Chapter 16 #2
But fuck this shit.
Bailey stares at Danica with wide eyes. “I’m sorry about your vacation, Dani.”
“Don’t be. I made my choice.”
I scoff with bitter laughter. “So I get back here after a long fucking flight, worrying about my mate and dealing with torture of being cut off from her, being locked up for days, dealing with that Starling coven bullshit, and you guys who mated already can appreciate what that might have been like, but imagine being locked away from her for days while seeing she’s in danger, then she disappears and when you finally get to her you reach out to finally, finally fucking touch her, do you get how it felt to instead fly back ten feet to land on your ass feeling like you stuck your fingers and your toes into electrical sockets? ”
“Shit,” Linc mutters.
Tyson growls. Yeah, he can imagine.
Joel looks pissed on my behalf.
“Rikki?” Rye asks, and his expression is hard.
Erica squares her shoulders and looks him in the eyes.
“You said nothing to me,” he says.
She has no response, but she bites her lip, looking a little contrite.
“Cancel it, Danica,” I demand.
“No,” the blonde bitch calmly denies.
“Let me and Bailey work out our shit ourselves.”
“Feel free to work out your shit,” she responds, “with actions. Words. Without touching her.”
“I’ve got some actions in mind,” I fire back and give Bailey a carnal once over.
She startles, going wide-eyed.
“Actions she doesn’t want. Which is why your way of–” Danica holds up air quotes – “fixing it has been taken off the table.”
“Cockblocked by witches,” I mutter. “This fucking coven.”
“Cockblocked?” Bailey whispers with disgust. “You’re a pig, Jason Creed. A disgusting pig I want not one thing to do with!”
Graydon and Greyson both look away, Graydon’s mouth contorting with a lip curl.
Bailey’s mother’s face is red.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be here for this, Carrie, Graydon. My apologies,” I say. “I’m not thinking clearly, what with this nonsense. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to you.”
“Agreed,” Graydon says. “Let’s go, Care.”
Carrie says, “Before we go, have you figured anything out for us?”
“Not yet,” Erica responds. “But we called Aunt Mimi and she’s spit-balling with Lucinda Walsh and some other SCC elder witches. We’re hoping to hear back soon.”
“Thank you,” Carrie says. “Let’s go.” She grabs her mate’s hand and pulls him out of the solarium.
“Right, so, all this should be between Bailey and Jase.” Grey speaks up.
“I don’t think any of us should be involved.
I get that the coven might have had to make some moves to get them into the same space for Fate’s sake, and I’m not experienced enough yet to understand why the choices that were made were made.
Obviously, the Starling issue is a whole other set of nuances that have to be dealt with and if the council needs to get involved from a security perspective, I vote we absolutely should ensure they face consequences.
Besides that, I think we should be out of their relationship. ”
“I stand by my decision,” Danica says. “Jessie is on Bailey’s side, too. I plan to discuss further sanction options with my sisters.”
“Nobody should ever get between an alpha and his mate,” Rye says.
“Obviously, the coven doesn’t agree with this pack rule,” Erica states.
Rye’s eyebrows fly up. “Well, you’re not just in the coven, little witch; you’re also part of the pack.
And as your mate, I’m telling you I don’t want you getting in the way of one of our alphas claiming his mate, especially not one of the council.
That’s not just affecting Jase, it’s also affecting Linc and Joel. ”
“You’re worrying about how all this impacts Jason, Lincoln, and Joel, but what about Bailey?” Ronnie asks.
Erica adds, “Exactly. You can tell me what you want and what you don’t want, Mister Wolf, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to change how me and my coven decide to help Bailey.”
“Help Bailey?” I inquire. “Are you seriously telling me you’re happy to be in cahoots on this, Erica?
You do realize part of this shit was down to your meddling the night of your birthday, right?
One of the reasons Bailey’s pissy is because of my reaction to the text you sent. The text you sent and apologized for.”
