The Defiant Luna

CH 6

Nathan POV

Havoc was more than annoyed to hear that Jay-la didn’t think Michael’s punishment wasn’t enough, it wasn’t even a punishment in her eyes. ‘Work is not punishment.’ Only added to his beast’s annoyance, when Jackson told them she believed that it was actually Rae-Rae who was being punished, not Michael.

Havoc was snarling inside his mind, to go and punish Michael properly for his treatment of their Mate, for distressing her and making her run away. For feeling as though she had to apologize to him and had done so. Had even gone out of her way to fix that man's Mate bond, because she’d felt so threatened by him. Was so concerned that he'd come after her.

Nathan had told Havoc what had happened between Michael and Jay-lay at her apartment. He had to in order to punish him, his beast wouldn’t let it rest until he knew. He'd also told Havoc of how he had tried to get to him, after he had torn through her apartment building and yelled and screamed at her, threatened and scared her and likely the children as well, as a way to calm his beast over his brothers' actions.

That his own father had sedated him for it. Havoc now wanted to go and punish that man, punish him properly, to show their Mate they understood, and would punish him severely for his treatment of her.

That if she was unhappy, they would make her happy. She’d already been annoyed with them this morning and at lunch and now this, on top. He was barely containing his beast and Jackson could see it, looked worried that Havoc was going to win the battle. It had happened before. Nathan was containing him solely by telling Havoc that if they went and beat the living hell out of Michael, Rae-Rae would be distressed and upset, and that would likely upset their own Mate even further. Was barely hanging on to his human form at this point.

He didn’t know which way to jump, he needed to talk to Jay-la about what it was. She thought was the best punishment for Michael, likely that was the only way to resolve this particular issue. Though having her walk in here, to his office, and seeing his beast barely being contained; was not what he wanted.

‘Punish him now.’ Havoc snarled at him. ‘Or I will do it.’

“Jackson, bring Michael here.” He gritted out between clenched teeth.

“You're sure that’s wise.” He looked right at him pointedly “With Havoc so close to ripping out of you.”

“No, but I can only contain him for so long. It's best to deal with it quickly. Before he’s stalking around this pack half-shifted, doing as he bloody pleases, without caring about Rae-Rae seeing him.”

He saw the man’s eyes glaze over, didn’t trust himself to do it, Havoc could invade that conversation, was likely to with how he was building to a fury inside of him. And he didn’t exactly know what his beast wanted as punishment.

It was several struggling and straining minutes with his beast for control, before Jackson looked right at him. “Michael is requesting your mother and father be present for the meeting.”

Havoc snarled inside his mind, and then it was ripped out of him into the room for all to hear, a single word snarled into the Alphas office. “Coward.” His beast was ticked off that his own brother was going to hide behind their parents, saw Jackson sigh “I’ll call Jay-lay in, might be the better option than your parents.”

“I don’t want her seeing a half-shifted Alpha Wolf on a full rampage, Jackson.”

“I know that. I agree with you, I don’t think she’s ready to see that yet. But if she’s not happy with the punishment, perhaps hearing what it is she wants will calm that beast inside you.”

Nathan couldn’t disagree with that, and it seemed just the mere thought of having her here in this room, had Havoc’s undivided attention, perhaps having Jay-la and Kora close to Havoc, could actually calm his beast down. His beast did love to just stare at her, he hadn’t missed that, couldn’t miss it. Was made to stay longer in rooms just to look at her.

“Alright, bring her if she’s willing to come.” Nathan nodded, but a part of him doubted it. She was annoyed with him, and then the punishment he’d dished out, she thought was punishing Rae-Rae, not Michael. Might not come, might just be more annoyed with him.

‘She’ll come.’ Havoc told him in a matter-of-fact tone. His wolf sure did have some real faith in the love that was between him and Kora. Did not doubt her for a single second, didn’t even believe they would be afraid of his half-shifted form. When everyone else was afraid of it.

