The Mate He Couldn’t Control (complete)

Chapter 13

After breakfast with Dominic, we left. Jaylon was giving me the silent treatment again. I guess his throat was dry from mumbling sweet nothings in my ear until he fell asleep. I would occasionally look over at him worriedly to see him shaking. I plan on figuring out the cause. You’d think I’d be happy and act like sunshine and rainbows after how much love he showed me last night, but I’m already starting to feel drained from this emotional roller coaster. I hate you-don’t leave me. You’re perfect-it never should’ve been you. I get it. I understand he has a situation, but he doesn’t have to be a d**k about it. Or better yet, he doesn’t have to play with my emotions.

Jaylon grabbed my hand for a second before letting go. Surprisingly, the shakes stopped the second he did. He gave me a very questionable look before looking back to the road. He didn’t know what to say at first and kind of looked sad, but then stiffened and I watched as he turned cold. “There’s something we need to discuss.”

“Hmm?” I hummed warmly, despite my emotional roller coaster within.

“For now, we should keep our relationship professional. I don’t have time for all of this right now.”

His words made me squint my eyes at him. Not only from confusion but also annoyance. “You need help when we get home. Professional help,” I replied, crossing my legs and arms to keep them still. He picked the wrong time for this conversation.

Jaylon slammed on the brakes in the middle of the deserted road. “I need what?” he growled.

“Professional help. You are so back and forth that it makes me want to scream! How do you spend all night crying to me about how much you want me and need me, then wake up the next morning and say we need to keep things professional because you don’t have time! It’s not my fault you hoe around, have a girlfriend, and refuse to reject me! I don’t have time for this! My nephews are about to leave and they deserve all of my attention but here I am wasting my weekend trying to bond with someone that doesn’t deserve me!” I exploded, taking myself off guard.

“How am I back and forth? I have been nothing but honest with you!” Excuse me?

“Aww, how are you back and forth? How about getting together with me, begging to mate, taking me on a picnic and giving me a tour, taking me to meet your parents, and THEN you go upstairs and SLEEP WITH YOUR OTHER GIRLFRIEND? Next, you tell me that I’m a MISTAKE and that I need to stay away from you. I do that and what happens? You get jealous and MARK ME! Then you tried to mate with me again and wanted to cuddle all night and promised you would work things out for us. Next thing I know, you're downstairs ignoring me. Then we had a crying party last night and you're talking about ‘I knew she wasn’t my mate’, and NOW you're saying ‘It’s best if we just keep it professional!’”, I explained, saying the last part in a mocking voice. “You have issues, Jaylon.”

“The only issue I have is you! No one understands how you just run from your problems! Pretending things doesn’t exist doesn’t fix them. They think you're weak. They think this pack is doomed,” he shot back. But he is my problem?

“Then save them. Reject me. Now!” I demanded. He ignored me, put the car back in drive, and sped off down the road. They think I’m weak? Let them. The silence in the car put me to sleep and I was met with my grandmother again.

“How are you?” Was the first thing she said as I slowly walked up to her in the middle of a dark mansion.

“Well I’m existing, that’s about it,” I replied.

“I feel that you have been practicing some magic, tell me how it is?”

“I’m a lot happier and less broken-hearted when I do it. Was my grandfather like this?”

“Your grandfather hated me at first, but I learned it was because he was terrified of me. That is how men respond to fear, but Jaylon, I think he needs to let go of his fears and be honest,” she answered, motioning for me to follow her.

“Is there any way that I could convince the moon goddess to change her mind? I think she made a mistake,” I questioned as we blinked into an old bedroom that appeared to belong to a girl.

“I don’t think she made a mistake, once you find out what is being hidden, you will discover the reason for your mating. Look hard at the room, memorize it,” she replied with a slightly demanding tone. I did as she said confused. “Do not forget,” was the last thing she said before she disappeared and I was left alone in the dark.

I woke up not long after that, but not fully. I was in that weird state where mentally I was awake, but until I opened my eyes, I still had the option of going back to sleep. As much as I would rather sleep my way through the trip, I know I needed to wake up. I opened my eyes only to be blinded by the sun. I closed my eyes immediately and tried to slowly open them again. When I could, my surroundings blurred together and I sat there for a minute looking out the window.

