Who is Magpie?

It was Kai who banged on their door just before dinner, braving upsetting the dominant instincts to remind them of the feast. Choosing him to go was probably the best choice they could have made, for as long as he lived Ezekiel and Bronx would feel indebted to the man. He had chosen to follow Jessamine, knowing that he would likely be tortured, just so she wouldn’t feel alone while enduring the same.

They woke up slowly, feeling surprisingly rested, despite knowing they could sleep for longer, and moved to the bathroom. First showering and carefully removing Jessamine’s bandages, they went over her injuries again with them in full view. Swan stitched the larger cuts, then applied the gel with bandages to help the skin heal. With that, and her mates all close by, those gnarly red slashes while still noticeable were sealing over. The bruises couldn’t be treated by the Sanaberry, but with her strength returning would be taken care of by her wolf over the next couple nights.

She couldn’t bring herself to wear a dress to dinner, instead going with a wide legged cotton pant and a pull over sweater. Both of the men wore jeans and T-shirt, somehow apparently never cold, and when they were all ready they set out together.

Jessamine had felt a sharp ache in her chest when she moved toward the banquet hall to be directed away. She forgot that it had been basically blown up, but was intrigue when they moved to sit outside.

“Azural’s idea,” Bronx admitted when she saw the table from inside had be brought out behind the dining hall to merge with those tables. “We had only just finished getting everyone out of the banquet hall into new rooms, so we had the space, but we needed to use these kitchens while repairs were still ongoing. We weren’t about to tell all these people to rearrange all of their belongings because we needed to eat there.

He brought up pack dinners, real pack dinner, with everyone all together. We’re thinking of putting in a proper space to do it all year round.”

A smile pulled at her lips. “It sounds like a great idea.

They sat down at the end of one of the long tables, Azural coming right up behind them “I told them having a big step at the front for everyone to stare at you while you eat is stupid too, but they won me over by saying I could sit up front, between them, on king shit island.”

“We did not say that,” Bronx muttered, rolling his eyes.

“But I did tell you it was never about looking powerful. You sit with your family, and as leaders we’re no different, but we also want to looking openly to those we’ve sworn to protect, with no one facing their backs to them. From a forward sitting position we can feel like we’re eating with everyone who depends on us, and from that step we can watch over them so they can eat in peace,” Ezekiel retorted pointedly, like he should have known that.

The three began bickering, something Jessamine was sure would become a regular occurrence. They had already let it slip that the packs would merge. Azural was going to join, with Keizer at his side, as their Lieutenant and General for the warriors, leaving Fiona time to focus on the special ops and security details.

Despite their best wishes, after learning that Oakley was her and Azural’s kid, Ezekiel caved on letting Azural live in the main pack house so Oakley would be closer.

Jessamine laughed at the three men carrying on, fanning anger and outrage, but she could feel their amusement at it all. They liked bickering with Azural at times, the carefree Alpha who fought through the mud for his people, only to become a Lieutenant, but he’d do it again to give them back a piece of the lives they deserved.

Kai approved their table cautiously, sitting across from Jessamine and handing her a long-island ice tea. They had shared many things in their time on the wall, and her favourite drink was the first thing he’d asked.

“Thank you.” She smiled, picking up the drink thoughtfully.

Where their hands rested on the table their pinkies tapped together, just for a second, as Kai had done to remind her she wasn’t alone.

“Luna, could I talk to you?” Kai asked, and the unease in his voice worried.

“Are you ok?” Jessamine gasped, thinking of all the times he’d been kicked in the stomach or smashed in the head.

He waved his hands, easing her to calm down. “No, Luna, nothing like that. There was just something I needed to confess to you.”

Somehow, this outcome was way better and she stood back up. “Of course, let’s take a walk.”

She waved to her mates who vowed that if anyone else had tried to get her alone that they would kill them. They rounded the building walking slowly with their drinks still in hand and waited until no one could hear them to speak.

“How are you doing?” Kai began looking over her with his brows pushed together.

Jessamine chuckled. “Me? What about you!? You have just as many injuries as me.”

He shook his head. “They didn’t send me to the auctions, I am far more concerned about you, Luna.”

