TORN

Camping

Jasmin 

We lay under the stars, fire flickering behind us. Leo snuggled by my side with a smile on his lips. I looked over to Storm lying on his back, staring up at the night sky. “Thank you for this Storm. You didn’t have to go out of your way but it’s just what I needed and I really appreciate it” He turned onto his side propping himself up on his elbow “I didn't go out of my way. You deserved a break, you are always too hard on yourself, putting the blame on yourself for things you have no control of. You did the right thing for you and your family. However it plays out Damian will come around to understand and thank you in the end. You both deserve happiness even if you have to find it apart” He said giving me a warm reaffirming smile. “I think it’s time to get this little guy tucked int” I smiled standing up. “ Yeah it’s pretty late. I’ll clean up out here, and if you need anything shout. My tent is just next door” he winked. “Will do Mr. Wolf” I giggled making my way into the tent that he and Leo put up together. It was a wonderful sight to see, he was so patient with my baby, Damian never seemed to have the patience to do things with Leo, he either did it for Leo never with him or more often than not he would just let me handle things with Leo. “Good night and sweet dreams” I got into my sleeping bag after tucking Leo in. Laying there I thought over what a great friend Storm had become. I know I had mentioned that my best memories from my childhood was camping, but the fact that he remembered and then knew that it was what I needed made my heart flutter. Leo also loved it, it was his first camping trip, Damian never wanted to go camping. I have to do this again with Leo I thought as my eyes fluttered closed. Maybe Storm would join us again, my thoughts continued as I started to drift off. I heard a soft howl, and a smile touched my lips as sleep wrapped around me. I wasn’t afraid, no  strangelyI felt safe, safe and calm just knowing Storm was close by.

I woke up with a sudden jolt, a feeling of dread washing over me, everything in me screamed that we needed to leave. I’ve had this a few times before in the past. Damian would always tell me how silly I was being, that I was too scared to live, always overthinking things and making everything overly complicated. I needed to get out of my own head. I looked over at Leo, my stomach turned. No I want him out of here. I quickly got dressed, packed our bag and picked Leo up, fast a sleep and still snuggled in his sleeping bag. Unzipping the tent door I heard Storm stir in his tent, when I got out I saw he was standing there a questioning look on his face as he made his way over to me to take Leo from my arms. “ Jazz, is everything ok? ” He asked softly “uhm, I, I don’t know, I want to go, I...,”  how could I explain to him without sounding like a complete crazy person, I am being stupid! “Hey it’s ok, don’t worry about it you don’t have to explain anything Jazz, if you want to leave then we will ok. I’ll put Leo in the car and then come pack up. Go put your things in the back and get in the car” he smiled reassuringly then turned to put Leo in his car. A sigh of relief left me and I decided I could help pack up. I dropped my bag turning back to the tent when Storm came jogging back over, grabbing my bag. “Hey Jazz, you know let’s just leave everything, I can get it later, my house isn’t too far away would it be ok if we just went there?” He asked as I turned to look at him.  His house? Not too far? We were in the middle of the forest? Still something in me was telling me to go. “Uh are you sure?” I asked looking back at the camping gear. “Yeah come on” he said placing his hand on my back as he led me back to the car. Sitting in the car, I could still feel the ghost of tingles that had erupted where his hand had been. A shadow caught the corner of my eye. I could have sworn I had seen an animal running seemingly alongside us. I shook my head, we are in the forest of course there are animals. I looked down at my hands. s**t! “My rings” I gasped. “I forgot my rings in the tent!” Stupid stupid! I never slept with them on and now I had just left them! “Hey don’t worry about it, I’ll get them when I go back for the camping gear ok” Storm said trying to soothe me. What would Ken think! I don’t want to hurt him anymore by not having my rings on when he came to get Leo. He deserves so much more! He deserves me to try harder! In that moment of guilt I decided that I would take Damian up on the suggestion to go with him to see a marriage counsellor. He has been nothing but supportive, understanding and loving. He deserved nothing less than me at least trying to keep our family together. Our son deserved that too. Maybe private sessions would help me get over whatever is wrong with me! Soon we were pulling up to huge gates and a guard waved us in, snapping me out of my thoughts. Storm lived in an estate in the middle of the forest? I looked around as we slowly drove through, little cottages were neatly dotted all over, with solar roofs and beautiful well kept gardens. We drove past a little farm style grocery store with a huge garden with fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs growing. Well they definitely sell fresh produce I thought. This was like the perfect eco village I thought. I always wanted to live in a more sustainable place. I never expected Storm, the big business Tycoon, to live somewhere like this. He drove a Tesla but I assumed that was simply because it was the newest trend. I guess he was much more environmentally conscious than I knew. He stopped the car in front of a large and absolutely stunning manor, that had beautiful cream marble steps and pillars. Storm got out walking over to open the car door for me, at the same time two guys and a woman were coming down the stairs of the manor towards us. “Jazz I’m really sorry about this but there is some urgent business I need to attend. Lisa here will show you to your room, she’s head of housekeeping, if there is anything you need let her know." He said then turned to to the woman that was now standing in front of us. "Lisa please ensure Jazz and her son Leo are well taken care of.” Storm said handing my bag over to her. She nodded her head half bowing then turned to me “Lu.. ah Miss if you’ll please follow me” she turned leading me into the manor. “Downstairs is the kitchen, dining, theatre and entertainment room. I am sure you will find plenty of board games and video games for your son in there. The second floor is were our beta....ahem Mr. Stone and Mr. Riggs stay along with a few others. We also have most of the guest rooms on this floor, but you will of course be staying on the Al... uh Mr. Blakes  floor.” She continued  as she lead me up to the third floor. “This will be your room Miss, there’s an en-suite and if you need anything please let me know.” Lisa smiled warmly. “Thank you so much Lisa and please, call me Jazz or Jasmine” I smiled back. She set down my bag, nodding her head “Miss... Jasmine” then she turned and left the room. Well ok then, this isn’t weird at all. I looked out the window to see that it was starting to get light out. I was still feeling pretty tired, the constant turmoil of my mind always left me feeling drained. Even now that I had made the decision to give my family a chance they deserved, I still felt torn, as though it was the wrong decision, but how could it be wrong to want to make my family work, to try and give us a chance. My heart ached, seemingly fighting against what I knew must be right for my family. The pull I felt towards Storm didn’t help either, but he had become such a good friend and he was part of the restaurant and cafe. Still I knew I would probably need to put distance between us if I was going to make things work with Damian, but the thought of that tore at me too, I didn’t want to lose him. I felt like I needed him in my life. He understood me, calmed me, made me feel at ease. I felt like I was the person I was meant to be around him. He gave me confidence and always knew how to make me laugh. He always just seemed to know what I needed.... but Damian deserved me to sacrifice that, to make more of an effort to change myself. How could I be so selfish for what was probably nothing but selfishness and honestly unwarranted desire on my part. An irrational need when Damian gave me no real reason to feel this way. I would enjoy today and when Storm took me home I would take a step back.  I need to do that and focus on fixing things with Damian. He deserved nothing less! Sadness washed over me at the thought of not being around Storm, and a lone tear slipped down my cheek.

