Letting Go [complete - expanding chapters during rewrite]

Chapter Sixteen

     Jessa was looking pleadingly at Mason with puppy dog eyes. The Alpha confirming that she was telling the truth gave her an innocent glow, but I knew it was all a manipulation. And she was still sitting on his lap.
    "Why didn't you tell Mason this before, and let him protect you?" I say, "He would have done anything for his mate."
    I see a flash of evil in her eyes before she conjures up some tears. "Daddy, is too important. He would have stopped it," she says.
    "You still call your father 'Daddy' even after he forced you to have relations with someone else, and put you in hiding for years?" Mason asks pushing her onto her feet.
    "I. I. I was willing to do anything to be with you!"
    "Even cheat on me. Hurt me. Fake your death, and leave me to deal with my failure for years. And on top of it all you were willing to prevent me from ever having a family with you, kids of my own. Go back to 'Daddy'."  He turns his chair from her and comes to me. "Come on Chloe, let's go home."
    I smile at him softly. I felt a bit of triumph at her disgrace. He takes my hand and kisses the back. We take the wheelchair back to the clinic. It was closed for the night, so we left it outside the door. I put my hand on his back in my familiar spot, and lean in to smell him. We go home.
    The next morning when we get to the pack house for a breakfast with the pack we discover that Jessa is gone, having left in the night. Everyone is laughing and talking during the meal. The mood has definitely come up except with Jessa's old friends who are sitting at a table together at the back of the dining hall.
    The company is so good that many stay seated after the meal still chatting. Finally we get up and take our dishes into the kitchen and stack them in trays next to the industrial dish washer.
    "Thanks Hank," I say to the man sending dishes through the washer. Everyone over the age of eighteen has a job, whether it be with one of the pack businesses, as a guard, or in service at the pack house. My job is getting Mason back in shape, and the greenhouse up and going for our new business.
    Hank is wearing one hairnet on his head and another on his chin to cover his beard. He nods his head at me. The chef and her staff are just coming back into the kitchen after eating with the pack.
    When we get back to the living room there's a big ruckus. The alpha is ahead of us in the middle of everything. His eyes are a bit wild. I tip my head to Lisa, one of the pack members, and ask what's going on.
    She turns to me and says, "They found Jessa's body in the woods. She was torn apart. They're saying a wolf's done it."