The Defiant Luna

CH 3

Jay-la POV

It was still snowing outside after her late lunch, and she wondered when it was going to stop. She was not used to this weather at all anymore. Sunshine and rain, but not snow anymore. And despite being a werewolf, she was feeling the cold.

Jay-la stood up on the third floor looking out the glass doors to the balcony up there. This had once been her favourite place inside the packhouse; she liked the view over the pack. On a clear sunny day, you could see all the way to the training ground and halfway to the front gate.

She had been provided with warmer clothing, had a whole walk-in full of clothing provided for her. Though she had noted a few of the pack members were just wearing the usual clothing of jeans and tee-shirts; fully acclimatized to the weather, it seemed. Unlike her or the triplets. At least they all had good warm winter clothing now, all their walk-in closets were full of warm clothing.

As had been Nathan’s for her for that matter, it seemed he was of the opinion he was going to claim them always, had kitted out that walk-in with clothes for her to wear, though they were to his taste, she'd noted, not to hers. She had a whole wardrobe full of clothes that she liked back home. Which she fully intended to go and retrieve. She liked her wardrobe, and wanted it here; Missed her stilettos.

She was tracking a snowplow as it moved through the streets clearing a path, wondering if it was time to go and talk to her parents about what they had allowed to happen. She’d again rejected an afternoon tea invite with them. She had played nice at first, happy to see her mother well and healed up. But now that she was. It just didn’t sit right with her.

The triplets had seen her broken and in full distress, she had not been able to cope, and didn’t know if it was because she’d thought that her mother was dying, or if it was because she couldn’t be there when her mother had been dying. But broken by whichever it was, she had been.

She didn’t recall ever having been that broken before, not even when she’d been banished from here, and lost everything. Jay-la sighed softly, it was weird being back here, in a place where she had once hung out with her friends, with Nathan and his unit. To be up on the third floor, looking out over the pack, that was now partly her responsibility, she still wasn’t used to that thought.

She did not know how to look after this pack. She had spent the past six years trying to forget about pack life, and what it was like to be around other wolves. Had learned to live alone and be isolated, away from all that she had grown up with. It had not been easy, all alone and pregnant, very pregnant, then a mum of three with no other wolves around to help. Which she knew would have been the case inside a pack.

Though it was Kora that had suffered the most, wolves being social creatures, they didn’t like being away from their packs. She’d had no choice in the matter, sent away, banished and, for what? Trying to talk to him, trying to say goodbye in reality. Nothing more than that. Her wolf had been punished severely and cruelly, by her own Mate now.

Jay-la closed her eyes and took a long slow breath in, that was a hard, painful thought to have. They were now back inside the pack. Kora, she knew, was happy about it, hadn’t even hesitated where Havoc was concerned, scented that wolf and attached herself right to him.

Jay-la knew that Kora had been off, since he’d tried to call to her that day in her office over the phone, Kora had felt something, and it had bothered her wolf. Jay-la had tried to convince her, it was just him wanting his pups. But Kora was not so easily swayed, must have heard or sensed something in that one moment, and when he’d called to her, here inside the pack, nothing could stop her from calling to her Alpha Wolf. She was lonely and wanted to be back inside the pack. Accepted once more as a full pack member.

It was likely that deep down Kora had wanted to come face to face with her Alpha, had now scented him as her Mate and been happy instantly about it. Even after it had been him who’d banished her, with his pups, she still wanted her Mate. Had been alone out there for too long, ached to come home; to be inside their pack once more.

Being Mated to her Alpha Wolf meant she never had to leave. This place was now her home forever and that made Kora happy. Seems everything here made her wolf happy. The past and what had happened had been obliterated to her wolf, or it seemed that way to Jay-la.

Though Jay-la herself was still apprehensive, Nathan, though she had loved him for a long time, still loved him. Knew he had turned on her, and very quickly, had dismissed everything about her, their lifelong childhood to adulthood friendship.

As she stood there, she knew a part of her way down deep inside believed that’s all it was. Just the Mate Bond. If not for that, if not for his wolf realizing what Kora was to him. Would he have even cared to contact her at all?

Look for her? No, she didn’t think so. She would still be out there on her own with her children, of no concern to him at all. He thought that everything was perfect now, just because they were marked and mated. He thought that had solved everything. Hell, she knew everyone inside this pack, thought that they were all hunky-dory, now that they were paired up gifted by the Moon Goddess to each other.

That a Mate Bond fixed everything, but it didn’t, not really. She’d been alone and abandoned by him for a long time. Could love him, enjoy being with him, but deep down inside it all still hurt; what he’d done to her, how he’d not cared at all, dismissed her so quickly. She also knew it was Havoc that had wanted to bring her home, not him.

She took a long drawn-in breath to try and ease that pain that was growing inside her chest. She needed a distraction from her own thoughts. She pulled out her phone and called Eric Stanton. His secretary put her through after just a minute on hold, “Jay-la where the hell are you?” he rapped out down the line.

