You are welcome.
JADA
"Let it go to voicemail," Isabelle murmured. She'd moved her weight so her left hand was no longer pressed behind her, and she instead used it to press me closer against her.
I pulled myself away from her, slightly irritated that our moment had been ruined, but also slightly grateful. I wasn't sure where that would have led us. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and pressed the answer button without glancing at the caller ID.
"What?" My voice came out more bitter than I had intended, and I didn't need to look at Isabelle to know she was amused.
"Jada, dear, you finally answered!" My mother's kind voice met my ears. I held in a groan and cursed myself for not checking the ID beforehand. I cursed Isabelle for distracting me.
"I am busy right now, please stop calling," I sighed. I moved to sit back on my butt, and I used the hand that wasn't holding the phone to pinch the bridge of my nose in irritation.
"Jada, please don't speak so crudely to your mother. We have been worried sick, you haven't answered the phone in almost three months. We worried our little girl was hurt, or dead!" My dad coughed down the line, sounding more upset than angry. My parents very rarely got angry, but when they did, it never failed to make me want the world to swallow me whole.
"I'm not interested in speaking with you currently, Noah," I shot back, knowing that despite me being almost twenty, it hurt them when I didn't refer to them as Mom and Dad.
"Honey, please," Mom begged, her gentle voice sadder than usual. "We just want to have time together as a family. Rowan is a changed man, Jada, and you'd know that if you gave him the time of day."
"I'm on a mission, Mom, I can't fly to Toronto just so I can have a weekend visit. And even if I weren't busy, why would I take time out of my life to see the Devil himself? That doesn't make sense to me."
"You're acting like a child, Jada. Your mother and I miss you dearly. We haven't seen your brother in three entire years. You're not a parent, you wouldn't understand what it's like to lose a child, as temporary as it is." Dad attempted to keep a stern tone, but it melted as quickly as it came. A pang of guilt buried itself in my chest, but I had to remind myself that Rowan was a goddamn demon.
"Then spend time with him, I don't understand why I need to be there for you to reconnect with your oh-so-holy son," I remarked sarcastically.
"Rowan is getting married!" Mom blurted suddenly. I could hear Dad sighing a small, 'Margaret', but Mom only halfheartedly apologized to him. "Your brother is getting married in Toronto and we want you to be there. He wants you to be there, too."
"So he can prove to me that he's somewhat farther in life than I am?" I snorted. "So he can try to kill me with the champagne glass he uses for his toast? I'm really not interested in watching him ruin some poor woman's life, sorry."
"That's enough," Dad snapped. "Rowan is in a good place in his life right now, Jada, and he asked for you to attend his wedding. I can only hope you're grown up enough to come and act like an adult."
"I hate him!" I shot back almost immediately. "He spent seventeen years trying to make my life absolute hell, and now you want me to come back to wish him a happy life with some eternally unlucky woman?"
It was only then I noticed Isabelle was mouthing something. I shrugged as if to say I didn't know what she was trying to say, and she mouthed, 'Mute.'
I muted the phone immediately, and she pulled me towards her and wrapped her arms around me tightly. I found myself relaxing immediately, and she kissed my hair gently. I knew she was waiting until I calmed down completely before she spoke up.
"Jada, I know Rowan was a complete asshole, but what if he really has changed? You can at least give him a chance to redeem himself. I know that if I ever catch him speaking so much as a bad word towards you, I'll kick his ass, but it's worth a shot. I'll take care of the pack for a weekend while you and Julian go and attend this wedding.."
She tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Give your parents a chance, too. They've been calling you multiple times a week for three entire months without fail. That's got to mean something."
I sighed. "You're right. Maybe I am being childish. Thank you."
She smiled, "You can thank me with kisses after."
I un-muted my phone and lifted it to my ear, hearing my parents repetitively say my name. "Sorry," I spoke up. "When is the wedding?"
Isabelle sent me a thumbs up, and I couldn't help but smile at her. The woman was so optimistic and so vibrant all the time, and it made me wonder how she did it. She clearly hadn't had the best life at some points, and yet she never failed to greet everyone with that gentle smile.
Mom sounded like she was going to cry when she said, "June 23rd. Will you really come, Dear? Will you?"
"I suppose I could spend the weekend, but I need to ask Gabriel if it's alright for me to temporarily abandon my mission to attend the wedding," I responded.
"We already asked Gabe, and he told us it was no issue, as long as you wasted no time in getting back, and making sure the pack you are with is stable enough to support themselves while you're away!" Mom chirped up. Despite being around twelve years older, when Gabriel Caine was eighteen, he'd befriended my mother, and since then, they'd been close friends. My mom was the only person who was brave enough to refer to Gabriel as anything other than Mr. Caine or just simply Gabriel.
