The defiant mate by Fennifer Francis novel Chapter 24

Jay-la POV

Staring at the unknown number that was calling her new number, it did look familiar but she couldn’t quite place it.

Tim was in the kitchen making them a cup of tea, he smiled at her and she smiled right back. She had leaned into his hug when he had arrived and really hugged him back. She had needed it, he had chuckled and murmured “miss me sweets?

Jay-la had smiled just could really use a hug”.

He had squeezed her tightly at her words and not let go until she had stepped away from him. He was so good to her.

She answered the phone when Tim stared at her with a raised eyebrow at her hesitation. Maybe he thought she was embarrassed to take the call, or that she didn’t want to, so he didn’t know who it was. She had never cheated on him, never even considered it.

“Get him out of the apartment now’ was yelled at her down the line. She recognised Jackson’s voice instantly.

“How did you get this number?” she demanded.

“Get him out of the apartment NOW: he yelled again.

Jay-la could hear growling and snarling in the background, she frowned, it sounded as though he was in the middle of a fight. But why call her of all people, in the middle of a fight with another wolf? !diot didn’t he have his priority’s straight.

“Unless you want your human friend to die, GET HIM OUT NOW.”

She and Kora turned their attention to the background noise. The fight clearly involved several wolves.

“Jay-la damn it, I need to hear you tell him to leave,

“It’s my life, Why?” she stated not getting why, in the middle of a fight he was having, was it so important to call her and demand her boyfriend leave? He had no right to ask that, no-one did.

“You don’t understand, he’s here in the city and is going ballistic, all Havoc. Tell him to go, or he will die Jay-la, I’m 100% serious.” he was throwing his Beta aura down the line but also seemed to be struggling to maintain the fight he was in. His tone left no room for argument.

If Nathan was indeed here and Havoc was out and coming for Tim, due to the fact there was another man around his pups, then she had no doubt that Havoc would kill him.

“Give me a minute” she muttered, unimpressed that they actually had this much control over her life, she was going to have to comply to keep Tim safe. She didn’t want any harm coming to Tim. He was such a nice man and she really did like him.

“Don’t hang up. Need to hear it.” he was yelling not at her, she thought, but to be loud enough to be heard over the angry growling and snarling and banging and crashing that was going on wherever they were, while they were dealing with a very pissed off Alpha wolf. A shiver of fear ran down her spine.

She walked over to Tim, who had literally just got here like 5 minutes ago, and barely had time to make them a cup of tea.

“Tim, I’m so sorry an emergency has come up, one of my clients has stupidly breached his AVO and is begging me to help him.”

“Do you want me to stay and watch the children, wait for you?”

“No, I’ll call Suzzy, it’s probably going to take a while, it’s not the first breach either.”

“Ah! Alright sweets.” he nodded, but sounded disappointed to her. He’d obviously been looking forward to tonight.

“Again…’m so sorry Tim.”

“l get it, I have dumb-ass clients too, that no matter what they don’t do as they are told” he grabbed his overnight bag that he’d brought with him. It was the first time he’d packed to come over here. She really did feel bad for sending him away, if only he could know the real reason.

She walked him out the door, her phone still in her hand.

He turned and leaned down to k!ss her. Jay-la didn’t know if that was a good idea, it might be picked up with wolf hearing and make things worse. She indicated to Tim that she was still on the phone. He nodded, sighed and hugged her briefly before heading for the elevator. “I’ll call you.” he nodded to her and she smiled thankfully and apologetically at him.

She put the phone to her ear after closing the door and snapped He’s gone, are you happy now?” and hit the end call button. She was not only angry with them, but with herself.

She should not have let them force her hand, but by the sound of it, Havoc was on a rampage of unknown proportions and she had truthfully believed Jackson when he told her that he was 100% serious. So she had, had to comply. She hated obeying them for him.

Jay-la woke in the morning with a start. There was loud aggressive banging on her apartment door, she shot out of her bed. Was he here? Fear was already filling her. She got out of bed in such a rush that she nearly fell face-first onto the floor as her feet were tangled in the sheets.

