The Defiant Mate

chapter 8

Nathan POV

The second Jay-la had been walked into his office, her scent hit him so hard he had to force himself not to stumble backwards. Mixed in with all that blood; of both the men she had attacked trying to get away from his bringing her home, and her own blood, was the smell of Coconut, Vanilla and Morning Dew. She was his Mate.

Havoc was roaring with anger from the state of their Mate, she was bruised all over and wounded in so many places. There were bruised hand marks around her neck where someone had choked her. Her beautiful face was bloodied and ripped open all down the right side, with blood still slowly oozing from her chin, her right shoulder was exposed, as her blouse had ripped open along the seem.

She had deep cuts and grazes to her shoulder, there was blood still dripping down her arm, active bleeding. Both arms had hand marks which were already mottling to purple. The front of her blouse was covered in blood and not just hers, she had a long tear near the top of the blouse and part of her soft milky white skin above her breast was showing, and blood stains were coming from underneath, her chest injured to whose knows what extent.

His eyes continued to assess her broken and battered body. There was a blood stain on her right hip; a wound under her skirt that was yet to be seen. Her right foot and stiletto were covered in blood, not hers though. Pain was ripping through both him and Havoc at the state of her. Both her knees were bloody and wounded; he could still see there was gravel embedded into her cheek, shoulder and knees.

Havoc wanted to kill everyone. No harm was supposed to come to her. If this was no harm, what the hell was harm? Nathan was doing his best to contain the beast within him, seeing the tears streaming down her once lovely face, now so damaged she barely looked like herself at all. It was inciting his beast's anger even further ‘you did this.’ Havoc roared at Nathan, his claws ripping at his mind trying to hurt his own human counterpart.

He watched as Jackson sat her in the chair before him, her head was bowed, defeat written all over her posture and expression, she had yet to look at him. “Look at me” he demanded of her, he could not keep his anger at bay, and unfortunately he knew he sounded furious at her, but really he just wanted to see those green eyes, that had once looked at him with joy and affection, filled with tenderness, maybe even love, not that she had ever said she loved him. But maybe she had once.

He could feel it, as her eyes looked over him, he was desperately struggling to keep havoc from roaring Mate at her, he was biting down so hard on Havoc’s need to claim her right this instant, that he could taste his own blood.

She had not so much as reacted to him or their scent, something was wrong here, very wrong.

Finally, those jewel green eyes met his, filled to the brim with tears, Havoc immediately started ripping and clawing everywhere in his mind, in his desperate need to get to her, to comfort her and claim her for himself.

For once, Nathan actually had complete control, probably only because he saw nothing but fear in her eyes, and he'd registered their mate was terrified of him. He knew Havoc’s rage and aggression was pouring out of him, and into the room around her. He couldn’t stop that ‘calm down’. He yelled at Havoc ‘you’re scaring her.

Those green eyes only looked into his for a few measly seconds, perhaps three, if he was lucky before falling away to the floor, she couldn’t even bare to look at him. ‘f**k this is bad,’ he thought.

‘Mate’ Havoc roared in his mind ‘why not know? We Mate?’ Havoc was so angry that he could barely string a proper sentence together.

‘Wolf-bane and silver suppressing her natural instincts’

‘Kora?’

‘Disconnected from her,’ Nathan surmised, til she got the wolf-bane completely out of her system and the silver cuffs off. She was not likely to register that he was her Mate.

‘Get cuffs off.’ Havoc snapped at him. Furious, they were still on her, hindering their Mate Bond.

Just then, his office door banged open so violently that it took his attention from Jay-la, his Second Chance Mate, to his father, the former Alpha. "There is trouble son, your mother just recorded this.”

Nathan saw movement and watched as Jay-la shot towards his father and dropped down onto her knees. It must have caused her great pain, but she endured it, and pleaded for her life. His heart ached terribly, she thought he was going to kill her. There were more tears falling from her beautiful eyes as she looked up at his father, Blaine, while pleading for her life.

Her next words hit him like a ton of brinks, “Please, I have 3 children, a family.” his anger was being replaced by fear. She already had a Mate and a family. Maybe that is why she didn't recognize them as her Mate.

‘No’ Havoc whimpered, sorrow starting to filter into his rage. A growl erupted from him and Nathan knew Havoc was going to kill her Mate, she was his, Kora was his, no one was going to have her ‘only us’. He snarled, his anger refueling at the mere thought of someone else touching his Mate. ‘we’ll mark over him, claim now’ Havoc roared.

He saw his father try to clarify her statement with his Goddess given gift of mind-sight. She didn’t even hesitate, she wasn’t lying, and he knew it. After his father stepped away and just stared at her, to his horror, he watched as she bowed so low that her head touched the floor at his father's feet, as she pleaded for her children to not become motherless.