“At Browning Corporation Headquarters, Eric.” She answered him honestly, she wasn’t going to lie to the man about where she was. He sounded angry, she’d been gone now, a few days, hadn’t called him at all, and he was supposed to be representing her and now here she was. Exactly where she had told him, had stated clearly, that she did not want to be.

“Why are you there? Explain it to me.” He snapped at her.

Jay-la could understand why he was angry, she was the same when representing someone who did the bloody opposite of what they said they wanted. Or she found out, had lied the whole time and when the truth came out s**t hit the fan. You felt angry and wanted that person to explain to you their actions, their lies.

“My mother got badly injured and nearly died, Eric. I had to come here to see her, she was in hospital here.”

There was silence for a long minute. “Is she doing well?”

“Yes, better.” Jay-la answered him. The woman in question was as bloody good as new, because they had attacked her on purpose, just to get her to come home. Didn’t know how long she was going to be angry about that. Knew that she and Kora, alike, still wanted a piece of Abbey for that recklessness. Stupidity.

How could anyone do that, cause that much injury to a fellow pack member and think that it was okay, it was beyond her, and to do it for such a reason? An Alpha-blooded wolf that should have been here to run the pack, while their brother was away, look after the pack, not injure members of it.

Something her own mother and father had actually gone along with, allowed themselves, thought it was acceptable. She didn’t understand that at all. How could any parent do that to their child?

“Is he there?” Eric asked, and she knew he was talking about Nathan.

“Yes, he is.” She knew Eric wasn’t going to be happy about it. Did not know how to tell him what had happened, couldn’t just state the truth; was not allowed to. He was not a wolf.

“Are you in danger? Do you feel safe?”

“I’m fine.” Jay-la answered him.

“The children?”

“They are here with me as well, Eric. I’m going to need to stay for a bit.”

“And do what exactly? That man has charges against him where you’re concerned.”

“I’m aware of that.” She nodded.

“Is he pestering you to drop them?” there was a slight edge to his voice.

‘Yes.’ She thought, though not for the reason Eric was thinking “He has asked yes.”

“And?” that edge was gone, and his voice was cold and all business now. He’d gone out of his way to help her, more than anyone else would, and she knew it. Now, as her lawyer, he wanted to know what she was going to do about it? Had all his time and effort been wasted? Had she wasted it on purpose?

Closed her eyes and sighed “I likely will drop them, Eric.” She finally told him.

“This is ridiculous Jay-la. You fought so hard to keep him away from you, from the children. Now your what? Just going to give him what he wants?”

“It’s complicated, Eric. The children, they know who he is now. I don’t want them to hate him.” That was all the truth, everything was complicated, and she did not want her children to hate him.

“Why? When he’s the one who left you for another. Got married like days after leaving you. He’s clearly not a stand-up man, was obviously cheating on you Jay-la.”

“It’s hard to explain, Eric. I did tell you I had accepted what he’d done, was happy for him. I meant that…things run differently inside these corporations.”

“I wouldn’t trust him, Jay-la. Whose to say he won’t just do it all again? It seems to me that the man only cares about himself, and what he wants.”

It did, she thought to herself absently, it really did.

“When are you coming back Jay-la?” Eric asked on a calmer note.

“I’m not sure, I’m snowed in at the moment.” She didn’t have the heart to tell him, she couldn’t come back, or at least not over the phone. It wasn’t the right way to do it. She was going to have to go to his office and speak to him in person. Knew already he was not going to like hearing her tell him she was moving here permanently. Or why.

“Call me, when you know, and call Tim. He’s worried. He hasn’t heard from you and said you're not picking up his calls.” He clicked the line closed.

She sighed heavily now, she had seen that Tim had called, and so had Nathan for that matter. Tim had left her two messages to ask her to call him, said he’d spoken to Tony and knew that she had gone home for a family emergency. That he just wanted to know she was okay and safe.

Nathan had looked at her more than a little exasperated, had wanted her to call him back and end their relationship, while he was standing there right next to her. That was not going to happen, she’d closed her phone, and walked away without saying anything on the subject.

Knew that’s why she’d gotten that comment this afternoon in his office, why she’d been asked or told to come to his office. He was annoyed she’d not done it on the spot, with him right there to hear her do so. Nathan had expected her to do it because it’s what he wanted.

She, however, was not like him in that regard. Was not going to dismiss Tim, the way Nathan had dismissed her once. Hell, she’d not even found out about his Mate from him, but from Jackson and Stephen, in fact. They had come and found her. She’d been studying at the time in her room in her parents' house, and knew right away just from the look on their faces, so apologetic, that Nathan had found his Mate.

He’d forgotten about her in the blink of an eye. She would not do that to Tim, he deserved better.

She was going to explain it to him, so he could understand, she was going to apologize to him and try to let him down gently, do it the right way. Try if she could, to remain on friendly terms. She didn’t know if that was going to happen, but it was a nice thought.

She wouldn’t just walk away and say nothing, never speak to him again. Forget about him completely, it’s not who she was or who she wanted to be. Just because she had a Mate now, that didn’t mean that no one else around her, her human friends, those she knew in her human life, didn’t matter anymore.