"You'll be bringing Julian as your plus one, right?" Dad asked. He loved Julian as if he were his second son, and Julian had always returned the love with just as much enthusiasm. "It's been awhile since I've seen that boy. He doing alright?"
"Julian is doing great actually, but he won't be my plus one this time. Will he get an invitation of his own?" Isabelle, who I knew was listening to the conversation on both sides, glanced at me curiously. I merely smiled at her.
"Of course he'll get an invitation of his own..." Mom trailed off. "But who's going as your plus one then? Have you met someone? Oh my, Jada, why haven't you told me? What's their name? Are they a Hunter? What-"
"Her name is Isabelle," I told them, biting the inside of my lip to keep from frowning. I was happy to be introducing Isabelle to my parents, but it dawned on me that that meant she was with me, for real this time. It meant that after this weekend, I would have to introduce her to my family. It scared me to think about, but I was even more terrified to realize I genuinely enjoyed the thought.
"She's my mate," I told them both. Mom let out an excited squeal, and Dad congratulated me, his voice dripping with honesty. "She'll be attending the wedding with me, if that's okay?"
"Of course!" Mom yelped, "Tell her I'm excited to meet her! Oh my, Jada, this is excellent! I can't believe-"
"Actually, is it okay if I bring two people? Isabelle has a daughter, and I'd rather not leave her alone for the weekend without her mom."
"Of course that's okay," Dad said smoothly. I could tell he was calming Mom down because she was breathing heavily and sniffling. "We will stay in touch, okay, sweetheart? Tell Julian to bring whoever he wants as his plus one. We love you."
"I love you too, Dad," I replied before ending the call.
I put my phone back in my butt pocket and packed up all the food we didn't eat so it wouldn't become bad in the sun. When I finished, I glanced towards Isabelle, only to find that her peculiar eyes were wet with unshed tears. She was watching me, and when she saw that I was staring at her, she motioned me toward her with the slight movement of her hands.
I listened without a second thought. When I got close enough to her, she pulled me into a warm embrace, and shoved her head in the crook of my neck. I wrapped my arms around her in response, but was ultimately confused.
"Thank you," she whispered, "for including Arabelle. Thank you for accepting her."
"Hey," I frowned, leaning away so I could cup her face in my hands, much like I had twenty minutes ago. Unlike the last time, the moment was more sensual than sexual, and instead of swiping her hair out of her face, I swiped my thumb under her eye to remove a stray tear.
"Isabelle, if I am accepting you, I'm accepting all that comes with having you, and that includes your daughter. Whatever we are, it will not be easy. Until I know what is going on, it will remain a secret between us and the group. I can't promise things with us will be even as close to as easy as a regular mate bond, but..."
"When did you decide to accept me?" She mumbled in response, locking her eyes with mine.
"When I spoke of you so easily to my parents, without even thinking, I realized that even if I tried so desperately to push you away, a part of me would always come back to you. And I know that if I did that enough, there would be no one to come back to, and that was something I didn't want to come to terms with."
I told her everything in complete honesty, putting everything I currently felt on the table. She had the ability to do as she pleased with the information, but I couldn't say I was surprised when she blinded me with a smile and whispered, "I think I'd like a kiss now, if you don't mind."
I dipped my head lower and brushed my lips against hers. I did it teasingly, kissing her so gently she'd question whether or not I'd kissed her at all. This wasn't enough for her because she wrapped her hands around the back of my neck and pulled me deeper into the kiss.
I responded just as eagerly. I moved one hand around to cup the back of her neck, and slid the other down to rest on her lower back. I felt her hands wrap around my hair and I let out a small, unintelligible sound.
Her lips were full and soft and they fit against mine so fluidly. Neither one of us went to deepen the kiss, fully aware of our setting, but that didn't affect the way I enjoyed feeling her so close to me, and it didn't change the fact I could have kissed her forever and ever gotten bored of it.
We broke apart slowly, but I didn't remove my hands off of her and she didn't remove her hands from me. Despite the fact we were both clearly in shape, we were both out of breath, our chests moving much faster than normal. I knew mine had to do with the fact my heart was beating ten times faster than it usually was, and I had a feeling she was responding the same way I was.
"We should probably head back to the hotel if we want to be ready by six thirty. It's already five." It was Isabelle who suggested it, but I agreed, and we both stood up. We decided to call a cab to take us back to the hotel, simply so we'd have more time to get ready for dinner.
