Janella's Patrician

Chapter 5

Not edited. My sincere apologies for not updating sooner. I had a couple of ways to go with this story so I wrote two possible chapters and decided which one I really wanted to use :)

Cam

Sitting on the steps of their house Cam had no idea what the future would bring. He had a decision to make; Lily was right. As much as it killed him to know, Nellie had moved on completely, she had a new mate... but she was his dammit! If only he hadn't made that fateful decision. If only he'd followed his heart. Could he give up on her completely? Would she walk away from her mate? Would her wolf... her wolf... did she have her wolf back? If she did, who would her wolf call out to? Cray or Sander?

He threw the glass he'd been holding out into the forest in an angry gesture. He wasn't sure what Cray wanted anymore, he gave the impression that he accepted Lily as his mate. It wasn't Cray who called out in the pack meeting. As much as he was loathe to admit, it was him. He was the one who disgraced Lily and their girls. It was his fault and his alone. He still loved Nellie.

Lily

She watched as Cam walked towards the forest, hopefully to pick up the glass, and shook her head slowly. She knew he was in a battle with himself. Her own wolf told her that Cray was disgusted by the way he'd publicly humiliated her and the girls. What happened could have been avoided if Cam had accepted the truth. Nellie wasn't his anymore.

Like Cam, she had some decisions to make that were dependant on the one he chose. That was the scariest thought she could imagine. She didn't want to take the girls away but knew that she couldn't stand by while her mate threw himself after another woman. In all her heart she hoped and wished that he picked her and forgot about Nellie. Speaking to the Alpha after the meeting he said he wasn't sure when Nellie would return but had no other details until he spoke to Ethan again. She prayed Nellie chose and accepted Ethan.

She watched him as he walked, stooped, at the edge of the forest looking down and recalled the circumstances in which they'd met.

Her life before coming to the Crescent Reed Pack hadn't been a pleasant one. Cam found her sitting with tears in her eyes in a coffee shop savouring the last tastes of the latte that had taken the last few dollars she had left. Her life had been ripped to shreds because she refused to marry an overbearing cold hearted monster of an alpha who was twenty two years older than her! He had no heir so she was supposed to provide him with one as part of a deal he'd made with her father. The thought of it made her skin crawl.

She ran as fast as she could when her father told her she'd be leaving with her 'mate' the next day. She'd had a little saved and managed to survive for almost four months watching every penny. She'd been careful not to step over boundaries of werewolf territories to ensure that she didn't receive the dreaded label of being a rogue. With no qualifications she found it impossible to find a job and was pretty much destitute when she and Cam first met.

In that very first conversation with Cam she'd told him everything. He'd been wonderful, charming, supportive... sweet. He set her up in a motel and made sure her meals were also paid for. He even offered to take her clothes shopping... and did... never complaining once. They had a connection that started to grow on a daily basis. When he told her about Nellie she almost walked away. That sort of treatment stays with a person forever and she was sure Nellie would be no different.

The day he'd asked her to be his chosen mate was one of the hardest she'd had. She had a decision to make that relied on him burying the ghosts of the past. Like a fool she'd believed him when he said that he had because of her.

Eventually she'd agreed for numerous reasons but Nellie was still in the back of her mind. While she'd been worried about him leaving her for Nellie when she came back she truly didn't believe that would happen once their girls were born. He was there for their births and the pride radiated from him as each of them were born. Strangely enough he didn't seem too worried that neither was a son saying that girls have their place in making history in the world.

Now, as she stood in the darkness of the room looking out into the darkness that was broken by the light of the moon, she asked herself one very simple question... could she compete with Nellie?