The White Wolf

Chapter Fourteen

~Jake~

Caleb wakes me to let me my father has arrived home, that he is getting himself some breakfast and Wyatt was complaining about the other pack. I quickly get dressed, noting that Payton wasn’t in bed. Nick meets me at the top of the stairs.

“What are we going to do?” he says quietly.

“we will tell him that we caught a rogue last night, we will take him to see the rogue, and lock him in the cell when down there,” I say, just as quietly.

“I don’t like this man, he was like a father to me”, he shrugs.

“I know, I hate it too, but he put everyone in jeopardy. Even your unborn child Nick.” He nods,

“I know and I hate him for it.” He looks sad. As we walk downstairs to meet my dad, “I am so glad the baby is healthy you know, I was so worried about Steph, more so when Zoey got attacked, I just feel like I can’t leave her side.” Nick says as we enter the dining room, I nod at him.

We sit down in our usual seats with Claire bringing us food, “Claire have you seen Payton this morning, has she eaten?”

“I have sir, no not yet, but it is still early for her. I am sure when she’s hungry she will let me know” she smiles and rushes out of the room. We discuss my dad’s trip to a neighbouring pack, he told us how they are getting attacked weekly, how they were getting reports almost daily from other packs saying they are being attacked weekly, he arranged for all the leaders to come here in a few days to see how we can help. I just nod. I don’t trust my voice. My dad was my hero growing up, he was hard on me sure, he knew I was the lead the pack and therefore he was hard on me for it. He treated my mum like a goddess, and still was strong, he was the man I wanted to be and now with this, it makes me see him in a completely different light. To learn he isn’t perfect is a massive issue for me.

“Dad, so we captured one of the rogues, they told us some interesting stories about what is going on, do you want to meet them?” I say to him. “Maybe it would be good for you to question them?

“Yes, son, what kind of stories?” he says, clearly interested in what they had to say.  

“Oh, about Sebastian being behind all the attacks, he’s the reason rogues are working with bad vampires.” I say to him, shrugging “mind you how he acted here, it wouldn’t surprise me”.

“Makes sense son.” He says nodding. Once we’ve eaten, we get up and go to the door down to the cells. Tasha is wrapped up asleep in her cell, the bed being on the side that connects to the other he walks into the cell, put his arm through and goes straight for the throat. Once he realises it is Tasha, he freezes,

“What is this son?” he says as I shut the door to his cell.

“We got a paternity test done, it showed you as the father. Interesting don’t you think?” I say crossing my arms leaning against the wall opposite the door.

He paled, “I can explain” he takes a step forward, Nick moves in front of me.

“Explain what? How you put Steph’s and Zoey’s lives in jeopardy?” Nick spat. “I thought of you as a father, mine was absent a lot of the time, I mean he was there, he just didn’t raise me, and now this, to do that to your mate too.” He shakes his head at dad. Not sure I should even be calling him dad anymore.

“Dad, we could understand if he made you do it?” I say hoping he did, and we can just forgive him.

“No son, he didn’t make me, I willingly did what I did. You should never have been brought into Payton’s density. It will kill you.” He sits on the bed, and we leave. As we get to the top of the stairs, I hear him turn to Tasha and talk to her. He wasn’t angry with her.

We head upstairs to the lounge where Jamie was sitting with Zoey, Sam, and Dean, they were all discussing the baby.

“Jake, where’s Payton?” Jamie says, clearly needing her input on the baby situation.

“Unsure, hang on I’ll check”. I shrug as him.

‘hey, Payton, where are you?’

‘Training’ is all she replied with.

“She’s training”. I say to him.

“Did she sleep?”

“I honestly don’t know, she was there when I went to sleep, but not when I woke up.”

“Oh, we should talk about this whole frozen heart thing,” he says turning to me.

“I’ve got it,” Elizabeth says rushing in, being followed by Josh and Marc,

“Got what?” I frown,

“Payton’s cure of course, what else would I be working on?” she shakes her head.

