Mates: Jax's Story

Chapter 17

~Shanice~

I hang up; Jax and Kehlani are staring at me. “I…I….it’s my sister.” I turn on my heel and run to the door. Janice sounded hurt, and I need to make sure she’s okay. We may not be super close, but she’s still my sister.

“I’m coming with you.” I hear Jax behind me, but I don’t slow down or stop. I make it downstairs and out of the packhouse. Running up to the cottage, I notice a lump on the ground in front of the steps. As I get closer, I see my sister rolling around, moaning. She has slashes on her clothes, and blood is stained on the material.

I kneel close to my sister and place a hand on her arm. “Janice, what happened? Are you okay?” Janice turns to me and whimpers.

“Shanice, you’re here. I think I’ll be okay.” Her eyes look past me, and she suddenly wails. “It hurts so badly…..aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!” Didn’t she just say that she’d be okay? “I need a doctor! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Janice is holding her middle and rolling around on the ground. I scoot back and hit a pillar of some kind. When I look up, I notice it’s Jax. Did Janice’s sudden onslaught of pain have something to do with Jax?

“What happened out there?” Janice struggles to sit up, all the while keeping Jax in her sights.

“I….I don’t know what happened. I was talking to the cottage, and all of a sudden, I was attacked. I don’t know how many it was that attacked me. It had to be rogues or something.” Rogues? I wouldn’t think that Summit Mountain was subject to random attacks from rogues. I mean, rogues can be found anywhere, but this seems weird. I notice Jax’s eyes gloss over. When his eyes clear up, he turns to Janice.

“I have contacted warriors to look around. Do you know what direction they went?” Janice shrugs her shoulders, having sat up, leaning on her elbow. “We should get you checked out at the clinic.” I stand and reach out to Janice so I can help her up. Janice grabs my hand and lets me help her up. Once on her feet, she stumbles and falls into Jax.

“Aaaaaahhhhhhhh…….I’m so sorry. I just….I can’t walk; it hurts too much.” Janice looks up at Jax. “P….pplease help me.” Jax sighs a bit and wraps an arm around Janice’s waist, allowing her to lean on him. He starts to walk slowly with her while I trail behind. I guess they will have to do some serious maneuvering regarding patrols since there has been a rogue attack. I’m grateful that the attack wasn’t worse; my sister didn’t lose her life.

The walk to the clinic was long, though it may be the show that made it seem longer. Janice kept snuggling into Jax’s side as he helped her walk to the clinic. Her free hand kept finding ways to touch him. To Jax’s credit, he took it all in stride, being the Beta that he is, helping a pack member.

When we finally reached the clinic, a doctor was outside waiting for my sister. Jax passes Janice off to the doctor, with Janice trying to get him to follow her inside. Jax politely declined. I go forward to walk into the clinic, and Jax grabs my hand. I turn toward him, and he runs his fingers down the side of my face. “Stay with your sister. I will check on you later.” I close my eyes and lean into his touch. I begrudgingly pull away from his touch and walk into the clinic.

~Jax~

That was an awkward walk to the clinic. With every step we took, Janice was trying her hardest to cop a feel or stroke my body. I really wanted to push her away from me, but I’m a Beta before a mate. It’s my job to care for my pack members and do right by them.

I watch Shanice enter the clinic and turn on my heels to return to the packhouse. I find it interesting that Janice says she was attacked. No one gets randomly attacked on these packlands. It would make more sense that a pack member attacked her, but we don’t have those types of pack members here.

A rogue on packlands is ridiculous; I have to say. There’s no way a rogue could have gotten so far onto packlands without being seen. Something about this entire situation just doesn’t sit well.

A mindlink breaks me from my thoughts.

So the warriors have done a sweep of the forest.

What did they find, Melanie?

Are you sure she was attacked by the cottage?

That’s what she said. What is it?”

“It’s really weird, is what it is.” I look up and see Melanie standing in front of the packhouse.

“Just tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing….nothing is going on. We did a complete sweep of the forest and the area surrounding the cottage. There is no trail of anyone being there. There is no residual scent or anything. There were no sightings and no one was missing on patrol. There is no sign that anyone was on our territory at all.” I sigh and run my hand through my hair.

“I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I just don’t get it. Why lie? It isn’t like she fakes an attack and called me to save her. She called her sister, not me. I just went because Shanice and I were together when she got the call.” Melanie’s eyes light up.

“You and Shanice were together?!” I shake my head.

“Not right now….we can revisit that later.” Melanie huffs but doesn’t say anything. “I honestly don’t get it. It seems a bit extreme, and there doesn’t seem to be a benefit.”

“I agree; it doesn’t make sense. I doubled patrol anyway and told them to keep their eyes open. Anything that seems out of the ordinary is to be immediately reported.”

“Thanks, Melanie. We will keep that up for a bit and see where we land.”

“Should we keep eyes on Janice too?” That is a good question, but I’m not sure we are there yet.

“For now, let’s just leave things how they are. We don’t know what this was about, and I don’t want to make any major assumptions yet.” Melanie nods and heads away from the packhouse while I walk in. This is a crazy situation, and I have no idea what to make of it. I can only keep my eye on things and let them unfold how they are meant to. Hopefully, there isn’t a sinister plan at work.