested his hand on Jasper's knee. "She never stopped being your family. I know it might not feel like it, but she thought about you every day."

"I bet she thought about how horribly I took everything." Jasper took a deep breath, listening to the constant murmur of the fountain. Even with most of the resort's guests in bed, the water ran as surely as his tears. "I'm sorry I never gave you a chance. You've been nothing but kind to me today, and I don't think I deserve it."

"Everyone deserves kindness," Dr. Hoffman said firmly. "And I owe you an apology, too. I must admit that when you stopped answering your mother's letters I didn't think much of it. For the longest time, I let myself forget that years mean a lot more to non-vampires, and, well..."

Dr. Hoffman took his wallet out of his pocket and removed two small photos. In the first, he and Jasper's mother kissed beneath a canopy of lilies, with Dr. Hoffman delicately lifting her wedding veil. The second showed his mother with the first streaks of silver in her hair as she cradled a tiny baby in her hands, all while Dr. Hoffman smiled down at them fondly. He looked the same in both photos as he did years later. Happy. Healthy.

Unaging.

"Watching Steven grow up has brought things into perspective for me." Dr. Hoffman planted a gentle kiss on both photos before slipping them back into his wallet. "When vampires drift apart from each other, we have decades to reconnect, if not more. For someone like you, a single year can feel like an eternity, and I am deeply sorry I didn't realize that sooner. I can only hope it's not too late for us to be part of your life."

"It's not." Jasper offered him a small smile. "I already promised Steven I'd take him to get ice cream, and I'll spend time with you and Mom when I can. Maybe once this ball is over I'll ask Dad if I can take a vacation to Duskvale for a while, if you'll have me."

"Your mother and I would like that very much."

The two of them sat in a comfortable silence for a while, watching the fountain and its gentle green glow.

"That wasn't everything you wanted to talk to me about, was it?" Dr. Hoffman asked. "It seems like you've had something else on your mind."

"More like someone else." Jasper glanced at the moon, but the Goddess provided him no guidance, as usual. "When you met Mom, how did you know you were soulmates?"

A dreamy smile spread across Dr. Hoffman's face. "It's hard to explain, but something about being around her made me feel like I imagine humans do when they finally see the sun after a thunderstorm. I've met many wonderful people in the century that I've been alive, but nowhere have I felt more at home than by your mother's side." He raised his eyebrows. "Is this about Brooke?"

Jasper's cheeks flushed. "Is it that obvious?"

"It's as plain to see as the full moon on a cloudless night." Dr. Hoffman chuckled softly. "I'm sure you're sick of hearing this, but only you will know when you've found your soulmate, regardless of who they may be."

He certainly didn't know now. Maybe he never would. "I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't want anything to do with me after how I acted."

"Even married couples fight sometimes. Goddess knows I drive your mother crazy whenever I try to help her in the kitchen!" Dr. Hoffman gave Jasper's hand a gentle squeeze. "Apologizing to her like you did to Steven and I can't hurt. I know Lucy was planning to help her prepare gift bags for the Blue Moon Ball, so you should be able to find them in the ballroom tomorrow."

It was settled. He'd apologize to Brooke then. "Thank you for talking to me about all this. I really appreciate it."

"Thank you for opening up to me. There's only so much I can help you with when it comes to werewolf matters, but I'm always happy to lend a listening ear if you ever need one." His stepfather flashed him a moon-bright smile. "And I can hardly wait for you to visit Duskvale!"