She waved a dismissive hand but he continued. “No, stop that. I saw..-“ He paused as he started to get angry and lowered his voice again. “I saw what those people did to you, and believe me when I tell you I made them regret, but it doesn’t undo what they did…”

Jessamine looked away from his prying eyes. “Kai…”

“I swore I wouldn’t tell your mates, but i think you should. We were there just over a week and it felt like months, I’m scared to find out what those tallies in the wall were for-“ at the mentioned of them she winced and his finger tapped hers as an apology, “-So I ask you again, how are you doing?”

She sighed heavily. “I’ll answer if you do.”

He smirked. “I’m healing. Chey gave the once over, and then did it again. Everything is okay as long as I have her, even if the nightmares continue passed today, I know she’ll be patient with me. She would likely kill me if I had woken up shouting any name but yours…”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry you went through that, and that it’s staying with you.” She gave him a pathetic smile as she said, “forgetting is one thing I’m good at, but maybe if I had been honest with the pack you wouldn’t have taken such a risk,- and maybe they wouldn’t have turned on me…”

“No, don’t even,” Kai interrupted. “They made their choice and nothing you could have done would have changed that. Okay? Don’t for one second think that they did it because of you. They did what they did because the bitterness and anger was too much and they needed a scapegoat for everything they felt. They were poison before you got here, we just didn’t know.”

She nodded to herself and let a breath she didn’t realize she held go free and sipped her drink. “I’ll believe you, if only because a week in a room together has made it impossible for us to ever play poker together.”

He chuckled. “That it has, but this wasn’t why I wanted to get you away. I brought you out here so I could talk to you about Bluejay.”

The name halted her steps. “What about him.”

“While we were freeing the people, and killing those that thought their money would save them, he returned to the auction room. We needed to get the people somewhere safe until everything died down and didn’t need him alerting anyone to them so we could help on the ground level.

He chuckled lightly. “I was the distraction. I got him to follow me in the opposite direction, all the way back to our cell”

Jessamine’s breathing came out heavy while she waited to hear more and she couldn’t bring herself to walk until he finished. Heart racing in her chest, she could feel her mates panic at her sudden stress but she couldn’t calm herself.

“I knocked his fucking head in and stuck him up against the wall in your place,” Kai continued, a twisted smile spreading over his face that would have scared anyone but Jessamine. “I made good on my promise, first putting on that disgusting collar on him and snapping the release buttons off. I know you would have loved the pleasure, but I made sure to twist one of my claws into him for every time he touched you until he was begging for me to end him.

“Even as he begged I could hear the needles and pins stabbing into his throat and he yelled at the pain you endured without a sound. He wasn’t even trying to check on those downstairs, the coward was trying to escape through the tunnels to steal one of the bidder’s cars. If he didn’t bleed out, nearly naked and prone on that wall, when Kay finds him he will be shot and buried with the rest.”

Jessamine felt her mates round the corner, coming to check on her with how her emotions picked up, but they stopped at hearing the conversation. “You’re sure?” She asked, eyes blurry with unshed tears.

He nodded. “They were ordered to bury everyone involved to prevent a war with us. Honestly I wouldn’t put it passed her to bury him alive, the little sadist, but I think she’d want certainty.” He pulled a hair pin from his pocket and handed it to Jessamine. “She asked me to give this back to you.”

With that she knew Kay wouldn’t be coming back, not for a wedding, even if she had a way to send her an invite. The welled tears hit a damn of will as she refused to cry. She would not return to dinner with red swollen eyes when she had everything she wanted back.

“Thank you,” she offered, as Kai slid the pin into her hair.

Her mates came over, sensing they were done. “Talk to them,” Kai whispered, and then louder replied, “Alpha, Beta,” With a nod.

“Kai, are you upsetting my mate?” Ezekiel returned, wrapping his arm around her waist and she leant on his shoulder.

“Of course not,” Jessamine returned. “He just gave me the best wedding present.” They both looked at her and she giggled, “It’s a good thing you have the same last name or you’d have to take mine.”

“I’d be honoured to take your last name.”

“As would I,” Bronx agreed. “If that’s what you want.”

She warmed into them as Bronx bracketed her other side. “How did I get to be so lucky?”

Low protective rumbles sounded in their chests and through her to calm her stress. Aided also by the heavy handed drink, she was ready for the dinner.