The defiant mate by Fennifer Francis novel Chapter 34

Jay-la POV

Kora nearly stumbled over her own feet as a Mate call was unleashed upon her, loud and aggressive, something that could not be ignored. She skidded to a stop and turned to see who it was.

Havoc was running straight at her, he had not stopped as Kora had, Mate, she whispered, backing up slowly as he came straight at her.

No: Jay-la could not believe it, this couldn’t be right, she had seen this wolfs human with her own two eyes, been no more than a meter away from him, only a desk between herself and Havoc’s human counterpart. She didn’t believe it. But she knew it to be true. Kora knew it was true.

Havoc stopped right in front of them, he smelled so good, like the smell of rain just before it fell, with a hint of oak and cinnamon.

He was her mate. But why hadn’t she know it then, but knew it now?

‘Kora be careful he will mate you.’ Jay-la murmured to her wolf, though she already knew Kora was going to let him, for weeks now she’d had this lingering feeling of Havoc in her mind, and that howl she had let out tonight, had told him she was lonely and didn’t want to be apart from the pack anymore, she wanted to come home.

Kora would not reject the father of their pups, not now. He was her goddess-gifted Mate.

Havoc’s behaviour towards Kora surprised Jay-la, although he had come racing after her and she fully expected him to just aggressively mate the hell out of her wolf on the spot, he didn’t. He was being gentle with her, a little playful and quite loving. He purred at Kora, and she purred right back.

‘Well, now what do we do?’

‘Play’ Kora piped up and suddenly bit the end of Havoc’s tail, then hit him in the face with her tail and ran off, though Jay-la knew she was not running to get away, she was running to have hlm chase her. It was what wolves did when mating, playing with each other.

There was no stopping it, Kora was not about to give up control even if Jay-la asked her to0. So she didn’t just stayed in the back of Kora’s mind quiet and let her be with her Mate.

She had no idea how she was going to deal with his human counterpart, or even what Nathan thought this very minute, didn’t want to know, needed time to try and process everything. Nothing made sense to her at the moment. Shouldn’t she have been able to scent him out when in his office? Or he her, for that matter, he must be as shocked as she was.

The only good thing she guessed was that Havoc was never going to let him hurt her, or punish her, so there was some safety in that. She would have to wait and see. It appeared he either had no control of Havoc at all or he was just allowing them to bond and mate as she was. Jay-la had no idea, was too confused at this point.

She sighed, Kora and Havoc ran about playing and mating each other many times. Kora was so happy, Jay-la didn’t think she had ever felt her this happy, right this minute she was running at will through her own pack, with her Mate, knowing her pups were safely tucked up in their beds.

Havoc was her Mate.

Jay-la’s train of thought suddenly changed. If Nathan was her Mate, that would make her.. the future Luna.

Her mind moved to being here in the pack today. She’d been placed in the Luna Suite. Jackson had asked her if she’d rather he put her in the Alpha’s Suite? That couldn’t be a coincidence. Surely not. Had stated Nathan would kill him if he’d put her in his bed, Jackson had even joked about Nathan wanting to punish her in the fun way. That bastard knew, oh he was going to die.

They all knew she suddenly realised, which meant Nathan also knew and had informed all of them, but why had he not told her that day, something else was going on, maybe he didn’t want her? That one thought brought pain to her heart, she had to stop thinking about it, focused on nothing. Just sat back there in Kora’s mind and watched them and tried desperately to keep her fears at bay.

She had no idea of how long Kora and Havoc played and mated, just that at some point she could see the pack house coming into view, the show-down she had been dreading was coming, at least it wasn’t going to be done with her children around. Did she even want to talk to him right now? She didn’t know.

‘He’s your Mate, he will not hurt you Jay-la’ Kora piped up, speaking to her for the first time since finding out Havoc was her mate.

He was so angry, Kora. You didn’t see it. she sighed.

‘Maybe you misunderstood it. Havoc wants us, trust in him.

Havoc strolled right into the pack house and, to her surprise, so did Kora. Wolves didn’t usually come into the pack house, shifted outside, then came in. They were headed for the alpha’s office. She shivered as she recalled the last time she was in there. ‘It’ll be okay’, Kora said softly.

She watched as Jackson opened the door and stood aside while Havoc strolled into the office withouta care in the world. Kora followed him, he was her Mate and she was going wherever he went.

She heard the door close behind her and heard him shift ‘wait,’ she begged Kora, she wasn’t ready.

Didn’t even know if she could do this. A large part of her was filled with fear and wanted to run, right out of this office, she could feel Kora’s resistance to the thought she was having.

He was standing in front of her now, completely naked, watching her wolf. She had not shifted as he had done, he had probably expected her to, she realised.

