The White Wolf

Chapter Eleven

~Payton~

As I wake up, I can feel the weight of Jake’s arm over me, I’m laying facing away from him, with him cuddled up behind me. I gave myself fully to Jake last night, just like any other couple would have. See in our wolf culture once you meet your mate, there is this pull to mate, to be ever so intimate with someone, to claim them as their own. It is perfectly normal for mate’s to not to know each other, but now that we have. I don’t know him, what he like’s, whether he actually will like me. Jake starts to stir beside me. He draws me in closer, I can feel the warmth of his skin on mine.

“erm, Jake,” I say,

“Hmmm,” he murmurs. Resisting on letting me go.

“Jake, now all the impulses are gone, I think we should take some time to learn about each other.” I blurt out. I feel his muscles tighten, I instantly regret saying that. I don’t want to hurt him, in a weird way I love him, but I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me. “Not in a bad way, it’s just when we are together again I want to know that it’s because you know me, the real me and loves me for that girl, not to just be your mate but your equal.”

I turn to see him smiling at me, “Sounds like a plan, you only know Alpha Jake, you don’t know me.” he gets up, “But as we are Luna and Alpha we have to play a certain part”

“Oh I’m not saying we won't play those parts, but in the quiet of our own room, I want to get to know you.”

He nods, “Ok, let’s get ready for training”

I nod, I get up and shower brush my teeth as Jake showers, I go and put on yoga pants and a sports bra and leave the closest. Jake takes one look at me, growls, and throws me his t-shirt, which is baggy on me.

“I will not have my wife half-naked in front of unmated males”. I roll my eyes at him and put the t-shirt on. I will probably have to take it off out there, but it will make him feel better to see that no-one will care.

“I am mated to you; no-one would dare touch me,” I say as we head to breakfast. Jamie and Zoey are already there.

“Morning love birds,” I say to them as I go to see Claire, they both look up and half-smile, that’s weird, Jake takes his seat at the head of the table.

“Hey Claire, can I have cereal today, please? I can’t fight on a full stomach.” I say as I pop my head in the kitchen. She smiles and nods, she’s really busy so I leave her to it.

‘So, what’s up Jay?’ I mind link him.

‘Nothing much, our pack is coming, and Zoey is worried about us defending the pack against our friends’

‘You did tell her, these friends’ I put emphasis on friends ‘allowed me to be kept hostage for years and never visited, and allowed you to be tortured, plus he wouldn’t just bring anyone, he would bring the best warriors because they are the only ones who stand a chance as surviving us’ I say. I hate that I sound so arrogant.

‘I did, I told her we ran away for a reason and that going against our mates is near on impossible.’ I look at him, he looks tired, so they either had a great night or a poor one. I didn’t want to ask him. Claire brings out her normal plates of food, full English breakfast. She brings out a bowl of cereal for me and a small jug of milk for me. Jake raising an eyebrow at me, while Jamie smiles smugly. Jamie and I discuss how we will train people, what order we should do everything in, Jake cuts in with how he was trained, and Zoey sits quietly. Sometimes when she thought I wasn’t looking, or I was distracted she would glance at me. Everyone came down at different stages and ate food. Once we had all eaten, we all wonder outside. I notice Zoey is dressed fairly similar to me, I dare say Jamie helped guide her, as the other girls were not as prepared. Everyone was in comfortable clothes with sensible shoes on, which is a good start when we were training at home, girls would push their luck in their attire. Everyone stood in a semi-circle around us.

“Thank you, everyone, for coming and taking this so seriously. Payton and Jamie will be taking the training session as they were trained by the best.” Jake says and stands to the side. 

“Hey everyone, so glad so many of you could make this first training session, please if you can attend as many as you can. Today we will start our training by running the perimeter, I would like everyone to run this every day, once a day, more if you can. I will run it every morning and evening. This will help with your stamina, as it becomes easier to run, increase your laps. Half of the fighting is stamina; half is to know when to run to your advantage. Once we’ve run, we will train you in hand to hand combat, in human form. Once you’ve mastered that, we will teach you the ability to shift during a shift. Follow me.” I say, Jake takes my right and Jamie on my left, we head at a jog towards the perimeter.