“Pissy,” Bailey scoffs, giving me a look of disgust.
I’m doing myself no favors here.
“I do remember all that, Jase,” Erica says. “And I also know Bailey’s pain goes way beyond the night of my birthday.”
Bailey speaks up. “Thank you, Young cousins. I support it being a lot longer than three days. How about forever?”
“You’d condemn me like that?” I ask, hoping my heart is on my sleeve right now. Because as pissed as I am and as much as my urges are dictating my actions right now, her reaction is pretty fucking harsh.
She continues. “Five minutes ago, I was just some pest to you, someone you could barely take the time to take a phone call from, even when I told you it was really important. And now because I suddenly smell different to you, you’re all fired up to connect us until the day we die? No!”
I pull in a breath and let it out slowly. “If nobody’s gonna budge on the three days, not much I can do. Though I will say I won’t fucking forget it.” My eyes pan across each of the Young sisters before they land on my mate. “Three days while we work it out, then, baby… you’re mine.”
Her face goes red. Grey shifts uncomfortably, and Danica sits up straighter and says, “I propose a meeting with the coven and Bailey before the seventy-two hours is up. Then we go from there.”
“Agreed,” Erica states.
“Agreed,” Ronnie echoes.
“Same,” Vivi says.
Danica turns to Grey. “That’s four votes.
Grey, and we already decided you wouldn’t vote on day-to-day coven matters, what with your life and responsibilities here.
We’d ask you to recuse yourself from the vote since this is a clear conflict of interest, but it doesn’t matter.
We have a majority without your vote or Jessie’s, and I already have Jessie’s proxy. She votes with the rest of us.”
Grey’s jaw tightens and he shoots me a look of apology.
“So,” Danica goes on, pulling my focus her way. “We’ll reconvene before the deadline. We’ll stay in town?”
“Sounds good to me,” Vivica replies. “We’ll stay local as we work to help with the Cicely and Jared situation along with Graydon and Carrie’s problem, so we’ll be in the apartment in Drowsy Hollow while we work on everything.
That said, let’s move onto the next order of business, shall we?
Unless there’s anything further from Jase or Bailey? ”
I’m pissed. Beyond pissed.
I look at Grey. “You’ve got my proxy on the Jared thing. On everything. I’m not…” I wave a hand beside my head, unable to verbalize. Because I want to smash something.
Grey nods and looks at his sister. “You’re going to Jase’s then?”
“Not on his life,” Bailey states.
Grey blows out a breath, looking at me with empathy.
“I’ll stay here, sleep on her bedroom floor,” I mutter. “I’m not leaving.”
“Can we break for five?” Grey asks.
“Sure,” Erica agrees.
“Bailey. A word?” Grey requests.
“I don’t feel like talking,” she says snottily.
“I’d like to help Cicely, if I can. I messaged with her and told her I’d dig into the archives tomorrow to see what I can find out about Jared’s pack.
And I’d really appreciate it if Mom and Dad can be prioritized after Cicely and Jared.
Since, obviously, there’s danger with Cicely. ”
Grey’s hand clamps down on the back of his sister’s neck and he says, “Walk. We’re talking.”
I flinch, wanting to step in, not liking his aggression even if I know to my bones that a good talking to is what she needs. I hold myself in check as he practically frog-marches her outside.
Her face is red, but she doesn’t fight it.
My eyes pan the room. “What are we doing about what they did?”
Erica speaks up. “We all think it’s best to file a report through the SCC and make sure it’s documented on their end.”
“Who’s we?”
“The council and the coven,” Riley replies.
“That Starling coven is fucking with us again. We should make a strong point that leaves no room for interpretation,” I say.
“We’ll talk it over amongst the council,” Tyson declares. “Not here.”
“It’s best we work together on issues like these,” Erica says.
“We’ll discuss it later, Rik,” Riley states.
The room goes quiet.