Kora was happy to look at his naked body, her head tilted as she assessed him completely from head to toe, he chuckled at her wolf.

Then he walked over to her and hunkered down ‘How about I put some clothes on, huh’ he smiled right at her and ran his hands over her head and scratched behind her ears for a minute, making Kora purr. You got bigger I see’ his tone was light and playful ‘But still very pretty a hint of seductiveness could be heard in his ton.

He winked right at her, then stood and walked off. She turned and watched him ‘I might just eat him myself,’ she murmured to Jay-la playfully. ‘See he is not mad at us.’

Jay-la sighed, he’d didn’t appear mad, but she could only recall the last time she’d seen him. Kora had not been with her, she hadn’t seen it. Couldn’t understand what she had felt or seen that day.

He was back wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, ‘Kora, I left the door to the bathroom open, why don’t you go in and shift, I would like to see…. my Mate his voice soft and gentle, nothing in it that made Kora think she couldn’t trust him, she turned and headed off to do as he said.

She shifted the minute she was in the bathroom. Jay-la closed the door to keep him out. She was naked and needed a minute still.

Things were not going as she thought they would.

There was a shirt in the room, it was his. He’d always been taller than her, a good foot taller. The shirt would cover her completely but she would still be naked under it. She pulled it on, there was nothing else, it smelled like him. She had once loved walking around in his room in his shirts. If he tried to forcibly mark and mate her, there wasn’t much to go through. And he would be much stronger physically. She bit her lip.

Stop that he is not going to, did Havoc?” Kora sounded annoyed now.

‘No, but.’

‘No buts. I will make you go out there.’ Kora was warning he not to do anything to ruin her and Havoc’s bond.

Jay-la looked at her appearance in the mirror, washed her face, she was less than ready for this meeting, her hair she smoothed out as best she could, but really that was all she could do. At least it was warm in here. The entire pack house, as did the majority of homes, had heated flooring, to help with wintertime.

She could feel Kora starting to get impatient, and sighed I’m going already!’ she muttered to her wolf, then turned and stepped out of the bathroom to finally face him. Her heart was hammering in her chest, unfortunately not from pure excitement of the Mate Bond.

He was standing over by the couch, he had lit the fireplace. Had she been in the bathroom that long? Or was he just used to doing it, and could do it with ease. He was watching her every move, she noted he looked a bit on the tense side. Maybe he didn’t know what to expect either. She didn’t say anything, didn’t know what to say to be honest. Just kind of stood there and watched him wearily from near the door to his office.

“Come in,’ he said, “please sit, we need to talk I believe” he was gesturing to the couch by the fireplace.

She looked at the door and wondered if Jackson would still be standing on the other side of it. She heard him sigh heavily.

“Jay-la please, I know things aren’t great right now, but I know you don’t understand everything that’s going on either. Please sit.. am not going to touch you, will never hurt you. l assure you, you are safe in this room with me.”

Her eyes moved back to him, met his blue ones for maybe five seconds and fell away, she knew what he was to her right this minute, knew what he had been to her all those years ago, and how he’d felt about her the day he’d made her leave. But none of that actually comforted her right this minute. All she could think about was the last time she had been in this office, his anger towards her.

She caught movement in her peripheral vision and shot her eyes to him. He’d taken a step towards her, she backed up, a hand reaching for the door handle she knew was back there somewhere.

Watched him stop moving and look at her hand, heard him swear softly.

“Please don’t run” he sighed, “It hurts every time you run away from me”

That’s rich, she thought, considering he was the one to tell her to leave and never come back, how could it hurt him? It certainly hadn’t the day he had ordered her to, it had only hurt her. She could feel tears brimming at the reminder of the pain she had felt that day.

“You don’t know what pain is.” she shot at him a little angry.

“Yes I do, Jay-la. Believe me. l do.”

“No you don’t. I lost everything that day. My family, my friends, my pack, the man..” she stopped speaking and shook her head.

“What did you lose that day? Nothing is what.”

“I lost one of my closest best friends that day, Jay-la. Because I acted on an impulse, without thinking is all. I am sorry for that, I really am.”

“There is only one reason you’re sorry, beg my pardon, three reasons you’re sorry the sarcasm came out of her with every word, he was only sorry because she had been pregnant, because they now share pups.

“That is not true, I didn’t even know about them when I was trying to get you to come home” he ran his hands through his hair and sighed, “| know this is all screwed up, but we can fix it.”

“We?” she raised an eyebrow at him. “That implies”

He cut her off in a rush. “Don’t Jay-la” he was shaking his head. “Please don’t reject me” his hands were out in front of him, “Just give me a chance to explain, I can explain. All of it, I promise.”

