The defiant mate by Fennifer Francis novel Chapter 26

Jay-ya PoV

That night, after everyone retired to bed and she could hear them sleeping soundly with her wolf hearing, she slipped out of the back door and made her way to the back of the property.

Using Kora’s wolf strength and agility, she jumped up and grabbed the top of the 10foot wall and hauled herself over it to the other side, dropping into the natural reserve of bush-land behind their home.

It was not a large reserve, about 5 acres by 7 acres, but it was enough for Kora to shift into her wolf form and run free.

Jay-la stripped off her clothes, she could already feel Kora’s excitement building within her, felt the first c0ck and snap of her bones and allowed Kora to take full control and run around the reseve at will. She chased a few small animals for fun but was not particularly interested in killing any of them, just enjoyed the hunting game she played with them.

For hours, Kora walked, prowled, stalked, pounced and ran about feeling totally free for the first time in months. She marked up a few trees with her claws and when the moon appeared from behind the clouds, she howled up at it, a mighty howl. Nothing answered her, no other wolves around, in other words, thankfully.

Then she just lay there in wolf form under the moonlight and listened to the noises of the night, the small critters that lived in the reserve as they moved about. Jay-la did not bother her, allowed her to do as she pleased. Kora had grown bigger over the last 6 years. Jay-la noted how her paw prints were nearly twice the size as they used to be when in the pack.

She had once been a small silver wolf, but was now a large silver wolf, would probably be the same size as Stephen’s wolf, Rafe, she thought absently.

Being small had made for better hiding from them all, but being bigger meant being even stronger and faster, that she would be able to put up a much better fight when and if it came down to it. It would be nice to go on a pack run with other wolves in the Winter Moon Pack. Jay-la was willing to bet Kora would out run every wolf there, but the Alpha probably. She was going to let Kora try it and display all her speed. She knew Kora was impressive.

It was an hour till sun up before Kora relinquished control to Jay-la and they dressed and climbed back over the wall and went back into the house. She was due to be in court today, but realised she hadn’t brought any clothes with her that would suit court.

She wondered if Lauren or Rae-Rae had anything suitable that would fit her, or if she would have to risk going back to her apartment, which she didn’t really want to.

To be honest, she didn’t even want to attend court today, she’d had a very long weekend and just didn’t feel up to it.

Perhaps a sick-day, another lawyer could step in or they could postpone court to another time. She would call Jordan and tell him she was unwell, take a few days off.

She was sitting in Lauren’s kitchen drinking a cup of coffee with some hot toast next to her when her phone rang. It was only 6 am. She couldn’t imagine who would be calling her at this hour, the people who would, were right here in this house.

Probably Jackson again. Though how he had gotten her number she didn’t know.

She checked the number and frowned at it deeply. If she was recalling correctly, that was her parents’ home pack number. There was no way they had her unlisted number. Only Jackson did, well now the whole unit probably. For her parents to get this number they must have called her parents and given it to them. What were they up to?

She answered a little wearily “Hello?”

“Jay-la, its Brad, how are you little sister?”

Jay-la felt hot tears prick her eyes at the sound of her big brother’s voice, “hi,” was all she could manage to get out, worried she would suddenly burst into tears with both joy and sorrow.

“I need you to come home, Jay-la. Its mum, she’s really badly injured, and might not make it. ls asking for you.”

Jay-la frowned at this, his tone did not show any signs of distress or emotional grief, he didn’t sound upset at all. “I don’t believe you,” she decided to state, because if, their mum was nearly dying, surely he would be so distressed it would be heard in his voice. Kora agreed, she didn’t sense any pain, sadness, distress or anything to make her feel this was the truth.

“What?” he exclaimed, appearing shocked by her statement. ” Why would I lie to you?” he sounded a little annoyed.

“Brad, if mum was injured as you say, you would be very upset. This is a trick by the Alpha to get me to come home. I know this because there is no way you could have gotten my number without one of the Alpha’s units giving it to you, likely Jackson.”

“Look Jay-la, he is not even here in the pack, all of them are over there with you. There was a rogue attack early this morning and many of us have been injured. Mum was one of them.”

