BLAKE
“Who was that?” Luca asked once we were outside of the house.
“His name is Jayson. He was the Alpha of my old pack but after Ellie killed James, he just sort of disappeared and no one has heard from or seen him since,” I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair in frustration.
I didn’t know why he had decided to come back now or what the hell he even wanted, but I already knew it wasn’t going to be good and that him being here was going to do more harm than it was good.
I had missed him and had been worried about him, he was like my brother and he was there for me through the tough periods of my life, but I knew the fact he was back now meant that he needed something.
The fact he was covered in blood was enough to have me questioning his motives. I knew the blood wasn’t his which meant that he had either gotten into a fight with some people or he had killed people, I was prefer to think it was the former rather than the latter.
“You don’t seem too thrilled to see him?” Luca remarked.
“He’s been gone for over a year now. He hasn’t bothered to tell anyone that he’s alive. Now he turns up, covered in blood, so I am a little suspicious of his reasons for being here,” I replied without even thinking about it.
We came to a stop a short distance away from the house and I found myself leaning against a tree as my thoughts ran wild with questions which weren’t going to be answered by anyone other than Jayson but, apparently, the only one of us he actually wanted to speak with was Ellie.
“There’s something else bothering you,” Luca said as he came to a stop on a tree opposite me, folding his arms across his chest as he simply looked at me.
“It’s nothing I can’t deal with,” I muttered as I suddenly felt a wave of pain wash over me, but that was something I was used to now. Feeling Ellie’s pain every time one of the twins moved or she get a slight twinge of pain in her stomach.
“You can talk to me. Just because I am Ellie’s friend doesn’t mean that I can’t be your friend too Blake,” Luca replied. He was easy to get along with and you could just talk to him, knowing he wouldn’t talk to anyone about what you told him if you didn’t want him too.
It was understandable why he was Ellie’s best friend. He could make you laugh or he could make you cry, he could be the reason for your smile or the reason for you frown, he could be your best friend or your worst enemy. He had been there for Ellie before Jackson and I even came into her life, so I couldn’t hate him when he had been there for her so much.
He was the first person she told about her pregnancy before she told me. I was angry when I first discovered that was the case but then Luca explained that she was frightened of my rejecting her and telling her I wanted nothing to do with the children because of how soon they had happened, which is why she confided in her best friend before coming to me.
“Do you know when everything is going so perfectly you know something is bound to come along and screw it all up for you?” I finally spoke to him.
“I would assume you are speaking about your relationship with Ellie and the looming birth of the twins?” Luca asked as he walked over to me and stood beside me, leaning against the tree so that our shoulders were almost touching while he looked at me.
“Everything has been wonderful. Our relationship has been at its strongest for the last four months and the thought of the twins does nothing besides make me smile, but I just feel like something is about to bring our world crashing right back down,” I admitted and that was a thought I didn’t really want to entertain.
I didn’t want to imagine our relationship falling apart after it took us this long to build it up to what it was now. I wanted to believe that everything was perfect and nothing was going to change for the two of us, but I knew I was deluding myself by trying to convince myself that was true.
Link discovering that Jamie was his second chance mate was going to be a huge issue because he didn’t want to replace Lara or forget about her while Jamie wasn’t ready for everything which came with having a mate, she would rather have fun with her friends and complete her degree before so worried about settling down.
Then there was Jayson. He was my friend and I was happy to see that he was alive, but I could tell now that his reappearance was only going to bring with it a whole load of trouble. Whatever he had done in his year off was going to catch up with him and it was Darkness who were going to pay the price for his stupidity.
“You just need to worry about those twins before anything else. You are going to be a father, Blake, that’s not something to be taken lightly and Ellie is going to need you more than she realises,” Luca replied.
“Those twins are the only thing I have thought about for the last seven months now. Ever since she told me that she was pregnant, I haven’t been able to stop smiling and I haven’t done anything besides make preparation for their arrival,” I muttered as I thought about the nursery which was beside our room. Ellie didn’t know anything about it because I was going to surprise her with it today once the workers had left for the day, but then Jayson decided he was going to ruin that with his untimely reappearance.
“I can see how much being a father means to you and I can also see how much you love Ellie which is why I know you’re not going to fuck this up. It doesn’t matter what life throws at you because you have always overcome it and that’s how I know you’ll be able to fight whatever life throws at you now,” Luca reassured me as he put his hand on my shoulder and then started walking back towards the house.
I would have remained there for a while longer had I not felt the anger and the pain which Ellie was experiencing. The pain I could deal with, I knew that was because of the twins, but the anger wasn’t something which was sitting well with me, that meant Jayson had said or done something to make her feel like that.
I didn’t waste any time as I pushed myself off the tree and found myself running towards the house, Luca calling after me wanting to know what the problem was but I didn’t listen to him as I reached the house and pushed the door open.
My eyes narrowed in Jayson’s direction and then moved over to Ellie who looked like she was just about ready to burst into tears as her gaze never left Jayson. I noticed that he was trying to make a break for it but I put a stop to that before he could even leave.
“One more step and I will have you taken to the cells,” I snapped. I walked over to Ellie and she threw herself into my open arms, wrapping her arms around me the best she could, given that there was a huge bump in the middle of the two of us.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Jayson challenged and it was almost comical that he thought I wouldn’t actually have him taken to the cells.
“Allow me to introduce my friend Luca. Before he was Ellie’s Third in Command, he was one of the most skilled fighters in the pack and he was damn good guard. You really don’t want to mess with me Jayson,” I said without any emotion.
