The defiant mate by Fennifer Francis

Chapter 32

Jay-ła POV

She was only wearing the tee-shirt that Jackson had provided her after her showdown with Abbey and

Johnny.

The cold snow-filled night was biting at her skin, wolves were naturally warm creatures and could stand

a bit of snow, but she had not been near snow in years and she guessed her tolerance was lacking,

She had barely been outside 10 minutes and she was already rubbing her arms, and gritting her teeth.

She knew Kora would be okay with it once out, because she had a beautiful thick coat of fur to protect

her.

Jay-la was looking for a way down from the balcony. She had used to sneak out of her parents’ house

as a teenager, climb down the drain guttering pipe from the second floor, and then back up and into her

room when sneaking back in. usually had only done it in the winter to play a game of hide and sneak

with the boys.

Well, today was no game of hide and sneak, it was for real. Though how she would get the children out

of the pack in this awful weather she had no idea.

Alpha Nathan didn’t have an eta, Jackson had said that he was dealing with Tony and Lauren. Well,

they could be very difficult and now that they knew he was the triplets’ father she could only imagine

that they were going to put on the parent act where she was concerned.

Hopefully, they were so hard to deal with that he would be gone until the snow storm passed and the

streets had been cleared. She could then take her dad’s car and head for the Winter Moon Pack.

Hopefully, that would be her saving grace, but she had no idea when he was due back or how long this

storm would take to pass. She also didn’t have her mobile phone with her, to check the weather or

even call anyone for help.

The drain pipe she was looking at was a good 10 feet away from the balcony’s railing, a much more

difficult thing to get to than the one directly outside of her childhood home, which had been right next to

her window. She also had no idea if the thing was completely secured to the building, She could only

hope and pray that it was maintained welL.

If they miscalculated the jump from the balcony, they would fall 5 stories to the ground. It was not likely

they would be unharmed by the fall, possibly even worse. They pushed that thought from their minds,

preparing for the jump. Jay-la moved one of the chairs right up against the railing, so she could use it

as a stepping stone onto the railing and not lose momentum when launching themselves out over the

10-foot gap. In a bid to be free.

Jay-la returned to the suite, closing the doors. She needed to warm up a bit first, seeing as the climb or

slide to the ground would be in her body, she needed to be able to feel all her fingers and toes for as

long as possible so they wouldn’t just plumpet to the ground from a great height. It wouldn’t matter so

much from the second floor, there was plenty of snow falling.

It would surely be deep enough to help a short drop to the ground softening the impact.

‘We’ll shift as soon as we’re down’, Kora stated.

‘I know you will handle the cold a lot better than I will.’

‘We’ll make the jump too.’

‘Yes we will’ Jay-la relayed back to her, they had done plenty of agility and strength training when they

had been here in the pack and running around leaping from fallen tree to fallen tree or rock to rock or

leaping over other pack members, it was all good for them.

Jay-la walked into the bathroom for a hot shower to really warm up her core body temperature before

their leap into the cold. She kept her hair dry and stood under the running water, keeping it as hot as

she could, and stood there until she was toasty warm, then stepped out and dried herself on the fluffy

towels that were laid out for use. Not likely for her but just ready, as were many suites for company or

honoured guests.

It was now or never.

She took a deep breath in, to prepare herself for the bracing cold frat she knew was out there, then

opened the doors, and took a few steps back into the room, to gain more distance so she could really

throw speed into her run. Kora pushed forward and lent Jay-la her wolf speed and strength and they

ran, stepped and then leaped out into the open space between the balcony and the drain pipe. Her

hands were stretched out towards it, the pipe was very cold and a layer of ice coated it, she could not

get a grip with her human fingers.

Kora surged forward and her claws were out quickly. One hand had already slid off the pipe. The other

hands’ claws were scrapping on the pipe, they squeezed with all their might in an attempt to keep their

grip.

Two claws punctured the pipe and the rest of her hand grabbed on to the pipe, she swung dangerously

close to losing her grip, used her feet to steady herself hooking one of them onto the pipe and they took

a shaky breath as they managed to bring up the other hand and cling to the pipe. She could hear it

creaking under her weight and felt it start to give. They were too heavy. They were going to break it.

