The two men eventually returned from the study and filtered back into the kitchen where Elizabeth and Catherine were plating the delivered food on large platters. It was quiet as Jason could only focus on Elizabeth, Elizabeth in turn intensely focused on preparing the food, and Catherine was currently focused on working herself up again about her sons behavior while aggressively placing serving utensils in each dish.
"Well, it's smells good." Aldophus said breaking the quiet. "And it's been a while since Jason has graced us with his presence, being a busy alpha and all, so-"
"He's sure been busy, I'd say." Catherine chided in reply.
"Leave it for tonight dear." Adolphus said firmly, once again silencing the smart remarks from his mate, as Jason glared at his mother. "Conserve your energy for tomorrow's efforts, where you'll be fully revitalized and ready to assault our son with your sharp tongue all over again." He chuckled giving Catherine a pat on her shoulder and kissing the top of her head.
"You're right..." she sighed as she picked up two of the large platters in her hands, "if I don't watch my tongue, I too, may end up wearing the dress and apron of an omega." She spit out whipping her head around to glare at her son, who was only growing in his agitation with her remarks.
"That was your last one." The older man said sternly cupping her face so she could look him directly in the eyes. "I would like to have a nice family dinner." He pressed his lips firmly against hers and held it for a few seconds before removing the plates from her hands and carrying them off to the dining room.
Catherine huffed towards the fridge and grabbed a couple of bottles of wine before following her mate into the dining room, most likely breaking away to give him an earful as well. Jason walked slowly over to Elizabeth, who was picking up her plates, and swiftly removed them from her hands from behind. "I got it." His voice was low and gentle. "Come on, let's go. You can enjoy watching her berate me for the next couple of hours." He said with a small smirk and a light laugh trying to break the mood.
Elizabeth turned around to face him, taking in his handsome features and definitely preferring him in his calm demeanor derived from his parents influence. "I would say, it is very obvious you two are related." She said with a frail smile, finding it morbidly funny that Jason's drive to fight and not back down seemed to be derived from his mother.
"Do you like your phone?" He stalled, taking advantage of being alone with her in the kitchen as his ears picked up in the distance his mother's harsh whispering.
"Yes. I really like the case, and how it glitters." She said looking around the kitchen, her hands shrinking into the large gray sweater in an automatic response of learned submission.
"Mint green. Your favorite color." He said back, trying to show he put thought into the purchase.
"And I'm assuming yours is still hot pink? Or has it already changed?" She questioned back looking at him with a small smirk, as she remembered one of their first conversations.
He took in her features and returned her smirk with a smile. "I like gray now." He said with a nod. "Let's go, otherwise she'll send a search party for you soon enough." And then he turned to walk into the dining room to join his very functional family, Elizabeth pausing for a moment to stand in thought within the kitchen before she eventually made her way in as well.
Over the course of the next couple of hours, Elizabeth got to take a peek in to the life of the Stone family. She learned that Adolphus used to be a gamma, one of the head military leaders of the pack, but when Jason rose to Alpha he stepped down from his position, despite being offered a Beta role. Much to the satisfaction of his mate. She heard embarrassing and humorous stories of Jason as he grew up, with Mark and Jacob seemingly always in the picture, and was surprised to learn that Jacob could be just a mischievous as the others despite his now calm reserve.
Jason had three half siblings, a brother from his biological fathers side, and two sisters from his mother's side. She very quickly ascertained that he was equally as protective of his sisters as her Uncle had been with her. His mother making remarks that they needed to be able to live a little and Jason flat out ignoring her prods.
For the first time,in what seemed like forever, she finished her plate and then proceeded to get more to fill it without being told to do so. Meanwhile, Jason barely touched his, more so shifting the food around. He being more focused on her sitting next to him and speaking so candidly even though her conversation was mostly directed to his parents. The light mood only ended when the large grandfather chimed and its sound echoed through the lower floor of the house indicating that it finally struck nine.
"Alright, Jason time to go." Catherine said abruptly ending the groups friendly banter.
"I have work to do at the pack house anyway." He said standing up from his seated position and looking over to Elizabeth. "Want to walk with me to the door?" His face was calm but his eyes were almost pleading for her to say yes.
"Umm..." she had taken in his eyes and felt a pang within her heart at their near hidden expression, she gave a gentle nod as she seemed to be perfectly relaxed in this new environment, knowing that he wouldn't do anything to incur the wrath of his mother under her watch. "Okay."