“I hate to tell you, but she won’t allow a cure, she thinks a frozen heart will give her the edge over our enemies,” Jamie says.

“Make’s sense actually” Marc speaks up, “What we have to do is show her that emotions are what make us strong.”

“It won’t work, she knows that if she had to choose between say, me and Jake, she would be able to calculate who’s better to save future wise, whereas emotionally she wouldn’t be able to make that decision. I know her, we will have to trick her into the cure” Jamie says sadly.

“We can’t do that, she needs to want it, it’s listed as a core ingredient,” Elizabeth says sadly. “Along with some herbs, which I can get ready for when she’s ready.”

“I hate to say this until Sebastian dies, she may never be ready,” I say. They all look at me.

“If I was her, and I could do it, I would want to kill him, it’s probably why she’s training and she’s not training the pack. She wants to kill him.” I say.

“Yeah, and let's face it, maybe we should be helping her train? So she can kill him?”

‘Payton, can you come back to the house we have some stuff we need to discuss the pack?’.

“I've to mind linked her, hopefully, she comes back so we can discuss this with her,” I say. Jamie doesn’t look hopeful, Zoey looks pissed and my younger two siblings just look awkward. I felt for them the last thing that wants to be involved in mate squabbles. We hear the back door go and Payton appears.

She takes a seat and before I could talk Jamie starts.

“Payton, do you think it is wise for me and Zoey to have our own place when the babies are here?”

“Hey that’s not fair she technically doesn’t have a heart right now.”

“That exactly why I can answer, it’s a lovely idea to have a house once the babies are born but until then you should stay at the packhouse where you and Steph can be protected, even Nick and Steph have moved back in temporarily,” Payton says. Then she looks at me,

“Well, we wanted to talk about killing Sebastian.” She frowns at me, “Have you not been thinking about it?”

“Oh, well yes, of course, I think with a frozen heart I can actually do it too, sneak in undetected, kill him in his hideout, which stupidly I am the only one who knows where it is. Then we could be Alpha and Luna of that pack, move everyone there where we will be safer.” She says to me, the others just sit there,

“Erm Payton, what is the castle-like?” Sam asks her.

She smiles, “Beautiful, its huge, we can get probably get most if not all the surrounding packs in the castle walls making it easier to defend. Unmated can double up and families can have a single room.”

“Won't the pack turn on you?” Dean asks he’s sitting cross-legged on the couch.

Jamie speaks up, “Na, most of them hate Sebastian, they won’t admit it, but they do. No-one dares to challenge him because he’s the best they’ve seen in quite a time, but they all love Payton, many hated what he did to her, how he kept her from the wolf community. They will follow her, plus any that outright try to kill her, she can win against.” Jamie is confident and shrugs. “the only thing is, and you won’t like it, she will have to do it alone, just her and her magic.” He looks sad like he will be missing out.  

“Can we not wait for her close by?”

Payton shakes her head, “They will know that you're close by, they will then be on high alert for me. We need them to carry on their normal pattern so that I can slip in undetected. It is the only way we will win.”

“Payton, I can’t allow my mate to go in there alone,” I say.

“I know, and I’m hoping we can both go. I read that if I train my magic, understand it better, I should be able to cover both our scents.” She smiles weakly at me. I know she doesn’t have her heart so to speak, and she’s defiantly not the girl I married, but I can feel her in there. I can feel she starting to care, but maybe it should happen after she’s killed, Sebastian. I refuse to acknowledge him as an Alpha. Honestly, someone who kills their wife like that doesn’t deserve the title.

We start training that day, Elizabeth never mentioned the cure. When I spoke to her she said she will mention it after Sebastian. Payton wasn’t in the right frame of mind to listen to her any. I, like some of the others, sat and watched Payton train her magic. Jamie was teaching her how to centre herself. When she turned from then, he did extra reading to learn about white wolves, he read everything he could before he was allowed to see her but never got to show her, help her hone her powers. They start basic I guess, she shifts too and from her wolf, with and without her clothes, then they progress with her Jamie shifting too and from and she has to put clothes on him. It takes a while but eventually she gets the hang of it. We watch until the sun goes down then we go in for dinner. Claire serves up an amazing dinner, meatballs and spaghetti. Everyone goes into the lounge to watch a film. Payton says in the dining room, reading some books about the white wolf. I use this time to catch up with her over my father.