I thought about how I was sitting for a minute and my eyes widened. I was cuddling his arm again. I glanced down at my lap to see Jaylon’s hand on my thigh. I sat up and he glanced over at me while I readjusted. “Look dude, you can just push me off, it’s not like I’m gonna get mad over it,” I mumbled, searching for my sunglasses.

“Yeah, but you looked so comfortable.” Oh wow, now he wants to be nice.

“Car rides aren’t supposed to be comfortable. Where are my sunglasses?”

“I took them off of you. They’re right here,” he pointed.

“Thank you. What time is it?”

“It’s twelve. I’m thinking. . . Italian?”

“I could have sworn it’s only been thirty minutes.”

“Time flies when you're getting your beauty sleep,” he replied sarcastically. “You know, if I couldn’t hear you breathing, I would swear you were dead. You don’t move, talk, or make any noises in your sleep. You freak me out every time.”

“You're being over dramatic. If I don’t move, how do I always end up on you? Anyways, Italian sounds amazing.”

We gave each other a smirk at our mutual agreement and he turned right off the main road. “You do that right before you actually fall asleep. Maybe your body just can’t stand to be away from me,” he joked, making me roll my eyes at him. Since he’s in a good mood, I’ll be nice. One attitude and he gets the silent treatment.

You know, this was planned. I must have been a heavy sleeper or something because he made reservations. The second we got there he told her his name and she walked us to a secluded room with a bouquet on the table. She left and Jaylon let out a chair for me.

“Very put together for a quick lunch,” I raised an eyebrow as he sat across from me.

“Well, you took way too long getting dressed just to sit in the car all day,” he smirked. “Also, I want to apologize to you. I shouldn’t have said that to you and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk down to you like that. You don’t deserve to be treated that way.” That’s not a full apology, but I wouldn’t believe it if it was, so this was acceptable. For a portion of the argument. A very small portion.

“Then what do I deserve?” I asked shyly, looking down at my lap.

“Everything,” he replied quietly to himself. I looked up into his eyes and remembered why I fell in love with him when I was younger. He would look at me as if deep down, he secretly loved me back.

Lunch was amazing and Jaylon was amazing. He was nice the whole time. Every time he’d begin to shake, he’d grab my hand. I’m not sure if he’s nervous or healing himself. I didn’t say anything, but my concern for him began to build up. His ever-changing mood swings, shakes, anxiety. . . it couldn’t be what I was thinking. There’s absolutely no way. That’s not Jaylon. Immediately I pushed the thought from my mind. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m too selfish to admit the truth or because my mind wouldn’t process Jaylon doing something like that, but I let the thought go.

When we got in the car, I decided to try my hardest not to argue or give him enough space to let him shut down again. I immediately went against his wishes and turned on the radio. He refused to let me use Bluetooth, and wouldn’t do it himself so we were stuck with the channels. Maybe some music will help him. Now, I have to be honest here, they have been playing Better Now once an hour or more on the radio for the past three years, so I was already irritated. But the number of times we heard it in the hours it took to get home, made us both sit with our eyes wide for the three minutes that it played. Eventually, I tapped out and started flipping through the stations again. I gave up on the 50’s station and decided to annoy him with every love song that came on. I can be very flirtatious. It’s something he isn’t used to from me, but his hidden smile and bright eyes told me he didn’t mind it.

“Hmm, you got them all memorized I see,” he smirked after I got a couple of them down word-for-word.

“My mother listens to music from every decade except ours.”

“So you're torturing me with it now?” he laughed out.

“Look dude, as hard-headed as you are, one of these days you're going to wish I was in the car flirting with you,” I smirked, making him give me a look. It wasn’t an annoyed look, more like a ‘we’ll see’ type of look.

When we parked in the garage of the packhouse, I sighed with relief. I had to have a quick meeting with Ingrid because wants to know how our trip went. I don’t know what to say to her though. Let’s see: we argued, he teased me, we argued, he cried to me, we argued, and he took me on a date. Wow, we really need help.

Jaylon refused to let me carry my bags, he insisted my hands were full with my flowers. We walked upstairs and not long after everyone started welcoming us back did I hear his little dog running up. “Jaylon! What took so long?!” She started then she froze and breathed in deeply when she saw me. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? ARE YOU TWO A THING NOW? YOU NEVER GET ME FLOWERS, JAYLON! Look at you! Over here CARRYING HER THINGS!”

