The Defiant Luna

CH 2

Nathan POV

Nathan stood staring at Jay-la’s empty office. He knew that she had come in here. She had slammed that door between his office and hers good and proper. It had even made him smile, she was still going to be feisty. He liked that; but now where was she? She was not where he expected her to be.

He’d not seen her come out of her office, and it had not been reported to him that she had either. He'd thought she was in here, making those calls he’d told her to make, closing out her human-world life, and getting those charges dropped. Now he didn’t know.

It had been an hour since he’d seen her, and Nathan really had thought that she would have come and told him when she was done. She hadn’t done that either. She had to have left her office via the pack members door, which led directly into the packhouse foyer. He took a deep breath in, and realized he couldn’t even smell her in here.

Nothing of her scent lingered, which meant that she had not been in this room for a long time. The only disadvantage to having soundproof offices: he'd not be able to hear her leave. He’d been dealing with pack-related business. Made a few calls to his allied packs to assure them everything was good and Jay-la was home with the children, that he was not going to need any assistance if another pack took her or with trying to retrieve her if that had happened. So his own office door had been closed as well.

Nathan had no idea where she was right at this minute. Not even his mother was in the Luna’s office to ask where Jay-la was, and she should have been in here with her, starting her Luna Lessons after she’d made those calls.

Perhaps they were off somewhere together, and his mother was showing her some of her new-found duties to be attended, he knew there were two pack members currently in labour in the pack hospital. Perhaps his mother was showing her what needed to be done, the Luna’s Blessing for the new babies. That would be nice, he smiled to himself at that thought.

Pulled on both their tethers to him, that were his mother and his Mate, frowned when he realized they were not together, not even close to each other. He let go of his mother, she was out in the woods and what he felt he didn’t want to, had to be out there in wolf form with his father's wolf, mating he guessed. Dropped that connection the instant he realized what they were doing.

Jay-la was in the pack dining room, not that far away. He headed off to find her and found her with Rae-Rae and the triplets. They were all having something to eat. Nathan smiled right at her as he walked over, though he did note she did not smile back. Likely still mad about his comments this morning, about closing out her life.

He got himself a cup of coffee and sat down at their table, next to her, “What are we all doing?” he asked, draping an arm along the back of her chair.

He felt Havoc sit up inside his mind and look right at her. His beast liked looking at her. He had also enjoyed watching her sleep as well. Havoc was more than happy she was here, happy that Kora had accepted him instantly, like he had always believed she would. He had some real faith in his Mate, right from the first moment he knew about her.

Nathan knew that they still had things to work out between them, and he still had to try and get his son to bond with him. The boy was as difficult and as stubborn as his own mother. Though his most pressing need was to figure out a way to get her Luna Calm to work the right way, he did not think that was going to be as easy as Marking and Mating her.

Ethan was still working on that, he’d also not talked to her about Suzzy, her nanny yet, and that woman being Stephen’s Mate. That they needed to bring her in. Nathan knew that Stephen was unhappy about being away from his Mate. Though to be honest, he was surprised that he had not retrieved her and brought her here. When the three of them had taken it upon themselves to collect Jay-la without his permission.

Though he was certain that Jay-la could get Suzzy to come here with a simple phone call. He would ask her to do that later on today, when he could talk to her without Rae-Rae being in the room.

Rae-Rae was something else he had to sort out. The girl was human, and she appeared to be happy enough, walking around holding hands with Michael all the time, and smooching. She had met Michael at her university, the very same one Jay-la had attended actually, and the one where Rae-Rae’s father worked.

Many of his younger pack members ducked off to get their degrees all over the country. They were no different to regular humans in that regard, they got to go where they wanted, to the university of their own choice.

Rae-Rae was going to want to go back to school at some point. When? He didn’t know, looked right at her “Rae-Rae, about your schooling?”

“What about it?” her eyes moved to his; though the girl was happy here, he saw that look in her eyes, she still did not particularly trust him. She had been happy he’d managed to convince her parents to let her come here, but she still had issues with him.

“It might be a good idea for you to look into transferring to one closer now.”

“Michael said that just this morning.” She nodded.

That did not really surprise Nathan all that much, though Michael had told Rae-Rae he was happy to wait for them to be together, until they got married. He was, however, pushing for a quick wedding. Her parents didn’t like this at all. At least they had allowed Rae-Rae to come here.

He thought some trust had been gained by going and seeing them in person, explaining to them what his intentions were. Letting them see and talk to the triplets. So they knew they were safe and unharmed, that they could also come and visit themselves. Had all gone in his favour, he guessed.

“When the snow lets up, you and Michael should go and look at the universities close by, a nice day trip together, just the two of you.” Taking her off pack territory for a day, would also allow his pack members to relax, and allow their wolves out while she wasn’t here. Currently, they were all under an order to stay in human form around the town and the pack-house. Only shifting was allowed in the woods, out of sight of the packhouse. They also had to keep the chatter down and use the mind-link for anything wolfen related.