Nate was up and standing in the twins’ doorway, they to were up and he had his arms protectively around them. “Its going to be okay, stay here” she told them, pushing them into the twins’ room and closing the door, if things went badly and a fight broke out, she did not want them to see it.

She stood before the front door and listened to the thunderous banging on it. How had they gotten past the doorman without him notifying her?

“Damn it Jay-la, open the door, or I’m kicking it in: Micheal’s voice yelled from the other side of the door. Relief that it wasn’t her pissed-off Alpha coming for his children swept through her, though this was just another pissed-off alpha come to think of it.

His wolf hearing would have heard her coming to the door and his wolf senses must have picked up her scent by now knowing she was at the door.

“how did you get up here?”

“How the bloody hell do you think? I went through your doorman. Open the damned door now.”

“Okay.” she said a little nervously. This was just what she needed in her life. 2 pissed off alpha wolves after her, she opened the door and he barged right in, stepping up to her without hesitation, she stumbled back a few steps, then Kora rose to the forefront where he could see her.

“Don’t be stupid.” he snapped at her and her wolf “You will FIX IT he roared at her anger spilling off of him.

“Fix what?” she asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

“Fix what?” he screamed in her face. “What the hell do you think, Rae-Rae left me..Its all your fault, FIX IT” she could feel his anger boiling over and filling the air around her.

She hadn’t meant to hurt him and Rae-Rae. It had just happened that way, she was truly sorry to hear Rae-Rae had left him.

His phone was ringing and he grabbed it, jabbed an angry finger at it after checking the caller ID and before he could get any words out Jay-la heard Nathan’s voice roar an alpha order down the phone “Get out of her apartment now.”

A shiver ran down her spine, she knew the power of that order, had been ordered by him with so much rage behind it too once, his voice now reminded her of the pain of it hitting her back then and forcing her to leave even though she hadn’t truly wanted to.

Nathan knew Micheal was there in her apartment. How close was he? Fear was building again, on top of what was already there.

Micheal backed out of the apartment but his eyes never left hers. “Fix it” he shot at her.

Jay-la nodded at him, indicating that she would try too, hoping he understood that she was going to try.

She closed the door as he walked away, her heart was hammering inside her chest. She turned on her heels, pushed the door to the twins room open. They were all standing there staring up at her, “We’re leaving, get dressed quickly.” she saw them all move. None of them even argued, Jay-la packed just one suitcase for her and then tossing in whatever she grabbed from the first draw in each of their rooms not really caring, yanked on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt.

Took the triplets and put them in her car and drove away from her apartment at high speed.

She ignored her ringing mobile the whole time, it was ringing before she was even packed. She had seen it was the same number as last night. Jackson was calling her, she just pushed it into her back pocket and let it ring out she didn’t care about anything other than getting her children to safety right this minute.

She was headed for Tony and Lauren’s place. Their house was in a gated community and was surrounded by a 10ft high brick wall with security cameras everywhere. She had always felt safe with them, behind their security protocols.

Thank the Goddess, Old Man Hill loved his daughter to bits, insisted on the walls and the security cameras.

Jay-la could also try talking to Rae-Rae, Lauren and Tony while she was there. She had ruined their Mate Bond, had not meant to and she needed to try and fix it. It was a goddess-gifted bond. Micheal had not chosen Rae-Rae, she belonged to him and he to her, it was sacred. She had a responsibility to try and salvage it if she could.

She pulled her car up out the front of their house having used the gate code to get past the big gates, she got the triplets out of the car and grabbed the one suitcase she had packed and walked them up the front door, pressed the doorbell while she was fumbling in her handbag looking for the front door key to their house. It was barely 7 in the morning.

She thought they would be awake but whether they were out of bed she didn’t know. It was Sunday morning, they could be lye in.

