Blood Lust

Chapter Two - Bad News

‘Jason are you sure you are ready?’ Hazel asked fretfully as she sat next to her son, hugging his broad shoulders.

Patting her hand lovingly Jason laughed, ‘mum, I'm nineteen and I haven’t found my mate, it is time for me to head out and look for them.’ he said softly.

Since his eighteenth birthday, Jason had accompanied his father to any of the packs he visited in search of his other half and always come up empty, he had finally made the decision to head off with his Beta and search for them properly.

‘I know, but I'll miss you’ Hazel replied tearfully.

Pulling his mother into his embrace, Jason grinned down at the older woman, ‘Vaya and Daniel from Silver Cross have also offered to come with me mum, Vaya is still looking for her father so it makes sense for us to travel together’ he said with a slow smile that lit up his hazel eyes.

‘Why could your mate not be here at Oak Ridge’ Hazel moaned.

‘Because the Goddess decided it so, I am destined to find them somewhere else, I can feel it. They are out there waiting for me and I want to find them and bring them home before dad decides to step down’ Jason said softly.

‘Since when was I stepping down?’ came Justin’s voice from behind them.

‘Well hopefully it won’t be for many years dad, but one day I assume you and mum are going to want to disappear into retirement so I need to find my mate before then.’ Jason replied, grinning up at his father who clapped him on the back.

‘I take it your mother is trying to convince you to stay and berating the Goddess that your mate is not here? Despite the fact I had to be kidnapped and tortured to find her?’ Justin asked with a chuckle as Hazel’s eyes widened in horror.

‘No-one is torturing my boy Justin! Do you hear me!’ she growled defensively, pulling Jason tighter into her arms.

‘Mum, I am not going to be tortured’ Jason laughed trying to disentangle himself from her grasp.

‘I bet your father said the same thing’ Hazel grumped, finally allowing her son to wriggle out of her grasp, ‘look what happened to him’.

Justin gathered his wife to him lovingly, ‘what happened to me is I found the most amazing woman that ever walked the earth, yes I suffered a bit of pain but I would gladly do it all over again if it led me back to her’ he murmured into her hair as she sank into his embrace.

‘See, I want that mum!’ Jason moaned, ‘I want to find that person who I would do anything for.’

‘You will my boy’ Hazel said fondly, ‘your mate is out there, I know they are, just try not to follow your fathers footsteps when finding her OK?’ she pleaded.

‘I'll try’ Jason grinned, ‘but I make no promises.’

‘What’s with the love fest?’ came Halle’s voice from the doorway, looking over, Jason strode toward her and lifted her up, throwing the teenager over his broad shoulder as she thumped his back in annoyance.

‘Put me down you great ogre’ she yelled at her brother angrily as he laughed at her fists pounding against his body.

‘Hey little sis, what’s with the assault?’ he asked casually as he easily swung her into a bridal hold and proceeded to rock her like a baby.

‘Put me down right now, I am not a baby’ Halle huffed, her face purple with rage.

Placing her back on her feet, Jason pulled her into a hug, ‘you’ll always be my baby sister Halle, you know that’.

Huffing, the teen pushed the muscular warrior away from her, ‘I am sixteen, that makes me perfectly capable of taking care of myself’ she growled as Jason laughed at her.

‘You are just the cutest little button when you are all hot and bothered’ he teased, easily protecting himself as the raging youngster started to punch at him.

‘OK you two, knock it off’ Hazel called out sternly, causing the siblings to drop their hands immediately. ‘Jason stop teasing your sister, you know she doesn’t like it, Halle, stop trying to punch your brother, we save violence for our enemies here’ she scolded as the two children hung their heads.

‘Sorry mum’ they uttered in unison.

‘Get out of here you pair of annoyances’ Hazel said laughing, ‘and don’t think for a minute I believe those lame ass apologies’ she added as Jason grabbed his sister again and marched out of the room hanging her over his shoulder as she yelled blue murder at him.

‘Ugh, he is sooooo like you’ Hazel groaned at her husband who gave her a shocked look.

‘Me? How could you say that? I would never wind up my sibling like that’ Justin spluttered.

‘Of course not’ Hazel replied dryly, ‘you never once put itching powder in your brothers bed when he had the attention of a she-wolf? Nor do you ever wind Aaron up by blatantly flirting with his wife?’ she asked arching her eyebrow at the flustered Alpha.

