Alice had been restless all morning.

Not the usual Alice-restless, where she twirled around the living room planning outfits or rearranging vases no one else cared about—this was different. Sharp. Focused. Like a hummingbird caught in a storm.

Jasper noticed the shift immediately. He always did. Her emotions flickered like lightning across the edges of his senses—anticipation, excitement, a small spark of fear.

He was wiping down the already spotless counter when Alice froze at the bottom of the stairs, head tilted, eyes distant as a vision caught her mid-step. Jasper straightened, every instinct tightening in him.

“Alice?” he asked softly.

Her reply came on a whisper. “She’s coming.”

Jasper waited, quiet, still, bracing himself for the tide of emotion. Careful. Always careful.

Alice blinked back into the present and looked at him with an expression Jasper rarely saw—awed. “Jasper… I saw someone. A girl. You’ve never met her. But you—” She pressed a hand to her chest, like she was physically holding down the vision. “You’re connected to her.”

Jasper felt something in him stutter. “Connected how?”

Alice only smiled, a small, knowing curve of her lips. “You’ll see.”

She didn’t elaborate. She just floated upstairs to help Esme with decorations, leaving Jasper standing in the living room with an unexplainable weight pressing against his ribs. Something… shifting. Something he didn’t understand.

By late afternoon, the house was glowing with soft lights and Esme’s careful touches. Bella’s birthday celebration was small—human small—and Bella had insisted on keeping it that way. Jasper did his best to stay at the edges, where the scent wouldn’t overwhelm him.

He had almost relaxed when the front door swung open.

“Okay, don’t freak out,” Bella called as she stepped inside. “I brought someone with me. My sister’s visiting.”

Sister?

The Cullens didn’t know Bella had a sister. Jasper felt the ripple of the house’s collective surprise—and then the door finished opening.

You stepped inside behind Bella.

And Jasper’s entire world… shifted.

It wasn’t dramatic—not a thunderclap, not some cinematic explosion. It was quiet. Like a puzzle piece finally clicking into place. Like a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding for the last century suddenly filling his lungs.

Your emotions hit him first.

Warm. Bright. Steady—shockingly steady. A calm that didn’t smother him but anchored him. A presence that stirred something he hadn’t felt since he was human.

Jasper inhaled, frozen in place.

You looked up, meeting his gaze with curious eyes—soft, open, unguarded. The connection hit so hard it nearly knocked him backward.

From the dining room doorway, Alice practically vibrated with unspoken triumph.

“Everyone,” Bella said awkwardly, “this is my older sister.”

Jasper’s chest tightened. Older sister. His soulmate, if Alice’s visions were right.

You gave a shy smile, edge of nerves fluttering under your calm—he felt them like the faintest tremor.

“Hi,” you said.

And Jasper Hale, who had lived through wars and decades of blood and silence, could only manage

“…Hello.”

But the word rolled out of him warm—warmer than anything he’d felt in years—almost like it had been waiting for you.