It took fifteen minutes for her to walk into his office and Nathan felt Havoc’s whole attitude change with her in the room. His fury calmed to simple anger and annoyance, and he purred at the sight of her. He saw Kora’s eyes flicker to the surface and looked right at her Mate, smiled right back.

Then his body was moving before he knew it. ‘Havoc.’ He yelled as he was violently shoved to the back of his own mind. He had stopped fighting his beast, and it took him by surprise. Nathan watched through his beast's eyes as he stepped right up to his Mate, and the two of them stared at each other, then his forehead was touching hers, as he pulled her to his body and just stood there holding her, purring for his Mate.

There was no more anger in him. Jackson, it seemed, was right, just having her in the room made his beast calm all the way down ‘When you’re ready Havoc?’ Nathan sighed, a full minute later, as he still stood there with Kora in human form in his arms.

Finally, given back control, he found Kora looking up at him. He smiled at her, only to have her reach up and bite him on the jaw, a little harder than playful he thought, but heard Havoc snort with amusement. It seemed he liked his Mate's attitude, then she was gone.

He rubbed his jaw and heard Jackson laugh. Jay-la shook her head, but smiled with amusement herself, didn’t apologize for her wolf's bite. “Why am I here? I was showing Rae-Rae and the triplets around.”

“I’m sorry, but Havoc was having an issue with the fact that you thought Rae-Rae was the one being punished instead of Michael.”

“Oh,” was all she said. “So you want what from me?”

“I want to know, as does Havoc, what is an adequate punishment.”

“That is your department.” she shrugged and then just walked away from him, to sit on the lounge next to where Jackson stood. Looked right up at Jackson, “I thought you were going to resolve that?”

“I brought it to the Alpha’s attention.” He commented, “We’re trying to resolve it right now.”

Nathan sighed, she’d expected Jackson to resolve it. That was odd, “Jay-la, I did.” He heard Havoc growl a little “We did.” He corrected himself “Try to punish him, ended up sedated by our own father… Havoc and I, we would like to understand and dish out the punishment you want for Michael.”

She frowned at him. “That is your department. I simply don’t believe telling someone to go to work, which would normally be expected of them, is a punishment at all. Just a normal day in their life.”

He walked over and sat down next to her. “He was supposed to have this week off, to spend it with Rae-Rae. His punishment was not to be around her.”

“That punishes Rae-Rae, and she did nothing wrong; a bit unfair, don’t you think?” she was now just staring at him.

“I guess.” He nodded, he hadn’t really thought about that side of his punishment. “So what do you want?” he asked her as he turned at the sound of Michael's voice. He was talking to their father as they came into the office.

“Son, what is this about Michael’s punishment?” His father Blaine asked as they made eye contact.

‘Coward hides behind his father. I wouldn’t do that.’ Havoc snarled.

“Jay-la is unhappy about the punishment,” Nathan stated and stood up.

“I’m not unhappy about it.” Jay-la interrupted, “Going to work is not a punishment.” She stated flatly.

“It was already agreed upon,” Michael muttered, it sounded like he was actually whining and more than a little.

‘Baby.’ Havoc muttered.

“Well the Luna is…”

“Stop.” Jay-la stated and got up, “If you state one more time I am unhappy, I will be. Rae-Rae is being punished here as well, for something she didn’t do, doesn’t even know about, is all I see. Fixing that is all I want.”

“Suggest how?” Nathan sighed. He could feel Havoc getting annoyed and agitated by her sudden change of mood.

“Well, obviously you can’t keep them apart all day. That is not fair on Rae-Rae. So, something else…throw him out on border patrol or something.” She shrugged.

Michael had always hated that job as far back as Nathan could recall too. It was a good suggestion.

“What? It’s freezing out there. I’m not doing that. That’s not my bloody job either,” Michael snapped.