“I don’t believe you. I’m sorry Brad, it was really nice to talk to you, but I only hear lies.”

“I’m sorry you don’t believe me,” he sighed, but even that sounded false to her ears.

She got off the phone and sent Jackson a quick text message, “Nice try. But Brad can’t lie for sh!t. Like I would believe that story.”

“Whet are you talking about?” he replied.

Jay-la sighed and shook her head, like she would believe that be wasn’t in on it. He was the one who always called her, had her new number even though it was unlisted as far as she could recall.

It was just over an hour later when Jay-la started to feel uncomfortable, that her chest was suddenly tight and irritating her, and no matter how much she rubbed it, the aching wouldn’t go away.

‘Kora?’

‘I don’t know, it’s odd!’ was all she replied, but Kora was pacing around in Jay-la’s mind, also uncomfortable and unable to sit still.

‘Something is wrong, but I don’t know what.’ Jay-la was pacing around in the kitchen with her children at the table having breakfast, watching her with curious eyes. They seemed a little worried by her sudden restlessness. She was not just rubbing her chest now but pressing on it. The pain was intensifying to the point that she was getting really worried, it was starting to actually hurt and cause her pain.

Lauren walked into the kitchen and looked at her. Instant concern replaced her morning smile, “What’s wrong?” she asked, the Doctor in her springing to life wanting to help her.

“I don’t know, my chest aches all of a sudden, starting to actually further phóne was ringing on the counter next to her, she was trying to breathe through the pain, ‘maybe I’m having a heart attack’. She thought ‘rubbish wolves are tough, and if you were I would know. Something else,’ Kora snorted at her.

She checked the caller ID on the incoming call, the same number. Jackson. She shook her head, just because the man had somehow managed to get her new number, he thought he could use it at will to bother her. She sighed and dismissed it, not going to pick up, she had more concerning issues right now.

A few minutes later, a text came through, Lauren had disappeared and was now back with her medical bag, trying to get Jay-la to sit still so she could get a blood pressure reading and get a heart rate, how ever Jay-la could not sit down, she needed to be up on her feet, to pace around. Could not sit still for the love of the goddess.

Another text came through. She picked up her phone and opened it, the first text “Jay-la pick up quickly, Jackson.”

The second text is “Jay-la, pick up, your mother is hurt, possibly dying. PICK UP”

Shaking her head again, she ignored it, they really were becoming bothersome and doing everything to get her to go back, using every trick they could think of.

“I don’t know..” Kora whined at her. She was lying on the ground seemingly in pain now too. Whatever was wrong with her was getting worse, escalating and not going away. Even physically affecting Kora now.

Lauren was not happy that Jay-la wouldn’t sit still and was trailing her with a hand on her wrist, trying to get her heart rate.

“Damn it Jay-la.” the next text came through, then she received a video message. She sighed, fine. Whatever it was he really wasn’t going to give up on, she clicked the play button and, to her utter horror, it was footage of her mother Vera lying in a hospital bed, covered in bloodied wound dressings.

Her father, Jody, was sitting next to the bed holding her hand, his head bowed low in sadness.

Jay-la’s chest pain suddenly increased 100 fold and pain ripped through her entire body and a scream of distress and agony peeled from her like nothing she had ever felt before.

Kora was howling in pain, curled up in her mind, unable to bare the pain either. The phone clattered from her hand to the floor of the kitchen, she vaguely heard all her babies start yelling and crying from the table.

She was unable to do anything for them, as she staggered about the kitchen trying to cope with the sheer volume of pain coursing through her body. She had never in her life felt anything like this pain before, not even the pain of childbirth compared. She fell down on to her knees, tears were streaming down her face as she clutched at her chest.

Lauren as yelling at her, asking her if she was okay, she was yelling for her husband and Rae-Rae to get in here quick, to assist her.

The ache Jay-la and Kora had been feeling this morning, was her mother’s pain, and the tearing of the bond they shared.

It was breaking as she was dying from her injuries, how could this happen when her father was the most highest ranked warrior, why hadn’t he gone to her aid.