Storm

“Max, Dan report” I demanded, as I made my way back towards the entrance gates “So far no rogues have come closer to the pack, but I doubled patrols” Max reported. “We haven’t been able to find anything out, there was a report of a small group of rogues sighted heading in the direction of your campsite, which is why we informed you immediately. We made priority escorting you and our Lunar back and doubling patrols” Dan continued. “Great. You guys did the right thing. Now that Jazz is safe we can go back to the camp site, I have to get something. We will go as our Wolves, the three of us can easily handle a small group of rogues if we come across them, if we do I want at least one alive for interrogation.” I continued as we left the pack grounds. We shifted and headed in the direction of the camp site. I had to get Jazz's rings for her, it hurt me to go back to retrieve the symbols that showed everyone she belonged to someone else, but I couldn’t stand seeing how torn she was. She always let guilt take hold of her. I understood she felt bad because her husband didn't seem to be a bad guy as far as I could tell and it's understandable that she didn’t want to destroy her family. Still she wasn’t happy and she deserved to free herself to be happy. Of course I hoped it would mean that she could find it with me but I wouldn’t push it. I at least had her in my life, for now I needed to protect that. I couldn’t lose that, no matter how much it hurt to be around her and not claim her. We approached the camp site and I stopped dead in my tracks. What the f**k. Everything had been ripped to shreds. Max, Dan and I split up, our wolves circling to make sure no rogues were still around. Meeting in the middle we shifted back. “f*****g s**t” they both mumbled stunned at the destruction before us. “f**k! Look around to see if you can find Jazz’s rings.” I huffed. They both looked at me in surprise, questioning looks on their faces, but neither dared question me. We spent two hours sifting through the shreds that remained from our tents and other camping equipment to no avail. “Alpha... do you think the rogues were targeting you?” Dan asked breaking the silence. “Well they have some f*****g balls” Max grumbled. I looked over the destruction and then to my friends. “I don't know, but it sure looks that way, we will have to get to the bottom of this. I hate that Jazz and her son were this close to being in danger! I want eyes on them at all times from now on understood! I won’t have any harm come to either one of them!” I growled, shifting back to my wolf and running back to the pack. My wold and I were furious that our mate and her son had been so close to being in danger, we needed to get back to her, to see that she was alright! I shifted back before I was through the gates a guard handing me clothes. I dressed as I made my way to the pack-house, running up to the third floor. Jasmine was in the room right next to mine. I stopped at the door taking a deep breath to calm down, I knocked gently on the door. I heard the sound of little feet walking over and Leo opened the door. “Hello Storm, sssh, mommy is sleeping” he whispered putting his finger on his lip and stepping aside for me to see his mother soundly asleep, a small frown on her head. I  walked over to her in a trance, brushing the hair from her face. A small smile touched her lips then and my heart leapt. She is so perfect. Gently I moved her, pulling the blanket over her, giving her a light kiss on her head. A soft sigh left her lips as she seemingly smiled with contentment the frown now completely vanished from her beautiful face. I looked up to see Leo standing in the middle of the room watching me with a huge smile. Walking to him I took his hand and led him out the room, gently closing the door behind us. “What do you say we hang out and let mommy rest?” I asked “ yeah mommy should rest. Can we make pancakes for mommy? I always wanted to make mommy pancakes but daddy never has time. Can we make pancakes?” He asked looking up at me with big hopeful eyes. “That sounds like a great idea little man” I said, leading him downstairs his little hand in mine. Leo and I spent the next hour and a half making pancakes, or rather we made a mess and Lisa helped us get some pancakes on a plate. I had fun and the laughter and proud look in Leo’s face made the mess well worth it. We got a tray set up with pancakes, fresh fruit, coffee and mango juice which according to Leo’s was his mom’s favourite, then we made our way upstairs both of us excited to surprise the woman we loved with a late breakfast.