Leighton

Ara

Leighton

I don’t think shock was quite the reaction to describe Jackson’s face when Ara walked into the room. He managed to maintain his calm composure until she spoke.

“Hello Jackson, it’s been a long time.”

“Not long enough.” He snarled at her and I felt Estelle jump in surprise. What on earth was Ara doing here. I thought she was dead. Alpha Dylan certainly hadn’t told us anything about her coming here. Now I thought about it, I was sure I recalled being told something about them raising the pup, so it was possibly just assumed she died.

“What is the meaning of this ?” Jackson turned to the King, who was watching interaction with interest.

“I’m not quite sure what you mean Alpha Jackson. Ara is a valued member of this pack.” The King replied calmly.

“Your majesty, may I have a minute with the Alpha alone?” Ara surprised me by asking.

The King stood, surprising me over more. “I need a refreshment, everyone out. We will continue this later.”

I was unsure what to do, I could almost feel the hatred from Jackson.

“Stay with me, I don’t trust myself not to kill her, and if she had told them about Greer I will for sure.” He linked me.

Estelle went to follow her father.

“I should… I better stay with Jackson for now.” I told her. I didn’t want her away from me for a second so I offered her my hand so she could stay but she looked at it coldly and followed her father out. Jackson was too busy seething to notice. I knew Estelle was upset but I didn’t know if it was with me or not.

“Nice to see you too Leighton.” Ara spoke softly once we were alone. She didn’t look much different to the last time I saw her. Despite greeting me it was Jackson she was watching.

“You are meant to be dead.” Jackson went straight there, there was no doubt from his tone that that would be his preference.

“Sorry to disappoint.” Ara’s shoulders sagged and I would have felt sorry for her if I didn’t know her history.

“I assume the King doesn’t know about your past.” I asked her.

She hung her head. “He knows enough, but I never told him any names or places.”

“If you told him about Greet I swear on the moon goddess I will kill you myself.” Jackson snarled.

“I didn’t tell him about Greer. I owed her that much. But he isn’t stupid. He knows of the stories and he knows that only a few alphas could hide her.”

I looked at Jackson, I couldn’t read him.

“We have a plan to defeat him, like it or not you need my help. I know what is at stake here. I kept Greers secret because I owe her my life but now… now the stakes are too high. The debt is square.” She looked at me. “If you want to be King, then you need to work with me.”

“You can forget that.” Jackson told Ara as he swept past her and out the room.

Sighing deeply I went to follow him, pausing at the door.

“I don’t care about being King. I only want Estelle.”

“Well she comes with a Kingdom, I think you already know you can’t win that battle.” She was looking past me, her eyes on Jackson’s departing back, filled with sadness.

“Just like you can’t win him.” I told her, hardly believing she could still harbour feeling for him after all this time.

“I know.” She said sadly. “I have tried so hard to forget him, but the heart wants what it wants.” She laughed. “The irony is… I could have gotten rid of Greer easily. But I didn’t. So now my debt is paid.”

“That’s supposed to make me convince him to trust you?”

“You need him Leighton, not me. The King has many options, and he will do what is best for him. Let me give you some advice, the King won’t let Estelle be harmed for you.”

“You mean he is using me to get to Jackson.” I asked her.

“No,” Ara looked frustrated. “He won’t stop you being together but if Estelle is in danger consider you could consider yourself becoming collateral damage. In order for me to keep Greers secret I came up with a plan to stop King Adalfudis but without sacrificing one of them I can’t defeat him. The King won’t sacrifice Estelle and I knew I couldn’t reveal Greer so it was the best I could do.”

I was confused.

“How am I to believe this ? You still want Jackson so why would you protect Greer.”

“I’m paying my debt, I owe her my son’s life. I can’t help that I still love him.”

My head hurt from this conversation alone, it was irreverent almost as Jackson would never work with her. My heart sank that he would probably leave now.

I found him quickly as he hadn’t gone far. He was talking to someone on the phone. When he saw me he hung up. Hearing him tell whoever was on the phone he loved them before he did.

“Greer?”

“Uhuh.” He stared at the phone. “She wanted to know if we got Estelle.”

“Did you tell her Ara was here?”

He paused before he closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Why not?”

He didn’t answer but I knew why. He would be worried what would go through her head.

“You realise she will be mad when she finds out. She trusts you Jackson.”

“Even when it comes to Ara?”

That was a question I didn’t think I could answer, so much had changed but it had been such a turbulent time. Greer had certainly doubted his love for her then, would time have healed all those wounds? That I honestly didn’t know.

I needed to find Estelle because she certainly hadn’t been happy when she left. I knocked on her father’s office and I could see they were deep in conversation. She didn’t look too happy about it.

“Everything okay?” The King asked me.

“Not really no. We have some history with Ara. What can I say? Trusting her won’t be something that is easily done.” I told him honestly, it wasn’t really my story to tell but I knew I might need to for the King to understand.