The door opened and Lauren stood there in her pyjamas, took in Jay-la and the triplets’ unkempt appearances. She had not stopped to brush their hair or teeth, or even feed them for that matter. They must all look dishevelled and she simply stepped aside.

“Sorry Lauren, I didn’t have anywhere else to go right this minute”

“It’s alright honey. What is wrong?” she asked, concern lacing her voice

How was she going to explain this, that Micheal had practically beat down her door after beating up her doorman, to demand that she come here and talk to Rae-Rae, or that his brother was now here for her children.

Jay-la hadn’t even told Tony and Lauren that the triplets were Nathan’s yet, whether they had figured it out for themselves she did not know, she hadn’t ever mentioned him to them and her babies certainly didn’t know who their father was, if she just suddenly blurted it out in front of them, they might be hurt.

“Can we stay here for the night, or a few days maybe?”

“Of course honey. Is that all the luggage you brought?”

Yes she nodded, “no time to pack”

Lauren sighed and nodded Okay, you should call Eric right away if it’s got to this point.”‘ she then smiled down at the triplets. “off to the kitchen, lets get you some breakfast, hey.”

They all nodded and went down the hall towards the kitchen.

Lauren’s hand landed on Jay-la’s shoulder. “how bad is it.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t him that got me to leave actually.

“Then who?”

“I need to talk to you all, including Rae-Rae.”

Lauren sighed heavily and looked up the stairs to the second floor. “She hasn’t been out of her room since dinner on Friday night Jay-la.”

“l’m sorry, I never meant to hurt their relationship” she apologised, meaning every word.

Lauren shrugged “they’d only known each other for 2 weeks by that time, I’m not concerned, she’ll get over it. Probably for the best.”

Jay-la understood where Lauren was coming from, but she knew Rae-Rae, on the other hand, was in terrible pain. She didn’t truly understand why she was feeling so utterly heartbroken, unable to cope with the loss of a man she had barely known.

Logically, she would try as a human to convince herself she would be okay, that she hadn’t known him well at all and that she was just being silly. But she was a gift to him and he to her. Their very souls were meant for each other, and if they couldn’t be together, neither of them would ever be the same again.

“Breakfast first”, Lauren interrupted her thoughts. Jay-la nodded. Though she doubted she would eat much. “I”ll take Rae-Rae’s up to her’

“She won’t eat, just sends it back untouched”

“I’ll convince her.” Jay-la assured her and she intended on convincing Rae-Rae to eat, how she didn’t know yet. She couldn’t tell Rae-Rae that Micheal had threatened her if she didn’t fix it, he had not so much as said it with words but she understood his anger all too well, she was going to fix it or he was going to blame her for everything and come for her.

Hell he’d already gone to her, telling her that would only make Rae-Rae more scared of him and Jay-la had to talk her into giving him another chance.

The children were quiet, she asked them when in the car, not to mention the very angry man who had come to their apartment this morning, prompting their sudden leaving and coming here.

Jay-la took the breakfast tray up to Rae-Rae’s room, knocked gently on the door and let herself in, Rae-Rae was lying in her bed, her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy from all the crying she had been doing, her eyes moved to Jay-la and she burst into tears. Jay-la sighed she was the reason Rae-Rae had backed away from Micheal and probably did not want to see her right now.

Jay-la couldn’t blame her either, her whole world had come crumbling down that night. Jay-la walked over to the bed regardless, and set the tray down on the bedside table, “Rae-Rae I’m so sorry..I never meant to hurt you and Micheal.

“It’s not you Jay-la.’ she sat up and looked at her tears still brimming in her big brown eyes, “He knew you were like a sister to me, I told him as much and he didn’t tell me who he was related to..on purpose…kept it from me.”

“Maybe,” Jay-la offered up, “He didn’t want to scare you off” she didn’t think that was it, but what else could she say when she was there on his behalf technically.

“He hurt me, he lied to me..do you know how many times he could have told me…l should have listened to mum and dad. I don’t know him at all, l’m so stupid” she sobbed the last three words.