Jay-la stared at him, he actually looked like he was pleading with her. She stared at him for a long minute, “Did you order Abbey to hurt my mother?” changing topic was better than him trying to convince her to stay at this point. She needed time to think about everything.

“No, and she is going to be severely punished first thing this morning. I was extremely pissed off when I heard what she had done.

“How can you let her just go about and hurt people in the pack, how is it she thinks it is okay?” Jay-la asked.

“I had no knowledge of what had happened here. Actually, it happened while I was unconscious due to wolfs-bane injected into me. The Alpha unit can attest to that. None of them had any knowledge of it. I assure you I would never allow that. What Abbey did, going to your parents and convincing them to allow her to attack your mother in a bid to get you to come here, was nothing I would ever approve of”

“Wh…What?” Did she hear that right? Her mother and father allowed it. No, she must not have heard right “1 don’t understand.

Did you just say they did this to me? Made me feel like that” she shook her head, no. No, they would never.

“sh!t! I’m sorry, I thought you knew you did attack Abbey. I just assumed you knew. Oh jay-la, I would never have told you like that, I’m so sorry,” he stepped towards her quickly.

Jay-la held up a hand to stop him. Why would they do that to me? Her eyes moved past him around the room and looked at the clock on the wall, nearly 5am, then moved back to him. He was standing no more than a meter away could probably reach out and touch him if she wanted to. But this was too much. She had to go and talk with her father. It couldn’t be, she didn’t believe it.

She spun on her heal and yanked the office door open, brushed past Jackson who had been there the whole time, “No, no, no. I don’t believe you.’ she was saying as she headed for the front door.

“Jay-la wait.” he called after her, she could hear him following her and right this minute didn’t care.

His hand wrapped around her arm to halt her, and she reacted on instinct, spun around and slapped him right in the face. His head whipped back, his blue eyes went wide with shock and he let go of her arm, just stared at her.

“Don’t you dare stop me”‘ she grated out angrily, she didn’t even know who she was angry with at this moment, him? Her father? Her mother? Her brother? Abbey? Herself even? She was just angry. How could anyone do something like that?

She stalked out of the pack house and headed directly for her family home. She would find out the truth from her father himself.

She banged into the house, her family home. She knew he was up could hear him with her wolf hearing. He was in the kitchen. She glanced up the stairs, turned her head and listened her children were all still sleeping. She stalked her way through the house towards where she knew he was preparing breakfast. Her feet were completely numb from the cold, but she just didn’t care at this point.

Jay-la also knew that the Alpha was following her, as was Jackson, either one of them could have given her father the heads up she supposed, probably had. She didn’t care, even Kora was angry along with her now. She too, could not understand why they would put them through that much pain and grief and for what to just get her to come home.

Hell Nathan could have done that simply by walking into a room with her. That twitched her brain a little… she pushed it aside, shook her head as if to clear it and refocused on getting answers from her father.

He turned to look at her, a smile already on his face, it was gone in an instant. “Baby girl, what is wrong?” he asked.

She pointed a shaking finger at him as she strode right up to him. “Did you do it? Did you allow mum to be injured just to get me home, for him?” she grated out the last two words. She knew they were standing behind her, could smell them both. He more so, being that he was her Mate.

She watched his eyes move past her to his Alpha and Beta. Then back to her, “Baby girl, please understand…’

She cut him off with a s***h of her hand. It was all she needed to know. “I trusted you and you let Abbey shoot mum up with a lethal dose of wolfs-bane, are you insane?” she screamed at him.

“Well actually…” he rubbed his hands over his face “I was the one who hit her with the wolfs-bane. I couldn’t let anyone else do it.

Ivy and your mother wouldn’t either, they only trusted me to make sure it wasn’t a lethal dose but close to it”

Jay-la couldn’t believe what she was hearing, it was true they were in on it. They did this to them, she had nearly completely lost herself in her grief over all that was going on and they did this to her on purpose. She stood staring at him, anger was rolling off of her, she heard Kora snarl in displeasure at what they had gone through. Saw him back up a step.

“I’m sorry baby girl, we just wanted you to come home,” he pleaded with her. “and honestly, I didn’t think you were ever going to. Abbey told us the Alpha was your mate. Neither of us believed her. You’d known each other before, how was it possible? She explained you were here on pack territory and that’s how he knew. It took some convincing, but eventually we believed her, but Bradley was useless at convincing you. So it was put forward by Abbey that if Vera was actually injured, seriously, you would sense it yourself and then we would be able to get you to come here.”

Jay-la just stood there and stared at him, they were all in on it, she couldn’t believe it, and she had left him here with her triplets, trusted him with her children, hugged him and cried all over him with so much joy at seeing him, being with him and now to feel so betrayed by him.