The cab ride was filled with light chatter, a seemingly meaningless conversation between Isabelle and I. Unfortunately for her, she didn't bring any cash, so I was the one to pay the cab driver. He smiled and nodded in thanks before easing back onto the street.
When we reached our hotel room, Isabelle took a shower first, while I chose an outfit. I settled on a short sleeve blue satin dress that ended just above the knee. Once I placed the entirety of my outfit on my side of the bed as well as my four inch blue heels, I prepared my makeup.
Isabelle got out of the shower soon after, but kept it running so I could climb in immediately after. She stepped out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel on and it took every ounce of self control I had to walk past her without trailing my gaze down her body.
I showered briskly, shaved, washed, and repeated. It only took me about fifteen minutes to finish, and by the time I was done, the water was beginning to lose warmth. Isabelle had stopped using the blow dryer only a minute or two before I was done in the shower, so I stepped out of the bathroom to grab it from her.
Unlike myself, who'd desperately tried to avoid glancing at her, Isabelle swept her eyes up my body and back down before she smirked at me. "Should I keep the curling iron plugged in when I'm done with it?" She asked me smoothly.
"No, thank you," I responded just as swiftly, although it took some strength to remain calm as I leaned over her robe clad body to grab the blow dryer. I made my way back into the bathroom, and the second the door closed behind me, I let out a deep breath.
It took an hour for me to blow dry, apply my makeup, and do my hair, but by the time 6:15 rolled around, my hair was up in a collected and elegant bun, with strands of hair falling out and around it, and my makeup was completed skillfully. I stepped out of the bathroom and couldn't help but let an audible gasp escape from between my lips.
Isabelle stood in front of the full body mirror, looking like the most dazzling woman to have ever walked the Earth. Sure, I was bias, but standing there in that black dress, her large blonde curls cascading down her back, I knew I wouldn't be able to see another woman the way I saw her.
She glanced towards me and smiled. "Is the dress too much?"
The dress was a V cut that dropped quite low, revealing an unruly amount of cleavage, and yet it remained extremely elegant. There were no sleeves on the dress, but the material was about six or seven centimetres wide across her shoulders. The dress hit the floor, but a large slit was made on the right side, revealing the long, tanned, and sculpted legs of no other than Isabelle Sinclair.
"You look stunning," I told her honestly. Her makeup, very natural, suited her very well, and the necklace that hung around her neck matched the elegance of her dress. Her heels had straps that wrapped around her ankles, and they were about four inches in height as well.
She disappeared into the bathroom while I slipped on my outfit and my shoes. When she walked back out, I was putting in my left earring. I glanced at her through the mirror and smiled, but she stood motionless behind me.
"Wow," she breathed. With slow, taunting steps forward, she finally reached me. I watched her in the mirror as she wrapped her arms around me from behind and raked her eyes up my figure. "Don't you look ravishing tonight..."
Swiftly, she ducked her head and placed a kiss on the hollow part of my neck. Before I could even respond, she was already walking away, her purse in hand. "Come on now, Jada, or we'll be late."
"That sly little..." I muttered, but followed behind her. We walked out of our room and to the lobby together, nothing said between us, but the silence was undoubtedly dripping with unsaid sexual tension.
Everyone was in the lobby when we arrived, all dressed elegantly. Cassandra was in a long sleeved, lace like pink dress that hugged her body and became loose at the waist. Beside her, Elena was in a sleeveless red dress that flowed out from the waist as well, but was slightly longer. The red contrasted against her blonde locks, but she suited the colour immensely.
Dante was speaking to John, the farthest from Isabelle and I. John was wearing a red tie to match his girlfriend's dress, but Dante was simply wearing a black tie that went well with his black suit. Cass and Elena were speaking of something, both looking wonderful in their dresses, and standing a few feet away were Julian and Isaac, as I expected.
Julian was wearing a deep burgundy suit, his black tie fixed properly and resting as it should. He was standing close to Isaac, who was wearing a blue suit. I noticed that my best friend was fixing Isaac's tie, as the small boy spoke vehemently about something. When Julian finished with his tie, he let it rest against Isaac's chest. He nodded and then stepped back.
"You guys look stunning!" Elena gasped, finally noticing our presence. "Good luck spending the entire dinner trying not to rip each other's clothes off!"
Isabelle wasn't smiling as she usually was, in fact, she was smirking. It appeared to me that since we'd had that conversation at the burger place, she had making that same expression frequently, as if she were somewhat prideful.
"We have the entire night," she winked, earning snickers from the group, but the odd curious glance. I noticed Julian had his eyebrow perked in my direction, and in order to give him a solid answer, I pulled Isabelle towards me and kissed her abruptly.