“Get her up” Havoc roared, his anger refreshed completely to full force as he watched the utterly submissive position she had taken up in front of his father. He never wanted to see her so low. Not his Mate, not the future Luna to their pack.

He watched as Jackson got her up off the floor, he was so gentle with her. Not once had he hurt her, even when he had brought her into the office and sat her in the chair before him his touch had been light and gentle. A part of him wondered what Jackson felt for her, he had been so pissed off when Nathan had ordered her gone, he’d never seen the man that furious before. Now watching him with her, he was worried there was something else going on, perhaps she had two mates. That thought elicited a snarl from Havoc, ‘I no share.’

Nathan agreed ‘I know.’ He would have to come back to it later.

His attention was brought to the TV, and he stood there and watched as Eric Stanton, the current CEO of Stanton & Co Law Firm, Jay-la’s boss, accused him outright of k********g her, then produced evidence that could be construed as proof. That demand to come home, or he would send for her. Then the footage of her actually being drugged and abducted was completely surprising. Wolves were usually very good at covering their tracks in the human world.

That bastard had even gone to the lengths to contact the human FEDs and get an investigation under way, and was threatening to throw everything he had at him. This was indeed bad, if they found her here and in her current state, it would all point to him.

Yes, he had done everything that Eric claimed, but in Wolfen Society it was completely normal to claim back what was yours, regardless of how it was done, he was the Alpha, and she was one of his pack members, his Mate. He had every right to retrieve her however he darn-well pleased. Technically, even before he knew she was his Mate, she had still belonged to him.

He cursed out loud the minute his gate guards informed him via the mink-link that there was a car with human government officials pulling up the driveway. Jackson huffed in annoyance, s**t was about to get real. How were they going to explain her current state?

'We could explain to them, that we rescued her from the kidnappers.' Jackson offered up, through the mind link.

"Get the cuffs off her.” He snapped, the sooner she got Kora back the sooner she would know he was her Mate, and this whole s**t show could be resolved quickly, with a simple statement from Jay-la. That they had not harmed her and, in-fact, she and he were in a relationship, that he had saved her.

‘ You hope so’ Havoc snarled, ‘look at mate. Hurt. Upset. Pups somewhere, separated by us.’

Nathan knew it was a mess. ‘As soon as she recognizes us Havoc, we can manage it,’ he tried to reassure his beast.

He heard the howl of pain as they were all trying to figure out a way to sort the Feds out, and Jackson was suddenly severed from the mind-link conversation. Nathan’s attention returned to the room they were in, to see what was going on, and she was gone. He could hear her high heels on the wooden floor racing away from him.

He moved to go after her, and was stopped by his father's hand on his shoulder. “Not you son. If the Feds see you chasing her, it’ll get worse.’

“I can catch her.”

“ I’ll go.” Jackson stated, still holding on to his balls. She had kneed him pretty hard and obviously caught him completely off guard, attacked him while he was distracted with mind-linking.

He watched Jackson straighten up with an effort, take a deep breath to get his pain under control and then head out the door of his office to go after her. She had repaid his gentleness and kindness in a terrible way.

“Son, what is going on?” his father asked, curiosity back in his voice.

“She’s my mate.” Nathan said, rubbing a hand over his face and through his hair, frustration filling him.

“What?” his father stared at him shocked, “And you dragged her back here like that. Are you and your wolf insane?”

“I only found out when she was walked into my office, just now.”

“Well Shit.” He was quiet for a good minute, clearly thinking about something. “Why is she still running from you then?”

“She is disconnected from Kora, wolf-bane and silver”

“So before she can even register what is happening in this office, she is running away again.”

“Jackson will get her.” Nathan stated flatly.

“ If I recall, son. She could outrun your Beta back in the days when she lived here.”

A growl escaped Havoc. He had forgotten that, ‘she doesn’t have Kora at the moment, so no wolf speed, he’ll get her’. He tried to placate Havoc’s growing desire to hunt her himself.

‘He’d better.’ Havoc growled, letting Nathan know of his displeasure at the situation.

“Jackson?” Nathan shot down the mind-link when he had heard nothing for a solid 5 minutes. How could she get away from him without Kora, and in those damned stiletto’s?

“Kora is awake and fast boss, I’m not gonna get her.” he sighed.

“How close to the gate is she?”

“Coming up any minute now.”

Havoc snarled in his mind ‘We go’

‘We'll not even get her now.’ Nathan huffed.

“Jackson, stop. We’ll retrieve her later. Let her go, stop the minute you think she’ll make the gate, it's open for the Feds.”

“Right Boss”

He only had to wait a few minutes. “Gone Boss, sorry!”

“Get back to the packhouse, we know where she is going.”