The Defiant Luna
Chapter 23

Jay-la POV

Jay-la sat with Nathan, the children and his unit, and got an introduction to Margaret, Jackson’s new Mate who was Ethan’s little sister. Jay-la hadn’t seen her since she was twelve. Margaret smiled right at her and said “It’s good to see you again. Though I never did understand why you really left.”

She actually heard Nathan sigh out loud at the girl’s comment. He probably didn’t like her reminding him of what he had done, or didn’t want her to be reminded of it, she supposed. She just said nothing and let it go, she herself was trying not to think about it, though she was not likely to ever forget it, but was trying to let it go.

She saw Jackson touch her arm and shake his head at her, and saw his and Margaret’s eyes glaze over, a private conversation from him to her, likely asked her not to bring it up again, Jay-la thought.

She knew that Kora was very happy with her Mate, had seemed to just let her Mate Bond to Havoc, obliterate their history and the pain of being banished by him. Jay-la and Kora both knew that Havoc had helped with that order for them to leave and to never come back. Now Kora just didn’t seem to care about it at all.

She and Kora had always been of the same mind on most things in their lives. Now, however, they were at odds some of the time, not fighting, just a difference of opinion mostly.

She watched as her mother and father walked into the dining room and right over to their table. Felt Nathan stiffen slightly as he realised that they were going to stop at his table. She guessed it was the first time he was having to deal with them in years. She’d been told they’d avoided him, by her father himself.

“Sweetie, your grandmother is coming to visit today, she was so happy to hear you were home with me and safe. Told me right away, she would come down and see you, say hello.”

“You called grandmother?” Jay-la asked. She knew that Nathan thought she had been the one to call the council on him, or at least that line of questioning he’d aimed at her led her to believe that. How else was she supposed to take it, with multiple questions on the same thing from different angles?

“I did, I didn’t think our Alpha would object to her coming either, seeing as she is your grandmother.” Watched her mother look right at Nathan, he shook his head but said nothing at all. Her eyes moved right back to her. “I call her weekly. She has always asked if you’d come home. She wants to have lunch today. She called just now to say she’d be here in two hours. She also wants to meet her grandbabies.” Jay-la smiled “Alright, it would be nice. I’d like her to meet them too.” And she would, had been offered sanctuary in her pack. Her grandmother had wanted to protect her.

“Vera, Jodi.” It was Nathan. “We have not had a chance to speak properly, since Jay-la has come home. I would like to do that. Would you both have a meeting with me?”

Jay-la sat and watched the interaction, noticed that he was being very formal with them. Though there was no Alpha tone coming from him, she saw her father’s eyes glaze over and then her mother’s a moment later. A private conversation was going on between the two of them.

One that her father had started.

That was interesting to her, because they had let Abbey injure her mother in order to get her back here. Jay-la had just presumed that they were happy with Nathan being her Mate, that they wanted it. Had helped Abbey because she had told them Nathan was her Mate.

She didn’t think Brad was going to be so forgiving. Her mother, she knew, was going to be and was likely to have already forgiven him. Had dressed her up and sent her off to him on that date, was apparently working on her Luna Ceremony.

Her father, it now seemed, was on the fence, likely had wanted her to come home, but that was all. By the look of his shaking his head and her mother’s frowning, it was likely that her mother was trying to convince him to agree to it. He’d not so much as greeted his Alpha, or his unit for that matter.

They were all sitting watching her parents right this minute. Nathan himself had stopped eating, he was trying to do this as her Mate and not their Alpha, she realised. But it didn’t seem that him being either her Mate or the pack Alpha was going to sway her father. He was only going to come around when he was ready. She saw them return to the room. Her father still didn’t look all that happy.

“What time, Alpha?” Vera asked him,

“After breakfast would be good…Mother and father will be there to join us as well. Please, Vera, Jodi call me Nathan, we are all family now.”

Watched as her mother nodded and smiled at him “We’ll see you in 30 minutes then.”

He nodded and her mother and father smiled at her and then at the children, “A big family dinner tonight Jay-la?” Her mother asked her.

“Alright.” She nodded

“Please feel free to use the private dining room, Vera, it will seat up to a dozen.”

“Thank you, I will do just that.” She smiled at him and then they walked away, saw her father’s hand drop to the small of her mother’s back as they walked away.

