In The Pack

Chapter 11

It wasn’t long after when Jason came back into the tent.  He came right to my side and pushed my hair back from my forehead.  “How are you feeling?”

          I smiled up at him reassuringly.  “I’m much better.  We could leave tonight if you wanted to, but I know you won’t.”

          He patted my head.  “You’re right about that.  We will leave first thing in the morning and that’s the best you’re going to get.”

          I shook my head.  “So stubborn.  I guess I’ll just lay here and be lazy until you decide it’s time to go home.”

          He laughed.  “That you will.  You’re staying in bed until it’s time to go.  I’m sure Ian will be back in as soon as I leave.  All he’s doing in pacing the perimeter until Jeremy, you and I have had a chance to talk.”

          I shook my head.  “He’s so worried.”

          He nodded.  “That he is.  You didn’t see him when they came back from the woods the other day.  He’d completely lost it.”

          I sighed.  “At least it all turned out okay.”

          He raised an eyebrow in disagreement, looking pointedly at my back, but didn’t say anything.  “So Jeremy.  You wanna tell me why Layla was abandoned?”

          Jeremy nodded and took him through the entire story.  He told him about the necklace, how he got kidnapped when my mom was six months pregnant and it took him a whole three years to get free and back to my mom.  He told him about their confrontation, going into more detail than he had previously.  He’d said some pretty nasty things when she had told him she left me in the woods.  Then he told him about going to his best friend, Derek, and enlisting his help to help find his daughter.  Then he moved to last night.

          Derek had called and said they needed to meet urgently and he had rushed over.  He was confused when Derek took him to the holding cells but figured he had found a lead on my whereabouts and followed him down anyway.  Then he saw me and made the connection quickly.  He told him about Derek wanting the necklace and me telling him not to give it to him.

          When he was finished, Jason blew out an angry breath and muttered something colorful under his breath.  “This is just a big nasty mess.  I don’t know how we are going to fix all this.”

          Jeremy sighed as well.  “Neither do I.  I really thought that Derek was my friend.  I thought I could trust him to help me find my daughter.  He had never expressed any interest in the necklace.  I never thought he wanted it.”

          I snorted.  “That was his intention.  He’s a sneaky son of a-“ I stopped when Jason shot me a warning look.  “Female dog,” I finished, thinking of an alternative quickly.

          Jeremy snorted in amusement and Jason shook his head.  “Only you,” was the only thing he said.

          I smiled, proud of myself for lightening the mood, even if that hadn’t been my original intention.

          Jason looked at Jeremy and said, “I’m not going to deny you the right to get to know your daughter, but she’s still the heir to my pack.  She’ll be taking over when Alice and I are ready to be done.  You’re welcome to come and stay with us so you can get to know her, but it’s her pack and even if you aren’t an alpha, she’s been trained to be one, even though she wasn’t born one.”

          Jeremy nodded.  “I understand all that.  She’s already explained that she would like to get to know me, but you and your mate have been her parents and she doesn’t want to change that.”

          Jason nodded.  “You can just come back with us tomorrow and we’ll find you a place to stay.   Until we do, you can just stay in the house with us.”

          “Thank you, Jason.  That’s very generous of you,” Jeremy said gratefully.

          “I try,” he said sardonically. 

          I smiled at him but Jeremy grimaced.

          “I’ll bring you some dinner when it’s ready,” Jason told me.  “I’m going to go switch over the patrols and let Ian know that it’s safe to come back in.  Jeremy, feel free to wander and stretch your legs if you get bored.”

          Jeremy nodded and Jason kissed my forehead again and left.

          Jeremy sighed.  “He’s strict.”

          “Not really,” I replied.  “He’s just had a rough week.  He’s been stressed since the first kidnapping attempt.”

          “First?” he questioned in surprise.  “Yesterday wasn’t his first attempt?”

          I shook my head.  “His first attempt was when I was in the woods training with Dylan, Nate and Lee.  They attacked me when I was on my own but I howled for the wolf pack and they helped me fight them off.”

          “Were you injured?” he asked with intensity.

          I nodded.  “I tried to take them on by myself first.  There was two of them.  I didn’t howl for the wolf pack until they had me pinned.  I had deep punctures on my neck and they tore a nice chunk out of my side but I healed up pretty good.”

          He growled angrily.  “If I see that man again, I’ll rip his throat out myself.”

          Ian walked in right as the words left Jeremy’s mouth and smiled.  “You and me both, Sir.”

          Jeremy smiled back.  “I’m going to go ask Jason where he wants me tonight.  I’ll see you guys later.”

          We nodded and he left the tent, leaving Ian and I alone together.  I smiled at him as he made his way to the blanket I was laying on.  He laid down beside me and took one of my hands.

          We simply laid there together and looked into each other’s eyes, happy to be near each other again. 

          Eventually, Ian said, Talking to the wolf pack for you was really cool.  They’re language is so much more complicated than I imagined.

          I laughed at him.  They think the same about English although, the alpha can understand quite a bit of it.  I taught him some.

          Ian eyebrows went up and a surprised look crossed his face.  How did you two manage that?

          I stayed human and he would say a word in their language and I would repeat it to him in English.  I taught him all the words he wanted to know.  

          He shook his head in amazement.  That’s so amazing.