Oh Hell No

Chapter 29

To say that Melissa felt disappointed wouldn't do justice to the particular way her face fell at Jamie's statement. Sure, she knew her daughter could be...difficult, and what they had done was far from okay, but she had been confident that Jamie would allow the past to stay in the past. It's not like she had to be a rogue for long, she probably found Ryder pretty quickly.

"You pricks were completely fine with booting my ass to the curb instead of listening to my side, and all you got to make up for that is a half-assed apology claiming you 'didn't know' what Katey was up to. If you wanted to know you should have listened when I told you what she was planning!" She glared at them and crossed her arms, the gesture much less threatening from her position on Ryder's lap.

"Then let us make it up to you for real," Melissa suggested.

Jamie immediately disagrees, "No thanks, that would probably take a while and I'm tired," Ryder nudges her slightly with a frown. He may not particularly like her parents for kicking her out, but they both seemed to genuinely believe they were in the wrong.

"You can stay here if you want to make amends," Ryder tells her quietly, "Family's important and I know you won't have any trouble finding your way back to my pack. If you want to go back to my pack, that is," Things had been going well between them, but that didn't mean she'd prefer to be with him over her family, assuming they made up.

"No," Jamie frowned as she tried to figure out how to describe what she was feeling without completely embarrassing herself. She didn't want Ryder to leave without her, mostly because of how great it felt to be around him again, and the awkward, mushy talk with her parents wouldn't be fun, "Let's just go back to your dad's territory," She muttered, resting her head in the crook of his neck for comfort.

Because of that, she couldn't see how red his face turned at the action, and Enzo insisted that this was the perfect moment for him to mark her. Ryder didn't really agree, seeing as her parents were right there, but the urge became harder to ignore despite this fact. His body barely allowed him to move Jamie off his lap so she'd at least have time to react if his instincts became too much.

"Sorry, but I think your parents deserve a chance to talk to you," And I deserve a chance to control my wolf, he added silently, with Enzo growling at him in response.

Jamie frowns, but doesn't openly protest as he gets up and leaves the room. She looks towards her parents, "What now?" They clearly didn't have a plan, having expected all to be forgiven by now, and it could be entertaining to watch them scramble for ideas.

Zack was the first to make a move, sitting down on the edge of her old bed, "Remember that time you challenged Alpha Vincent's son to a fight in wolf form?" Of course she did, Simon was being an overconfident jerk and she was sure that she could take him. She was right, "I told you before the fight that the only person capable of changing your mind on something, anything, was you. I had spent so long trying to talk you out of it, but you held strong that if you backed down that would leave the impression of you being weaker than him, which you weren't," He laughs at the memory, "I still believe you to be just as stubborn as you were, so I know there's no point in forcing you to listen to our apologies, because you don't care about those. So, if you want, we'll leave you alone. And, if you ever need anything, you know where to find us."

He dragged Melissa out of the room with no further notice, even though Mel didn't seem to like his idea. Now Jamie was left wondering why the hell Ryder had to leave for that, because there was nothing for her to do but think about what her dad said.

Artemis was ready to forgive them, but she had always been a bit more rational than Jamie. Also, Artemis had been loyal to them, along with the entire Garavin Pack, for years. That was hard for the wolf to forget. Jamie mostly wished she had never seen them again. Yes, family's great and all, but she won't be a part of their pack anymore, even if the ban was lifted. She wouldn't have to miss them if she was still mad at them.

Preferring to ignore the mopefest that comes with being emotionally mature, she got up and left the room to find something else to do. Or someone, Artemis added unhelpfully. She quickly determined that her parents were basically ignoring her existence, probably until she approached them, and wasn't able to find Ryder in the pack house.

She was silently watching her parents, waiting for it all to come crumbling down. In all her eighteen years of her life, she had never seen them act like this, and before she decided anything, she wanted to be sure it wasn't a facade.

"They may be bastards, but you have to understand that they were just following orders," She didn't realize Lewis had walked up behind her, but that didn't mean she'd let him know that, "If anything, you should be mad at me."

"Well, I never liked you much anyway, they're my family," Her frown deepened, "It's different, or it was supposed to be. I at least owe you a little for actually following through with an investigation, even if you did it after my sentencing."

"Actually, Melissa was the one that wanted to do an actual investigation. She found and went through the rest of your notes on Katey," While that wasn't entirely true, once Lewis read through the notes Jamie had been taking on the new girl, he didn't see the harm in sending Zack out to the address that Jamie had noted as Katey's meeting place, where she'd talk to a strange werewolf over lunch, "If it weren't for them I couldn't guarantee that you'd be alive and well right now."

"Why are you telling me this? After all the trouble I've given you, I thought you'd be doing everything in your power to get me going as soon as possible," She asked, turning to face him instead of his faint reflection in the window.

He chuckles, "We may get along as well cats and dogs, but I'm not a monster. Sure they messed up, but they're still your family. All three of you would be worse off if you don't make up; you'll regret it later on if you don't forgive them now. At least think about it, they were both messes while you were gone, even if they won't admit it."

Lewis walked away, leaving Jamie to her thoughts. While she normally found her own company to be preferable to that of others, right now, her head was her least favorite place to be. 

A/N: Anyone hoping to get a sweet reunion? If so, then jokes on you because I'm not good at writing emotionally-charged, sappy shit