As soon as they exited the room and had a false sense of privacy as they walked down the hall his voice reached out gently to her ears. "I'll be staying at the pack house tonight. It's close by.. in case you need anything." His words coming out as a mild suggestion. "You can text me... any time. It doesn't matter. You can even call me, if you want to." He said with a shrug not looking at her slightly fearing her facial expression as they approached the door and he opened it.
"I'm sure you'll be busy with your responsibilities." She said in response, not wanting to tell him that she most likely wouldn't be reaching out, thinking it was not necessary to say in order to prevent hurting his feelings.
"Well.. if you want to come home, I'll move my schedule and make it work." He said trying to not sound too eager with his gentle prod, giving a small shrug.
"Goodnight, Jason." She said with a small smile as she began to shut the door, his hand reaching out to stop it without any unnecessary force.
"Do you have your toothbrush?" He questioned quickly.
"Yes." She nodded, suddenly a warmth spreading across her body as he was obviously delaying his departure. "Mark dropped it off earlier."
"And you have your night clothes?" He asked even quicker.
"He dropped off those too." She gave another nod this time in a slower fashion.
"Hairbrush?" He now beginning to run out of reasonable items that could have easily been forgotten.
"She has everything. Goodnight, Jason." Catherine said firmly, appearing behind Elizabeth and closing the door in his face. "You should get some rest, dear. You've had a long day." She said patting Elizabeth on the shoulder before pushing her towards the stairs.
Elizabeth looked back at the door momentarily, absolutely certain he was still standing outside of it, but nodding and choosing to follow his mother's prompt. Finally, climbing up the steps to head to bed.
Catherine waved at her mates scolding look, brushing the hard stare off in disregard. "What?" She questioned as he continued his pointed look. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder. He needs a lot of it." She said with a shake of her head before grabbing at Adolphus' arm and leading him back to the half full bottle of wine that she intended them to finish.
———————————
It was midnight and Jason couldn't sleep, as he laid on his bed within the pack house. The room smelled of her, her scent lingered taunting him, as her used clothes sat in the unattended to clothing basket. He idly searched through his email and responded when necessary, but found himself frequently checking back to his texts to ensure the phone hadn't failed to notify him of one possibly being sent from her.
His emotions were filled with both anger and upset. Equally distributed between the entirety of the situation, his mother's active role in it now, and how he played a hand in it leading up to this exact moment, where he was once again spending the night alone in the pack house in utter isolation.
Before Elizabeth came into his life, he spent most of his time here. Barely spending any real amount of time in his home. There was no reason to. There was nothing warm or comforting about the large extravagantly decorated complex he called home, and now there was no reason to go back there.
Besides, if she had decided to call and wanted to return, he could be there even quicker than he would be if he had gone back to his empty place of residence.
He knew she wouldn't be texting him or calling him tonight, he knew it deep within his chest, but his mind kept taunting him with the smallest bit of hope that he was wrong.
As time ticked on, he found himself no longer waiting for a text or call, but now counting down the minutes until it was a reasonable time to return to his parents house. When it hit 5:20am, he decided it was more than a rational time to leave the pack house, opting to take his car instead of shifting for a run, on the off chance she decided she was hopelessly lost without him and wanted to go home.
However, he was not surprised when his father opened the front door at his repeated knocks at around 5:30am in a perturbed groggy manner. Jason having cut the time travelled in half, in a manic careless manner.
"Goddess Jason, do you realize what time it is?" Adolphus grumbled while rubbing at each of his heavy eyes.
"I thought you all would be up." Jason said knowing damn well they all would still be sleeping.
"Get inside." His father said in light annoyance, quickly detecting and understanding the reason for his lie, stepping aside to let him in. "Tomorrow no earlier than 6:30. I'm retired, and your mother sleeps like the dead."
"Sure." He said with a light shrug, knowing full well that if tonight was anything like last night, he would probably be over earlier. His dad being a little bit of a pushover, in comparison to his mom.
"Make yourself useful and go start the coffee. I'll go get dressed." The older man said with a shake of his head as he climbed up the stairs.
Jason immediately heading into the kitchen to brew a strong, much needed, pot of coffee. Feeling more content waiting out the time now that he was in the same building structure as her.