Rae-Rae just nodded at him, then turned back to her food. He was still going to have to work on her. Knew that Michael was not with her right this minute, because Nathan himself had purposely filled his schedule to the brim. Another way of punishing him for scaring Jay-la and the triplets.

After thinking about his brother's actions, he’d felt that more punishment was needed, so had given him two options; a week in the cells or working all day every day, and only allowed to see Rae-Rae at meal times for a solid week. No real surprise which he chose, wasn’t going to spend a week in the cells. It would be freezing cold and Rae-Rae was not allowed to know about them.

“Jay-la did you make those phone calls I asked you to?” He turned his eyes on her.

“No.” she answered him flatly. Turned and looked right at him “I’ll do it when I am ready.”

“The sooner, the better, especially regarding that lawsuit.”

“Mm, I’ll get to it.” she shrugged.

That made him frown deeply, she seemed uncaring about it, “Jay-la!”

“Nathan!” She shot right back in the same tone he’d used, then stared at him as he stared at her.

So very stubborn, he hadn’t foreseen this actually being an issue. What Mate wanted a lawsuit against their own Mate. He thought she would have called and cleared that up first thing. She’d been happy and loved up with him when they had woken up, showered together before leaving the suite. What had changed since then he didn’t know?

He sighed a little on the heavy side, “It has to be done, you know this.” He reminded her.

“Like I said… I’ll do it when I am good and ready. Don’t push me, you might not like what happens if you do.”

Nathan snorted right at her, that was funny to him, to hear her say those words, he’d claimed her, and they were Marked and Mated, she had accepted him and so had Kora. What was she going to do? “You’re very cute.” He chuckled, knew their bond would outweigh everything else.

He saw her turn and look at Rae-Rae, “Hmm, Rae-Rae, would you call me cute?” he heard her ask and felt his wolf's attention on his Mate change instantly, gone from looking at her all happy to, wary in less than a second.

“Nope, not when you’re cranky anyway.” Rae-Rae shook her head ‘no’.

“Jay-la, seriously.” Nathan interrupted them. He didn’t want his beast getting out of control. “When are you going to make that call?”

Her green eyes flashed angrily at him “When I am ready to.” She snapped right at him, and he heard the anger in her words. Was completely shocked by the way she spoke to him. There were others in this dining room that could hear her. She didn’t seem to care about that. “Do you really think, Nathan? That everything is just that easy?”

“It can be,” he acknowledged, believed it could be if she was willing to do as he asked.

“Really, if I do exactly what you want, right?” She was now staring at him hard.

He was really frowning at her now, and could feel his wolf was not just feeling wary anymore, but was on edge about the way she was speaking to him. The tone, Havoc was becoming anxious ‘We love our Mate, don’t upset her.’ Havoc snarled at him in a warning tone.

‘I’m not trying to upset her Havoc. I just want her to close out her human world dealings and clear our name.’

‘Been Mated to us one day. Give our Mate time to settle in. Or I’ll be in control.' Was growled at him.

Now that was a full warning from his beast, Nathan didn’t much like it, but knew that if Havoc truly wanted out and to assert himself, take full control and stalk around this pack in his body, he could do it.

‘Let’s not do that just yet, Havoc.’ He told him, keeping his tone lite with his beast. Didn’t need a half shifted Alpha Wolf stalking the pack or his Mate for that matter, and trying to Mate her like that.

‘Kora will like it. We’re a good strong Mate, it will show her.’

Nathan sighed internally, he still had real reservations about Kora and Jay-la seeing him in his half-shifted wolfen form. ‘Likely also scare the heck out of the triplets,’ he told his beast. He didn’t even know if they had seen a fully shifted wolf at this point. Might have to ask Jay-lay about that. It could come as quite a shock to them.

‘Agreed on the showing of strength Havoc,’ it was likely Kora would see strength from it ‘I’ll let it go if you back off. If you stay inside me and in control of your temper.’

Havoc huffed right at him, but then just sat back down and went back to watching his Mate. He really did like just looking at her. Kora wasn’t even on the surface, he realized. Havoc was actually watching Jay-la right this minute. ‘Like both our Mate’s.’ Havoc stated.

‘Me too.’ And he did. Kora had been this tiny wolf once, so fast and fun to chase. Now she was huge and even faster, and gave him and Havoc quite the surprise. But she was still so pretty, knew she’d still be able to hide in the snow, had already done so in fact. They’d not seen her, though Havoc had been certain she was over there. Hidden in the snow like she used to do.

He looked at her for a moment longer, then stood up. “Jay-la, I’ll leave you for now, enjoy your meal.” He told her and walked away. He had to ignore that she wasn’t yet ready to make those calls. Perhaps Havoc was right, he’d only been her Mate one day, not even that really a few hours was all.