She turned her eyes towards the balcony in-case anyone had heard and was trying to get to her.

Nothing, they would have trouble getting in the room anyway. Finally, her body stopped swaying and

she placed the balls of her feet on either side of the drain pipe and loosened her grip and they started

to slide down. It was a much quicker slide than she liked due to the ice that covered it.

Only slowed by the metal sheaths that anchored the pipe to the pack house walls, the first one bit into

her feet and she felt the sting of it cutting one of her feet. She had hissed in pain, but endured it, trying

to slow her descent.

Kora lent her some claws but this only seemed to weaken the pipes and they creaked even more, and

started to shudder. They were only passing the third floor when she heard it tear away from the pack

house, claws retracted instantly and her slide down increased 5 fold, the skin on her fingers was being

sheered off by the layer of ice, the pipe ripped from the wall above her, she hit the next anchoring spot

and prayed it would hold, slipped down past it and was at the top of the second floor.

She watched with wide horror-filled eyes as the anchoring shattered, so brittle with the cold, probably

years old and never been replaced, her weight had been its breaking point. The whole downpipe

collapsed and she was free-falling to the ground. Kora ripped out of her and shifted them in mid air,

trying to save them. She was much more suited to a fall than her humans’ body.

She turned herself over somehow during the shift. The goddess must really be looking out for them at

this point. They landed in knee-deep snow, which softened their impact, and she was able to stand up

and shake the snow off of herself, with a huff,’ Let’s not do that again’ Jay-la agreed. The pipes fell

around them and buried themselves into the snow, the snow thankfully muted the noise. If it had been

summertime, her escape would have been noticed by many.

One of the pipes hit Kora on the back and she snarled in response as it bounced off of her and into the

snow. But they had made it, they were down from the Luna Suite, and no longer freezing cold either,

warm under Kora’s thick silver coat.

‘lets go.’

Kora moved off in a slow manner, they did not want to attract attention to themselves, they would have

to be staying low to the ground and watch for night patrols, though not many would be this close to the

pack house, and most normal pack members would be in their homes sleeping blissfully warm tucked

up in their beds, not wandering out in the snow fall.

It wasn’t really a storm anymore, it seemed to have passed and was just faling in a normal manner, the

wind had appeared to have died off as well, which she was thankful for. That would mean her scent

wouldn’t carry on the wind to any patrolling wolves out there.

The Luna Suite was off the back of the pack house and as she made her way around it, she kept

herself low, hunkered down as best she could. Kora was much larger now and hiding in the drift or

even moving in something this shallow was no longer in her favour. Long ago, this amount of snow

would have been deep enough for her to hide in, creep along unnoticed and unseen.

They moved along the side of the pack house and peered around to the front cautiously. She could see

by the front door Stephen and Ethan standing there, like they were waiting on someone. He was

coming, not far off in all likelihood. They wouldn’t just wait on anyone like that out in the snow and cold,

it could only be the Alpha himself.

“No Beta,” Kora mused.

‘probably still guarding the Luna Suite.’ Jay-la thought back, slightly amused. He thought he had her

trapped, but come on, it was Jackson who had always helped her sneak back into her parents’ house.

It appeared he had forgotten.

‘More likely, he didn’t think we’d do a 5-story escape.’ Kora chortled little do they know us anymore.

They slipped back behind the side of the pack house and moved away, out towards the edge of the

forest, a risk of patrol seeing them but not of the Gamma and Delta. They clearly weren’t expecting her

to be anywhere other than the Luna Suite.

Keeping low in the snow, they moved stealthily, belly crawling through the snow as they were not

interested in gaining either of those wolves’ attentions. And setting off an alert for all patrolling wolves

or his Beta for that matter.

Kora’s ears pricked up at the sound of cars approaching, she stilled knowing his hearing and sight

would be much more acute than his units. Hiding from him had always been an issue, his wolf was not

something she had ever been able to hide from, especially once she and Nathan had started sleeping

together.

It was like she was a magnet and he was drawn to it on instinct.