“Seems to me.” Jay-la looked right at him, a half smirk “If he’s against it, that would make a good punishment.” she turned and looked at Michael. "You always did hate that job, thought it was beneath you, when everyone else took their turn you whined like a baby, if I recall.” she folded her arms across her chest.

He heard Havoc snort with amusement inside his mind. She was not wrong on that account. He moved his eyes from his Mate to his brother to see just what would happen. She was the Luna now, and what she wanted, what she said was to be upheld.

Nathan saw Michael look right at him and open his mouth to say something, likely complain and whine about it, then thought better of it and snapped his mouth shut. She out ranked him and could dish out punishment as she saw fit to any and all pack members, including ones with Alpha blood.

No one in this room here today had seen this side of her. No one really knew what she was like anymore, what her temperament was. Jackson and Stephen had seen quite a few sides of her, including the anger that was in there somewhere. Had been spoiling for a fight with Jackson, and there would have been one, if Stephen hadn’t stepped in.

“How many days?” Michael finally muttered.

Nathan looked right at Jay-la when she turned to him and shrugged “You’re the one he yelled at, what do you want?” he asked her. It seemed only fair to him, that she dished it out, seeing that she seemed to have hit the nail on the head with his punishment.

Watched her think about it for a few minutes: “One night, for every person in my apartment building that he hurt, should do it.”

“Plus yourself and Kora.” He nodded, “How do the children feel about what happened that day?”

“They were scared.” Jay-la sighed.

“Right, so the two humans, the three children, yourself and Kora. That’s seven nights of border patrol.” Nathan smiled right at his brother. “I think that’s fair. I’ll let you choose the shift, Michael. 6pm to midnight, or midnight to 6am. You’ll still have to train as well.”

Michael glared right at him. The coldest night shift was from midnight to 6am, but that would leave him tired, and he’d have to attend training the moment the shift ended. Might need to sleep it off and miss time with his Mate. But the 6pm to midnight shift meant that he could sleep till training and then spend the rest of the day with her, a full 10 hours with his Mate.

“6pm to midnight.” He finally grated out and then turned to leave.

“Michael, before you stalk off. I don’t believe you’ve yet to actually apologize to Jay-la for your outburst and frightening her, even though you knew what she was to me at the time. Still yelled and threatened her, your future Luna at the time.”

He saw his brother turn and look right at Jay-la. Nathan stepped right up to her, slid his arm around her waist, a full display of them together. The Alpha and Luna, standing waiting for him to apologize. He saw Michael sigh and nod his head.

“Jay-la, I’m sorry for my reaction, for the way I barged into your home. Yelled at you, it was wrong of me.”

“It was.” She agreed, “I didn’t mean to hurt your and Rae-Rae’s relationship that night.”

“I know,” Michael nodded “Thank you for fixing it. Talking to her, getting her to give me another chance."

"It was the right thing to do.” Jay-la nodded.

“You can go Michael, your first border patrol will start at six tonight.” Nathan told him “Jackson will assign you to a border, and let you know.”

He watched his brother nod his head before leaving. He saw his father smile right at Jay-la “You’re going to make a great Luna, Jay-la.”

She didn’t really say anything, had no Luna training yet. He hadn’t really discussed that with her, though he would have too soon, if his mother didn’t beat him to it. Though he did feel closing out her human world was more important, he wanted her to do that first, so there were no distractions for her while attending to that training.

“If we’re done here.” She looked up at him as she took a step away from him “I’ll go back to the children and showing them around.

“I’d like to do that with you,” Nathan commented. He didn’t particularly like that she’d stepped away from him the minute everything was done, either. Let it go though, he did know she’d been annoyed with him. It could well be why Kora had seen fit to bite him. “It might be a good time to help me bond with the triplets.”

He knew his beast would have no issues with that, wanted to spend time with his pups, and his Mate, for that matter, they’d all been apart for most of the day. They also needed to work on their bond with the boy. Just being in his presence should help with that. Or at least he was hoping so.