‘No idea what you are talking about my love’ Justin said, his eyes roaming the room to avoid her gaze.

‘Of course you don’t’ Hazel smirked, reaching up and pecking her husband’s lips, squealing slightly as he grabbed her and pulled her close to him, deepening the kiss. Pulling away she slapped his arm, ‘always the opportunist!’ she growled as Justin shrugged,

‘Well you would worry what was wrong if I suddenly stopped taking advantage of situations to get my hands on you’ he reasoned with a grin, running his fingers through his mate’s hair.

‘True, if your not up to something, you are planning on getting up to something’ she laughed as she pulled herself out of her mate’s embrace and made her way toward the door.

Grinning to himself, Justin grabbed the few papers he had brought downstairs with him and made his way out of the common room and up the stairs toward his office.

Walking inside, he pushed the door shut with the heel of his shoe before making his way round his desk and dropping heavily into the brown leather office chair behind it. Tossing the paperwork aside he tapped his fingers on the desk thoughtfully, trying to convince himself to do some work but his wolf kept urging him to get outside.

‘C'mon man’ he wolf growled in his head, ‘don’t you want to feel the wind through our fur, stretch some muscles? Get all sweaty for that sexy mate of ours?’ he cajoled.

‘If I wanted to get sweaty for our mate, I have much more interesting ways to do it than running’ Justin shot back trying to block the annoying voice out of his head.

‘Spoil sport’ his wolf moaned before closing down the link from his side.

Sighing, Justin reached for a pen as a hesitant knock came from his office door.

‘Come in’ he called, sitting back in his chair, the door opened to reveal his Beta Leo.

‘hey Alpha’ he greeted, stepping inside, ‘you got a minute?’ he asked.

‘Of course Leo, come on in mate, what do you need?’ Justin asked, noting the dejected look on the young man’s face.

‘Nothing really’ Leo replied evasively, taking a seat across from his leader, ‘just coming to see what’s going on.’

Justin eyed the young man sceptically, ‘Leo, you never come here just to see what’s going on, you are the one that tells me that! Now spit it out, what’s on your mind?’ he ordered kindly.

‘No, it’s fine, just family stuff’ Leo said, avoiding the Alpha’s penetrating look.

‘Not buying it Beta’ Justin said, ‘we are mates, have been since Red Moon and Silver Cross became alliances, now tell me what’s wrong. Is it Carmen? Is she ill?’ he suddenly asked concerned.

Leo shook his head, ‘no, she’s OK . . it’s just . . . well we had some bad news’ he muttered picking at his fingernails nervously.

‘What is it Leo’ Justin asked, leaning forward onto his desk.

Giving a pained sigh, Leo met the Alpha’s gaze, ‘We went to see Dr Nat, you know we’ve been trying to have a pup for a few years now, he said . . well he ran some tests and . . he said . . Carmen can’t carry a pup’ he finished defeated.

‘Mate, I'm so sorry, is Carmen OK?’ Justin asked, standing up to walk round to his distraught Beta, pulling him into a tight hug.

Leo shook his head sadly, ‘she’s broken man, she even told me to go find another mate, someone who could give me a pup’ he said starting to sob. ‘I don’t want another mate Justin, I just want her but she won’t believe me, she thinks she’s let me down, im scared she’ll actually reject me.’

Holding the crying man against his shoulder, Justin linked his wife and filled her in quickly on the situation, smiling to himself as he heard his Luna running past the office door before he could even shut the mind link, sprinting her way to the Beta’s house to comfort the Beta female. No-one in the pack went through anything without their Luna next to them helping to carry the burden.

Pulling away, Justin grabbed a tissue off the desk and handed it to Leo before catching his gaze. ‘Hazel is on her way to Carmen, she will talk to her, your mate doesn’t mean what she’s saying Leo, she is just hurting.’ he said quietly.

Blowing his nose, Leo nodded sadly, ‘I know, I just feel like my heart is being ripped in two, not because of my loss, but because of hers, she wanted a baby so badly Jus and I can’t make this better for her.’

Justin sat down in the second visitor chair, watching the broken man in front of him silently, he would have given anything to fix the problem but he knew that it was unfixable and the whole pack was going to have to come to terms with the fact that their Beta would not have a family. He knew this was going to affect every member, they were a very close knit pack, what hurt one of them hurt them all and this time, Justin couldn’t protect them from it.