Not everyone is as fit as us three, I tell the boys to keep pace and I will run with those who are struggling. I slow down and give words of encouragement for them. Adults of most packs if not warriors get lazy, complacent. As we get close to the end of the lap we start heading back to the clearing. The others are paired up when we get there. I give words of encouragement to those that weren’t so fit, which was a good portion of this group. They pair up and I go to the front to pair with Jamie. Jake and Zoey were paired up. Jamie and I demonstrate moves and everyone copies, we go around and correct peoples posture.

The next few weeks go without incident. Training goes well, and people pick up the fighting skills well, plus everyone stamina has increased and can now do several laps of the perimeter. We have now progressed onto wolf fighting, which is good, considering that they couldn’t fight very well before we started training. We got a phone call from My old Alpha, Sebastian. He set a date a week from the phone call and we spent that week preparing. Everyone had a job to do, hide the children, protect the children, protocols on what everyone should do. Everyone was trained as well as we could in the short time we had, at 10 pm the night before I sat down with Jamie and recalled everyone, we could remember their fighting styles and their weaknesses. I played it over and over in my mind's eye so that everyone in the pack knew their faces and their weaknesses just in case they get past me.  

He brought my mother, which made my heart ache upon seeing her, he also brought 10 warriors, a mixture of the best and second best, which means that they either left some strong warriors back home in case of an attack, and no-one is stupid enough to attack black wolves on their territory, or he had the others hidden ready to attack us. I am glad I had spent the morning calling the elements to protect the pack, we hid the children and I made sure their scents couldn’t be tracked. We made sure that everyone they saw was doing their normal jobs, but we gave them extra training. Jamie made this huge thing about Zoey being hidden with the children, she was quite happy to hide away, she was more than capable of saving herself but he insisted. Sebastian coming, put Jamie in a foul mood, not even Zoey could help. I would kill him for the trouble he caused Jamie if I could. Whenever I was around Zoey, she acted weird and had a weird smell, Jamie told me it was nothing, although I knew he could smell it too, the others couldn’t smell what I could. I suspect pups, which would explain their behaviour and Jamie’s mood. I told Jamie that no matter what I would protect her from him, he relaxed a little knowing I would protect her. Jake couldn’t understand their behaviour I tried to tell him but he told me I couldn’t know so early.

The morning of their arrival everyone was nervous, I was sick a few times. Knowing I had to face him, made me sick to my stomach, I brushed my teeth, used mouthwash several times that morning. I showered and put on a maxi dress. It has spaghetti straps that crossed that the back, plunged at the front. I wore a white lacey top underneath so that I didn’t show cleavage. I didn’t feel comfortable being that person. I wore sandals, I left my hair down and allowed it to do its natural curl, with a little bit of makeup on. Jake dressed in suit trousers and a casual looking shirt. He looked so handsome. Over the last few weeks, we had gotten to know each other a bit, just like the equivalent of human dating, we even went on a few dates, a meal out here, cinema trip there. It had brought us closer than ever. He had spent the morning rubbing my back and holding my hair, he didn’t complain. Just before Sebastian turned up, Jake took me in his arms. As his strong arms went around me, I felt safe. I snuggled into his chest, while he stroked my hair telling me everything would be ok.

Anyway, they turned up in three black cars, the warriors first, then Sebastian then he holds his hand out to my mother. Clarissa, Wyatt, Steph, Sam, and Dean were stood behind us. The men slightly in front of the girls. Our warriors were stood against the walls of the front of the house. Jamie stood on my left, Jake on my right. Sebastian looked old, then my mother steps out and I gasp, Jake’s hand finds mine and Jamie puts his hand on my shoulder. Probably more to hold me back, Jamie knows I will kill him if he ever hurt my mum, and the fact he brought her here was to show that he still had power.

Jamie mind links me, ‘Calm down, he’s not touched her yet, and mates do travel together.’ His mind is harsh, but it helps me calm down, my wolf is still present waiting to pounce but we are in control.