She Burrowed herself into the snow with just her eyes peering out as they had always done when

hiding, to watch for their on-coming wolves. Two cars pulled up behind the packs snow-plow. She

watched as his entire family piled out, including Rae-Rae. Her heart skipped a beat. How was it she

was here had Tony and Lauren caved in, or had he simply gone and taken her for his brother, she

wouldn’t put it past him? Now-a-days.

He was standing there, his head tilted, smelling the air, fear slipped into her, ‘Havoc.’ Kora confirmed,

she whined a little inside Jay-la’s mind, some part of her was tethered to him and since he had tried to

call to her that day over the phone a part of Kora wanted nothing more than to go to him. There was no

wind blowing in his direction, he couldn’t possibly smell them, right?

They were a good 500 metres away, even with his sight and smell there was no way he could…his

head turned slowly in her direction, scanning the area. Even as he moved on towards the pack house,

he was still scanning the area. There was no moon out tonight and nothing to reflect their eyes to him,

she prayed.

His father’s eyes followed his son’s but then touched him on the back and they all redirected their

attention to moving inside and out of the cold. She briefly wondered how they were going to explain the

noise of breaking into the Luna Suite to Rae-Rae, but let it go, the girl would understand one day soon

enough.

The moment the pack house door was closed, they moved off in a much quicker manner. It wouldn’t

take him long to realise she wasn’t locked in the suit and the hunt would be on. Her children were on

the other side of the pack with her father.

They had been heading for her children, but stopped halfway to her father’s house. That was the first

place they would look. The second would likely be the pack hospital, where her mother was, where

could she go? She had no idea where Brad lived in the pack, he’d still been with her parents when

she’d left 6 years ago. Probably only moved out when he met Victoria.

Now she had a dilemma; what to do and where to go. She had been hoping that he would not be back

until well into tomorrow or even the day after. Jackson surely knew the man was on his way. The

bastard had lied to her about his arrival on purpose.

She had come to rely on him earlier, thinking he was back to being her friend, wanting to help her,

but…he and Nathan were best friends, not to mention Jackson was the Beta, and likely in-charge while

Nathan, their Alpha, was off pack territory, the man could do as he pleased, make up and say what

ever he wanted to. And clearly he had. He’d tricked her, lulled her into a false sense of security.

The massive howl that ripped through the snow-filled night, brought Kora low. She laid down in the © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

snow, her ears flat against her heard, her tail curled around her, “He knows.”

Havoc was displeased and displaying it for all his pack to hear, She could well imagine every pack

member who was awake was currently doing as Kora was, submitting to their Alpha’s Howl. And those

that had been asleep were waking up.

Then move Kora’ Jay-la whispered at her urgently. Kora whined and whimpered, he was howling for

her and she knew it, every fibre in her being was screaming to answer him ‘no, don’t do it, Kora,’ Jay-la

begged her. Knowing it was going to be a losing battle.

Kora couldn’t fight it anymore than any other wolf in pack territory. It was for her and her alone and Jay-

la knew it, because no other wolves were calling back to him. He was going to use her howl to locate

her direction and hunt her down.

Kora stood and lifted her head, no matter how much Jay-la begged her wolf, the mighty howl that she

let out, echoed through the pack, she could not defy him when he was calling directly to her like that,

when he was so close.

She answered his call with one of her own, a howl so loud, so full of longing, and a need for her Alpha

to recognise her and want her to be part of the pack once more, that it hurt Jay-la’s own ears. She

wanted to answer him, had wanted to call to him since that day in her office.

It was now truly a losing battle, his wolf Havoc would already be on his way. The moment she had

answered him he would have heard her wolf’s needs and longing for his approval, her desire to truly be

part of his pack once more and he would be coming for her. Nothing was going to get in his way.

Run Kora, for the love of the goddess RUN! Jay-la yelled at her and when Kora didn’t move, still

standing there waiting for her Alpha to find her, ‘For our babies Kora, please…’ she begged, ‘I want to

see them one more time before they are taken away from us don’t you.’

That thought got Kora moving and she suddenly realized what she had done, sprinted off of the mark

and dashed through the snow with all her speed, away from where she had been standing, heading

towards her father’s house, He wouldn’t do anything to them in front of the children. Surely he wasn’t

that cruel.

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