“No, it’s not what it looks like! We stopped and got them for you on the way here! She was just holding them while I drove!” He defended, grabbing them from my hands and giving them to her. Oh hell no. The least he could do was buy me flowers, now he took them back. She smirked up at him and the look of pure love he gave her made my heart freeze over. So. . . crazy is how we fix things? Got it. Incendio, I mumbled under my breath, causing the roses to light up in flames. I couldn’t help the smirk that came to my lips as they both started freaking out. She dropped them and Jaylon dropped everything to help put the fire on her hands out. Everyone’s mouths around me dropped, but I didn’t care. They ran off to the kitchen to deal with her burns and Nick, Dalton, and Bridget came into view giving me looks. All of their looks asked me what the hell was wrong with me, but why would they ask such stupid questions?

I grabbed my bags and headed to Ingrid's office, but a moment later the door flew open. Jaylon was a mixture of confused and pissed. “WHAT THE-” he started but before he finished I was standing in my kitchen with my bags. Well, I guess the report can wait. My mom jumped up and let out a light scream but then calmed down. My dad and nephews came running in. My dad sighed in relief and Bentley and Gabriel ran up and hugged me. I missed my sweet babies. “You scared me to death! Did anyone see you do that?” was the first greeting I got from my mother after a few days. To be fair, I did scare the hell out of her.

“Only Jaylon, but plenty of people did see Loren get her hands burnt by flowers,” I smirked. They both gave me an ‘are you kidding me’ look.

“Alison! We are trying to keep your. . . abilities hidden right now!” my mother whispered-shouted as my dad took my nephews out of the room.

“I didn’t mean to, Jaylon pissed me off! And why can’t they know, aren’t packs supposed to be like a family?” I asked as my dad walked back into the room.

“Yes they are Alison, but none of them grew up with you as they did with each other, we already have Loren running around calling you a curse to the pack. Let them find out you have powers, they will think she is right. I think it’s time we call Dimitry down here, but you better keep him away from the pack, understand?”

I shot up in excitement. “Really?” I asked, beaming ear to ear.

“I can have him here in a few weeks, but it’s the same deal with your nephew, and no shifting while he is around,” my dad cut in. I nodded my head so fast I thought it was going to roll off of my shoulders. Just the person I need. My Dimitry.

Tonight, we’re having dinner with my aunt and uncle. It was a good way for me to calm my mind from earlier. Truthfully, I didn’t want the spell to hit the flowers which is why I needed to leave when I did. If I stayed, I would have tried again. “Alison! I love your outfit honey!” my aunt commented, coming up to hug me. She acted as though I didn’t see her all of the time, but still, I hugged her back. “How was your trip, did you bond?”

I kind of felt weird that my aunt was asking this question, but better than one of my parents. I shook my head no and she looked at me with a disappointed expression. “Oh come on Martha, it’s Jaylon we’re talking about. You know the situation, and that can’t happen until there isn’t a situation,” I replied, with my nephews in earshot. She nodded at me sadly and she gave me a bag of herbal tea in case I had any pains. They all thought that I was lying about not feeling anything.

I walked into the dining room when I was surprised to find Nick. He gave me a soft smile and pulled out a chair for me. “How was your day?”

“Don’t even play,” I replied, rolling my eyes at him.

“There was something I have been wanting to talk to you about. I just wanted to let you know that nothing happened the other night, between us I mean, but someone did try to poison you,” he said through the mind link. I shot him a look.

“What?!”

“I don’t know who yet, but we both have an idea. We just have no proof. That was the only reason you don’t remember, but I can tell you, you didn’t drink a drop of alcohol. It was wolfsbane, which is pretty painful to wolves, I could smell it on you. Thank the goddess for your powers because you were just loopy all night, but had you been any other wolf, it would have burned every part of your body it touched.”

I sat in shock as my family joined us in the dining room, with Dalton and Bridget sitting across from us. Before I could hide it, Dalton saw and sent Nick a glare and a very obvious mind link. That gave it away. They were hiding something from me, now it was a matter of time till I figured out what.

Dinner was very silent, besides my nephews, until I let out a very painful cough. The whole table shot their heads in my direction as I couldn’t stop. It was like I had a really bad cold and I was walking in the winter air. My throat felt like sandpaper more and more with each cough and I gave my dad a confused look. Werewolves don’t get sick, they don’t get the flu, what the hell was this? My aunt left the room immediately to make some tea and get medicine as my nephews patted my back with their tiny hands. Whatever the hell everyone was keeping from me, has decided to come to my attention now.