Chapter 17 Master #2
With a mouth full of blood, Jake roars, “I did this for you! I brought her for you! And this is what you do with my gift!”
A wave of power falls over everyone in the room, demanding we submit to Jake’s authority. Freddie grabs his mother more forcibly and drags her to the door.
“You can’t make my mother submit, Jake! Hold back! Pull it back!” Freddie is yelling, but it feels like we are in a wind tunnel, so it’s muffled. He manages to get her coat and expensive bag, thrusting them into her arms.
“Let go of my son! Don’t kill my son!” Tina screams.
Jake continues to fight Shadow, punching his sides and stomach. Freddie tells his mother, “This is pack business, do not get involved!”
“But he’s my son!”
“He’s Jake’s and you know it.”
“Challenge him!” she screams at Shadow, but then turns to Freddie, “Challenge him!”
“I would never do that, and you should never ask me. If Jake feels Shadow needs to be punished, I would not step in,” Freddie tells his mother. Jake growls and bares his teeth, but pulls his power back. I gasp at the release.
Freddie finally gets his mother out and into the elevator. She wouldn’t have gone if she continued to feel that presence, that power that makes everyone feel like they need to submit or challenge. It’s a unique ability only a few pack leads have. Only very strong pack leads.
Freddie returns, and there’s a quiet that moves with him. Like the eye of the storm.
“Explain yourself, Shadow. Explain,” Jake pants. He presses into the back of his neck with his forearm. He’s got his whole body on Shadow’s, driving his knee into the soft part of his thigh and chin tipped up and pinned on the carpet.
“We kissed! We kissed, and I didn’t want it to go any further. I just needed her to be still.”
Jake doesn’t react.
“Why?”
“It’s too much, Jake. I fall too easily. You know that. And she’s so…”
Jake shakes his head back and forth, confused and startled by this information.
Shadow closes his eyes in pain.
Sebastian’s hand comes up to my face, and I lean into it. He begins to purr lightly, and it calms me.
“I wasn’t thinking. I know we aren’t supposed to use it on her. I know,” Shadow says.
“I can’t believe you fucked up. She can’t be treated that way, Shadow. No matter what you’re feeling. No matter what.”
Jake lifts his forearm off of Shadow’s neck. He presses his palm to the bloody bite mark, tenderly, like he doesn’t want to see it.
“I’m going to punish you for your crime against an omega, Shadow. Ondine,” he looks up at me, “if you ever fucking say you’re going back to your apartment again, I’ll tie you to my bed for a week. Don’t you get it?”
His chest is heaving with anger. I gulp.
“You’re not fucking going anywhere. You’re staying with us.”
Because I’m an idiot, I say, “But I need some things.”
“What fucking things?” Jake asks, and Sebastian whispers “Don’t” in my ear at the same time.
“My vitamins. My omega vitamins.”
Jake closes his eyes in exasperation. “Sabbies can take you to the pharmacy.”
“But they are from the Heat Clinic. Special for me. They took a blood test. They have hormones in them.”
Sebastian relaxes behind me. He must feel something through the bond. Jake says, “Then we will get you a new doctor to prescribe new ones. What kind of hormones were you taking, baby?”
“Regulators. Since I was with so many different alphas at the Clinic, who weren’t mine, I need regulators. And a dose of heat suppressants.”
“Well, you don’t fucking need that shit anymore. You have us.”
I do my very best not to inform him I only have them one more heat. I do a really good job.
“But I can’t just go off of them. It’s messing with me. I think that’s why his bark affected me so much.”
Shadow pipes into our tangent argument. “My family has a doctor on retainer. I can have her come to the hotel and draw blood. Get you new vitamins and hormone supplements you need.”
Jake turns to his form on the ground. “Look at you, being helpful.”
Freddie says, “I’ll call her now. She’s an alpha. But I’ll have her bring her beta assistant.”
Jake seems more relaxed having solved a problem. He gets off of Shadow and pulls him up to his feet in one motion, like Shadow weighs absolutely nothing despite being larger than Jake.
He lets him go, and then that blanket of authority comes down again. Shadow bends his head down in submission. But Jake wants more. Sebastian, behind me, also bends his head down.
Shadow dips down lower at his waist.
Jake stands there for what feels like forever.
“That will do for now. Get back to the house. I want you in charge of making room for a nest for Ondine’s next heat. I want you back in the city tomorrow.”
Shadow replies with “Yes, Alpha,” and he leaves without sparing anyone a glance. He doesn’t spare anyone a glance. He leaves as quickly as possible with his head still bowed and a fork still sticking out of his skin.
I don’t realize I’m shaking until Sebastian rubs my arms. “It’s ok,” he says in my ear, “It’s just adrenaline. It’ll go away soon.”
Freddie tells us the doctor will be by shortly. Her office is nearby. Jake looks at his knuckles, where the skin has split even more. He looks up and we lock eyes.
“He hurt you.”
I’m still shaking. “He just kind of scared me. It felt momentarily…like I’d lost myself. I didn’t like it.”
He breaks eye contact and turns to Freddie. Freddie is standing by the door with wide eyes and a frown.
“Freddie, I wonder if your mom will think of me differently after tonight? It’s funny, she’s always implying I’m not strong enough to be pack lead. She’s openly said I don’t deserve to be in the same pack as Shadow. But I don’t think this will do me any favors to win over Tina Wong.”
“I don’t know, Jake. I’ve never seen an alpha do that before. You were ready to unbond him, it felt like.”
I gasp. Unbond him?
“Relax, sweetheart,” Sabbies says in my ear, “We wouldn’t reject Shadow. Not unless he didn’t submit.”
“Or if he doesn’t fucking learn from this.” Jake takes a napkin from the table and blots the blood off his hands. Then he wads it up and slams it on the table. “That fucker!”
We all just wait. Jake is so high-strung and volatile right now.
“Freddie. I want to go home and deal with my pack. How much longer is this fucking job?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s the end goal? We found the shooter.”
Freddie walks away from the door and down into the sunken living room. He sits down on the couch. “My mother wants him dead.”
I must make a noise that indicates my feelings about what he said.
“What, little Ondine? You don’t think he should die?”
I shake my head at him.
“Ok, then tomorrow, when everyone is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we will make a plan. And then me, my pack, and my omega will go home.”
Jake continues, “Sabbies, help me clean this up. Ondine, go sit down, baby, you’re shaking like a leaf.”
Because it’s nice to not have to think, I do exactly as he says.
I go down where Freddie is and sit down.
I sit on the corner, next to him. I tuck in my legs and lean on the armrest. He takes a throw blanket and lays it over me.
Out of nowhere, Princess the cat jumps up on me.
Making a home on the indent of my waist.
The doctor comes shortly after, and thankfully, I don’t have to move. She takes my blood. Her beta nurse hooks me up to an IV and gives me a bag of saline with vitamins and minerals. And he patches Jake’s hands.
My prescription will be ready in a few days, she says.
I’m so drowsy by the time it’s done, I need to be carried to bed.