“Ara has proven herself worthy of our trust. Her history is of no interest to me.”

“How did you meet her.” I was curious as to how she ended up here.

“We met by chance, a few years ago. The story is long and arduous but I owe her my life and she has helped us with many problems since.”

“Jackson won’t work with her. There probably nothing that will change his mind on this.”

He was probably getting ready to leave as we spoke.

I saw surprise on Estelle’s face when I spoke mixed with something else. The King, however just frowned.

“I need to speak with her. Excuse me.”

“Before you do, you need to release Peter.” Estelle stopped her father from leaving.

“Are you sure ? He left you there, it seems his escape was a little too easy. We trusted Isabelle and look what happened.”

“We didn’t know she was Prince Alonsos mate though. I told Peter to get help if he escaped. He was following orders. I think Izzy helped him because she he is still her brother. I trust him.” I didn’t like the way she was steadfastly defending him.

“Maybe… but it’s prudent to keep him there, for now, until we establish who else has working against you Estelle.” I interjected into the conversation.

“Right now I feel like he is the only person I can trust so I have to disagree.” Estelle shot back at me, clearly unhappy I questioned her.

“Enough.” The King slammed his hand on the desk. “We have enough going on without a petty lovers tiff. Peter stays until I have time to speak with him, you.” He pointed at me. “Sort out the Alpha, if he won’t work with us then he is not welcome here. And Estelle don’t even think about it, from now on you will do as you are told.”

With that he marched out slamming the door.

“What did I miss?” I asked Estelle moving towards her, desperate to hold her again. I froze when she moved away from me.

“You tell me, what the problem with Ara?” She stood with her arms crossed across her chest an unreadable look on her face.

“It’s not really my story to tell, but do you recall how I told you that Greer and Jackson had a rocky start? Well I guess you could say Ara was to blame for that.”

If she wanted to know more I could try to tell her but here were parts of the story even didn’t know what happened.

“What do you mean.?” I was going to have to give her a bit of summary.

“So Jackson had a mate before, but she was killed a long time ago. Afterwards he and Ara kind of hooked up ? But, long story made short I think it goes Ara fell in love, got pregnant around the time Jackson met Greer. As a result Jackson ended up almost losing Greer.

Lots of bad stuff happened and Greer basically saved Ara. I thought she had died actually and forgotten all about her.”

“What happened to their baby?” Clearly this wasn’t the story Estelle expected to hear.

“Honestly I don’t know. It turned out the baby wasn’t Jackson’s but some other Alpha. He was killed and last I heard it didn’t sound like they expected Ara to survive the birth. I never thought to check up on any of it.”

“Ara told us that she had made mistakes in the past, but that even though her mistakes were made out of love, they had lead her down a path that was dark and now she only looked for the light. She one of the most powerful witches here, the only one who understands the dark witches powers. I don’t think we can defeat King Adalfudis without her.”

I sighed. “Let me speak to Jackson, once he has cooled down. I guess if he wants to leave then I could ask Iris and Oliver to help me?”

“Don’t you mean help us?”

“Yes, but I agree with your father. It’s too dangerous to take you back there, and if the King is smart he won’t bring the Prince here so I need to go back.”

“That isn’t how this works. You don’t get to decide where and what I fight. We might be mates but make no mistake it’s my throne here.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t but since you ran of and got yourself marked I’m afraid you don’t get a say on this next part princess.”

She looked at me like I wounded her before pushing past me.

“Where are you going ?”

“To release Peter, I need one person who trusts me in my corner.”

“Hell no, you don’t get to run of to him. I’m your mate remember ?” I reached out to grab her but she was too fast. She didn’t even reply and I felt door slam in my face as I went to follow.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself I went to follow her.

“Leigh there you are. Jackson is looking for you.” Felicity appeared in the corridor.

“Not right not Felicity I need to speak to Estelle.”

“Looks like you both need a minute to cool off. Go see Jackson, he said something about going home?”

“He probably will, Ara is here. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to either.”

If she was thrown she covered it well.

“I’ll stay with you, Ashton isn’t speaking to me anyway. I’ve been trying to call him for the last hour.”

That did stop me.

“That’s not like him, I knew he was mad you came but he seemed more mad I let you to be honest. When did you last speak with him?”

“Before you went to get Estelle. I told him I was waiting here but I could tell he was still worried.”

I pulled out my phone and called him. It went straight to voicemail. Frowning I dialled Greer, getting no answer either.

“What.”

“Greer isn’t answering either, but Jackson spoke with her just a little while ago.”

“Mate.” Titan whined in my head.

“Let’s give her a minute, nothing I say or do is right just now.” I told my wolf.

“No she needs us. You can’t help back home..”

My wolf was right, I couldn’t change Jackson’s mind or do anything about what was happening at home. I could fix how Estelle was feeling so right now I needed to find her.