She turned and looked at Nathan. “Am I going to this meeting?”

“Actually, I’d prefer not. It might get heated; your family doesn’t exactly get along with me.” He stated, after looking at the children, chose his words carefully, she thought.

“That’s an understatement,” Margaret stated and then snapped her mouth shut before uttering an apology to Nathan, though she addressed him by title, not name.

Heard him sigh once more “It’s fine Margaret, it is the truth.” But he pushed his plate away and was done eating, it seemed “Jay-la, I need to go and prep for this meeting, do you mind?”

She shook her head ‘no’ “I need to go find Rae-Rae and show her the prenup, seeing as she’s not here for breakfast.”

Saw him stand and then watched as his whole unit did as well. If he didn’t eat, neither did they, it seemed. A bit unfair, she thought. But as she looked at them, none of them looked particularly happy this morning

She felt his hand slide through her hair and looked up at him, blinked when she found him right there in front of her, ‘Rae-Rae wont be alone, I don’t think you want to go barging into her room.’ He mind-linked to her.

‘What?’ her eyes widened.

‘I believe Michael spent the night with her.’ felt his lips press to hers softly I just thought you might want the heads up!

‘Did he mark her?’

“No.

“I’ll murder him if he did.’ She muttered, the full moon was less than a week away.

‘Feel free to tell him that.’ He smiled at her.

“I will don’t you worry.” Sighed as he smiled at her.

“I do like your feistiness, a bit of a turn on.” He winked at her and then walked away.

She really did need Suzy here to look after the triplets, Jay-la realised, she was used to them being in school while she worked. Though she had noticed that they all had school uniforms, she did know the pack school would run differently to the human one.

Wolves got a lot more time off than humans, two weeks for each season and six weeks for summer “Margaret, when does school stop for winter this year?” knew it was slightly different each year depended on many things. Mostly the weather, though.

“The twentieth, Ibelieve, and then they go back on the fifth. I can walk down there with you, if you like, show the children the school. It’s had a few updates while you were away.”

“That would be nice.” Turned to look at the triplets, and saw them all wrinkle their noses, it didn’t look like they were happy about going back to school.

“You have to attend at some point.” She told them, though she was not going to make them until the new year, seeing as it was the sixteenth already, no point in attending for the last three days, unless they wanted to, but it didn’t look like that to her.

Heard Margaret chuckle and looked at her,

“Their adorbs, you know,I

can’t wait till I have a pup.”

“You’re only young yet.”

“I don’t care, I like babies. I work in the creche a fair bit, with your mum.

I’m a bit like her, just love the babies.”

“Well, I hope you have one soon then.”

“Oh, I got my man working on that.” She grinned “Can’t wait to go into…

Jay-la cleared her throat and shook her head at the girl, “T haven’t explained that yet.”

“Might want to, you’ve been Mated 3 days now.”

“I know, just…”

“Difficult. Darla or my mother should be able to help with that. You recall she runs the mating classes, everything about wolves mating is discussed.”

“Mmm, I’d forgotten that, been a long time since that class.” And it had been most wolves got that at 16, but most already understood it before then.

“Come on, she’ll be at the school. Class starts in like thirty minutes. If we walk, we’ll get there after everyone settles into class.”

“Thank you, Margaret.”

“No probs, you and I are destined to hang out a lot from my understanding.” She smiled and it was true. As well as Suzy, when she got here, that made her curious. “Ethan’s not Mated.”

“Not anymore. Lost his mate to a rogue attack about four years ago.

Terribly sad. I don’t think he’s looking for another either. Buries himself in research or the pack library, though he does attend the balls, but I think that is because he’s part of the Alpha Unit. Not because he’s searching for a new Mate.”

“That is very sad, didn’t know that.”

“Hmm, he doesn’t talk about Claudia much, she was a warrior and instead of staying here in the pack-house as he told her too, went out to help like all warriors do. And didn’t make it.” heard her sigh “she was fierce, came from another pack, did not like….

sighed and didn’t finish

her sentence.

“Didn’t like?”

“Sophia.”

“Why not? I don’t know anything about her.”

“You don’t really want to, not many here did like her. Especially in the end.” Shook her head “Turned out she was a real nasty piece of work.