Hurt and it wasn’t just her that hurt. Kora was hurt by them, and her emotional distress had affected her children too. Her fists balled by her sides in anger as she stared at him in disbelief. She really wanted to lash out at him, give him a good beating as she had done Abbey, but her children were up stairs, if she started a fight with him they would hear it and get scared.

She felt a hand touch her gently on the shoulder, knew it was the Alpha and growled at his touch, she was not wanting his hands on her right now, she knew what he was trying to do, a mates’ scent, a mates’ touch could help calm you down. She had yet to accept him so it would not work to the extent he thought it would, couldn’t without her wanting it too, she supposed. He’d have more luck sending his Gamma her way.

His hand slid down to the small of her back to stroke her in gentle circles. ” Jay-la let’s not fight here, the pups are up stairs.” He spoke to her softly, soothingly. She had seen her father do this to her mother on many occasions to help calm her down.

Oh, she just wanted to punch him right in his handsome face, break a bone or two, she knew where her children were. Her green eyes turned on his blue ones. “If you want to keep that hand, I would remove it” she growled at him. Kora may want her mate, may want Jay-la to accept Nathan, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t break something in the mean time.

Kora was also angry about the situation going on around them.

She would not likely hurt her Mate but she would likely allow Jay-la to throw a punch here or their if she thought it would not hurt her and Havoc’s bond in anyway.

Their goddess-given bond was sacred, Jay-la knew it, Kora knew that Jay-la believed in fated mates and that she would not do anything to hurt Kora herself, so some leeway would be given to her with their so-called Mate at certain times, like right this minute, she didn’t want to calm down, so him trying to use the bond on her was annoying more then calming.

His hand fell away from her, she had already proven she would hit him one, had done so already, she was actually a little surprised to see that he took the hit and didn’t go all alpha mad on her.

Havoc pushed forward all of a sudden and stared right at her.

Whether he was warning her or trying to get to Kora she couldn’t tell, he didn’t seem angry, just physically showing himself. Kora suddenly surged forward and Jay-la was shoved back, ah that was it, she felt herself being moved by Kora into Havoc’s waiting arms. That bastard knew he could calm her wolf and it was working. She practically melted into him. Burying her face into his neck and breathing him in.

What the hell happened to my feisty wolf?’ she muttered to Kora.

‘Our Mate bond is strong, and we needed to calm down or a fight with dad or Alpha would have ensued!

Jay-la sighed just great, ‘l don’t want to wake up in his bed Kora, do you understand me.’

Kora chortled at her I would never: but there was pure mischief in her voice.

For the love of the goddess, Jay-la face palmed herself in Kora’s mind, which only made Kora giggle out loud for all to hear. ‘untangle yourself and give me back my body,’ Jay-la muttered.

She did relinquish her body back but did not untangle herself. And she found herself standing in his arms, her face still buried in his neck, she pushed hard at his chest to get out of his arms. A growl came from him and when she looked up it was still Havoc.

“Let go, Havoc,” she stated firmly.

“Mine,” he stated gruffly back.

“Kora is yours,” she confirmed to him.

A large hand was all of a sudden on her face making her look directly into his eyes, half blue, half green “Kora is mine.. you are mine… Accept me, then he turned her head and slid his nose all the way down her neck right to where he would bite her, to mark her, claim her for himself, leave that pretty silver filigree on the crook of her neck for all to see.

Jay-la blinked at his actions, completely shocked, and wondered if it was he or Nathan who made that statement, or were they actually both talking at the same time. She wasn’t game to state

No at this point. She had the distinct feeling that if she tried to in any way shape or form, decline him he would mark her whether she like it or not. But if she said yes, goddess, he was going to mark her too.
There was no way to answer him without his fangs plunging into her neck.

He was challenging her to defy him, and demanding her to say yes at the same time, she could feel his mouth on her neck, goddess her skin was on fire from where his mouth moved in soft kisses on her mark spot, it was getting to be to much, she had to pull away or she was going to let him mark her whether she was ready or not whether she wanted it or not she could hear Kora purring inside of her, she wanted this more than anything. Jay-la knew if he marked her Kora would push forward and mark him back. Damned wolves and their need to mark and mate each other.

All of a sudden she was shoved away and Nathan was staggering backwards, “I’m sorry Jay-la, Havoc was a little out of control.”

Her hand was already touching her mark spot, it was soft and hot, and shot bolts of lightning through her own fingertips when she stroked it, he had not punctured the skin, but he had certainly left a mark on her, that was for sure. A love bite for all to see. The skin was too sensitive for there not to be. Kora huffed, annoyed at the lack of being marked by her mate. She was also annoyed with Nathan for stopping Havoc from uniting them.