“I see you’ve found your mate Payton; how happy we are for you,” he says smiling as he approaches. I smile and put on my best behaviour. He hasn’t attacked yet so I will play nice. For now.

“Ah yes sir, this is Jacob. It is a pity you couldn’t have made the wedding.” The last sentence dripping in sarcasm. I smile at him and look at my mum. She looks drawn and really skinny; her clothes just hang off her. Her smile reaches her eyes, and they twinkle. Jake steps down the steps and extends his hand, to my surprise Sebastian takes it and shakes. He moves to my mother and hugs her.

“It’s nice of you to come such a long way to congratulate us” he smiles pleasantly.

“Yes well, you know that’s not why we are here. We have come to take Payton back, to the pack she needs, a pack of warriors.” His voice is tight.

“Ah yes, to take her from her true love and keep her in a tower and make her use her magic, of course, she should be with you, shouldn’t she?” Jakes words are hard and full of hatred. I’m proud of him, Jamie has been training Jake, every spare second, they get. So as Sebastian starts to shift, Jake grabs my mother and pushes her towards me, at the moment, this is just a pissing contest. Sebastian didn’t read books so I’m unsure if he knows Jake will be a black wolf, and in his prime, unlike Sebastian.

“Mother, what are you doing here? You can’t be on his side”

“no, my dear, but you cannot keep me here, you see my little bird, he does not care for me, but he will use our bond to spy on you. He brought me here in the hopes you care for me and will do as he says” Just as she says that, there is an almighty growl, and he’s attacking Jake. Jamie jumps into the fights and they work together. His warriors come for me and my mum. Like hell. His warriors start attacking Jake and Jamie and for a split second I lose control, our warriors guard my mother but do not attempt to get into the fight. They know they will not win. I fight all the other warriors, growling furiously at them, they all know me and trained with me. They know I will not hold back because of them. As I drop the last one, I find my mother shifted and between Sebastian and Jake and Jamie. He was looking between his warriors and me, who took on 10 wolves single handled. Our warriors were stood frozen.

“Thought I would be weak” I sneered at him; anger was boiling inside of me. His face darkened as I watch him jump on my mums back and kill her, she drops to the floor. She never saw the attack coming as she had her back to him. To protect him. She knew Jake and Jamie wouldn’t attack and win if it meant harming her. He severed her spine when he jumped on her, then ripped out her throat. Everyone froze. Instantly the elements wrapped themselves around me. drawing energy from them all, he shifted and smiled at me. The wind picked up around me, my body heating up and I lounged at him, he shifted and blocked my moves. His growls were harsh. Just as I was about to finish him. A black SUV turns up, grabs him and drives off. I sit there watching as they squeal away. I took note of the number plate, but I knew where he lives, I can kill him anytime I want. He knows that. I can get in and out of the castle with no scent. I can use the elements to conceal me even more. He was wounded.

I rush back to my mum, the pack was there, all of them, and I let out a howl. The rest all follow suit and then bow to me. Jake comes to stand next to me and I lean on him. After 30 minutes the pack all disappear. Jake and Jamie try to get me to turn human again, but I can’t focus enough to change. The pain was drowning me, they picked my mum up and I followed them. The pack had built a pyre for her, inside I’m crying, Jake lays her on it and Jamie starts the fire. We always burn our dead it saves anyone digging them and the DNA getting out. I sit and watch it burn, the pack is here, all as wolves, to comfort me, Jake sitting beside me, after a while the pack peel off, I refuse to leave for a while. His plan all along was this. To cause me pain. I hated him for it. Jamie pleaded with me not to get lost in my wolf, that she couldn’t dull my pain this time. By the time the fire had stopped, I had been up a full 24 hours. Jake never left my side. We just sat there. Eventually, he coaxed me into the house, I shifted and walked up the steps to our room. Jake helped me shower, he dressed me, and we climbed into bed. I just curled up and started to sob. After a while, the sobs slowed, and my body gave out and I fell asleep. Even in my dreams, my heart was breaking. My dreams played the horrid seen over and over.