Wanted to banish any she-wolf that dared to even shake Nathan’s hand. Was, rude and demanding, treated the omega’s like garbage to be honest, struck quite a few of them, thought it was acceptable. I believe, though none of them would tell the Luna or Alpha either, she was wrong to do it. From what I saw, nothing in this pack was good enough for her.”

Nathan had not spoken of her like that, all she knew was she had been lazy and didn’t attend Luna lessons or duties, no training, just spent pack money on nothing. Wondered what sort of up bringing the girl had had

Thought about those Luna lessons. She’d not attended any herself, or training for that matter, would do so once her human life was closed out, she had to sort that out first. So she didn’t get caught up and just forget about it altogether.

They walked through the pack heading for the school. It was a nice walk, the snowplow had been through already and cleared the roads, and the sun was actually shining this morning, that was also nice.

Pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at the caller ID when it rang “Hi Suzy, its good to hear from you.” Though in her mind she knew it was still the middle of the night over there.

“Hi, Jay-la.” Suzy sounded tired and a little teary to her ear.

“What’s wrong?” she stopped walking.

“Mum’s house caught fire..” she burst into tears “We’re just.”

Jay-la nearly linked to Stephen instantly, put it off, he’d panic “Take a breath, Suzy.” Heard her breathe in a few times. Jay-la knew it wasn’t just Suzy, her mum Elena and her younger sister Maya. They had no other family here.

“It’s still on fire.” She whispered “We’ve got nowhere to go.”

She could feel Stephen calling to her via the Mind-Link, panic in his voice ‘Suzy is on the phone with me, please wait.’ She cut the link, couldn’t talk to him and Suzy at the same time. “Suzy, go to my place, you can all stay there, I’ll call the doorman and explain, I’m going to send someone to pick you all up. Stay right there, I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“T’ll call you right back” Jay-la reassured her and ended the call. She could already hear footsteps coming towards her, knew it was going to be Stephen. She turned and looked at him. “She’s okay, just shaken up and upset, no-one’s injured, she would have told me.”

“We have to go and get her.”

“I know, call your man out there. I told her I would send someone for her. Just one of them, have him take her, her mother and sister to my place. I’ll call my doorman, he knows her. Breathe Stephen, she will be just fine. I promise you we’ll keep her safe.”

She could see fear and worry were written all over him, reached out and touched his arm. “Call them okay.” Saw him nod.

She put a call in to her doorman and explained, to him to let Suzy and her family into her apartment, that she may not have her key due to current circumstances. Once in Suzy knew where the spare key was inside the apartment, she could use it.

She could hear Stephen rapping out orders like crazy, was she realised all Gamma, the third in charge around here, and no one was going to ignore him, unless Jackson or Nathan over ruled him and she didn’t believe either one of them would.

She’d never actually seen him all assertive and in charge. Jay-la realised as she stood watching him, she had seen him use his Gamma Charm on her, he’d thought it was fun, those few times he’d gotten to.

Not that she had, but had now come to realise it was a good thing.

That their Goddess saw fit to gift the Gamma bloodlines with that Charm, to calm their Luna’s down, all she-wolves for that matter. Had relied upon him to help her to pull herself together, and did not think she could have done it without him.

She called Suzy back, the minute he was off the phone, she picked up right away. “Suzy, it’s Jay-la, it won’t be long, I have a man named.”

Looked at Stephen.

“Gregory.” He told her.

“Gregory coming, a few minutes out only. Do you have your key?”

“No, we have nothing, I just grabbed my mum and Maya and got out.”

“Alright, you know where the spare key is, it’s yours. Greg will be around and he’ll give you his number and he or one of his men, they are all security men, can take you anywhere you need to go, back to the house, once everything calms down.”

“Okay.” She still sounded shaken up to Jay la.

“How bad is it, Suzy?”

“I don’t know.” Suzy sighed.

Heard a man state her name “Suzy Martinez?”

Heard the usual human response to one so big and imposing, “Um… yes.”

“I’m Gregory and here to take you to Jay-las apartment. Sorry about your house.”

“You got here quick?”

“Yes ma’am, was local already.” Likely he’d been the one to report the fire and call Stephen.

“Jay-la?”

“That will be Gregory. You can trust him, I promise.”

“Okay.”

“Go with him and rest.”