I didn’t care what he thought of me right now. Ellie came before everyone else and Jayson should have realised the moment he pissed her off that I was going to come running back for her.
Just because he didn’t seem to give a damn that his mate was dead didn’t meant that I didn’t give a damn about mine. I would do anything to see Ellie happy and I would give anything to ensure she wasn’t hurting, if that meant having Jayson thrown in the dungeons for the night, then I would do that without even thinking about it.
“And here I was thinking you would greet me with open arms,” Jayson chuckled humourlessly.
“Why is El upset?” I asked him quickly.
“I don’t know El. Do you wish to tell Blake why you’re upset?” Jayson laughed and I still wasn’t seeing the funny side of this. Luca also wasn’t impressed with what he was hearing since he took a step closer to Jayson, growling at him as he clenched his fists at his side.
“Don’t play games Jay. What happened to you?”
“I realised life was a bitch and it was only ever there to screw you over. You don’t get what you want by sitting in an office, making alliances and holding off war with people who hate you. In fact, all you get from doing that is some serious self-loathing,” Jayson replied angrily as he began pacing around the room, running his hands through his hair every so often.
“And what did you learn from your year in the wilderness?” Luca asked him, his eyes never leaving Jayson as he paid attention to his every move.
“I learnt that power wasn’t everything and there were far more satisfying ways of quenching a certain thirst which anger held besides punching holes in walls and shouting at people who didn’t do their job properly,” Jayson smirked. I understood the minor dig there was in his comment because Ellie had been known to punch walls and shout at people when she was angry, but she never did anything other than that.
“Why are you even here Jayson?” I sighed in annoyance.
“I missed my old friends. I thought I would pop by on my way through for a cup of tea and a catch up,” he replied sarcastically.
“Drop the attitude Jayson. I want to know why you are here and don’t even bother bullshitting me. I’ve known you long enough to know that this is far more than just a social visit,” I shouted at him but all he did was laugh in my face as he walked over to where I was stood with Ellie, her tears silently staining my shirt, but I didn’t really care.
“It’s almost sweet how much you still care about me. Shame I don’t return the feeling,” Jayson chuckled coldly.
“H—He mur—murdered rouges,” Ellie’s voice came out in a whisper as she managed to put the words together. She didn’t need this kind of stress, even less so when the doctor had warned her about the risks of going into premature labour.
She didn’t need to be dealing with something like this right now. Jayson was her friend and she had missed him as much as I had done, but I could tell there was something different about him, something which had Ellie terrified of being around him.
“I warned them not to pick a fight with me but they still tried their luck. Ripping their throats out was highly satisfying,” Jayson shrugged as he checked the time on his watch with a bored look on his face. “It really was wonderful to catch up with you but I really must be going now. You know how it is. Places to be and people to see.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Luca said as he blocked the path which Jayson was attempting to take. Though Jayson didn’t reply, the smirk covering his face was enough to tell me that he was going to do something.
He reached out for Luca’s arm only Luca was quicker than he was and Jayson didn’t have time to react before Luca had Jayson’s arm behind his back as Luca landed a blow to the back of his legs, forcing him to his knees with tears in his eyes.
“Enough with the games. You are going to answer every single question Ellie and Blake have for you. Do you understand?” Luca snapped and when Jayson didn’t answer, Luca tightened the grip which he had on Jayson’s wrist, pulling it a little higher – I was sure I could hear the sound of cracking as Jayson’s bone began to break from the force which Luca was applying. “Understood?”
“Yes. I understand. Just release your grip,” Jayson shouted and Luca did exactly that, standing behind Jayson with a satisfied smirk on his face. I knew there was a reason people were scared of Luca, I also knew there was a reason that he was Ellie’s personal guard whenever we left the territory or whenever a neighbouring pack came to visit ours.
“There. Wasn’t so hard,” Luca smirked.
“I can’t do this Blake. If I do this I am only going to get angry and we both know that isn’t good for the twins,” Ellie muttered with her eyes closed.
“Aw. Poor Alpha. Too afraid to interrogate an old friend for fear of what he’ll tell her,” Jayson mocked and he was really pissing me off now. I knew that he wasn’t the same person I was friends with or the same guy who had helped me as a kid, he was different and it wasn’t a change he had made for the better either.
“You know what, take him to the dungeons and he can be dealt with tomorrow. I can’t be dealing with this right now,” Ellie said as she found her voice again.
“Oh. I do like the dungeons. Do I get the same treatment you got after we captured you?” Jayson asked excitedly. The man just didn’t know when to shut the hell up and he was simply digging himself deeper into a hole from which he wasn’t going to be able to escape.
“Put him in solitary confinement and have the guards rotate five times throughout the night,” Ellie instructed.
“Yes Alpha,” Luca said with a bow of his head as he attached a set of cuffs to Jayson’s wrists and practically dragged him out of the house. Jayson was shouting about how it was unfair treatment because he wasn’t technically a prisoner and then I didn’t hear the rest because Ellie closed the front door.
She leaned against it, her eyes closed as she began crying once again. It broke my heart to see her like this because I didn’t know what to do or how to make her feel any better about herself. So I did what I did best, I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug, placing a kiss on the top of her head as I rubbed circles around the top of her back.
“It’ll work itself out El,” I said but even I didn’t believe that was true. I didn’t think there was a way for this to work itself out.
- Blake to the side (or above). And what do you guys think of Jayson? Definitely not the same character as before..