"Oh, shit," Dante yelled.
Isaac immediately said something to Julian, who looked to be somewhat pained. Despite the conflicted expression on his face, he nodded towards the younger boy, who only seemed to grow worried.
"We should probably head towards the restaurant," Isabelle suggested, looking flushed from the spontaneous act of affection. She didn't look disappointed over it, which I didn't expect, anyways.
The eight of us made our way to the restaurant, where the man behind the small desk was speaking to another man. They both glanced over at the group as we stepped closer, and the taller man, a man with dark stubble and sparkling dark eyes, saw Isabelle and smirked.
"Isabelle, it's a pleasure to see you again." He kissed both her cheeks. "Cassandra, you look marvelous, as always." He walked around my mate to kiss Cassandra's cheeks as well. "Now Isabelle, introduce me to the rest of your friends."
"This is Jada," she motioned towards me and I nodded respectfully. His dark eyes glinted mischievously under the deep colour of the light. "You must be Isabelle's lover, am I not correct?" I didn't need to give him answer because he merely shrugged, "Of course you are. Isabelle never gets that expression unless she is speaking of what is hers."
Isabelle, ignoring his remark, continued. "Beside Cassandra is her husband Dante. Beside him is my sister, Elena, and her boyfriend, John." The unknown man trailed his eyes over our group as she listed them off, and he seemed content with the information he was being given. "That's Julian, he is Jada's best friend." She nodded towards Julian.
"And him?" The mysterious man's smirk widened when he set his dark eyes on Isaac. Julian without a second of hesitance, stepped closer to the Korean boy and stared at the unknown man, unamused.
"Oh?" The man pursed his lips. "It seems you've staked your claim already. What a shame, he truly does look delectable."
"Leonard, watch it," Isabelle snapped.
"What is it now, Isabelle?" The man, who I now knew as Leonard, Isabelle's cousin, sighed. "Are you telling me that this fine blonde man and his lover are not in fact together? Because in that case..."
He made his way towards Julian and Isaac, his steps slow and contemptuous. Julian stepped in front of the shorter boy, blocking him from Leonard's view, a deep scowl plastered on his face.. "Don't." Was all he said.
"Well, what is it then?" Leonard tsked. "If you're not courting that delicious looking boy, I really would like a chance to woo him." He tried to peek at Isaac over Julian's shoulder, but Julian stepped in the way and glowered.
"Very well then," Leonard shrugged. With inhuman speed, much faster than what a werewolf could run in human form, he dodged Julian's form and took Isaac's hand in his, bringing it up to his lips and kissing is, slowly and tauntingly.
We all stood shocked and still as Julian kept his face stone cold. I don't think anyone in the group knew to expect anything, but if I had learned anything from being best friend's with Julian, it was that that expression led to nothing good. He reached for Isaac but froze and, last minute, reached for Leonard's thick mob of black locks of hair and yanked it backwards.
The dark man, taken by surprise, stumbled back. "Julian," His tongue darted from between his lips after he'd said my best friend's name in a scolding tone. "That is no way to treat a man who simply wants to get to know a possible suitor."
"Do not touch him," Julian growled between clenched teeth. His eyes, usually a milky hazel, were cold and rigid. His jaw was clenched as were his fists. He looked so threatening that if I had never seen this before, I would have been as horrified as the rest of the group.
"I don't see why I can't," Leonard shot back calmly. His eyes found Isaac's, and he grinned sardonically. "Allow me to take you for dinner?"
Isaac looked beyond terrified, and I felt incredibly bad for him, but I knew this was Julian's battle. There was no one at the doors of the restaurant but the man behind the desk, who was scribbling something down on large book he had in front of him, not at all interested in the small commotion.
Isaac had moved ever so slightly so he was standing half behind Julian, at Leonard's question, Julian seethed even more. "Don't."
Leonard leaned forward and grinned. The grin formed slowly, the corners of his bright red lips twisting up and pulling, until his sparkling teeth were exposed. "No," he responded, "I don't think I will."
He stepped forward again, this time a bit faster. Julian glanced back at the terrified expression of the boy who was tucked behind him, and his blank expression melted off to replace a look of complete and utter defeat.
"He's mine," he whispered. "I don't want you to touch him because he is mine."
Leonard straightened up immediately, his eyes twinkling. "Well, Julian, why didn't you just say so to begin with?" His tone was teasing, but he removed his eyes from Julian and nodded to Isabelle. "It's been a pleasure meeting all your friends and seeing you again, cousin, but I must be going."