“Payton my dad is downstairs in a cell.”

She looks up, “Oh Jake, I am sorry how this all worked out.” She says. “Well, I was before my heart frozen anyway.” She shrugs.

“Payton, I wish you would unfreeze your heart, so we can be together again,” I say sadly. “Anyway, I am unsure of what to do?”

“the logical choice is to keep him down there until we need more information, but honestly I don’t think he will talk.” She says. Her voice even, her face plank. She skips over the plea for us to be together. She clearly doesn’t really care what happens to him. I wish I could feel or not feel like she does. It would make my father much easier to deal with. My mum won’t come out of her room, Samantha and Zoey have been up and looking after her.

“Shall we go down and visit him?” she says.

“Ok.” I follow her out and down to my father, who was sitting and chatting with Tasha. This makes me angry, how dare they be friendly, they co-conspired to take me down.

“So, Wyatt, you dislike me enough that you want to try and ruin your son because he’s with me?”

My father is a proud man, he just looks at her, “Oh ok, I get it, you think because we are mates that I won’t hurt you because it would hurt Jake?” she says, she learns across from his cage, smug, arms folded, legs crossed, with one foot resting on the toes. “no of course not, your not stupid, Tash, would have told you what happened to me when she told everyone that Jake had cheated on me” she smiles, he looks wide-eyed.

“Thing is Wyatt, having my heart froze means I can do all the stuff I wanted to do before, I could sleep with anyone I liked, I could kill the entire pack and no give a second thought to Jake’s feeling around this. I am trying to keep myself in check, to remember what matters most to the caring Payton, so this could be your lucky day, or it could be your worse day. Either way, making me angry isn’t in your favour.” She stands there arms held, her eyes usually dance with colour, today they were flat.

“Well, little bird, what is it you want to know?” my father speaks, in a grave voice.

“How long have you knew Sebastian? You never have been to our castle for as long as I can remember.”

“Many years, he usually visited me.” she nods, Tasha is very still in the other cell, trying not to breathe to annoy anyone.

“Ah, why would you do this to your pack?”

“Because Sebastian said you need to be alone to fulfil your destiny. When you turned, he rang me, told me it was definitely you, we had our suspicions, with your fighting skills, your ability to naturally lead he told me to keep Jake there, as he had tested everyone in your pack to ensure no one was there,”

“I know all this,” Payton interrupted.

“Ok, well I stepped down and Jake took my place, we kept in contact, and he gave me daily updates, told me to marry Jake off when you escaped that way even if you were his mate, he could leave his marriage and you two will never be bonded, your link would never help you develop into the amazing person you were meant to become. I tried to marry them but I got sent away before I could. When Sebastian killed your mother, I vowed to never help him, but he told me you needed splitting up so that you would be free to kill again. The evil is gaining numbers, and without you and Jake together they would win, so I sided with them so that my family wouldn’t be harmed.” He looks sad.

“You picked the wrong side, I could have won on my own, and with a frozen heart, I am essentially on my own.” She shrugs. She didn’t say it to hurt me, but it makes sense. I try to not let her get to me while she’s like that. It hurts so much though. I look at her and I see the women that made me re-evaluate everything and now, it’s like I don’t know her. I don’t even think she would care right now if I dropped down dead and that thought made me so sad. She had said what she needed too, she knew why in her head it would make sense for him to put family above all else even the goddess.

We went up to the bed, to sleep. We didn’t hug or kiss, I am not even sure why we were sharing the same bed, but we did. It just made me miss and appreciate the girl had before this. She was warm, kind caring and fun. This girl beside me has no idea of any of those things.

As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.