Jay-la sat down on the bed next to her and put her arms around the girl. “You’re not stupid, yes he should have told you, but l’m sure he has his reasons, have you talked to him at all about it? Let him explain it to you.”

She shook her head. I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Yes you do, deep down Rae-Rae, you do. I’ve been there myself once. It hurts like hell, but still you want to talk to the man you love!”‘ her own words were laced with pain, the same pain she knew Rae-Rae was feeling right this minute. It was the same pain she had felt herself when she had left the pack, at the order of the man she had loved.

“I’ll never love anyone else again” Rae-Rae suddenly burst out.

Jay-la sighed that, unfortunately, was probably more true than Rae-Rae could ever understand, she took a deep breath and did what was the right thing, for her human sister, regardless of what Lauren and Tony would think of it.

She pushed Rae-Rae slightly away from her embrace and tilted her chin up to make her look at her I love you Rae-Rae. So I am going to tell you something and I want you to listen to me and understand me okay.”

At her nod, Jay-la continued “l grew up with the Browning’s right there practically in their house. Rae-Rae and Micheal is a good person. I have honestly never seen him do anything bad in the whole time I knew him…He is very protective of his family, including his brother, I would imagine. If Micheal told you he loved you. Then I do not doubt his words, I believe he meant it. He is a kind and caring man and he will love you with everything he has… l’m not sure why he didn’t tell you about his brother and my history.”

“Past history. Which Micheal had nothing to do with, even his parents, Blaine and Darla, were always nice to me, fair and decent people and I do believe they were also genuinely going to welcome you into their family. They would also never hurt you. I can assure you of this where they are concerned.”

She was quiet for many minutes thinking about everything Jay-la had said. “But his brother is horrible” she sighed “How can I be in the same family? l’d have to see him at my wedding and would you come if he was there?”

“Yes you will have to see him…he’ll be nice to you. It is me he has the problem with. Let it be that way, Rae-Rae, do not let the animosity between his brother and I get between you and Micheal… do not wish that, I want you to be happy.”

“But…”

Jay-la cut her off. “Do you know Micheal came to see me, in person… Begged me to come and talk to you. He really does love you Rae-Rae, and it is killing him that you have left him. Please call him, give him a chance. I saw with my own eyes how much he loves you.”

It wasn’t exactly the truth but Micheal had turned up at her place and demanded she go to see Rae-Rae, it was a tiny white lie. What harm could it do if it fixes their goddess-gifted Mate Bond.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s just one phone call, or maybe, a cup of coffee!” she could see that Rae-Rae was actually thinking about it. It might take time but she would come around, Jay-la thought

“I’Il let you think about it sweetie.” Jay-la got up and headed out of the room.

“Jay-la…”

She turned as she was about to step out and close the door.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” she asked timidly.

“Yes I do.” Jay-la answered with honesty. That’s what the goddess gifted Mate Bond was, love at first sight, the pairing of two perfectly matched souls, or at least it was supposed to be, she knew not every bond worked out, mostly due to unfortunate circumstances, but she would not let Rae-Rae or Micheal end like that.

“Call him. And eat something your mum is really worried” she said, and then left the room.

She saw from the corner of her eye right before the door closed Rae-Rae reach for her phone on the pillow next to her.

Hopeful she had said enough to help fix it, it was now up to Micheal to explain why he lied to her. It was all in his hands now. She knew that Rae-Rae would want to go back to him.

The Bond, would pull her towards him always. Just hearing his voice would be enough for her to crave to be with him.

She stopped and sat on the staircase, took her phone out. There were half a dozen missed calls from Jackson’s number, all the voice messages were the same 1 just want to know if you’re okay, call me back’ She sighed. They probably thought she had run away with his pups, they were probably hunting her at this very minute.

She tapped the number to make the call. It connected after just one ring, tell Micheal I’m trying to help him. I never meant to hurt him or Rae-Rae,” and then she disconnected the call. There was no room for any of them to try and talk to her, she was tired and needed some space, she was also still a little mad that they had been able to force her hand. Now they knew they could use that tactic on her. Are all her human friends and family now in danger? She hoped not.