Everyone was staring at Julian and Isaac now, their eyes wide and their mouths open in shock. Knowing neither of them wanted such attention, I turned quickly towards the man behind the desk and cleared my throat, "Excuse me, we're here for a reservation."
Isabelle stepped in to tell him the details, and the others pulled their eyes away from the couple. I stepped forward quietly, feeling almost guilty for putting them in such a position. Isaac had tears in his eyes, but when he saw me, he smiled, as he always did.
"Jada," he threw his arms around my neck and squeezed. "Thank you for taking everyone's attention away from us."
"Of course," I said into his shoulder so my voice came out muffled and broken. "You can let me go now."
"Oh, yeah, sorry!" He stepped away. "We swear we were gonna tell everyone, but we didn't wanna ruin the trip or something." His cheeks flushed. "I'm gonna catch up with the rest of the group, okay?"
As if he were grateful to finally have everyone know about him and Julian, he inched forward and pecked my best friend's lips. He sent Julian a smile I'd never seen before, and disappeared into the restaurant to find the others.
Julian looked pained and completely worn out. "Jada, I'm sorry, I just-"
"When did it start?" I asked, cutting him off completely. Of course I wasn't mad at him, I was ecstatic that he found someone when he spent all this time after Delilah believing that he wouldn't. I was more upset that he hadn't told me about it, because we'd told each other everything forever.
"Well, when you left that one day in the game room to go see Isabelle, Isaac asked if he could take your spot in the game. I agreed, but when the game finished, we ended up walking to dinner together. We began talking and everything, I guess. I saw him again the next day, when he came into the living room while Dante and I were watching the game, and later that night, I heard someone playing the piano, and I noticed it was him. He saw me watching and invited me into the room. Jada..."
I watched his expression the entire time, I watched the look of hope etch itself across his features as he said, "I asked how he learned to play and he told me that two years ago, his mate, a human, died. He taught himself to play after his death as a way of coping. I love you, Jada, and I have no problems telling you anything, but he understood what it was like to lose the one person you are meant to love, and I confided in him over everything."
"And then?" I asked.
"We started seeing each other often. The Thursday before the trip to the beach, he asked me to meet him on the balcony in front of his room. I did it, of course, even though dinner had started. He kissed me, and I lost it. I always lose it around him, Jada, I can't control myself around him, I never have been able to."
He looked regretful of whatever happened next, because he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I told him I wasn't interested. Not because I wasn't, but because I felt like I was cheating on Lilah. That night I told you I had something to do so I couldn't go to your room, I called Delilah's brother."
"Julian! Why didn't you tell me?!"
He ignored my question completely. "I told him that I met someone and how I felt guilty because of Lilah. He told me that her only goal was to make me happy, and she would have never wanted me to throw something that made me happy away just because I was scared. We talked for a bit, I got him an opening to begin training as a Hunter. We talk sometimes."
I didn't have anything to say at that point, I just let him talk, and he did. He told me everything. "Isaac avoided me all night and all day on Friday. I know he plays when he's upset or angry, mostly, so I wasn't surprised when I couldn't sleep on Friday, and I got up to find he was in the music room playing. When he saw me, he demanded I get out and leave him alone. He looked so rejected, so upset. When I didn't leave, he yelled at me, told me he was sorry for wasting my time and reading our relationship wrong. When he tried to leave, I told him everything."
Julian was looking at me now, no longer staring at our surroundings. "I told him about how I felt guilty, how I had lied to him. And I kissed him. We tried to keep things quiet, but it's just so fucking hard to control myself around him. Every time he asks for something I'm prepared to turn the world inside out just to give it to him. And we're not even officially together."
"What the fuck?" I gaped. "You're in love with this boy, dipshit!"
He tried to cut me off, perhaps to deny, but I beat him to it. "You've tried to date multiple people since Delilah, but you haven't even mentioned one of them. You talk about him just like you talked about her. You've been seeing this boy for a month, and you don't even have the decency to officially ask him out? I know I'm a hypocrite, Jules, but ask that boy out and stop being afraid to show him off!"
He paused. "I don't know, Jada."
I grabbed his face in my hands and shook his head lightly but hopefully enough to knock some sense into him. "You are so fucking in love with the boy sitting in that restaurant waiting for you. Everyone can see it. And you know what? That boy in there fucking loves you too. Stop wasting your fucking time and go be with him already."
"There's a reason you're my best friend," he sighed. "You're right, you're always right. Fuck you for always being right. I'm going to go and see my goddamn boyfriend right now!"
"He's not your boyfriend yet," I pointed out as I followed him into the restaurant.
"Not now, but he will be by the end of the night."
"Fuck yeah!" I cheered. "Lock that shit in!"