“Thank you, Jay-la.” She clicked the line closed.

“She’s alright Stephen, not harmed. What happened?” she asked him, knowing that Gregory was likely the one who’d been watching her.

“They don’t know, stated that an hour ago, everything was fine, though I’ve heard it’s an older house. It could be anything.”

“Mm, I know they don’t make much. Maya is in college and her mum had them later in life and should really be taking it easier, retire in a few years, though I doubt that will happen.”

“We could organise that Jay-la.” Stephen sighed

“I understand that, Stephen, but I don’t know if Elena would agree, she is a proud woman, and doesn’t even like it when I send Suzy home with her Christmas bonus. Maya is the only one of the three of them to attend college and both Suzy and Elena are paying the tuition for her. I believe it’s not cheap.”

Heard him sigh now “That’s why she doesn’t want to come out here.

Where is her father? My men have not seen a man in that house.”

“Died a long time ago I think.” She rubbed his arm gently. Everything is going to be fine…we will find a way to bring Suzy here..you are working on that, right?” she raised an eyebrow at him, referring to their conversation from the other day about getting Nathan out of the pack so she could overrule him and let Stephen go to Suzy.

“It is difficult.” He nodded, “We can’t really until your heat.”

Shushed him on that right away, and got a raised eyebrow back, looked at the children pointedly and saw him nod, “Apologies Jay-la, but you might want to talk to them.”

“That is what we are doing now, going to see Deena.” And it was a good idea, seeing as Havoc had clearly decided to try and get a pup from Kora, and her wolf held no objections to it. She seemed happy to just give her Mate whatever he wanted, even though she was not in heat.

Was willing to try and conceive a pup.

Her wolf, it seemed, was completely crazy, still sleeping as well, exhausted from her night with Havoc. Jay-la hadn’t bothered to chastise Kora, there was no point, she loved her Mate and the Bond had her real good. It was likely that Kora would give Havoc everything he wanted.

She found Stephen walking with them, stayed with them for the entire conversation with Deena, as they sat in her office inside the school.

Listened to Deena explain it and heard the children giggle when she explained it was just like two animals. Told them very simply, it would last a few days and during that time the three of them would be staying with one set of their grandparents for the whole time. That they wouldn’t see either, their mum or dad at all for 3 to 7 days depending on how long the heat lasted, that it can in some Bonded pairs happen twice a year.

She found all three of them staring at her “The joys of being a she-wolf.

” She commented.

“I don’t want that.” Lilly screwed up her nose.

“Me neither.” Rosalie murmured.

It was a long way off for them, and this was only being explained to them because they had no idea about it at all. If they had grown up here and she had been Mated they would have seen it, learned by watching and just come to accept it as part of their normal life, no explanation needed at all. It would simply be normal for their parents to disappear into their bedroom for a week once or twice a year.

They did not ask many questions, just kind of stared at her every now and then on the way back to the pack-house. They all looked at Margaret as well, or the girls did. She’d stated she was very excited about her heat. They had been told it was not painful and that it was a natural thing in order to produce a pup.

The word pup still made them giggle, it seemed to just tickle their funny bones. The explanation had gone better than she’d expected.

They did ask who they would stay with and was told either of their grandparents.

“It is likely Blaine and Darla, due to their bloodline.” Stephen stated, “To keep them inside the packhouse, you understand why,” she nodded”

Though I think Nathan will discuss your parents with you.” Discuss what exactly?”

“What is going on right now.”

“Did they argue?” she murmured.

“Not really.” He shook his head “Your father has voiced his concern on some matters, but that is all.”

“Nathan will talk to you about the meeting they all had. I’ll likely be there, as will the whole unit.”

That made her frown “So it went that well then?” she sighed.

“It’s just that some other things have been brought into the light, is all.

They will need to be discussed with you. Unfortunately, Alpha Austin’s timing is terrible. Another day would have been good.”

“Does he understand it wasn’t me who called him now?”

“Jay-la, he didn’t believe it was you. He has that Alpha mentality, where he needs to question everything and get his answers. I had words with him about that myself. It won’t happen again.

She shook her head, at the thought that Nathan needed to be told, not to treat her like that. It was odd, he’d been Mated before, had he been a terrible Mate to Sophia as well. Always questioning her over every little thing. Interrogating her on the smallest of things.