Jay-la had thought she was safe with him back home in his pack, but he was here and in full breach of his court orders, but did it really surprise her? No, it did not. She knew he would come at some point, so did Kora. It had all just been a matter of time, I guess that time was up.

The other thing she had to do today was weighing on her too, she had to tell Tony and Lauren about who Nathan really was and why he was so insistent, not looking forward to that conversation, but it would have to be done otherwise they would continuously send officers of the law after him where she and the children were concerned if he could force her to go back before she got to Winter Moon Pack. That was looking likelier by the minute due to him being here and all.

We can run tonight’ Kora piped up.

Yes you can, Kora, run for as long as you want in the reserve out back.

The conversation with Rae-Rae, who had finally called Micheal, Tony and Lauren, took place after the triplets went to bed. She sat them down and explained her past to them and the reason he was now coming for her.

He had found out about the triplets and wanted them all to go back there so he could be a part of their lives. She made mention of Sophia, called her his wife and why she had never told him about the children, because she didn’t want to hurt his marriage and knew his wife disliked her and would hate the children. She had to altered a few things to make it more human-sounding, but she put it as close to the truth as possible.

They were all quiet for a long time, just staring at her, then Tony asked her “Has he ever actually laid a hand on you? Those wounds?”

Jay-la shook her head. “No…his right-hand man, Jackson; you would have seen him at my office that day, had apparently instructed them to fetch me and no harm was to come to me.., on the other hand wasn’t having a bar of being kidnapped and fought back against them, my injuries were all sustained by the men I was fighting.” she knew Tony had read her statement it said as much.

“Of course, you would fight back honey.” Lauren sighed

What woman wouldn’t?”

Rae-Rae was awfully quiet, her phone was in her hand and it dinged with the occasional message. Jay-la could only imagine it was Micheal, she was back to smiling again and she had come down for dinner. Eating finally.

Tony and Lauren weren’t all that happy about Rae-Rae and Micheal talking again, but they were happy to see her smile and eat something.

“What do you think about their family?” Tony asked. “

“Honestly, Jay-la.” She told him pretty much the same thing she had told Rae-Rae, just leaving out the Micheal and Rae-Rae specific stuff. And finished with “They are a good family. As for the prenup, you likely won’t need it. They are very wealthy and if Rae-Rae and Micheal do get married he will give her everything she wants, he won’t care about the cost. She will want for nothing, that much I do know.”

Rae-Rae smiled at her, there was actual joy in her eyes, she liked knowing that Jay-la was not against the man she was in love with, boy was she in for a shock when he explained to her the process of mating and marking and her transformation into a were-wolf and her first shift.

He would not do that until she was in pack territory and so completely smitten and committed that she wouldn’t bolt. Jay-la didn’t see Rae-Rae bolting. She did, however foresee a phone call about whether she was a were-wolf herself.

“What are you going to do about Nathan himself?” Tony asked. She watched as they all leaned forward for her answer.

She didn’t know, and she had to be very careful what she said now that she knew Rae-Rae and Micheal were talking again, anything she said could be relayed to him and he would certainly tell his brother. She shrugged I don’t know, but my actual grandmother heard about what was going on and asked me to go visit her. So on Friday I will leave to go and stay there, have a look around and might stay with her.

She has offered the triplets and l, to move in with her, and her boss is willing to give me work in his Law Firm.”

“So you might move?” Lauren asked, shocked.

“What about Tim?” Rae-Rae asked. Typical.

Jay-la again shrugged Tim and I are good, but I don’t think either of us are looking to get married, so it’ll just stop.”

“But you’ve been with him for so long, aren’t you in love with him?” Rae-Rae burst out.

“I like Tim, but love?… No, it’s not love” It could never be he wasn’t her fated mate, not that she had ever met that person either. One day she hoped, too. It really would be nice to have someone just love and cherish you for no other reason than they love your very soul.